Erasure-Resilient Sublinear-Time Graph Algorithms

We investigate sublinear-time algorithms that take partially erased graphs represented by adjacency lists as input. Our algorithms make degree and neighbor queries to the input graph and work with a specified fraction of adversarial erasures in adjacency entries. We focus on two computational tasks: testing if a graph is connected or ε-far from connected and estimating the average degree. For testing connectedness, we discover a threshold phenomenon: when the fraction of erasures is less than ε, this property can be tested efficiently (in time independent of the size of the graph); when the fraction of erasures is at least ε, then a number of queries linear in the size of the graph representation is required. Our erasure-resilient algorithm (for the special case with no erasures) is an improvement over the previously known algorithm for connectedness in the standard property testing model and has optimal dependence on the proximity parameter ε. For estimating the average degree, our results provide an “interpolation” between the query complexity for this computational task in the model with no erasures in two different settings: with only degree queries, investigated by Feige (SIAM J. Comput. ‘06), and with degree queries and neighbor queries, investigated by Goldreich and Ron (Random Struct. Algorithms ‘08) and Eden et al. (ICALP ‘17). We conclude with a discussion of our model and open questions raised by our work.

The (Coarse) Fine-Grained Structure of NP-Hard SAT and CSP Problems

We study the fine-grained complexity of NP-complete satisfiability (SAT) problems and constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) in the context of the strong exponential-time hypothesis (SETH) , showing non-trivial lower and upper bounds on the running time. Here, by a non-trivial lower bound for a problem SAT (Γ) (respectively CSP (Γ)) with constraint language Γ, we mean a value c 0 > 1 such that the problem cannot be solved in time O ( c n ) for any c < c 0 unless SETH is false, while a non-trivial upper bound is simply an algorithm for the problem running in time O ( c n ) for some c < 2. Such lower bounds have proven extremely elusive, and except for cases where c 0 =2 effectively no such previous bound was known. We achieve this by employing an algebraic framework, studying constraint languages Γ in terms of their algebraic properties. We uncover a powerful algebraic framework where a mild restriction on the allowed constraints offers a concise algebraic characterization. On the relational side we restrict ourselves to Boolean languages closed under variable negation and partial assignment, called sign-symmetric languages. On the algebraic side this results in a description via partial operations arising from system of identities, with a close connection to operations resulting in tractable CSPs, such as near unanimity operations and edge operations . Using this connection we construct improved algorithms for several interesting classes of sign-symmetric languages, and prove explicit lower bounds under SETH. Thus, we find the first example of an NP-complete SAT problem with a non-trivial algorithm which also admits a non-trivial lower bound under SETH. This suggests a dichotomy conjecture with a close connection to the CSP dichotomy theorem: an NP-complete SAT problem admits an improved algorithm if and only if it admits a non-trivial partial invariant of the above form.

Sign-rank Can Increase under Intersection

The communication class UPP cc is a communication analog of the Turing Machine complexity class PP . It is characterized by a matrix-analytic complexity measure called sign-rank (also called dimension complexity), and is essentially the most powerful communication class against which we know how to prove lower bounds. For a communication problem f , let f ∧ f denote the function that evaluates f on two disjoint inputs and outputs the AND of the results. We exhibit a communication problem f with UPP cc ( f ) = O (log n ), and UPP cc ( f ∧ f ) = Θ (log 2 n ). This is the first result showing that UPP communication complexity can increase by more than a constant factor under intersection. We view this as a first step toward showing that UPP cc , the class of problems with polylogarithmic-cost UPP communication protocols, is not closed under intersection. Our result shows that the function class consisting of intersections of two majorities on n bits has dimension complexity n Omega Ω(log n ) . This matches an upper bound of (Klivans, O’Donnell, and Servedio, FOCS 2002), who used it to give a quasipolynomial time algorithm for PAC learning intersections of polylogarithmically many majorities. Hence, fundamentally new techniques will be needed to learn this class of functions in polynomial time.

