66 research outputs found
Complex Semidefinite Programming and Max-k-Cut
In a second seminal paper on the application of semidefinite
programming to graph partitioning problems, Goemans and Williamson
showed in 2004 how to formulate and round a complex semidefinite program to give what is to date still the best-known approximation guarantee of .836008 for Max-3-Cut. (This approximation ratio was also achieved independently around the same time by De Klerk et
al..) Goemans and Williamson left open the problem of how to apply their techniques to Max-k-Cut for general k. They point out that it does not seem straightforward or even possible to formulate a good quality complex semidefinite program for the general Max-k-Cut problem, which presents a barrier for the further application of their techniques.
We present a simple rounding algorithm for the standard semidefinite
programmming relaxation of Max-k-Cut and show that it is equivalent to the rounding of Goemans and Williamson in the case of Max-3-Cut. This allows us to transfer the elegant analysis of Goemans and Williamson for Max-3-Cut to Max-k-Cut. For k > 3, the resulting approximation ratios are about .01 worse than the best known guarantees. Finally, we present a generalization of our rounding algorithm and conjecture (based on computational observations) that it matches the best-known guarantees of De Klerk et al
The Alternating Stock Size Problem and the Gasoline Puzzle
Given a set S of integers whose sum is zero, consider the problem of finding
a permutation of these integers such that: (i) all prefix sums of the ordering
are nonnegative, and (ii) the maximum value of a prefix sum is minimized.
Kellerer et al. referred to this problem as the "Stock Size Problem" and showed
that it can be approximated to within 3/2. They also showed that an
approximation ratio of 2 can be achieved via several simple algorithms.
We consider a related problem, which we call the "Alternating Stock Size
Problem", where the number of positive and negative integers in the input set S
are equal. The problem is the same as above, but we are additionally required
to alternate the positive and negative numbers in the output ordering. This
problem also has several simple 2-approximations. We show that it can be
approximated to within 1.79.
Then we show that this problem is closely related to an optimization version
of the gasoline puzzle due to Lov\'asz, in which we want to minimize the size
of the gas tank necessary to go around the track. We present a 2-approximation
for this problem, using a natural linear programming relaxation whose feasible
solutions are doubly stochastic matrices. Our novel rounding algorithm is based
on a transformation that yields another doubly stochastic matrix with special
properties, from which we can extract a suitable permutation
Shorter tours and longer detours: Uniform covers and a bit beyond
Motivated by the well known four-thirds conjecture for the traveling salesman
problem (TSP), we study the problem of {\em uniform covers}. A graph
has an -uniform cover for TSP (2EC, respectively) if the everywhere
vector (i.e. ) dominates a convex combination of
incidence vectors of tours (2-edge-connected spanning multigraphs,
respectively). The polyhedral analysis of Christofides' algorithm directly
implies that a 3-edge-connected, cubic graph has a 1-uniform cover for TSP.
Seb\H{o} asked if such graphs have -uniform covers for TSP for
some . Indeed, the four-thirds conjecture implies that such
graphs have 8/9-uniform covers. We show that these graphs have 18/19-uniform
covers for TSP. We also study uniform covers for 2EC and show that the
everywhere 15/17 vector can be efficiently written as a convex combination of
2-edge-connected spanning multigraphs.
For a weighted, 3-edge-connected, cubic graph, our results show that if the
everywhere 2/3 vector is an optimal solution for the subtour linear programming
relaxation, then a tour with weight at most 27/19 times that of an optimal tour
can be found efficiently. Node-weighted, 3-edge-connected, cubic graphs fall
into this category. In this special case, we can apply our tools to obtain an
even better approximation guarantee.
To extend our approach to input graphs that are 2-edge-connected, we present
a procedure to decompose an optimal solution for the subtour relaxation for TSP
into spanning, connected multigraphs that cover each 2-edge cut an even number
of times. Using this decomposition, we obtain a 17/12-approximation algorithm
for minimum weight 2-edge-connected spanning subgraphs on subcubic,
node-weighted graphs
The Alternating Stock Size Problem and the Gasoline Puzzle
International audienc
Towards Improving Christofides Algorithm on Fundamental Classes by Gluing Convex Combinations of Tours
We present a new approach for gluing tours over certain tight, 3-edge cuts.
Gluing over 3-edge cuts has been used in algorithms for finding Hamilton cycles
in special graph classes and in proving bounds for 2-edge-connected subgraph
problem, but not much was known in this direction for gluing connected
multigraphs. We apply this approach to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) in
the case when the objective function of the subtour elimination relaxation is
minimized by a -cyclic point: ,
where the support graph is subcubic and each vertex is incident to at least one
edge with -value 1. Such points are sufficient to resolve TSP in general.
For these points, we construct a convex combination of tours in which we can
reduce the usage of edges with -value 1 from the of
Christofides algorithm to while keeping the
usage of edges with fractional -value the same as Christofides algorithm. A
direct consequence of this result is for the Uniform Cover Problem for TSP: In
the case when the objective function of the subtour elimination relaxation is
minimized by a -uniform point: , we
give a -approximation algorithm for TSP. For such points, this
lands us halfway between the approximation ratios of of
Christofides algorithm and implied by the famous "four-thirds
conjecture"
Coloring Tournaments with Few Colors: Algorithms and Complexity
A k-coloring of a tournament is a partition of its vertices into k acyclic sets. Deciding if a tournament is 2-colorable is NP-hard. A natural problem, akin to that of coloring a 3-colorable graph with few colors, is to color a 2-colorable tournament with few colors. This problem does not seem to have been addressed before, although it is a special case of coloring a 2-colorable 3-uniform hypergraph with few colors, which is a well-studied problem with super-constant lower bounds.
We present an efficient decomposition lemma for tournaments and show that it can be used to design polynomial-time algorithms to color various classes of tournaments with few colors, including an algorithm to color a 2-colorable tournament with ten colors. For the classes of tournaments considered, we complement our upper bounds with strengthened lower bounds, painting a comprehensive picture of the algorithmic and complexity aspects of coloring tournaments
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