31 research outputs found
Inapproximability of Maximum Biclique Problems, Minimum -Cut and Densest At-Least--Subgraph from the Small Set Expansion Hypothesis
The Small Set Expansion Hypothesis (SSEH) is a conjecture which roughly
states that it is NP-hard to distinguish between a graph with a small subset of
vertices whose edge expansion is almost zero and one in which all small subsets
of vertices have expansion almost one. In this work, we prove inapproximability
results for the following graph problems based on this hypothesis:
- Maximum Edge Biclique (MEB): given a bipartite graph , find a complete
bipartite subgraph of with maximum number of edges.
- Maximum Balanced Biclique (MBB): given a bipartite graph , find a
balanced complete bipartite subgraph of with maximum number of vertices.
- Minimum -Cut: given a weighted graph , find a set of edges with
minimum total weight whose removal partitions into connected
components.
- Densest At-Least--Subgraph (DALS): given a weighted graph , find a
set of at least vertices such that the induced subgraph on has
maximum density (the ratio between the total weight of edges and the number of
vertices).
We show that, assuming SSEH and NP BPP, no polynomial time
algorithm gives -approximation for MEB or MBB for every
constant . Moreover, assuming SSEH, we show that it is NP-hard
to approximate Minimum -Cut and DALS to within factor
of the optimum for every constant .
The ratios in our results are essentially tight since trivial algorithms give
-approximation to both MEB and MBB and efficient -approximation
algorithms are known for Minimum -Cut [SV95] and DALS [And07, KS09].
Our first result is proved by combining a technique developed by Raghavendra
et al. [RST12] to avoid locality of gadget reductions with a generalization of
Bansal and Khot's long code test [BK09] whereas our second result is shown via
elementary reductions.Comment: A preliminary version of this work will appear at ICALP 2017 under a
different title "Inapproximability of Maximum Edge Biclique, Maximum Balanced
Biclique and Minimum k-Cut from the Small Set Expansion Hypothesis
Inapproximability of Maximum Edge Biclique, Maximum Balanced Biclique and Minimum k-Cut from the Small Set Expansion Hypothesis
The Small Set Expansion Hypothesis (SSEH) is a conjecture which roughly states that it is NP-hard to distinguish between a graph with a small set of vertices whose expansion is almost zero and one in which all small sets of vertices have expansion almost one. In this work, we prove conditional inapproximability results for the following graph problems based on this hypothesis:
- Maximum Edge Biclique (MEB): given a bipartite graph G, find a complete bipartite subgraph of G with maximum number of edges. We show that, assuming SSEH and that NP != BPP, no polynomial time algorithm gives n^{1 - epsilon}-approximation for MEB for every constant epsilon > 0.
- Maximum Balanced Biclique (MBB): given a bipartite graph G, find a balanced complete bipartite subgraph of G with maximum number of vertices. Similar to MEB, we prove n^{1 - epsilon} ratio inapproximability for MBB for every epsilon > 0, assuming SSEH and that NP != BPP.
- Minimum k-Cut: given a weighted graph G, find a set of edges with minimum total weight whose removal splits the graph into k components. We prove that this problem is NP-hard to approximate to within (2 - epsilon) factor of the optimum for every epsilon > 0, assuming SSEH.
The ratios in our results are essentially tight since trivial algorithms give n-approximation to both MEB and MBB and 2-approximation algorithms are known for Minimum k-Cut [Saran and Vazirani, SIAM J. Comput., 1995].
Our first two results are proved by combining a technique developed by Raghavendra, Steurer and Tulsiani [Raghavendra et al., CCC, 2012] to avoid locality of gadget reductions with a generalization of Bansal and Khot\u27s long code test [Bansal and Khot, FOCS, 2009] whereas our last result is shown via an elementary reduction
New Tools and Connections for Exponential-Time Approximation
In this paper, we develop new tools and connections for exponential time approximation. In this setting, we are given a problem instance and an integer r>1, and the goal is to design an approximation algorithm with the fastest possible running time. We give randomized algorithms that establish an approximation ratio of
1.
r for maximum independent set in O∗(exp(O~(n/rlog2r+rlog2r)))
time,
2.
r for chromatic number in O∗(exp(O~(n/rlogr+rlog2r)))
time,
3.
(2−1/r)
for minimum vertex cover in O∗(exp(n/rΩ(r)))
time, and
4.
(k−1/r)
for minimum k-hypergraph vertex cover in O∗(exp(n/(kr)Ω(kr)))
time.
(Throughout, O~
and O∗ omit polyloglog(r) and factors polynomial in the input size, respectively.) The best known time bounds for all problems were O∗(2n/r) (Bourgeois et al. in Discret Appl Math 159(17):1954–1970, 2011; Cygan et al. in Exponential-time approximation of hard problems, 2008). For maximum independent set and chromatic number, these bounds were complemented by exp(n1−o(1)/r1+o(1)) lower bounds (under the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH)) (Chalermsook et al. in Foundations of computer science, FOCS, pp. 370–379, 2013; Laekhanukit in Inapproximability of combinatorial problems in subexponential-time. Ph.D. thesis, 2014). Our results show that the naturally-looking O∗(2n/r) bounds are not tight for all these problems. The key to these results is a sparsification procedure that reduces a problem to a bounded-degree variant, allowing the use of approximation algorithms for bounded-degree graphs. To obtain the first two results, we introduce a new randomized branching rule. Finally, we show a connection between PCP parameters and exponential-time approximation algorithms. This connection together with our independent set algorithm refute the possibility to overly reduce the size of Chan’s PCP (Chan in J. ACM 63(3):27:1–27:32, 2016). It also implies that a (significant) improvement over our result will refute the gap-ETH conjecture (Dinur in Electron Colloq Comput Complex (ECCC) 23:128, 2016; Manurangsi and Raghavendra in A birthday repetition theorem and complexity of approximating dense CSPs, 2016)
The Complexity of Finding Dense Subgraphs in Graphs with Large Cliques
The GapDensest-k-Subgraph(d) problem (GapDkS(d)) is defined as follows: given a graph G and parameters k,d, distinguish between the case that G contains a k-clique, and the case that every k-subgraph of G has density at most d.
