5,350 research outputs found
Distributed PCP Theorems for Hardness of Approximation in P
We present a new distributed model of probabilistically checkable proofs
(PCP). A satisfying assignment to a CNF formula is
shared between two parties, where Alice knows , Bob knows
, and both parties know . The goal is to have
Alice and Bob jointly write a PCP that satisfies , while
exchanging little or no information. Unfortunately, this model as-is does not
allow for nontrivial query complexity. Instead, we focus on a non-deterministic
variant, where the players are helped by Merlin, a third party who knows all of
.
Using our framework, we obtain, for the first time, PCP-like reductions from
the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH) to approximation problems in P.
In particular, under SETH we show that there are no truly-subquadratic
approximation algorithms for Bichromatic Maximum Inner Product over
{0,1}-vectors, Bichromatic LCS Closest Pair over permutations, Approximate
Regular Expression Matching, and Diameter in Product Metric. All our
inapproximability factors are nearly-tight. In particular, for the first two
problems we obtain nearly-polynomial factors of ; only
-factor lower bounds (under SETH) were known before
Fine-grained Algorithms and Complexity
A central goal of algorithmic research is to determine how fast computational problems can be solved in the worst case. Theorems from complexity theory state that there are problems that, on inputs of size n, can be solved in t(n) time but not in O(t(n)^{1-epsilon}) time for epsilon>0. The main challenge is to determine where in this hierarchy various natural and important problems lie. Throughout the years, many ingenious algorithmic techniques have been developed and applied to obtain blazingly fast algorithms for many problems. Nevertheless, for many other central problems, the best known running times are essentially those of their classical algorithms from the 1950s and 1960s.
Unconditional lower bounds seem very difficult to obtain, and so practically all known time lower bounds are conditional. For years, the main tool for proving hardness of computational problems have been NP-hardness reductions, basing hardness on P neq NP. However, when we care about the exact running time (as opposed to merely polynomial vs non-polynomial), NP-hardness is not applicable, especially if the problem is already solvable in polynomial time. In recent years, a new theory has been developed, based on "fine-grained reductions" that focus on exact running times. Mimicking NP-hardness, the approach is to (1) select a key problem X that is conjectured to require essentially t(n) time for some t, and (2) reduce X in a fine-grained way to many important problems. This approach has led to the discovery of many meaningful relationships between problems, and even sometimes to equivalence classes.
The main key problems used to base hardness on have been: the 3SUM problem, the CNF-SAT problem (based on the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH)) and the All Pairs Shortest Paths Problem. Research on SETH-based lower bounds has flourished in particular in recent years showing that the classical algorithms are optimal for problems such as Approximate Diameter, Edit Distance, Frechet Distance, Longest Common Subsequence etc.
In this talk I will give an overview of the current progress in this area of study, and will highlight some exciting new developments and their relationship to database theory
Report on BCTCS 2016: The 32nd British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science 22–24 March 2016, Queen’s University Belfast
Report on BCTCS 2016: The 32nd British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science 22–24 March 2016, Queen’s University Belfas
Fine-Grained Reductions and Quantum Speedups for Dynamic Programming
This paper points at a connection between certain (classical) fine-grained reductions and the question: Do quantum algorithms offer an advantage for problems whose (classical) best solution is via dynamic programming?
A remarkable recent result of Ambainis et al. [SODA 2019] indicates that the answer is positive for some fundamental problems such as Set-Cover and Travelling Salesman. They design a quantum O^*(1.728^n) time algorithm whereas the dynamic programming O^*(2^n) time algorithms are conjectured to be classically optimal. In this paper, fine-grained reductions are extracted from their algorithms giving the first lower bounds for problems in P that are based on the intriguing Set-Cover Conjecture (SeCoCo) of Cygan et al. [CCC 2010].
In particular, the SeCoCo implies:
- a super-linear Omega(n^{1.08}) lower bound for 3-SUM on n integers,
- an Omega(n^{k/(c_k)-epsilon}) lower bound for k-SUM on n integers and k-Clique on n-node graphs, for any integer k >= 3, where c_k <= log_2{k}+1.4427.
While far from being tight, these lower bounds are significantly stronger than what is known to follow from the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH); the well-known n^{Omega(k)} ETH-based lower bounds for k-Clique and k-SUM are vacuous when k is constant.
Going in the opposite direction, this paper observes that some "sequential" problems with previously known fine-grained reductions to a "parallelizable" core also enjoy quantum speedups over their classical dynamic programming solutions. Examples include RNA Folding and Least-Weight Subsequence
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