Improved Bounds on Fourier Entropy and Min-entropy

Given a Boolean function f:{ -1,1} ^{n}→ { -1,1, define the Fourier distribution to be the distribution on subsets of [n], where each S ⊆ [n] is sampled with probability f ˆ (S) 2 . The Fourier Entropy-influence (FEI) conjecture of Friedgut and Kalai [28] seeks to relate two fundamental measures associated with the Fourier distribution: does there exist a universal constant C > 0 such that H(f ˆ2 ) ≤ C ⋅ Inf (f), where H (fˆ2) is the Shannon entropy of the Fourier distribution of f and Inf(f) is the total influence of f In this article, we present three new contributions toward the FEI conjecture: (1) Our first contribution shows that H(f ˆ2 ) ≤ 2 ⋅ aUC ⊕ (f), where aUC ⊕ (f) is the average unambiguous parity-certificate complexity of f . This improves upon several bounds shown by Chakraborty et al. [20]. We further improve this bound for unambiguous DNFs. We also discuss how our work makes Mansour's conjecture for DNFs a natural next step toward resolution of the FEI conjecture. (2) We next consider the weaker Fourier Min-entropy-influence (FMEI) conjecture posed by O'Donnell and others [50, 53], which asks if H ∞ fˆ2) ≤ C ⋅ Inf(f), where H ∞ fˆ2) is the min-entropy of the Fourier distribution. We show H ∞ (fˆ2) ≤ 2⋅C min ⊕ (f), where C min ⊕ (f) is the minimum parity-certificate complexity of f . We also show that for all ε≥0, we have H ∞ (fˆ2) ≤2 log⁡(∥f ˆ ∥1,ε/(1−ε)), where ∥f ˆ ∥1,ε is the approximate spectral norm of f . As a corollary, we verify the FMEI conjecture for the class of read- k DNFs (for constant k ). (3) Our third contribution is to better understand implications of the FEI conjecture for the structure of polynomials that 1/3-approximate a Boolean function on the Boolean cube. We pose a conjecture: no flat polynomial (whose non-zero Fourier coefficients have the same magnitude) of degree d and sparsity 2 ω(d) can 1/3-approximate a Boolean function. This conjecture is known to be true assuming FEI, and we prove the conjecture unconditionally (i.e., without assuming the FEI conjecture) for a class of polynomials. We discuss an intriguing connection between our conjecture and the constant for the Bohnenblust-Hille inequality, which has been extensively studied in functional analysis.

Fast Algorithms for General Spin Systems on Bipartite Expanders

A spin system is a framework in which the vertices of a graph are assigned spins from a finite set. The interactions between neighbouring spins give rise to weights, so a spin assignment can also be viewed as a weighted graph homomorphism. The problem of approximating the partition function (the aggregate weight of spin assignments) or of sampling from the resulting probability distribution is typically intractable for general graphs. In this work, we consider arbitrary spin systems on bipartite expander Δ-regular graphs, including the canonical class of bipartite random Δ-regular graphs. We develop fast approximate sampling and counting algorithms for general spin systems whenever the degree and the spectral gap of the graph are sufficiently large. Roughly, this guarantees that the spin system is in the so-called low-temperature regime. Our approach generalises the techniques of Jenssen et al. and Chen et al. by showing that typical configurations on bipartite expanders correspond to “bicliques” of the spin system; then, using suitable polymer models, we show how to sample such configurations and approximate the partition function in Õ( n 2 ) time, where n is the size of the graph.

On the Parameterized Approximability of Contraction to Classes of Chordal Graphs

A graph operation that contracts edges is one of the fundamental operations in the theory of graph minors. Parameterized Complexity of editing to a family of graphs by contracting k edges has recently gained substantial scientific attention, and several new results have been obtained. Some important families of graphs, namely, the subfamilies of chordal graphs, in the context of edge contractions, have proven to be significantly difficult than one might expect. In this article, we study the F -Contraction problem, where F is a subfamily of chordal graphs, in the realm of parameterized approximation. Formally, given a graph G and an integer k , F -Contraction asks whether there exists X ⊆ E(G) such that G/X ∈ F and | X | ≤ k . Here, G/X is the graph obtained from G by contracting edges in X . We obtain the following results for the F - Contraction problem: • Clique Contraction is known to be FPT . However, unless NP⊆ coNP/ poly , it does not admit a polynomial kernel. We show that it admits a polynomial-size approximate kernelization scheme ( PSAKS ). That is, it admits a (1 + ε)-approximate kernel with O ( k f(ε)) vertices for every ε > 0. • Split Contraction is known to be W[1]-Hard . We deconstruct this intractability result in two ways. First, we give a (2+ε)-approximate polynomial kernel for Split Contraction (which also implies a factor (2+ε)- FPT -approximation algorithm for Split Contraction ). Furthermore, we show that, assuming Gap-ETH , there is no (5/4-δ)- FPT -approximation algorithm for Split Contraction . Here, ε, δ > 0 are fixed constants. • Chordal Contraction is known to be W[2]-Hard . We complement this result by observing that the existing W[2]-hardness reduction can be adapted to show that, assuming FPT ≠ W[1] , there is no F(k) - FPT -approximation algorithm for Chordal Contraction . Here, F(k) is an arbitrary function depending on k alone. We say that an algorithm is an h(k) - FPT -approximation algorithm for the F -Contraction problem, if it runs in FPT time, and on any input (G, k) such that there exists X ⊆ E(G) satisfying G/X ∈ F and | X | ≤ k , it outputs an edge set Y of size at most h(k) ċ k for which G/Y is in F .

