Beating the Folklore Algorithm for Dynamic Matching

The maximum matching problem in dynamic graphs subject to edge updates (insertions and deletions) has received much attention over the last few years; a multitude of approximation/time tradeoffs were obtained, improving upon the folklore algorithm, which maintains a maximal (and hence 2-approximate) matching in O(n) worst-case update time in n-node graphs. We present the first deterministic algorithm which outperforms the folklore algorithm in terms of both approximation ratio and worst-case update time. Specifically, we give a (2-?(1))-approximate algorithm with O(m^{3/8}) = O(n^{3/4}) worst-case update time in n-node, m-edge graphs. For sufficiently small constant ? > 0, no deterministic (2+?)-approximate algorithm with worst-case update time O(n^{0.99}) was known. Our second result is the first deterministic (2+?)-approximate weighted matching algorithm with O_?(1)? O(?{m}) = O_?(1)? O(?n) worst-case update time. Neither of our results were previously known to be achievable by a randomized algorithm against an adaptive adversary. Our main technical contributions are threefold: first, we characterize the tight cases for kernels, which are the well-studied matching sparsifiers underlying much of the (2+?)-approximate dynamic matching literature. This characterization, together with multiple ideas - old and new - underlies our result for breaking the approximation barrier of 2. Our second technical contribution is the first example of a dynamic matching algorithm whose running time is improved due to improving the recourse of other dynamic matching algorithms. Finally, we show how to use dynamic bipartite matching algorithms as black-box subroutines for dynamic matching in general graphs without incurring the natural 3/2 factor in the approximation ratio which such approaches naturally incur (reminiscent of the integrality gap of the fractional matching polytope in general graphs)

New deterministic approximation algorithms for fully dynamic matching

We present two deterministic dynamic algorithms for the maximum matching problem. (1) An algorithm that maintains a $(2+\epsilon)$-approximate maximum matching in general graphs with $O(\text{poly}(\log n, 1/\epsilon))$ update time. (2) An algorithm that maintains an $\alpha_K$ approximation of the {\em value} of the maximum matching with $O(n^{2/K})$ update time in bipartite graphs, for every sufficiently large constant positive integer $K$. Here, $1\leq \alpha_K < 2$ is a constant determined by the value of $K$. Result (1) is the first deterministic algorithm that can maintain an $o(\log n)$-approximate maximum matching with polylogarithmic update time, improving the seminal result of Onak et al. [STOC 2010]. Its approximation guarantee almost matches the guarantee of the best {\em randomized} polylogarithmic update time algorithm [Baswana et al. FOCS 2011]. Result (2) achieves a better-than-two approximation with {\em arbitrarily small polynomial} update time on bipartite graphs. Previously the best update time for this problem was $O(m^{1/4})$ [Bernstein et al. ICALP 2015], where $m$ is the current number of edges in the graph.Comment: To appear in STOC 201

Deterministic dynamic matching in worst-case update time

We present deterministic algorithms for maintaining a (3/2+ϵ) and (2+ϵ)-approximate maximum matching in a fully dynamic graph with worst-case update times O^(n−−√) and O~(1) respectively. The fastest known deterministic worst-case update time algorithms for achieving approximation ratio (2−δ) (for any δ>0) and (2+ϵ) were both shown by Roghani et al. [2021] with update times O(n3/4) and Oϵ(n−−√) respectively. We close the gap between worst-case and amortized algorithms for the two approximation ratios as the best deterministic amortized update times for the problem are Oϵ(n−−√) and O~(1) which were shown in Bernstein and Stein [SODA'2021] and Bhattacharya and Kiss [ICALP'2021] respectively. In order to achieve both results we explicitly state a method implicitly used in Nanongkai and Saranurak [STOC'2017] and Bernstein et al. [arXiv'2020] which allows to transform dynamic algorithms capable of processing the input in batches to a dynamic algorithms with worst-case update time. \textbf{Independent Work:} Independently and concurrently to our work Grandoni et al. [arXiv'2021] has presented a fully dynamic algorithm for maintaining a (3/2+ϵ)-approximate maximum matching with deterministic worst-case update time Oϵ(n−−√)

Fully dynamic approximate maximum matching and minimum vertex cover in O(log3 n) worst case update time

We consider the problem of maintaining an approximately maximum (fractional) matching and an approximately minimum vertex cover in a dynamic graph. Starting with the seminal paper by Onak and Rubinfeld [STOC 2010], this problem has received significant attention in recent years. There remains, however, a polynomial gap between the best known worst case update time and the best known amortised update time for this problem, even after allowing for randomisation. Specifically, Bernstein and Stein [ICALP 2015, SODA 2016] have the best known worst case update time. They present a deterministic data structure with approximation ratio (3/2 + ∊) and worst case update time O(m1/4/ ∊2), where m is the number of edges in the graph. In recent past, Gupta and Peng [FOCS 2013] gave a deterministic data structure with approximation ratio (1+ ∊) and worst case update time No known randomised data structure beats the worst case update times of these two results. In contrast, the paper by Onak and Rubinfeld [STOC 2010] gave a randomised data structure with approximation ratio O(1) and amortised update time O(log2 n), where n is the number of nodes in the graph. This was later improved by Baswana, Gupta and Sen [FOCS 2011] and Solomon [FOCS 2016], leading to a randomised date structure with approximation ratio 2 and amortised update time O(1). We bridge the polynomial gap between the worst case and amortised update times for this problem, without using any randomisation. We present a deterministic data structure with approximation ratio (2 + ∊) and worst case update time O(log3 n), for all sufficiently small constants ∊