Algorithms for Weighted Independent Transversals and Strong Colouring

An independent transversal (IT) in a graph with a given vertex partition is an independent set consisting of one vertex in each partition class. Several sufficient conditions are known for the existence of an IT in a given graph and vertex partition, which have been used over the years to solve many combinatorial problems. Some of these IT existence theorems have algorithmic proofs, but there remains a gap between the best existential bounds and the bounds obtainable by efficient algorithms. Recently, Graf and Haxell (2018) described a new (deterministic) algorithm that asymptotically closes this gap, but there are limitations on its applicability. In this article, we develop a randomized algorithm that is much more widely applicable, and demonstrate its use by giving efficient algorithms for two problems concerning the strong chromatic number of graphs.

A Simple Algorithm for Optimal Search Trees with Two-way Comparisons

We present a simple O(n 4 ) -time algorithm for computing optimal search trees with two-way comparisons. The only previous solution to this problem, by Anderson et al., has the same running time but is significantly more complicated and is restricted to the variant where only successful queries are allowed. Our algorithm extends directly to solve the standard full variant of the problem, which also allows unsuccessful queries and for which no polynomial-time algorithm was previously known. The correctness proof of our algorithm relies on a new structural theorem for two-way-comparison search trees.

Dynamic Distribution-Sensitive Point Location

We propose a dynamic data structure for the distribution-sensitive point location problem in the plane. Suppose that there is a fixed query distribution within a convex subdivision S , and we are given an oracle that can return in O (1) time the probability of a query point falling into a polygonal region of constant complexity. We can maintain S such that each query is answered in O opt (S) ) expected time, where opt ( S ) is the expected time of the best linear decision tree for answering point location queries in S . The space and construction time are O(n log 2 n ), where n is the number of vertices of S . An update of S as a mixed sequence of k edge insertions and deletions takes O(k log 4 n) amortized time. As a corollary, the randomized incremental construction of the Voronoi diagram of n sites can be performed in O(n log 4 n ) expected time so that, during the incremental construction, a nearest neighbor query at any time can be answered optimally with respect to the intermediate Voronoi diagram at that time.

Sublinear Random Access Generators for Preferential Attachment Graphs

We consider the problem of sampling from a distribution on graphs, specifically when the distribution is defined by an evolving graph model, and consider the time, space, and randomness complexities of such samplers. In the standard approach, the whole graph is chosen randomly according to the randomized evolving process, stored in full, and then queries on the sampled graph are answered by simply accessing the stored graph. This may require prohibitive amounts of time, space, and random bits, especially when only a small number of queries are actually issued. Instead, we propose a setting where one generates parts of the sampled graph on-the-fly, in response to queries, and therefore requires amounts of time, space, and random bits that are a function of the actual number of queries. Yet, the responses to the queries correspond to a graph sampled from the distribution in question. Within this framework, we focus on two random graph models: the Barabási-Albert Preferential Attachment model (BA-graphs) ( Science , 286 (5439):509–512) (for the special case of out-degree 1) and the random recursive tree model ( Theory of Probability and Mathematical Statistics , (51):1–28). We give on-the-fly generation algorithms for both models. With probability 1-1/poly( n ), each and every query is answered in polylog( n ) time, and the increase in space and the number of random bits consumed by any single query are both polylog( n ), where n denotes the number of vertices in the graph. Our work thus proposes a new approach for the access to huge graphs sampled from a given distribution, and our results show that, although the BA random graph model is defined by a sequential process, efficient random access to the graph’s nodes is possible. In addition to the conceptual contribution, efficient on-the-fly generation of random graphs can serve as a tool for the efficient simulation of sublinear algorithms over large BA-graphs, and the efficient estimation of their on such graphs.

