Approximating Unique Games Using Low Diameter Graph Decomposition

We design approximation algorithms for Unique Gmeas when the constraint graph admits good low diameter graph decomposition. For the M2Lin(k) problem in K(r)-minor free graphs, when there is an assignment satisfying 1-eps fraction of constraints, we present an algorithm that produces an assignment satisfying 1-O(r*eps) fraction of constraints, with the approximation ratio independent of the alphabet size. A corollary is an improved approximation algorithm for the Min-UnCut problem for K(r)-minor free graphs. For general Unique Games in K(r)-minor free graphs, we provide another algorithm that produces an assignment satisfying 1-O(r *sqrt(eps)) fraction of constraints. Our approach is to round a linear programming relaxation to find a minimum subset of edges that intersects all the inconsistent cycles. We show that it is possible to apply the low diameter graph decomposition technique on the constraint graph directly, rather than to work on the label extended graph as in previous algorithms for Unique Games. The same approach applies when the constraint graph is of genus g, and we get similar results with r replaced by log g in the M2Lin(k) problem and by sqrt(log g) in the general problem. The former result generalizes the result of Gupta-Talwar for Unique Games in the M2Lin(k) case, and the latter result generalizes the result of Trevisan for general Unique Games

On Strong Diameter Padded Decompositions

Given a weighted graph G=(V,E,w), a partition of V is Delta-bounded if the diameter of each cluster is bounded by Delta. A distribution over Delta-bounded partitions is a beta-padded decomposition if every ball of radius gamma Delta is contained in a single cluster with probability at least e^{-beta * gamma}. The weak diameter of a cluster C is measured w.r.t. distances in G, while the strong diameter is measured w.r.t. distances in the induced graph G[C]. The decomposition is weak/strong according to the diameter guarantee. Formerly, it was proven that K_r free graphs admit weak decompositions with padding parameter O(r), while for strong decompositions only O(r^2) padding parameter was known. Furthermore, for the case of a graph G, for which the induced shortest path metric d_G has doubling dimension ddim, a weak O(ddim)-padded decomposition was constructed, which is also known to be tight. For the case of strong diameter, nothing was known. We construct strong O(r)-padded decompositions for K_r free graphs, matching the state of the art for weak decompositions. Similarly, for graphs with doubling dimension ddim we construct a strong O(ddim)-padded decomposition, which is also tight. We use this decomposition to construct (O(ddim),O~(ddim))-sparse cover scheme for such graphs. Our new decompositions and cover have implications to approximating unique games, the construction of light and sparse spanners, and for path reporting distance oracles

Graph Clustering using Effective Resistance

$\def\vecc#1{\boldsymbol{#1}}$We design a polynomial time algorithm that for any weighted undirected graph G = (V, E,\vecc w) and sufficiently large $\delta > 1$, partitions $V$ into subsets $V_1, \ldots, V_h$ for some $h\geq 1$, such that $\bullet$ at most $\delta^{-1}$ fraction of the weights are between clusters, i.e. $$w(E - \cup_{i = 1}^h E(V_i)) \lesssim \frac{w(E)}{\delta};$$ $\bullet$ the effective resistance diameter of each of the induced subgraphs $G[V_i]$ is at most $\delta^3$ times the average weighted degree, i.e. $$\max_{u, v \in V_i} \mathsf{Reff}_{G[V_i]}(u, v) \lesssim \delta^3 \cdot \frac{|V|}{w(E)} \quad \text{ for all } i=1, \ldots, h.$$ In particular, it is possible to remove one percent of weight of edges of any given graph such that each of the resulting connected components has effective resistance diameter at most the inverse of the average weighted degree. Our proof is based on a new connection between effective resistance and low conductance sets. We show that if the effective resistance between two vertices $u$ and $v$ is large, then there must be a low conductance cut separating $u$ from $v$. This implies that very mildly expanding graphs have constant effective resistance diameter. We believe that this connection could be of independent interest in algorithm design