Deterministic fully dynamic approximate vertex cover and fractional matching in O(1) update time

We consider the problems of maintaining an approximate maximum matching and an approximate minimum vertex cover in a dynamic graph undergoing a sequence of edge insertions/deletions. Starting with the seminal work of Onak and Rubinfeld [STOC 2010], this problem has received significant attention in recent years. Very recently, extending the framework of Baswana, Gupta and Sen [FOCS 2011], Solomon [FOCS 2016] gave a randomized dynamic algorithm for this problem that has an approximation ratio of 2 and an amortized update time of O(1) with high probability. This algorithm requires the assumption of an oblivious adversary, meaning that the future sequence of edge insertions/deletions in the graph cannot depend in any way on the algorithm’s past output. A natural way to remove the assumption on oblivious adversary is to give a deterministic dynamic algorithm for the same problem in O(1) update time. In this paper, we resolve this question. We present a new deterministic fully dynamic algorithm that maintains a O(1)-approximate minimum vertex cover and maximum fractional matching, with an amortized update time of O(1). Previously, the best deterministic algorithm for this problem was due to Bhattacharya, Henzinger and Italiano [SODA 2015]; it had an approximation ratio of (2 + e) and an amortized update time of O(logn=e2 ). Our result can be generalized to give a fully dynamic O( f3 )-approximate algorithm with O( f2 ) amortized update time for the hypergraph vertex cover and fractional hypergraph matching problem, where every hyperedge has at most f vertices

Incremental (1-?)-Approximate Dynamic Matching in O(poly(1/?)) Update Time

In the dynamic approximate maximum bipartite matching problem we are given bipartite graph G undergoing updates and our goal is to maintain a matching of G which is large compared the maximum matching size ?(G). We define a dynamic matching algorithm to be ? (respectively (?, ?))-approximate if it maintains matching M such that at all times |M | ? ?(G) ? ? (respectively |M| ? ?(G) ? ? - ?). We present the first deterministic (1-?)-approximate dynamic matching algorithm with O(poly(?^{-1})) amortized update time for graphs undergoing edge insertions. Previous solutions either required super-constant [Gupta FSTTCS\u2714, Bhattacharya-Kiss-Saranurak SODA\u2723] or exponential in 1/? [Grandoni-Leonardi-Sankowski-Schwiegelshohn-Solomon SODA\u2719] update time. Our implementation is arguably simpler than the mentioned algorithms and its description is self contained. Moreover, we show that if we allow for additive (1, ??n)-approximation our algorithm seamlessly extends to also handle vertex deletions, on top of edge insertions. This makes our algorithm one of the few small update time algorithms for (1-?)-approximate dynamic matching allowing for updates both increasing and decreasing the maximum matching size of G in a fully dynamic manner. Our algorithm relies on the weighted variant of the celebrated Edge-Degree-Constrained-Subgraph (EDCS) datastructure introduced by [Bernstein-Stein ICALP\u2715]. As far as we are aware we introduce the first application of the weighted-EDCS for arbitrarily dense graphs. We also present a significantly simplified proof for the approximation ratio of weighed-EDCS as a matching sparsifier compared to [Bernstein-Stein], as well as simple descriptions of a fractional matching and fractional vertex cover defined on top of the EDCS. Considering the wide range of applications EDCS has found in settings such as streaming, sub-linear, stochastic and more we hope our techniques will be of independent research interest outside of the dynamic setting

Incremental (1−ϵ)(1-\epsilon)-approximate dynamic matching in O(poly(1/ϵ))O(poly(1/\epsilon)) update time

