Walking Through Waypoints

We initiate the study of a fundamental combinatorial problem: Given a capacitated graph $G=(V,E)$, find a shortest walk ("route") from a source $s\in V$ to a destination $t\in V$ that includes all vertices specified by a set $\mathscr{W}\subseteq V$: the \emph{waypoints}. This waypoint routing problem finds immediate applications in the context of modern networked distributed systems. Our main contribution is an exact polynomial-time algorithm for graphs of bounded treewidth. We also show that if the number of waypoints is logarithmically bounded, exact polynomial-time algorithms exist even for general graphs. Our two algorithms provide an almost complete characterization of what can be solved exactly in polynomial-time: we show that more general problems (e.g., on grid graphs of maximum degree 3, with slightly more waypoints) are computationally intractable

Optimal Recombination in Genetic Algorithms

This paper surveys results on complexity of the optimal recombination problem (ORP), which consists in finding the best possible offspring as a result of a recombination operator in a genetic algorithm, given two parent solutions. We consider efficient reductions of the ORPs, allowing to establish polynomial solvability or NP-hardness of the ORPs, as well as direct proofs of hardness results

Finding the connected components of the graph using perturbations of the adjacency matrix

The problem of finding the connected components of a graph is considered. The algorithms addressed to solve the problem are used to solve such problems on graphs as problems of finding points of articulation, bridges, maximin bridge, etc. A natural approach to solving this problem is a breadth-first search, the implementations of which are presented in software libraries designed to maximize the use of the capabi\-lities of modern computer architectures. We present an approach using perturbations of adjacency matrix of a graph. We check wether the graph is connected or not by comparing the solutions of the two systems of linear algebraic equations (SLAE): the first SLAE with a perturbed adjacency matrix of the graph and the second SLAE with~unperturbed matrix. This approach makes it possible to use effective numerical implementations of SLAE solution methods to solve connectivity problems on graphs. Iterations of iterative numerical methods for solving such SLAE can be considered as carrying out a graph traversal. Generally speaking, the traversal is not equivalent to the traversal that is carried out with breadth-first search. An algorithm for finding the connected components of a graph using such a traversal is presented. For any instance of the problem, this algorithm has no greater computational complexity than breadth-first search, and for~most individual problems it has less complexity.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Percentile Queries in Multi-Dimensional Markov Decision Processes

Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multi-dimensional weights are useful to analyze systems with multiple objectives that may be conflicting and require the analysis of trade-offs. We study the complexity of percentile queries in such MDPs and give algorithms to synthesize strategies that enforce such constraints. Given a multi-dimensional weighted MDP and a quantitative payoff function $f$, thresholds $v_i$ (one per dimension), and probability thresholds $\alpha_i$, we show how to compute a single strategy to enforce that for all dimensions $i$, the probability of outcomes $\rho$ satisfying $f_i(\rho) \geq v_i$ is at least $\alpha_i$. We consider classical quantitative payoffs from the literature (sup, inf, lim sup, lim inf, mean-payoff, truncated sum, discounted sum). Our work extends to the quantitative case the multi-objective model checking problem studied by Etessami et al. in unweighted MDPs.Comment: Extended version of CAV 2015 pape

Contributions to the solution of the symmetric travelling salesman problem

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