14 research outputs found
Linear Index Coding via Semidefinite Programming
In the index coding problem, introduced by Birk and Kol (INFOCOM, 1998), the
goal is to broadcast an n bit word to n receivers (one bit per receiver), where
the receivers have side information represented by a graph G. The objective is
to minimize the length of a codeword sent to all receivers which allows each
receiver to learn its bit. For linear index coding, the minimum possible length
is known to be equal to a graph parameter called minrank (Bar-Yossef et al.,
FOCS, 2006).
We show a polynomial time algorithm that, given an n vertex graph G with
minrank k, finds a linear index code for G of length ,
where f(k) depends only on k. For example, for k=3 we obtain f(3) ~ 0.2574. Our
algorithm employs a semidefinite program (SDP) introduced by Karger, Motwani
and Sudan (J. ACM, 1998) for graph coloring and its refined analysis due to
Arora, Chlamtac and Charikar (STOC, 2006). Since the SDP we use is not a
relaxation of the minimization problem we consider, a crucial component of our
analysis is an upper bound on the objective value of the SDP in terms of the
minrank.
At the heart of our analysis lies a combinatorial result which may be of
independent interest. Namely, we show an exact expression for the maximum
possible value of the Lovasz theta-function of a graph with minrank k. This
yields a tight gap between two classical upper bounds on the Shannon capacity
of a graph.Comment: 24 page
Detecting High Log-Densities -- an O(n^1/4) Approximation for Densest k-Subgraph
In the Densest k-Subgraph problem, given a graph G and a parameter k, one
needs to find a subgraph of G induced on k vertices that contains the largest
number of edges. There is a significant gap between the best known upper and
lower bounds for this problem. It is NP-hard, and does not have a PTAS unless
NP has subexponential time algorithms. On the other hand, the current best
known algorithm of Feige, Kortsarz and Peleg, gives an approximation ratio of
n^(1/3-epsilon) for some specific epsilon > 0 (estimated at around 1/60).
We present an algorithm that for every epsilon > 0 approximates the Densest
k-Subgraph problem within a ratio of n^(1/4+epsilon) in time n^O(1/epsilon). In
particular, our algorithm achieves an approximation ratio of O(n^1/4) in time
n^O(log n). Our algorithm is inspired by studying an average-case version of
the problem where the goal is to distinguish random graphs from graphs with
planted dense subgraphs. The approximation ratio we achieve for the general
case matches the distinguishing ratio we obtain for this planted problem.
At a high level, our algorithms involve cleverly counting appropriately
defined trees of constant size in G, and using these counts to identify the
vertices of the dense subgraph. Our algorithm is based on the following
principle. We say that a graph G(V,E) has log-density alpha if its average
degree is Theta(|V|^alpha). The algorithmic core of our result is a family of
algorithms that output k-subgraphs of nontrivial density whenever the
log-density of the densest k-subgraph is larger than the log-density of the
host graph.Comment: 23 page
Improved Approximation of the Minimum Cover Time
Feige and Rabinovich, in [FR], gave a deterministic O(log 4 n) approximation for the time it takes a random walk to cover a given graph starting at a given vertex. This approximation algorithm was shown to work for arbitrary reversible Markov Chains. We build on the results of [FR], and show that the original algorithm gives a O(log 2 n) approximation as it is, and that it can be modified to give a O ( log n(log log n) 2) approximation. Moreover, we show that given any c(n)approximation algorithm for the maximum cover time (maximized over all initial vertices) of a reversible Markov chain, we can give a corresponding algorithm for the general cover time (of a random walk or reversible Markov chain) with approximation ratio O(c(n) · log n).
How to play unique games using embeddings
In this paper we present a new approximation algorithm for Unique Games. For a Unique Game with n vertices and k states (labels), if a (1 − ε) fraction of all constraints is satisfiable, the algorithm finds an assignment satisfying a 1 − O(ε √ log n log k) fraction of all constraints. To this end, we introduce new embedding techniques for rounding semidefinite relaxations of problems with large domain size.