3,250 research outputs found
Smooth heaps and a dual view of self-adjusting data structures
We present a new connection between self-adjusting binary search trees (BSTs)
and heaps, two fundamental, extensively studied, and practically relevant
families of data structures. Roughly speaking, we map an arbitrary heap
algorithm within a natural model, to a corresponding BST algorithm with the
same cost on a dual sequence of operations (i.e. the same sequence with the
roles of time and key-space switched). This is the first general transformation
between the two families of data structures.
There is a rich theory of dynamic optimality for BSTs (i.e. the theory of
competitiveness between BST algorithms). The lack of an analogous theory for
heaps has been noted in the literature. Through our connection, we transfer all
instance-specific lower bounds known for BSTs to a general model of heaps,
initiating a theory of dynamic optimality for heaps.
On the algorithmic side, we obtain a new, simple and efficient heap
algorithm, which we call the smooth heap. We show the smooth heap to be the
heap-counterpart of Greedy, the BST algorithm with the strongest proven and
conjectured properties from the literature, widely believed to be
instance-optimal. Assuming the optimality of Greedy, the smooth heap is also
optimal within our model of heap algorithms. As corollaries of results known
for Greedy, we obtain instance-specific upper bounds for the smooth heap, with
applications in adaptive sorting.
Intriguingly, the smooth heap, although derived from a non-practical BST
algorithm, is simple and easy to implement (e.g. it stores no auxiliary data
besides the keys and tree pointers). It can be seen as a variation on the
popular pairing heap data structure, extending it with a "power-of-two-choices"
type of heuristic.Comment: Presented at STOC 2018, light revision, additional figure
Faster Shortest Paths in Dense Distance Graphs, with Applications
We show how to combine two techniques for efficiently computing shortest
paths in directed planar graphs. The first is the linear-time shortest-path
algorithm of Henzinger, Klein, Subramanian, and Rao [STOC'94]. The second is
Fakcharoenphol and Rao's algorithm [FOCS'01] for emulating Dijkstra's algorithm
on the dense distance graph (DDG). A DDG is defined for a decomposition of a
planar graph into regions of at most vertices each, for some parameter
. The vertex set of the DDG is the set of vertices
of that belong to more than one region (boundary vertices). The DDG has
arcs, such that distances in the DDG are equal to the distances in
. Fakcharoenphol and Rao's implementation of Dijkstra's algorithm on the DDG
(nicknamed FR-Dijkstra) runs in time, and is a
key component in many state-of-the-art planar graph algorithms for shortest
paths, minimum cuts, and maximum flows. By combining these two techniques we
remove the dependency in the running time of the shortest-path
algorithm, making it .
This work is part of a research agenda that aims to develop new techniques
that would lead to faster, possibly linear-time, algorithms for problems such
as minimum-cut, maximum-flow, and shortest paths with negative arc lengths. As
immediate applications, we show how to compute maximum flow in directed
weighted planar graphs in time, where is the minimum number
of edges on any path from the source to the sink. We also show how to compute
any part of the DDG that corresponds to a region with vertices and
boundary vertices in time, which is faster than has been
previously known for small values of
A Functional Approach to Standard Binary Heaps
This paper describes a new and purely functional implementation technique of
binary heaps. A binary heap is a tree-based data structure that implements
priority queue operations (insert, remove, minimum/maximum) and guarantees at
worst logarithmic running time for them. Approaches and ideas described in this
paper present a simple and asymptotically optimal implementation of immutable
binary heap
Hollow Heaps
We introduce the hollow heap, a very simple data structure with the same
amortized efficiency as the classical Fibonacci heap. All heap operations
except delete and delete-min take time, worst case as well as amortized;
delete and delete-min take amortized time on a heap of items.
Hollow heaps are by far the simplest structure to achieve this. Hollow heaps
combine two novel ideas: the use of lazy deletion and re-insertion to do
decrease-key operations, and the use of a dag (directed acyclic graph) instead
of a tree or set of trees to represent a heap. Lazy deletion produces hollow
nodes (nodes without items), giving the data structure its name.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, preliminary version appeared in ICALP 201
QuickHeapsort: Modifications and improved analysis
We present a new analysis for QuickHeapsort splitting it into the analysis of
the partition-phases and the analysis of the heap-phases. This enables us to
consider samples of non-constant size for the pivot selection and leads to
better theoretical bounds for the algorithm. Furthermore we introduce some
modifications of QuickHeapsort, both in-place and using n extra bits. We show
that on every input the expected number of comparisons is n lg n - 0.03n + o(n)
(in-place) respectively n lg n -0.997 n+ o (n). Both estimates improve the
previously known best results. (It is conjectured in Wegener93 that the
in-place algorithm Bottom-Up-Heapsort uses at most n lg n + 0.4 n on average
and for Weak-Heapsort which uses n extra-bits the average number of comparisons
is at most n lg n -0.42n in EdelkampS02.) Moreover, our non-in-place variant
can even compete with index based Heapsort variants (e.g. Rank-Heapsort in
WangW07) and Relaxed-Weak-Heapsort (n lg n -0.9 n+ o (n) comparisons in the
worst case) for which no O(n)-bound on the number of extra bits is known
A Back-to-Basics Empirical Study of Priority Queues
The theory community has proposed several new heap variants in the recent
past which have remained largely untested experimentally. We take the field
back to the drawing board, with straightforward implementations of both classic
and novel structures using only standard, well-known optimizations. We study
the behavior of each structure on a variety of inputs, including artificial
workloads, workloads generated by running algorithms on real map data, and
workloads from a discrete event simulator used in recent systems networking
research. We provide observations about which characteristics are most
correlated to performance. For example, we find that the L1 cache miss rate
appears to be strongly correlated with wallclock time. We also provide
observations about how the input sequence affects the relative performance of
the different heap variants. For example, we show (both theoretically and in
practice) that certain random insertion-deletion sequences are degenerate and
can lead to misleading results. Overall, our findings suggest that while the
conventional wisdom holds in some cases, it is sorely mistaken in others
Energy-Efficient Algorithms
We initiate the systematic study of the energy complexity of algorithms (in
addition to time and space complexity) based on Landauer's Principle in
physics, which gives a lower bound on the amount of energy a system must
dissipate if it destroys information. We propose energy-aware variations of
three standard models of computation: circuit RAM, word RAM, and
transdichotomous RAM. On top of these models, we build familiar high-level
primitives such as control logic, memory allocation, and garbage collection
with zero energy complexity and only constant-factor overheads in space and
time complexity, enabling simple expression of energy-efficient algorithms. We
analyze several classic algorithms in our models and develop low-energy
variations: comparison sort, insertion sort, counting sort, breadth-first
search, Bellman-Ford, Floyd-Warshall, matrix all-pairs shortest paths, AVL
trees, binary heaps, and dynamic arrays. We explore the time/space/energy
trade-off and develop several general techniques for analyzing algorithms and
reducing their energy complexity. These results lay a theoretical foundation
for a new field of semi-reversible computing and provide a new framework for
the investigation of algorithms.Comment: 40 pages, 8 pdf figures, full version of work published in ITCS 201
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