On Adaptive Algorithms for Maximum Matching

In the fundamental Maximum Matching problem the task is to find a maximum cardinality set of pairwise disjoint edges in a given undirected graph. The fastest algorithm for this problem, due to Micali and Vazirani, runs in time O(sqrt{n}m) and stands unbeaten since 1980. It is complemented by faster, often linear-time, algorithms for various special graph classes. Moreover, there are fast parameterized algorithms, e.g., time O(km log n) relative to tree-width k, which outperform O(sqrt{n}m) when the parameter is sufficiently small. We show that the Micali-Vazirani algorithm, and in fact any algorithm following the phase framework of Hopcroft and Karp, is adaptive to beneficial input structure. We exhibit several graph classes for which such algorithms run in linear time O(n+m). More strongly, we show that they run in time O(sqrt{k}m) for graphs that are k vertex deletions away from any of several such classes, without explicitly computing an optimal or approximate deletion set; before, most such bounds were at least Omega(km). Thus, any phase-based matching algorithm with linear-time phases obliviously interpolates between linear time for k=O(1) and the worst case of O(sqrt{n}m) when k=Theta(n). We complement our findings by proving that the phase framework by itself still allows Omega(sqrt{n}) phases, and hence time Omega(sqrt{n}m), even on paths, cographs, and bipartite chain graphs

Triangle Estimation Using Tripartite Independent Set Queries

Estimating the number of triangles in a graph is one of the most fundamental problems in sublinear algorithms. In this work, we provide an approximate triangle counting algorithm using only polylogarithmic queries when the number of triangles on any edge in the graph is polylogarithmically bounded. Our query oracle Tripartite Independent Set (TIS) takes three disjoint sets of vertices A, B and C as input, and answers whether there exists a triangle having one endpoint in each of these three sets. Our query model generally belongs to the class of group queries (Ron and Tsur, ACM ToCT, 2016; Dell and Lapinskas, STOC 2018) and in particular is inspired by the Bipartite Independent Set (BIS) query oracle of Beame et al. (ITCS 2018). We extend the algorithmic framework of Beame et al., with TIS replacing BIS, for triangle counting using ideas from color coding due to Alon et al. (J. ACM, 1995) and a concentration inequality for sums of random variables with bounded dependency (Janson, Rand. Struct. Alg., 2004)

Distance Oracles for Interval Graphs via Breadth-First Rank/Select in Succinct Trees

We present the first succinct distance oracles for (unweighted) interval graphs and related classes of graphs, using a novel succinct data structure for ordinal trees that supports the mapping between preorder (i.e., depth-first) ranks and level-order (breadth-first) ranks of nodes in constant time. Our distance oracles for interval graphs also support navigation queries - testing adjacency, computing node degrees, neighborhoods, and shortest paths - all in optimal time. Our technique also yields optimal distance oracles for proper interval graphs (unit-interval graphs) and circular-arc graphs. Our tree data structure supports all operations provided by different approaches in previous work, as well as mapping to and from level-order ranks and retrieving the last (first) internal node before (after) a given node in a level-order traversal, all in constant time

Distance Oracles for Interval Graphs via Breadth-First Rank/Select in Succinct Trees

We present the first succinct distance oracles for (unweighted) interval graphs and related classes of graphs, using a novel succinct data structure for ordinal trees that supports the mapping between preorder (i.e., depth-first) ranks and level-order (breadth-first) ranks of nodes in constant time. Our distance oracles for interval graphs also support navigation queries – testing adjacency, computing node degrees, neighborhoods, and shortest paths – all in optimal time. Our technique also yields optimal distance oracles for proper interval graphs (unit-interval graphs) and circular-arc graphs. Our tree data structure supports all operations provided by different approaches in previous work, as well as mapping to and from level-order ranks and retrieving the last (first) internal node before (after) a given node in a level-order traversal, all in constant time

Super-Cubic Lower Bound for Generalized Karchmer-Wigderson Games

In this paper, we prove a super-cubic lower bound on the size of a communication protocol for generalized Karchmer-Wigderson game for an explicit function f: {0,1}? ? {0,1}^{log n}. Lower bounds for original Karchmer-Wigderson games correspond to De Morgan formula lower bounds, thus the best known size lower bound is cubic. The generalized Karchmer-Wigderson games are similar to the original ones, so we hope that our approach can provide an insight for proving better lower bounds on the original Karchmer-Wigderson games, and hence for proving new lower bounds on De Morgan formula size. To achieve super-cubic lower bound we adapt several techniques used in formula complexity to communication protocols, prove communication complexity lower bound for a composition of several functions with a multiplexer relation, and use a technique from [Ivan Mihajlin and Alexander Smal, 2021] to extract the "hardest" function from it. As a result, in this setting we are able to show that there is a relatively small set of functions such that at least one of them does not have a small protocol. The resulting lower bound of ??(n^3.156) is significantly better than the bound obtained from the counting argument