The Price of Information in Combinatorial Optimization

Consider a network design application where we wish to lay down a minimum-cost spanning tree in a given graph; however, we only have stochastic information about the edge costs. To learn the precise cost of any edge, we have to conduct a study that incurs a price. Our goal is to find a spanning tree while minimizing the disutility, which is the sum of the tree cost and the total price that we spend on the studies. In a different application, each edge gives a stochastic reward value. Our goal is to find a spanning tree while maximizing the utility, which is the tree reward minus the prices that we pay. Situations such as the above two often arise in practice where we wish to find a good solution to an optimization problem, but we start with only some partial knowledge about the parameters of the problem. The missing information can be found only after paying a probing price, which we call the price of information. What strategy should we adopt to optimize our expected utility/disutility? A classical example of the above setting is Weitzman's "Pandora's box" problem where we are given probability distributions on values of $n$ independent random variables. The goal is to choose a single variable with a large value, but we can find the actual outcomes only after paying a price. Our work is a generalization of this model to other combinatorial optimization problems such as matching, set cover, facility location, and prize-collecting Steiner tree. We give a technique that reduces such problems to their non-price counterparts, and use it to design exact/approximation algorithms to optimize our utility/disutility. Our techniques extend to situations where there are additional constraints on what parameters can be probed or when we can simultaneously probe a subset of the parameters.Comment: SODA 201

Geometric interpretation of Murphy bases and an application

In this article we study the representations of general linear groups which arise from their action on flag spaces. These representations can be decomposed into irreducibles by proving that the associated Hecke algebra is cellular. We give a geometric interpretation of a cellular basis of such Hecke algebras which was introduced by Murphy in the case of finite fields. We apply these results to decompose representations which arise from the space of modules over principal ideal local rings of length two with a finite residue field.Comment: Final version, to appear in JPAA, 14 page

On the unramified principal series of GL(3) over non-archimedean local fields

Let F be a non-archimedean local field and let O be its ring of integers. We give a complete description of the irreducible constituents of the restriction of the unramified principal series representations of GL(3,F) to GL(3,O).Comment: 16 pages, final versio

Linear balls and the multiplicity conjecture

A linear ball is a simplicial complex whose geometric realization is homeomorphic to a ball and whose Stanley--Reisner ring has a linear resolution. It turns out that the Stanley--Reisner ring of the sphere which is the boundary complex of a linear ball satisfies the multiplicity conjecture. A class of shellable spheres arising naturally from commutative algebra whose Stanley--Reisner rings satisfy the multiplicity conjecture will be presented.Comment: 19 Page