58 research outputs found
Improved Hardness of Approximating Chromatic Number
We prove that for sufficiently large K, it is NP-hard to color K-colorable
graphs with less than 2^{K^{1/3}} colors. This improves the previous result of
K versus K^{O(log K)} in Khot [14]
Strong inapproximability of the shortest reset word
The \v{C}ern\'y conjecture states that every -state synchronizing
automaton has a reset word of length at most . We study the hardness
of finding short reset words. It is known that the exact version of the
problem, i.e., finding the shortest reset word, is NP-hard and coNP-hard, and
complete for the DP class, and that approximating the length of the shortest
reset word within a factor of is NP-hard [Gerbush and Heeringa,
CIAA'10], even for the binary alphabet [Berlinkov, DLT'13]. We significantly
improve on these results by showing that, for every , it is NP-hard
to approximate the length of the shortest reset word within a factor of
. This is essentially tight since a simple -approximation
algorithm exists.Comment: extended abstract to appear in MFCS 201
Smooth and Strong PCPs
Probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs) can be verified based only on a constant amount of random queries, such that any correct claim has a proof that is always accepted, and incorrect claims are rejected with high probability (regardless of the given alleged proof). We consider two possible features of PCPs:
- A PCP is strong if it rejects an alleged proof of a correct claim with probability proportional to its distance from some correct proof of that claim.
- A PCP is smooth if each location in a proof is queried with equal probability.
We prove that all sets in NP have PCPs that are both smooth and strong, are of polynomial length, and can be verified based on a constant number of queries. This is achieved by following the proof of the PCP theorem of Arora, Lund, Motwani, Sudan and Szegedy (JACM, 1998), providing a stronger analysis of the Hadamard and Reed - Muller based PCPs and a refined PCP composition theorem. In fact, we show that any set in NP has a smooth strong canonical PCP of Proximity (PCPP), meaning that there is an efficiently computable bijection of NP witnesses to correct proofs. This improves on the recent construction of Dinur, Gur and Goldreich (ITCS, 2019) of PCPPs that are strong canonical but inherently non-smooth.
Our result implies the hardness of approximating the satisfiability of "stable" 3CNF formulae with bounded variable occurrence, where stable means that the number of clauses violated by an assignment is proportional to its distance from a satisfying assignment (in the relative Hamming metric). This proves a hypothesis used in the work of Friggstad, Khodamoradi and Salavatipour (SODA, 2019), suggesting a connection between the hardness of these instances and other stable optimization problems
Independent Set, Induced Matching, and Pricing: Connections and Tight (Subexponential Time) Approximation Hardnesses
We present a series of almost settled inapproximability results for three
fundamental problems. The first in our series is the subexponential-time
inapproximability of the maximum independent set problem, a question studied in
the area of parameterized complexity. The second is the hardness of
approximating the maximum induced matching problem on bounded-degree bipartite
graphs. The last in our series is the tight hardness of approximating the
k-hypergraph pricing problem, a fundamental problem arising from the area of
algorithmic game theory. In particular, assuming the Exponential Time
Hypothesis, our two main results are:
- For any r larger than some constant, any r-approximation algorithm for the
maximum independent set problem must run in at least
2^{n^{1-\epsilon}/r^{1+\epsilon}} time. This nearly matches the upper bound of
2^{n/r} (Cygan et al., 2008). It also improves some hardness results in the
domain of parameterized complexity (e.g., Escoffier et al., 2012 and Chitnis et
al., 2013)
- For any k larger than some constant, there is no polynomial time min
(k^{1-\epsilon}, n^{1/2-\epsilon})-approximation algorithm for the k-hypergraph
pricing problem, where n is the number of vertices in an input graph. This
almost matches the upper bound of min (O(k), \tilde O(\sqrt{n})) (by Balcan and
Blum, 2007 and an algorithm in this paper).
We note an interesting fact that, in contrast to n^{1/2-\epsilon} hardness
for polynomial-time algorithms, the k-hypergraph pricing problem admits
n^{\delta} approximation for any \delta >0 in quasi-polynomial time. This puts
this problem in a rare approximability class in which approximability
thresholds can be improved significantly by allowing algorithms to run in
quasi-polynomial time.Comment: The full version of FOCS 201
Near-Optimal UGC-hardness of Approximating Max k-CSP_R
In this paper, we prove an almost-optimal hardness for Max -CSP based
on Khot's Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). In Max -CSP, we are given a set
of predicates each of which depends on exactly variables. Each variable can
take any value from . The goal is to find an assignment to
variables that maximizes the number of satisfied predicates.
Assuming the Unique Games Conjecture, we show that it is NP-hard to
approximate Max -CSP to within factor for any . To the best of our knowledge, this result
improves on all the known hardness of approximation results when . In this case, the previous best hardness result was
NP-hardness of approximating within a factor by Chan. When , our result matches the best known UGC-hardness result of Khot, Kindler,
Mossel and O'Donnell.
In addition, by extending an algorithm for Max 2-CSP by Kindler, Kolla
and Trevisan, we provide an -approximation algorithm
for Max -CSP. This algorithm implies that our inapproximability result
is tight up to a factor of . In comparison,
when is a constant, the previously known gap was , which is
significantly larger than our gap of .
Finally, we show that we can replace the Unique Games Conjecture assumption
with Khot's -to-1 Conjecture and still get asymptotically the same hardness
of approximation
On the NP-Hardness of Approximating Ordering Constraint Satisfaction Problems
We show improved NP-hardness of approximating Ordering Constraint
Satisfaction Problems (OCSPs). For the two most well-studied OCSPs, Maximum
Acyclic Subgraph and Maximum Betweenness, we prove inapproximability of
and .
An OCSP is said to be approximation resistant if it is hard to approximate
better than taking a uniformly random ordering. We prove that the Maximum
Non-Betweenness Problem is approximation resistant and that there are width-
approximation-resistant OCSPs accepting only a fraction of
assignments. These results provide the first examples of
approximation-resistant OCSPs subject only to P \NP
Complexity Theory
Computational Complexity Theory is the mathematical study of the intrinsic power and limitations of computational resources like time, space, or randomness. The current workshop focused on recent developments in various sub-areas including arithmetic complexity, Boolean complexity, communication complexity, cryptography, probabilistic proof systems, pseudorandomness, and quantum computation. Many of the developements are related to diverse mathematical ïŹelds such as algebraic geometry, combinatorial number theory, probability theory, quantum mechanics, representation theory, and the theory of error-correcting codes
A Characterization of Approximation Resistance for Even -Partite CSPs
A constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is said to be \emph{approximation
resistant} if it is hard to approximate better than the trivial algorithm which
picks a uniformly random assignment. Assuming the Unique Games Conjecture, we
give a characterization of approximation resistance for -partite CSPs
defined by an even predicate
A Hypergraph Dictatorship Test with Perfect Completeness
A hypergraph dictatorship test is first introduced by Samorodnitsky and
Trevisan and serves as a key component in their unique games based \PCP
construction. Such a test has oracle access to a collection of functions and
determines whether all the functions are the same dictatorship, or all their
low degree influences are Their test makes queries and has
amortized query complexity but has an inherent loss of
perfect completeness. In this paper we give an adaptive hypergraph dictatorship
test that achieves both perfect completeness and amortized query complexity
.Comment: Some minor correction
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