Strong converses for group testing in the finite blocklength regime

Abstract: We prove new strong converse results in a variety of group testing settings, generalizing a result of Baldassini, Johnson and Aldridge. These results are proved by two distinct approaches, corresponding to the non-adaptive and adaptive cases. In the non-adaptive case, we mimic the hypothesis testing argument introduced in the finite blocklength channel coding regime by Polyanskiy, Poor and Verd\'{u}. In the adaptive case, we combine a formulation based on directed information theory with ideas of Kemperman, Kesten and Wolfowitz from the problem of channel coding with feedback. In both cases, we prove results which are valid for finite sized problems, and imply capacity results in the asymptotic regime. These results are illustrated graphically for a range of models.