3,197 research outputs found
Computing the Least-core and Nucleolus for Threshold Cardinality Matching Games
Cooperative games provide a framework for fair and stable profit allocation
in multi-agent systems. \emph{Core}, \emph{least-core} and \emph{nucleolus} are
such solution concepts that characterize stability of cooperation. In this
paper, we study the algorithmic issues on the least-core and nucleolus of
threshold cardinality matching games (TCMG). A TCMG is defined on a graph
and a threshold , in which the player set is and the profit of
a coalition is 1 if the size of a maximum matching in
meets or exceeds , and 0 otherwise. We first show that for a TCMG, the
problems of computing least-core value, finding and verifying least-core payoff
are all polynomial time solvable. We also provide a general characterization of
the least core for a large class of TCMG. Next, based on Gallai-Edmonds
Decomposition in matching theory, we give a concise formulation of the
nucleolus for a typical case of TCMG which the threshold equals . When
the threshold is relevant to the input size, we prove that the nucleolus
can be obtained in polynomial time in bipartite graphs and graphs with a
perfect matching
Bi-Criteria and Approximation Algorithms for Restricted Matchings
In this work we study approximation algorithms for the \textit{Bounded Color
Matching} problem (a.k.a. Restricted Matching problem) which is defined as
follows: given a graph in which each edge has a color and a profit
, we want to compute a maximum (cardinality or profit)
matching in which no more than edges of color are
present. This kind of problems, beside the theoretical interest on its own
right, emerges in multi-fiber optical networking systems, where we interpret
each unique wavelength that can travel through the fiber as a color class and
we would like to establish communication between pairs of systems. We study
approximation and bi-criteria algorithms for this problem which are based on
linear programming techniques and, in particular, on polyhedral
characterizations of the natural linear formulation of the problem. In our
setting, we allow violations of the bounds and we model our problem as a
bi-criteria problem: we have two objectives to optimize namely (a) to maximize
the profit (maximum matching) while (b) minimizing the violation of the color
bounds. We prove how we can "beat" the integrality gap of the natural linear
programming formulation of the problem by allowing only a slight violation of
the color bounds. In particular, our main result is \textit{constant}
approximation bounds for both criteria of the corresponding bi-criteria
optimization problem
Truthful Assignment without Money
We study the design of truthful mechanisms that do not use payments for the
generalized assignment problem (GAP) and its variants. An instance of the GAP
consists of a bipartite graph with jobs on one side and machines on the other.
Machines have capacities and edges have values and sizes; the goal is to
construct a welfare maximizing feasible assignment. In our model of private
valuations, motivated by impossibility results, the value and sizes on all
job-machine pairs are public information; however, whether an edge exists or
not in the bipartite graph is a job's private information.
We study several variants of the GAP starting with matching. For the
unweighted version, we give an optimal strategyproof mechanism; for maximum
weight bipartite matching, however, we show give a 2-approximate strategyproof
mechanism and show by a matching lowerbound that this is optimal. Next we study
knapsack-like problems, which are APX-hard. For these problems, we develop a
general LP-based technique that extends the ideas of Lavi and Swamy to reduce
designing a truthful mechanism without money to designing such a mechanism for
the fractional version of the problem, at a loss of a factor equal to the
integrality gap in the approximation ratio. We use this technique to obtain
strategyproof mechanisms with constant approximation ratios for these problems.
We then design an O(log n)-approximate strategyproof mechanism for the GAP by
reducing, with logarithmic loss in the approximation, to our solution for the
value-invariant GAP. Our technique may be of independent interest for designing
truthful mechanisms without money for other LP-based problems.Comment: Extended abstract appears in the 11th ACM Conference on Electronic
Commerce (EC), 201
Monotone Projection Lower Bounds from Extended Formulation Lower Bounds
In this short note, we reduce lower bounds on monotone projections of
polynomials to lower bounds on extended formulations of polytopes. Applying our
reduction to the seminal extended formulation lower bounds of Fiorini, Massar,
Pokutta, Tiwari, & de Wolf (STOC 2012; J. ACM, 2015) and Rothvoss (STOC 2014;
J. ACM, 2017), we obtain the following interesting consequences.
1. The Hamiltonian Cycle polynomial is not a monotone subexponential-size
projection of the permanent; this both rules out a natural attempt at a
monotone lower bound on the Boolean permanent, and shows that the permanent is
not complete for non-negative polynomials in VNP under monotone
p-projections.
2. The cut polynomials and the perfect matching polynomial (or "unsigned
Pfaffian") are not monotone p-projections of the permanent. The latter, over
the Boolean and-or semi-ring, rules out monotone reductions in one of the
natural approaches to reducing perfect matchings in general graphs to perfect
matchings in bipartite graphs.
As the permanent is universal for monotone formulas, these results also imply
exponential lower bounds on the monotone formula size and monotone circuit size
of these polynomials.Comment: Published in Theory of Computing, Volume 13 (2017), Article 18;
Received: November 10, 2015, Revised: July 27, 2016, Published: December 22,
201
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