4,400 research outputs found

    An update on the Hirsch conjecture

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    The Hirsch conjecture was posed in 1957 in a letter from Warren M. Hirsch to George Dantzig. It states that the graph of a d-dimensional polytope with n facets cannot have diameter greater than n - d. Despite being one of the most fundamental, basic and old problems in polytope theory, what we know is quite scarce. Most notably, no polynomial upper bound is known for the diameters that are conjectured to be linear. In contrast, very few polytopes are known where the bound ndn-d is attained. This paper collects known results and remarks both on the positive and on the negative side of the conjecture. Some proofs are included, but only those that we hope are accessible to a general mathematical audience without introducing too many technicalities.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures. Many proofs have been taken out from version 2 and put into the appendix arXiv:0912.423

    The Stochastic Shortest Path Problem : A polyhedral combinatorics perspective

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    In this paper, we give a new framework for the stochastic shortest path problem in finite state and action spaces. Our framework generalizes both the frameworks proposed by Bertsekas and Tsitsikli and by Bertsekas and Yu. We prove that the problem is well-defined and (weakly) polynomial when (i) there is a way to reach the target state from any initial state and (ii) there is no transition cycle of negative costs (a generalization of negative cost cycles). These assumptions generalize the standard assumptions for the deterministic shortest path problem and our framework encapsulates the latter problem (in contrast with prior works). In this new setting, we can show that (a) one can restrict to deterministic and stationary policies, (b) the problem is still (weakly) polynomial through linear programming, (c) Value Iteration and Policy Iteration converge, and (d) we can extend Dijkstra's algorithm

    Recent progress on the combinatorial diameter of polytopes and simplicial complexes

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    The Hirsch conjecture, posed in 1957, stated that the graph of a dd-dimensional polytope or polyhedron with nn facets cannot have diameter greater than ndn - d. The conjecture itself has been disproved, but what we know about the underlying question is quite scarce. Most notably, no polynomial upper bound is known for the diameters that were conjectured to be linear. In contrast, no polyhedron violating the conjecture by more than 25% is known. This paper reviews several recent attempts and progress on the question. Some work in the world of polyhedra or (more often) bounded polytopes, but some try to shed light on the question by generalizing it to simplicial complexes. In particular, we include here our recent and previously unpublished proof that the maximum diameter of arbitrary simplicial complexes is in nTheta(d)n^{Theta(d)} and we summarize the main ideas in the polymath 3 project, a web-based collective effort trying to prove an upper bound of type nd for the diameters of polyhedra and of more general objects (including, e. g., simplicial manifolds).Comment: 34 pages. This paper supersedes one cited as "On the maximum diameter of simplicial complexes and abstractions of them, in preparation

    Strongly polynomial primal monotonic build-up simplex algorithm for maximal flow problems

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    The maximum flow problem (MFP) is a fundamental model in operations research. The network simplex algorithm is one of the most efficient solution methods for MFP in practice. The theoretical properties of established pivot algorithms for MFP is less understood. Variants of the primal simplex and dual simplex methods for MFP have been proven strongly polynomial, but no similar result exists for other pivot algorithms like the monotonic build-up or the criss-cross simplex algorithm. The monotonic build-up simplex algorithm (MBUSA) starts with a feasible solution, and fixes the dual feasibility one variable a time, temporarily losing primal feasibility. In the case of maximum flow problems, pivots in one such iteration are all dual degenerate, bar the last one. Using a labelling technique to break these ties we show a variant that solves the maximum flow problem in 2|V||A|2 pivots
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