GapDkS(d) is a natural relaxation of the standard Clique problem, which is known to be NP-complete. For d very close to 1, the GapDkS(d) problem is equivalent to the Clique problem, and when d is very close to 0 the GapDkS(d) problem can easily be solved in polynomial time. However, despite much work on both the algorithmic and hardness front, the exact k and d parameter values for which GapDkS(d) can be solved in polynomial time are still unknown. In particular, the best polynomial-time algorithms can solve GapDkS(d) when d is an inverse polynomial in the number of vertices n, but there have been no NP-hardness results beyond the trivial result.
This thesis attempts to understand the GapDkS(d) problem better by studying the case when k is restricted to be linear in n (where n is the number of vertices in G). In particular, we survey the GapDkS(d) algorithms and hardness results that can be best applied to this restriction in an attempt to determine the threshold for when the problem becomes NP-hard. With some modifications to the algorithms and proofs, we produce algorithms and hardness results for the GapDkS(d) problem with k linear in n.
In addition, we study the connection between GapDkS(d) and MaxClique, and show that despite having strong hardness results for MaxClique, reductions from MaxClique do not give strong hardness bounds for GapDkS(d)
Polynomial-time Approximation of Independent Set Parameterized by Treewidth
We prove the following result about approximating the maximum independent set
in a graph. Informally, we show that any approximation algorithm with a
``non-trivial'' approximation ratio (as a function of the number of vertices of
the input graph ) can be turned into an approximation algorithm achieving
almost the same ratio, albeit as a function of the treewidth of . More
formally, we prove that for any function , the existence of a polynomial
time -approximation algorithm yields the existence of a polynomial
time -approximation algorithm, where and
denote the number of vertices and the width of a given tree decomposition of
the input graph. By pipelining our result with the state-of-the-art -approximation algorithm by Feige (2004), this
implies an -approximation algorithm.Comment: To appear in the 31st Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA
2023
From Gap-ETH to FPT-Inapproximability: Clique, Dominating Set, and More
We consider questions that arise from the intersection between the areas of
polynomial-time approximation algorithms, subexponential-time algorithms, and
fixed-parameter tractable algorithms. The questions, which have been asked
several times (e.g., [Marx08, FGMS12, DF13]), are whether there is a
non-trivial FPT-approximation algorithm for the Maximum Clique (Clique) and
Minimum Dominating Set (DomSet) problems parameterized by the size of the
optimal solution. In particular, letting be the optimum and be
the size of the input, is there an algorithm that runs in
time and outputs a solution of size
, for any functions and that are independent of (for
Clique, we want )?
In this paper, we show that both Clique and DomSet admit no non-trivial
FPT-approximation algorithm, i.e., there is no
-FPT-approximation algorithm for Clique and no
-FPT-approximation algorithm for DomSet, for any function
(e.g., this holds even if is the Ackermann function). In fact, our results
imply something even stronger: The best way to solve Clique and DomSet, even
approximately, is to essentially enumerate all possibilities. Our results hold
under the Gap Exponential Time Hypothesis (Gap-ETH) [Dinur16, MR16], which
states that no -time algorithm can distinguish between a satisfiable
3SAT formula and one which is not even -satisfiable for some
constant .
Besides Clique and DomSet, we also rule out non-trivial FPT-approximation for
Maximum Balanced Biclique, Maximum Subgraphs with Hereditary Properties, and
Maximum Induced Matching in bipartite graphs. Additionally, we rule out
-FPT-approximation algorithm for Densest -Subgraph although this
ratio does not yet match the trivial -approximation algorithm.Comment: 43 pages. To appear in FOCS'1
Even the Easiest(?) Graph Coloring Problem Is Not Easy in Streaming!
We study a graph coloring problem that is otherwise easy in the RAM model but becomes quite non-trivial in the one-pass streaming model. In contrast to previous graph coloring problems in streaming that try to find an assignment of colors to vertices, our main work is on estimating the number of conflicting or monochromatic edges given a coloring function that is streaming along with the graph; we call the problem Conflict-Est. The coloring function on a vertex can be read or accessed only when the vertex is revealed in the stream. If we need the color on a vertex that has streamed past, then that color, along with its vertex, has to be stored explicitly. We provide algorithms for a graph that is streaming in different variants of the vertex arrival in one-pass streaming model, viz. the Vertex Arrival (VA), Vertex Arrival With Degree Oracle (VAdeg), Vertex Arrival in Random Order (VArand) models, with special focus on the random order model. We also provide matching lower bounds for most of the cases. The mainstay of our work is in showing that the properties of a random order stream can be exploited to design efficient streaming algorithms for estimating the number of monochromatic edges. We have also obtained a lower bound, though not matching the upper bound, for the random order model. Among all the three models vis-a-vis this problem, we can show a clear separation of power in favor of the VArand model