10 research outputs found
New techniques for graph algorithms
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-192).The growing need to deal efficiently with massive computing tasks prompts us to consider the following question: How well can we solve fundamental optimization problems if our algorithms have to run really quickly? The motivation for the research presented in this thesis stems from addressing the above question in the context of algorithmic graph theory. To pursue this direction, we develop a toolkit that combines a diverse set of modern algorithmic techniques, including sparsification, low-stretch spanning trees, the multiplicative-weights-update method, dynamic graph algorithms, fast Laplacian system solvers, and tools of spectral graph theory. Using this toolkit, we obtain improved algorithms for several basic graph problems including: -- The Maximum s-t Flow and Minimum s-t Cut Problems. We develop a new approach to computing (1 - [epsilon])-approximately maximum s-t flow and (1 + [epsilon])-approximately minimum s-t cut in undirected graphs that gives the fastest known algorithms for these tasks. These algorithms are the first ones to improve the long-standing bound of O(n3/2') running time on sparse graphs; -- Multicommodity Flow Problems. We set forth a new method of speeding up the existing approximation algorithms for multicommodity flow problems, and use it to obtain the fastest-known (1 - [epsilon])-approximation algorithms for these problems. These results improve upon the best previously known bounds by a factor of roughly [omega](m/n), and make the resulting running times essentially match the [omega](mn) "flow-decomposition barrier" that is a natural obstacle to all the existing approaches; -- " Undirected (Multi-)Cut-Based Minimization Problems. We develop a general framework for designing fast approximation algorithms for (multi-)cutbased minimization problems in undirected graphs. Applying this framework leads to the first algorithms for several fundamental graph partitioning primitives, such as the (generalized) sparsest cut problem and the balanced separator problem, that run in close to linear time while still providing polylogarithmic approximation guarantees; -- The Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem. We design an O( )- approximation algorithm for the classical problem of combinatorial optimization: the asymmetric traveling salesman problem. This is the first asymptotic improvement over the long-standing approximation barrier of e(log n) for this problem; -- Random Spanning Tree Generation. We improve the bound on the time needed to generate an uniform random spanning tree of an undirected graph.by Aleksander Mądry.Ph.D
Graphs, Matrices, and the GraphBLAS: Seven Good Reasons
The analysis of graphs has become increasingly important to a wide range of
applications. Graph analysis presents a number of unique challenges in the
areas of (1) software complexity, (2) data complexity, (3) security, (4)
mathematical complexity, (5) theoretical analysis, (6) serial performance, and
(7) parallel performance. Implementing graph algorithms using matrix-based
approaches provides a number of promising solutions to these challenges. The
GraphBLAS standard (istc- bigdata.org/GraphBlas) is being developed to bring
the potential of matrix based graph algorithms to the broadest possible
audience. The GraphBLAS mathematically defines a core set of matrix-based graph
operations that can be used to implement a wide class of graph algorithms in a
wide range of programming environments. This paper provides an introduction to
the GraphBLAS and describes how the GraphBLAS can be used to address many of
the challenges associated with analysis of graphs.Comment: 10 pages; International Conference on Computational Science workshop
on the Applications of Matrix Computational Methods in the Analysis of Modern
Dat
On the Hardness of Partially Dynamic Graph Problems and Connections to Diameter
Conditional lower bounds for dynamic graph problems has received a great deal
of attention in recent years. While many results are now known for the
fully-dynamic case and such bounds often imply worst-case bounds for the
partially dynamic setting, it seems much more difficult to prove amortized
bounds for incremental and decremental algorithms. In this paper we consider
partially dynamic versions of three classic problems in graph theory. Based on
popular conjectures we show that:
-- No algorithm with amortized update time exists for
incremental or decremental maximum cardinality bipartite matching. This
significantly improves on the bound for sparse graphs
of Henzinger et al. [STOC'15] and bound of Kopelowitz,
Pettie and Porat. Our linear bound also appears more natural. In addition, the
result we present separates the node-addition model from the edge insertion
model, as an algorithm with total update time exists for the
former by Bosek et al. [FOCS'14].
-- No algorithm with amortized update time exists for
incremental or decremental maximum flow in directed and weighted sparse graphs.
No such lower bound was known for partially dynamic maximum flow previously.
Furthermore no algorithm with amortized update time
exists for directed and unweighted graphs or undirected and weighted graphs.
-- No algorithm with amortized update time exists
for incremental or decremental -approximating the diameter
of an unweighted graph. We also show a slightly stronger bound if node
additions are allowed. [...]Comment: To appear at ICALP'16. Abstract truncated to fit arXiv limit
Fast Generation of Random Spanning Trees and the Effective Resistance Metric
We present a new algorithm for generating a uniformly random spanning tree in
an undirected graph. Our algorithm samples such a tree in expected
time. This improves over the best previously known bound
of -- that follows from the work of
Kelner and M\k{a}dry [FOCS'09] and of Colbourn et al. [J. Algorithms'96] --
whenever the input graph is sufficiently sparse.
At a high level, our result stems from carefully exploiting the interplay of
random spanning trees, random walks, and the notion of effective resistance, as
well as from devising a way to algorithmically relate these concepts to the
combinatorial structure of the graph. This involves, in particular,
establishing a new connection between the effective resistance metric and the
cut structure of the underlying graph
Navigating Central Path with Electrical Flows: from Flows to Matchings, and Back
We present an -time algorithm for
the maximum s-t flow and the minimum s-t cut problems in directed graphs with
unit capacities. This is the first improvement over the sparse-graph case of
the long-standing time bound due to Even and
Tarjan [EvenT75]. By well-known reductions, this also establishes an
-time algorithm for the maximum-cardinality bipartite
matching problem. That, in turn, gives an improvement over the celebrated
celebrated time bound of Hopcroft and Karp [HK73] whenever the
input graph is sufficiently sparse
Fully Dynamic Effective Resistances
In this paper we consider the \emph{fully-dynamic} All-Pairs Effective
Resistance problem, where the goal is to maintain effective resistances on a
graph among any pair of query vertices under an intermixed sequence of edge
insertions and deletions in . The effective resistance between a pair of
vertices is a physics-motivated quantity that encapsulates both the congestion
and the dilation of a flow. It is directly related to random walks, and it has
been instrumental in the recent works for designing fast algorithms for
combinatorial optimization problems, graph sparsification, and network science.
We give a data-structure that maintains -approximations to
all-pair effective resistances of a fully-dynamic unweighted, undirected
multi-graph with expected amortized
update and query time, against an oblivious adversary. Key to our result is the
maintenance of a dynamic \emph{Schur complement}~(also known as vertex
resistance sparsifier) onto a set of terminal vertices of our choice.
This maintenance is obtained (1) by interpreting the Schur complement as a
sum of random walks and (2) by randomly picking the vertex subset into which
the sparsifier is constructed. We can then show that each update in the graph
affects a small number of such walks, which in turn leads to our sub-linear
update time. We believe that this local representation of vertex sparsifiers
may be of independent interest