Smaller Cuts, Higher Lower Bounds

This article proves strong lower bounds for distributed computing in the congest model, by presenting the bit-gadget : a new technique for constructing graphs with small cuts. The contribution of bit-gadgets is twofold. First, developing careful sparse graph constructions with small cuts extends known techniques to show a near-linear lower bound for computing the diameter, a result previously known only for dense graphs. Moreover, the sparseness of the construction plays a crucial role in applying it to approximations of various distance computation problems, drastically improving over what can be obtained when using dense graphs. Second, small cuts are essential for proving super-linear lower bounds, none of which were known prior to this work. In fact, they allow us to show near-quadratic lower bounds for several problems, such as exact minimum vertex cover or maximum independent set, as well as for coloring a graph with its chromatic number. Such strong lower bounds are not limited to NP-hard problems, as given by two simple graph problems in P, which are shown to require a quadratic and near-quadratic number of rounds. All of the above are optimal up to logarithmic factors. In addition, in this context, the complexity of the all-pairs-shortest-paths problem is discussed. Finally, it is shown that graph constructions for congest lower bounds translate to lower bounds for the semi-streaming model, despite being very different in its nature.

Zip Trees

We introduce the zip tree , 1 a form of randomized binary search tree that integrates previous ideas into one practical, performant, and pleasant-to-implement package. A zip tree is a binary search tree in which each node has a numeric rank and the tree is (max)-heap-ordered with respect to ranks, with rank ties broken in favor of smaller keys. Zip trees are essentially treaps [8], except that ranks are drawn from a geometric distribution instead of a uniform distribution, and we allow rank ties. These changes enable us to use fewer random bits per node. We perform insertions and deletions by unmerging and merging paths ( unzipping and zipping ) rather than by doing rotations, which avoids some pointer changes and improves efficiency. The methods of zipping and unzipping take inspiration from previous top-down approaches to insertion and deletion by Stephenson [10], Martínez and Roura [5], and Sprugnoli [9]. From a theoretical standpoint, this work provides two main results. First, zip trees require only O (log log n ) bits (with high probability) to represent the largest rank in an n -node binary search tree; previous data structures require O (log n ) bits for the largest rank. Second, zip trees are naturally isomorphic to skip lists [7], and simplify Dean and Jones’ mapping between skip lists

Better Distance Preservers and Additive Spanners

We study two popular ways to sketch the shortest path distances of an input graph. The first is distance preservers , which are sparse subgraphs that agree with the distances of the original graph on a given set of demand pairs. Prior work on distance preservers has exploited only a simple structural property of shortest paths, called consistency , stating that one can break shortest path ties such that no two paths intersect, split apart, and then intersect again later. We prove that consistency alone is not enough to understand distance preservers, by showing both a lower bound on the power of consistency and a new general upper bound that polynomially surpasses it. Specifically, our new upper bound is that any p demand pairs in an n -node undirected unweighted graph have a distance preserver on O( n 2/3 p 2/3 + np 1/3 edges. We leave a conjecture that the right bound is O ( n 2/3 p 2/3 + n ) or better. The second part of this paper leverages these distance preservers in a new construction of additive spanners , which are subgraphs that preserve all pairwise distances up to an additive error function. We give improved error bounds for spanners with relatively few edges; for example, we prove that all graphs have spanners on O(n) edges with + O ( n 3/7 + ε ) error. Our construction can be viewed as an extension of the popular path-buying framework to clusters of larger radii.

Approximating Geometric Knapsack via L-packings

We study the two-dimensional geometric knapsack problem, in which we are given a set of n axis-aligned rectangular items, each one with an associated profit, and an axis-aligned square knapsack. The goal is to find a (non-overlapping) packing of a maximum profit subset of items inside the knapsack (without rotating items). The best-known polynomial-time approximation factor for this problem (even just in the cardinality case) is 2+ε [Jansen and Zhang, SODA 2004]. In this article we present a polynomial-time 17/9+ε < 1.89-approximation, which improves to 558/325+ε < 1.72 in the cardinality case. Prior results pack items into a constant number of rectangular containers that are filled via greedy strategies. We deviate from this setting and show that there exists a large profit solution where items are packed into a constant number of containers plus one L-shaped region at the boundary of the knapsack containing narrow-high items and thin-wide items. These items may interact in complex manners at the corner of the L. The best-known approximation ratio for the subproblem in the L-shaped region is 2+ε (via a trivial reduction to one-dimensional knapsack); hence, as a second major result we present a PTAS for this case that we believe might be of broader utility. We also consider the variant with rotations, where items can be rotated by 90 degrees. Again, the best-known polynomial-time approximation factor (even for the cardinality case) is 2+ε [Jansen and Zhang, SODA 2004]. We present a polynomial-time (3/2+ε)-approximation for this setting, which improves to 4/3+ε in the cardinality case.

