106 research outputs found
The Unreasonable Success of Local Search: Geometric Optimization
What is the effectiveness of local search algorithms for geometric problems
in the plane? We prove that local search with neighborhoods of magnitude
is an approximation scheme for the following problems in the
Euclidian plane: TSP with random inputs, Steiner tree with random inputs,
facility location (with worst case inputs), and bicriteria -median (also
with worst case inputs). The randomness assumption is necessary for TSP
A Fixed Parameter Tractable Approximation Scheme for the Optimal Cut Graph of a Surface
Given a graph cellularly embedded on a surface of genus , a
cut graph is a subgraph of such that cutting along yields a
topological disk. We provide a fixed parameter tractable approximation scheme
for the problem of computing the shortest cut graph, that is, for any
, we show how to compute a approximation of
the shortest cut graph in time .
Our techniques first rely on the computation of a spanner for the problem
using the technique of brick decompositions, to reduce the problem to the case
of bounded tree-width. Then, to solve the bounded tree-width case, we introduce
a variant of the surface-cut decomposition of Ru\'e, Sau and Thilikos, which
may be of independent interest
Shear induced normal stress differences in aqueous foams
A finite simple shear deformation of an elastic solid induces unequal normal
stresses. This nonlinear phenomenon, known as the Poynting effect, is governed
by a universal relation between shear strain and first normal stresses
difference, valid for non-dissipative elastic materials. We provide the first
experimental evidence that an analog of the Poynting effect exists in aqueous
foams where besides the elastic stress, there are significant viscous or
plastic stresses. These results are interpreted in the framework of a
constitutive model, derived from a physical description of foam rheology
Efficient Approximation Schemes for Uniform-Cost Clustering Problems in Planar Graphs
We consider the k-Median problem on planar graphs: given an edge-weighted planar graph G, a set of clients C subseteq V(G), a set of facilities F subseteq V(G), and an integer parameter k, the task is to find a set of at most k facilities whose opening minimizes the total connection cost of clients, where each client contributes to the cost with the distance to the closest open facility. We give two new approximation schemes for this problem:
- FPT Approximation Scheme: for any epsilon>0, in time 2^{O(k epsilon^{-3} log (k epsilon^{-1}))}* n^O(1) we can compute a solution that has connection cost at most (1+epsilon) times the optimum, with high probability.
- Efficient Bicriteria Approximation Scheme: for any epsilon>0, in time 2^{O(epsilon^{-5} log (epsilon^{-1}))}* n^O(1) we can compute a set of at most (1+epsilon)k facilities whose opening yields connection cost at most (1+epsilon) times the optimum connection cost for opening at most k facilities, with high probability.
As a direct corollary of the second result we obtain an EPTAS for Uniform Facility Location on planar graphs, with same running time.
Our main technical tool is a new construction of a "coreset for facilities" for k-Median in planar graphs: we show that in polynomial time one can compute a subset of facilities F_0 subseteq F of size k * (log n/epsilon)^O(epsilon^{-3}) with a guarantee that there is a (1+epsilon)-approximate solution contained in F_0
Algorithmic Aspects of Switch Cographs
This paper introduces the notion of involution module, the first
generalization of the modular decomposition of 2-structure which has a unique
linear-sized decomposition tree. We derive an O(n^2) decomposition algorithm
and we take advantage of the involution modular decomposition tree to state
several algorithmic results. Cographs are the graphs that are totally
decomposable w.r.t modular decomposition. In a similar way, we introduce the
class of switch cographs, the class of graphs that are totally decomposable
w.r.t involution modular decomposition. This class generalizes the class of
cographs and is exactly the class of (Bull, Gem, Co-Gem, C_5)-free graphs. We
use our new decomposition tool to design three practical algorithms for the
maximum cut, vertex cover and vertex separator problems. The complexity of
these problems was still unknown for this class of graphs. This paper also
improves the complexity of the maximum clique, the maximum independant set, the
chromatic number and the maximum clique cover problems by giving efficient
algorithms, thanks to the decomposition tree. Eventually, we show that this
class of graphs has Clique-Width at most 4 and that a Clique-Width expression
can be computed in linear time
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