334 research outputs found
On the Equivalence among Problems of Bounded Width
In this paper, we introduce a methodology, called decomposition-based
reductions, for showing the equivalence among various problems of
bounded-width.
First, we show that the following are equivalent for any :
* SAT can be solved in time,
* 3-SAT can be solved in time,
* Max 2-SAT can be solved in time,
* Independent Set can be solved in time, and
* Independent Set can be solved in time, where
tw and cw are the tree-width and clique-width of the instance, respectively.
Then, we introduce a new parameterized complexity class EPNL, which includes
Set Cover and Directed Hamiltonicity, and show that SAT, 3-SAT, Max 2-SAT, and
Independent Set parameterized by path-width are EPNL-complete. This implies
that if one of these EPNL-complete problems can be solved in time,
then any problem in EPNL can be solved in time.Comment: accepted to ESA 201
Faster exponential-time algorithms in graphs of bounded average degree
We first show that the Traveling Salesman Problem in an n-vertex graph with
average degree bounded by d can be solved in O*(2^{(1-\eps_d)n}) time and
exponential space for a constant \eps_d depending only on d, where the
O*-notation suppresses factors polynomial in the input size. Thus, we
generalize the recent results of Bjorklund et al. [TALG 2012] on graphs of
bounded degree.
Then, we move to the problem of counting perfect matchings in a graph. We
first present a simple algorithm for counting perfect matchings in an n-vertex
graph in O*(2^{n/2}) time and polynomial space; our algorithm matches the
complexity bounds of the algorithm of Bjorklund [SODA 2012], but relies on
inclusion-exclusion principle instead of algebraic transformations. Building
upon this result, we show that the number of perfect matchings in an n-vertex
graph with average degree bounded by d can be computed in
O*(2^{(1-\eps_{2d})n/2}) time and exponential space, where \eps_{2d} is the
constant obtained by us for the Traveling Salesman Problem in graphs of average
degree at most 2d.
Moreover we obtain a simple algorithm that counts the number of perfect
matchings in an n-vertex bipartite graph of average degree at most d in
O*(2^{(1-1/(3.55d))n/2}) time, improving and simplifying the recent result of
Izumi and Wadayama [FOCS 2012].Comment: 10 page
Covering Problems for Partial Words and for Indeterminate Strings
We consider the problem of computing a shortest solid cover of an
indeterminate string. An indeterminate string may contain non-solid symbols,
each of which specifies a subset of the alphabet that could be present at the
corresponding position. We also consider covering partial words, which are a
special case of indeterminate strings where each non-solid symbol is a don't
care symbol. We prove that indeterminate string covering problem and partial
word covering problem are NP-complete for binary alphabet and show that both
problems are fixed-parameter tractable with respect to , the number of
non-solid symbols. For the indeterminate string covering problem we obtain a
-time algorithm. For the partial word covering
problem we obtain a -time algorithm. We
prove that, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis is false, no
-time solution exists for either problem, which shows
that our algorithm for this case is close to optimal. We also present an
algorithm for both problems which is feasible in practice.Comment: full version (simplified and corrected); preliminary version appeared
at ISAAC 2014; 14 pages, 4 figure
A PCP Characterization of AM
We introduce a 2-round stochastic constraint-satisfaction problem, and show
that its approximation version is complete for (the promise version of) the
complexity class AM. This gives a `PCP characterization' of AM analogous to the
PCP Theorem for NP. Similar characterizations have been given for higher levels
of the Polynomial Hierarchy, and for PSPACE; however, we suggest that the
result for AM might be of particular significance for attempts to derandomize
this class.
To test this notion, we pose some `Randomized Optimization Hypotheses'
related to our stochastic CSPs that (in light of our result) would imply
collapse results for AM. Unfortunately, the hypotheses appear over-strong, and
we present evidence against them. In the process we show that, if some language
in NP is hard-on-average against circuits of size 2^{Omega(n)}, then there
exist hard-on-average optimization problems of a particularly elegant form.
