On the Statistical Complexity of Sample Amplification

The ``sample amplification'' problem formalizes the following question: Given n i.i.d. samples drawn from an unknown distribution P, when is it possible to produce a larger set of n+m samples which cannot be distinguished from n+m i.i.d. samples drawn from P? In this work, we provide a firm statistical foundation for this problem by deriving generally applicable amplification procedures, lower bound techniques and connections to existing statistical notions. Our techniques apply to a large class of distributions including the exponential family, and establish a rigorous connection between sample amplification and distribution learning.