11,492 research outputs found
The complexity of approximating the matching polynomial in the complex plane
We study the problem of approximating the value of the matching polynomial on
graphs with edge parameter , where takes arbitrary values in
the complex plane.
When is a positive real, Jerrum and Sinclair showed that the problem
admits an FPRAS on general graphs. For general complex values of ,
Patel and Regts, building on methods developed by Barvinok, showed that the
problem admits an FPTAS on graphs of maximum degree as long as
is not a negative real number less than or equal to
. Our first main result completes the picture for the
approximability of the matching polynomial on bounded degree graphs. We show
that for all and all real less than ,
the problem of approximating the value of the matching polynomial on graphs of
maximum degree with edge parameter is #P-hard.
We then explore whether the maximum degree parameter can be replaced by the
connective constant. Sinclair et al. showed that for positive real it
is possible to approximate the value of the matching polynomial using a
correlation decay algorithm on graphs with bounded connective constant (and
potentially unbounded maximum degree). We first show that this result does not
extend in general in the complex plane; in particular, the problem is #P-hard
on graphs with bounded connective constant for a dense set of values
on the negative real axis. Nevertheless, we show that the result does extend
for any complex value that does not lie on the negative real axis. Our
analysis accounts for complex values of using geodesic distances in
the complex plane in the metric defined by an appropriate density function
The Complexity of Approximating the Matching Polynomial in the Complex Plane
We study the problem of approximating the value of the matching polynomial on graphs with edge parameter gamma, where gamma takes arbitrary values in the complex plane.
When gamma is a positive real, Jerrum and Sinclair showed that the problem admits an FPRAS on general graphs. For general complex values of gamma, Patel and Regts, building on methods developed by Barvinok, showed that the problem admits an FPTAS on graphs of maximum degree Delta as long as gamma is not a negative real number less than or equal to -1/(4(Delta-1)). Our first main result completes the picture for the approximability of the matching polynomial on bounded degree graphs. We show that for all Delta >= 3 and all real gamma less than -1/(4(Delta-1)), the problem of approximating the value of the matching polynomial on graphs of maximum degree Delta with edge parameter gamma is #P-hard.
We then explore whether the maximum degree parameter can be replaced by the connective constant. Sinclair et al. showed that for positive real gamma it is possible to approximate the value of the matching polynomial using a correlation decay algorithm on graphs with bounded connective constant (and potentially unbounded maximum degree). We first show that this result does not extend in general in the complex plane; in particular, the problem is #P-hard on graphs with bounded connective constant for a dense set of gamma values on the negative real axis. Nevertheless, we show that the result does extend for any complex value gamma that does not lie on the negative real axis. Our analysis accounts for complex values of gamma using geodesic distances in the complex plane in the metric defined by an appropriate density function
Simple and Nearly Optimal Polynomial Root-finding by Means of Root Radii Approximation
We propose a new simple but nearly optimal algorithm for the approximation of
all sufficiently well isolated complex roots and root clusters of a univariate
polynomial. Quite typically the known root-finders at first compute some crude
but reasonably good approximations to well-conditioned roots (that is, those
isolated from the other roots) and then refine the approximations very fast, by
using Boolean time which is nearly optimal, up to a polylogarithmic factor. By
combining and extending some old root-finding techniques, the geometry of the
complex plane, and randomized parametrization, we accelerate the initial stage
of obtaining crude to all well-conditioned simple and multiple roots as well as
isolated root clusters. Our algorithm performs this stage at a Boolean cost
dominated by the nearly optimal cost of subsequent refinement of these
approximations, which we can perform concurrently, with minimum processor
communication and synchronization. Our techniques are quite simple and
elementary; their power and application range may increase in their combination
with the known efficient root-finding methods.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur
Deterministic polynomial-time approximation algorithms for partition functions and graph polynomials
In this paper we show a new way of constructing deterministic polynomial-time
approximation algorithms for computing complex-valued evaluations of a large
class of graph polynomials on bounded degree graphs. In particular, our
approach works for the Tutte polynomial and independence polynomial, as well as
partition functions of complex-valued spin and edge-coloring models.
More specifically, we define a large class of graph polynomials
and show that if and there is a disk centered at zero in the
complex plane such that does not vanish on for all bounded degree
graphs , then for each in the interior of there exists a
deterministic polynomial-time approximation algorithm for evaluating at
. This gives an explicit connection between absence of zeros of graph
polynomials and the existence of efficient approximation algorithms, allowing
us to show new relationships between well-known conjectures.
Our work builds on a recent line of work initiated by. Barvinok, which
provides a new algorithmic approach besides the existing Markov chain Monte
Carlo method and the correlation decay method for these types of problems.Comment: 27 pages; some changes have been made based on referee comments. In
particular a tiny error in Proposition 4.4 has been fixed. The introduction
and concluding remarks have also been rewritten to incorporate the most
recent developments. Accepted for publication in SIAM Journal on Computatio
The complexity of approximating the complex-valued Potts model
We study the complexity of approximating the partition function of the
-state Potts model and the closely related Tutte polynomial for complex
values of the underlying parameters. Apart from the classical connections with
quantum computing and phase transitions in statistical physics, recent work in
approximate counting has shown that the behaviour in the complex plane, and
more precisely the location of zeros, is strongly connected with the complexity
of the approximation problem, even for positive real-valued parameters.
Previous work in the complex plane by Goldberg and Guo focused on , which
corresponds to the case of the Ising model; for , the behaviour in the
complex plane is not as well understood and most work applies only to the
real-valued Tutte plane.
Our main result is a complete classification of the complexity of the
approximation problems for all non-real values of the parameters, by
establishing \#P-hardness results that apply even when restricted to planar
graphs. Our techniques apply to all and further complement/refine
previous results both for the Ising model and the Tutte plane, answering in
particular a question raised by Bordewich, Freedman, Lov\'{a}sz and Welsh in
the context of quantum computations.Comment: 58 pages. Changes on version 2: minor change
Approximating the Largest Root and Applications to Interlacing Families
We study the problem of approximating the largest root of a real-rooted
polynomial of degree using its top coefficients and give nearly
matching upper and lower bounds. We present algorithms with running time
polynomial in that use the top coefficients to approximate the maximum
root within a factor of and when and respectively. We also prove corresponding
information-theoretic lower bounds of and
, and show strong lower
bounds for noisy version of the problem in which one is given access to
approximate coefficients.
This problem has applications in the context of the method of interlacing
families of polynomials, which was used for proving the existence of Ramanujan
graphs of all degrees, the solution of the Kadison-Singer problem, and bounding
the integrality gap of the asymmetric traveling salesman problem. All of these
involve computing the maximum root of certain real-rooted polynomials for which
the top few coefficients are accessible in subexponential time. Our results
yield an algorithm with the running time of for all
of them
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