Polynomial combinatorial algorithms for skew-bisubmodular function minimization

Huber et al. (SIAM J Comput 43:1064–1084, 2014) introduced a concept of skew bisubmodularity, as a generalization of bisubmodularity, in their complexity dichotomy theorem for valued constraint satisfaction problems over the three-value domain, and Huber and Krokhin (SIAM J Discrete Math 28:1828–1837, 2014) showed the oracle tractability of minimization of skew-bisubmodular functions. Fujishige et al. (Discrete Optim 12:1–9, 2014) also showed a min–max theorem that characterizes the skew-bisubmodular function minimization, but devising a combinatorial polynomial algorithm for skew-bisubmodular function minimization was left open. In the present paper we give first combinatorial (weakly and strongly) polynomial algorithms for skew-bisubmodular function minimization

Generalized roof duality and bisubmodular functions

Consider a convex relaxation $\hat f$ of a pseudo-boolean function $f$. We say that the relaxation is {\em totally half-integral} if $\hat f(x)$ is a polyhedral function with half-integral extreme points $x$, and this property is preserved after adding an arbitrary combination of constraints of the form $x_i=x_j$, $x_i=1-x_j$, and $x_i=\gamma$ where \gamma\in\{0, 1, 1/2} is a constant. A well-known example is the {\em roof duality} relaxation for quadratic pseudo-boolean functions $f$. We argue that total half-integrality is a natural requirement for generalizations of roof duality to arbitrary pseudo-boolean functions. Our contributions are as follows. First, we provide a complete characterization of totally half-integral relaxations $\hat f$ by establishing a one-to-one correspondence with {\em bisubmodular functions}. Second, we give a new characterization of bisubmodular functions. Finally, we show some relationships between general totally half-integral relaxations and relaxations based on the roof duality.Comment: 14 pages. Shorter version to appear in NIPS 201

Signed ring families and signed posets

The one-to-one correspondence between finite distributive lattices and finite partially ordered sets (posets) is a well-known theorem of G. Birkhoff. This implies a nice representation of any distributive lattice by its corresponding poset, where the size of the former (distributive lattice) is often exponential in the size of the underlying set of the latter (poset). A lot of engineering and economic applications bring us distributive lattices as a ring family of sets which is closed with respect to the set union and intersection. When it comes to a ring family of sets, the underlying set is partitioned into subsets (or components) and we have a poset structure on the partition. This is a set-theoretical variant of the Birkhoff theorem revealing the correspondence between finite ring families and finite posets on partitions of the underlying sets, which was pursued by Masao Iri around 1978, especially concerned with what is called the principal partition of discrete systems such as graphs, matroids, and polymatroids. In the present paper we investigate a signed-set version of the Birkhoff-Iri decomposition in terms of signed ring family, which corresponds to Reiner's result on signed posets, a signed counterpart of the Birkhoff theorem. We show that given a signed ring family, we have a signed partition of the underlying set together with a signed poset on the signed partition which represents the given signed ring family. This representation is unique up to certain reflections

Discrete Convex Functions on Graphs and Their Algorithmic Applications

The present article is an exposition of a theory of discrete convex functions on certain graph structures, developed by the author in recent years. This theory is a spin-off of discrete convex analysis by Murota, and is motivated by combinatorial dualities in multiflow problems and the complexity classification of facility location problems on graphs. We outline the theory and algorithmic applications in combinatorial optimization problems