A simple polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the total variation distance between two product distributions

TL;DR

This paper presents a straightforward polynomial-time algorithm to approximate the total variation distance between two product distributions, addressing a fundamental problem in probability and statistics.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel, simple polynomial-time algorithm for approximating total variation distance between product distributions, improving computational efficiency.

Findings

Algorithm runs in polynomial time

Achieves accurate approximation of total variation distance

Simplifies previous approaches to the problem

Abstract

We give a simple polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the total variation distance between two product distributions.