Strong Data Processing Properties of Rényi-divergences via Pinsker-type Inequalities (2501.11473v2)

Abstract: We investigate strong data processing inequalities (SDPIs) of the R\'enyi-divergence between two discrete distributions when both distributions are passed through a fixed channel. We provide a condition on the channel for which the DPI holds with equality given two arbitrary distributions in the probability simplex. Motivated by this, we examine the contraction behavior for restricted sets of prior distributions via $f$-divergence inequalities: We provide an alternative proof of the optimal reverse Pinsker's inequality for R\'enyi-divergences first shown by Binette. We further present an improved Pinsker's inequality for R\'enyi-divergence based on the joint range technique by Harremo\"es and Vajda. The presented bound is tight whenever the value of the total variation distance is larger than $\frac{1}{\alpha}$. By framing these inequalities in a cross-channel setting, we arrive at SDPIs that can be adapted to use-case specific restrictions of input distribution and channel. We apply these results to the R\'enyi local differential privacy amplification through post-processing by channels that satisfy no local differential privacy guarantee.