A Deamortization Approach for Dynamic Spanner and Dynamic Maximal Matching

Many dynamic graph algorithms have an amortized update time, rather than a stronger worst-case guarantee. But amortized data structures are not suitable for real-time systems, where each individual operation has to be executed quickly. For this reason, there exist many recent randomized results that aim to provide a guarantee stronger than amortized expected. The strongest possible guarantee for a randomized algorithm is that it is always correct (Las Vegas) and has high-probability worst-case update time, which gives a bound on the time for each individual operation that holds with high probability. In this article, we present the first polylogarithmic high-probability worst-case time bounds for the dynamic spanner and the dynamic maximal matching problem. (1) For dynamic spanner, the only known o ( n ) worst-case bounds were O ( n 3/4 ) high-probability worst-case update time for maintaining a 3-spanner and O ( n 5/9 ) for maintaining a 5-spanner. We give a O (1) k log 3 ( n ) high-probability worst-case time bound for maintaining a ( 2k-1 )-spanner, which yields the first worst-case polylog update time for all constant k . (All the results above maintain the optimal tradeoff of stretch 2k-1 and Õ( n 1+1/k ) edges.) (2) For dynamic maximal matching, or dynamic 2-approximate maximum matching, no algorithm with o(n) worst-case time bound was known and we present an algorithm with O (log 5 ( n )) high-probability worst-case time; similar worst-case bounds existed only for maintaining a matching that was (2+ϵ)-approximate, and hence not maximal. Our results are achieved using a new approach for converting amortized guarantees to worst-case ones for randomized data structures by going through a third type of guarantee, which is a middle ground between the two above: An algorithm is said to have worst-case expected update time ɑ if for every update σ, the expected time to process σ is at most ɑ. Although stronger than amortized expected, the worst-case expected guarantee does not resolve the fundamental problem of amortization: A worst-case expected update time of O(1) still allows for the possibility that every 1/ f(n) updates requires ϴ ( f(n) ) time to process, for arbitrarily high f(n) . In this article, we present a black-box reduction that converts any data structure with worst-case expected update time into one with a high-probability worst-case update time: The query time remains the same, while the update time increases by a factor of O (log 2(n) ). Thus, we achieve our results in two steps: (1) First, we show how to convert existing dynamic graph algorithms with amortized expected polylogarithmic running times into algorithms with worst-case expected polylogarithmic running times. (2) Then, we use our black-box reduction to achieve the polylogarithmic high-probability worst-case time bound. All our algorithms are Las-Vegas-type algorithms.

Approximation Algorithms for the Bottleneck Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem

We present the first nontrivial approximation algorithm for the bottleneck asymmetric traveling salesman problem . Given an asymmetric metric cost between n vertices, the problem is to find a Hamiltonian cycle that minimizes its bottleneck (or maximum-length edge) cost. We achieve an O (log n / log log n ) approximation performance guarantee by giving a novel algorithmic technique to shortcut Eulerian circuits while bounding the lengths of the shortcuts needed. This allows us to build on a related result of Asadpour, Goemans, Mądry, Oveis Gharan, and Saberi to obtain this guarantee. Furthermore, we show how our technique yields stronger approximation bounds in some cases, such as the bounded orientable genus case studied by Oveis Gharan and Saberi. We also explore the possibility of further improvement upon our main result through a comparison to the symmetric counterpart of the problem.