  We investigate the problem of classification in the presence of unknown
class-conditional label noise in which the labels observed by the learner have
been corrupted with some unknown class dependent probability. In order to
obtain finite sample rates, previous approaches to classification with unknown
class-conditional label noise have required that the regression function is
close to its extrema on sets of large measure. We shall consider this problem
in the setting of non-compact metric spaces, where the regression function need
not attain its extrema.
  In this setting we determine the minimax optimal learning rates (up to
logarithmic factors). The rate displays interesting threshold behaviour: When
the regression function approaches its extrema at a sufficient rate, the
optimal learning rates are of the same order as those obtained in the
label-noise free setting. If the regression function approaches its extrema
more gradually then classification performance necessarily degrades. In
addition, we present an adaptive algorithm which attains these rates without
prior knowledge of either the distributional parameters or the local density.
This identifies for the first time a scenario in which finite sample rates are
achievable in the label noise setting, but they differ from the optimal rates
without label noise.