All our proofs use a powerful form of PCPs known as Probabilistically
Checkable Proofs of Proximity, and demonstrate their versatility. We also use
known results on randomness-efficient soundness- and hardness-amplification. In
particular, we make essential use of the Impagliazzo-Wigderson generator; our
analysis relies on a recent Chernoff-type theorem for expander walks.Comment: 18 page
Assigning channels via the meet-in-the-middle approach
We study the complexity of the Channel Assignment problem. By applying the
meet-in-the-middle approach we get an algorithm for the -bounded Channel
Assignment (when the edge weights are bounded by ) running in time
. This is the first algorithm which breaks the
barrier. We extend this algorithm to the counting variant, at the
cost of slightly higher polynomial factor.
A major open problem asks whether Channel Assignment admits a -time
algorithm, for a constant independent of . We consider a similar
question for Generalized T-Coloring, a CSP problem that generalizes \CA. We
show that Generalized T-Coloring does not admit a
-time algorithm, where is the
size of the instance.Comment: SWAT 2014: 282-29
A Full Characterization of Quantum Advice
We prove the following surprising result: given any quantum state rho on n
qubits, there exists a local Hamiltonian H on poly(n) qubits (e.g., a sum of
two-qubit interactions), such that any ground state of H can be used to
simulate rho on all quantum circuits of fixed polynomial size. In terms of
complexity classes, this implies that BQP/qpoly is contained in QMA/poly, which
supersedes the previous result of Aaronson that BQP/qpoly is contained in
PP/poly. Indeed, we can exactly characterize quantum advice, as equivalent in
power to untrusted quantum advice combined with trusted classical advice.
Proving our main result requires combining a large number of previous tools --
including a result of Alon et al. on learning of real-valued concept classes, a
result of Aaronson on the learnability of quantum states, and a result of
Aharonov and Regev on "QMA+ super-verifiers" -- and also creating some new
ones. The main new tool is a so-called majority-certificates lemma, which is
closely related to boosting in machine learning, and which seems likely to find
independent applications. In its simplest version, this lemma says the
following. Given any set S of Boolean functions on n variables, any function f
in S can be expressed as the pointwise majority of m=O(n) functions f1,...,fm
in S, such that each fi is the unique function in S compatible with O(log|S|)
input/output constraints.Comment: We fixed two significant issues: 1. The definition of YQP machines
needed to be changed to preserve our results. The revised definition is more
natural and has the same intuitive interpretation. 2. We needed properties of
Local Hamiltonian reductions going beyond those proved in previous works
(whose results we'd misstated). We now prove the needed properties. See p. 6
for more on both point
Weighted Shortest Common Supersequence problem revisited
A weighted string, also known as a position weight matrix, is a sequence of probability distributions over some alphabet. We revisit the Weighted Shortest Common Supersequence (WSCS) problem, introduced by Amir et al. [SPIRE 2011], that is, the SCS problem on weighted strings. In the WSCS problem, we are given two weighted strings (Formula presented) and (Formula presented) and a threshold (Formula presented) on probability, and we are asked to compute the shortest (standard) string S such that both (Formula presented) and (Formula presented) match subsequences of S (not necessarily the same
Polynomial Kernels for Weighted Problems
Kernelization is a formalization of efficient preprocessing for NP-hard
problems using the framework of parameterized complexity. Among open problems
in kernelization it has been asked many times whether there are deterministic
polynomial kernelizations for Subset Sum and Knapsack when parameterized by the
number of items.
We answer both questions affirmatively by using an algorithm for compressing
numbers due to Frank and Tardos (Combinatorica 1987). This result had been
first used by Marx and V\'egh (ICALP 2013) in the context of kernelization. We
further illustrate its applicability by giving polynomial kernels also for
weighted versions of several well-studied parameterized problems. Furthermore,
when parameterized by the different item sizes we obtain a polynomial
kernelization for Subset Sum and an exponential kernelization for Knapsack.
Finally, we also obtain kernelization results for polynomial integer programs
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