In the dynamic approximate maximum bipartite matching problem we are given bipartite graph $G$ undergoing updates and our goal is to maintain a matching of $G$ which is large compared the maximum matching size $\mu(G)$. We define a dynamic matching algorithm to be $\alpha$ (respectively $(\alpha, \beta)$)-approximate if it maintains matching $M$ such that at all times $|M | \geq \mu(G) \cdot \alpha$ (respectively $|M| \geq \mu(G) \cdot \alpha - \beta$). We present the first deterministic $(1-\epsilon )$-approximate dynamic matching algorithm with $O(poly(\epsilon ^{-1}))$ amortized update time for graphs undergoing edge insertions. Previous solutions either required super-constant [Gupta FSTTCS'14, Bhattacharya-Kiss-Saranurak SODA'23] or exponential in $1/\epsilon$ [Grandoni-Leonardi-Sankowski-Schwiegelshohn-Solomon SODA'19] update time. Our implementation is arguably simpler than the mentioned algorithms and its description is self contained. Moreover, we show that if we allow for additive $(1, \epsilon \cdot n)$-approximation our algorithm seamlessly extends to also handle vertex deletions, on top of edge insertions. This makes our algorithm one of the few small update time algorithms for $(1-\epsilon )$-approximate dynamic matching allowing for updates both increasing and decreasing the maximum matching size of $G$ in a fully dynamic manner

Deterministic Fully Dynamic Data Structures for Vertex Cover and Matching

We present the first deterministic data structures for maintaining approximate minimum vertex cover and maximum matching in a fully dynamic graph $G = (V,E)$, with $|V| = n$ and $|E| =m$, in $o(\sqrt{m}\,)$ time per update. In particular, for minimum vertex cover we provide deterministic data structures for maintaining a (2+\eps) approximation in O(\log n/\eps^2) amortized time per update. For maximum matching, we show how to maintain a (3+\eps) approximation in O(\min(\sqrt{n}/\epsilon, m^{1/3}/\eps^2)) {\em amortized} time per update, and a (4+\eps) approximation in O(m^{1/3}/\eps^2) {\em worst-case} time per update. Our data structure for fully dynamic minimum vertex cover is essentially near-optimal and settles an open problem by Onak and Rubinfeld from STOC' 2010.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper will appear in SODA' 201

Near-Optimal Dynamic Rounding of Fractional Matchings in Bipartite Graphs

We study dynamic $(1-\epsilon)$-approximate rounding of fractional matchings -- a key ingredient in numerous breakthroughs in the dynamic graph algorithms literature. Our first contribution is a surprisingly simple deterministic rounding algorithm in bipartite graphs with amortized update time $O(\epsilon^{-1} \log^2 (\epsilon^{-1} \cdot n))$, matching an (unconditional) recourse lower bound of $\Omega(\epsilon^{-1})$ up to logarithmic factors. Moreover, this algorithm's update time improves provided the minimum (non-zero) weight in the fractional matching is lower bounded throughout. Combining this algorithm with novel dynamic \emph{partial rounding} algorithms to increase this minimum weight, we obtain several algorithms that improve this dependence on $n$. For example, we give a high-probability randomized algorithm with $\tilde{O}(\epsilon^{-1}\cdot (\log\log n)^2)$-update time against adaptive adversaries. (We use Soft-Oh notation, $\tilde{O}$, to suppress polylogarithmic factors in the argument, i.e., $\tilde{O}(f)=O(f\cdot \mathrm{poly}(\log f))$.) Using our rounding algorithms, we also round known $(1-\epsilon)$-decremental fractional bipartite matching algorithms with no asymptotic overhead, thus improving on state-of-the-art algorithms for the decremental bipartite matching problem. Further, we provide extensions of our results to general graphs and to maintaining almost-maximal matchings.Comment: Full version of STOC 2024 pape

An O(1)-Approximation Algorithm for Dynamic Weighted Vertex Cover with Soft Capacity

This study considers the soft capacitated vertex cover problem in a dynamic setting. This problem generalizes the dynamic model of the vertex cover problem, which has been intensively studied in recent years. Given a dynamically changing vertex-weighted graph G=(V,E), which allows edge insertions and edge deletions, the goal is to design a data structure that maintains an approximate minimum vertex cover while satisfying the capacity constraint of each vertex. That is, when picking a copy of a vertex v in the cover, the number of v\u27s incident edges covered by the copy is up to a given capacity of v. We extend Bhattacharya et al.\u27s work [SODA\u2715 and ICALP\u2715] to obtain a deterministic primal-dual algorithm for maintaining a constant-factor approximate minimum capacitated vertex cover with O(log n / epsilon) amortized update time, where n is the number of vertices in the graph. The algorithm can be extended to (1) a more general model in which each edge is associated with a non-uniform and unsplittable demand, and (2) the more general capacitated set cover problem