Statistical Queries and Statistical Algorithms: Foundations and Applications

Lev Reyzin

Abstract: We give a survey of the foundations of statistical queries and their many applications to other areas. We introduce the model, give the main definitions, and we explore the fundamental theory statistical queries and how how it connects to various notions of learnability. We also give a detailed summary of some of the applications of statistical queries to other areas, including to optimization, to evolvability, and to differential privacy.