26,387 research outputs found
Probabilistic optimization in graph-problems
We study a probabilistic optimization model for graph-problems under vertex-uncertainty. We assume that any vertex vi of the input-graph G(V,E) has only a probability pi to be present in the final graph to be optimized (i.e., the final instance for the problem tackled will be only a sub-graph of the initial graph). Under this model, the original "deterministic" problem gives rise to a new (deterministic) problem on the same input-graph G, having the same set of feasible solutions as the former one, but its objective function can be very different from the original one, the set of its optimal solutions too. Moreover, this objective function is a sum of 2|V| terms; hence, its computation is not immediately polynomial. We give sufficient conditions for large classes of graph-problems under which objective functions of the probabilistic counterparts are polynomially computable and optimal solutions are well-characterized. Finally, we apply these general results to natural and well-known combinatorial problems that belong to the classes considered
Complexity of the robust weighted independent set problems on interval graphs
This paper deals with the max-min and min-max regret versions of the maximum
weighted independent set problem on interval graphswith uncertain vertex
weights. Both problems have been recently investigated by Nobibon and Leus
(2014), who showed that they are NP-hard for two scenarios and strongly NP-hard
if the number of scenarios is a part of the input. In this paper, new
complexity and approximation results on the problems under consideration are
provided, which extend the ones previously obtained. Namely, for the discrete
scenario uncertainty representation it is proven that if the number of
scenarios is a part of the input, then the max-min version of the problem
is not at all approximable. On the other hand, its min-max regret version is
approximable within and not approximable within for
any unless the problems in NP have quasi polynomial algorithms.
Furthermore, for the interval uncertainty representation it is shown that the
min-max regret version is NP-hard and approximable within 2
The Complexity of Online Graph Games
Online computation is a concept to model uncertainty where not all
information on a problem instance is known in advance. An online algorithm
receives requests which reveal the instance piecewise and has to respond with
irrevocable decisions. Often, an adversary is assumed that constructs the
instance knowing the deterministic behavior of the algorithm. From a game
theoretical point of view, the adversary and the online algorithm are players
in a two-player game. By applying this view on combinatorial graph problems,
especially on problems where the solution is a subset of the vertices, we
analyze their complexity. For this, we introduce a framework based on gadget
reductions from 3-Satisfiability and extend it to an online setting where the
graph is a priori known by a map. This is done by identifying a set of rules
for the reductions and providing schemes for gadgets. The extension of the
framework to the online setting enable reductions from TQBF. We provide example
reductions to the well-known problems Vertex Cover, Independent Set and
Dominating Set and prove that they are PSPACE-complete. Thus, this paper
establishes that the online version with a map of NP-complete graph problems
form a large class of PSPACE-complete problems
Preprocessing under uncertainty
In this work we study preprocessing for tractable problems when part of the
input is unknown or uncertain. This comes up naturally if, e.g., the load of
some machines or the congestion of some roads is not known far enough in
advance, or if we have to regularly solve a problem over instances that are
largely similar, e.g., daily airport scheduling with few charter flights.
Unlike robust optimization, which also studies settings like this, our goal
lies not in computing solutions that are (approximately) good for every
instantiation. Rather, we seek to preprocess the known parts of the input, to
speed up finding an optimal solution once the missing data is known.
We present efficient algorithms that given an instance with partially
uncertain input generate an instance of size polynomial in the amount of
uncertain data that is equivalent for every instantiation of the unknown part.
Concretely, we obtain such algorithms for Minimum Spanning Tree, Minimum Weight
Matroid Basis, and Maximum Cardinality Bipartite Maxing, where respectively the
weight of edges, weight of elements, and the availability of vertices is
unknown for part of the input. Furthermore, we show that there are tractable
problems, such as Small Connected Vertex Cover, for which one cannot hope to
obtain similar results.Comment: 18 page
Randomized Algorithms for the Loop Cutset Problem
We show how to find a minimum weight loop cutset in a Bayesian network with
high probability. Finding such a loop cutset is the first step in the method of
conditioning for inference. Our randomized algorithm for finding a loop cutset
outputs a minimum loop cutset after O(c 6^k kn) steps with probability at least
1 - (1 - 1/(6^k))^c6^k, where c > 1 is a constant specified by the user, k is
the minimal size of a minimum weight loop cutset, and n is the number of
vertices. We also show empirically that a variant of this algorithm often finds
a loop cutset that is closer to the minimum weight loop cutset than the ones
found by the best deterministic algorithms known
Parliamentary Voting Procedures: Agenda Control, Manipulation, and Uncertainty
We study computational problems for two popular parliamentary voting
procedures: the amendment procedure and the successive procedure. While finding
successful manipulations or agenda controls is tractable for both procedures,
our real-world experimental results indicate that most elections cannot be
manipulated by a few voters and agenda control is typically impossible. If the
voter preferences are incomplete, then finding which alternatives can possibly
win is NP-hard for both procedures. Whilst deciding if an alternative
necessarily wins is coNP-hard for the amendment procedure, it is
polynomial-time solvable for the successive one
A Spectral Graph Uncertainty Principle
The spectral theory of graphs provides a bridge between classical signal
processing and the nascent field of graph signal processing. In this paper, a
spectral graph analogy to Heisenberg's celebrated uncertainty principle is
developed. Just as the classical result provides a tradeoff between signal
localization in time and frequency, this result provides a fundamental tradeoff
between a signal's localization on a graph and in its spectral domain. Using
the eigenvectors of the graph Laplacian as a surrogate Fourier basis,
quantitative definitions of graph and spectral "spreads" are given, and a
complete characterization of the feasibility region of these two quantities is
developed. In particular, the lower boundary of the region, referred to as the
uncertainty curve, is shown to be achieved by eigenvectors associated with the
smallest eigenvalues of an affine family of matrices. The convexity of the
uncertainty curve allows it to be found to within by a fast
approximation algorithm requiring typically sparse
eigenvalue evaluations. Closed-form expressions for the uncertainty curves for
some special classes of graphs are derived, and an accurate analytical
approximation for the expected uncertainty curve of Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random
graphs is developed. These theoretical results are validated by numerical
experiments, which also reveal an intriguing connection between diffusion
processes on graphs and the uncertainty bounds.Comment: 40 pages, 8 figure
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