Algorithms and Lower Bounds for De Morgan Formulas of Low-Communication Leaf Gates

The class FORMULA[s]∘G consists of Boolean functions computable by size- s De Morgan formulas whose leaves are any Boolean functions from a class G. We give lower bounds and (SAT, Learning, and pseudorandom generators ( PRG s )) algorithms for FORMULA[n 1.99 ]∘G, for classes G of functions with low communication complexity . Let R (k) G be the maximum k -party number-on-forehead randomized communication complexity of a function in G. Among other results, we show the following: • The Generalized Inner Product function GIP k n cannot be computed in FORMULA[s]° G on more than 1/2+ε fraction of inputs for s=o(n 2 /k⋅4 k ⋅R (k) (G)⋅log⁡(n/ε)⋅log⁡(1/ε)) 2 ). This significantly extends the lower bounds against bipartite formulas obtained by [62]. As a corollary, we get an average-case lower bound for GIP k n against FORMULA[n 1.99 ]∘PTF k −1 , i.e., sub-quadratic-size De Morgan formulas with degree-k-1) PTF ( polynomial threshold function ) gates at the bottom. Previously, it was open whether a super-linear lower bound holds for AND of PTFs. • There is a PRG of seed length n/2+O(s⋅R (2) (G)⋅log⁡(s/ε)⋅log⁡(1/ε)) that ε-fools FORMULA[s]∘G. For the special case of FORMULA[s]∘LTF, i.e., size- s formulas with LTF ( linear threshold function ) gates at the bottom, we get the better seed length O(n 1/2 ⋅s 1/4 ⋅log⁡(n)⋅log⁡(n/ε)). In particular, this provides the first non-trivial PRG (with seed length o(n)) for intersections of n halfspaces in the regime where ε≤1/n, complementing a recent result of [45]. • There exists a randomized 2 n-t #SAT algorithm for FORMULA[s]∘G, where t=Ω(n\√s⋅log 2 ⁡(s)⋅R (2) (G))/1/2. In particular, this implies a nontrivial #SAT algorithm for FORMULA[n 1.99 ]∘LTF. • The Minimum Circuit Size Problem is not in FORMULA[n 1.99 ]∘XOR; thereby making progress on hardness magnification, in connection with results from [14, 46]. On the algorithmic side, we show that the concept class FORMULA[n 1.99 ]∘XOR can be PAC-learned in time 2 O(n/log n) .

The Complexity of Promise SAT on Non-Boolean Domains

While 3-SAT is NP-hard, 2-SAT is solvable in polynomial time. Austrin et al. [SICOMP’17] proved a result known as “(2+ɛ)-SAT is NP-hard.” They showed that the problem of distinguishing k -CNF formulas that are g -satisfiable (i.e., some assignment satisfies at least g literals in every clause) from those that are not even 1-satisfiable is NP-hard if g/k < 1/2 and is in P otherwise. We study a generalisation of SAT on arbitrary finite domains, with clauses that are disjunctions of unary constraints, and establish analogous behaviour. Thus, we give a dichotomy for a natural fragment of promise constraint satisfaction problems ( PCSPs ) on arbitrary finite domains. The hardness side is proved using the algebraic approach via a new general NP-hardness criterion on polymorphisms, which is based on a gap version of the Layered Label Cover problem. We show that previously used criteria are insufficient—the problem hence gives an interesting benchmark of algebraic techniques for proving hardness of approximation in problems such as PCSPs.

Variants of Homomorphism Polynomials Complete for Algebraic Complexity Classes

We present polynomial families complete for the well-studied algebraic complexity classes VF, VBP, VP, and VNP. The polynomial families are based on the homomorphism polynomials studied in the recent works of Durand et al. (2014) and Mahajan et al. (2018). We consider three different variants of graph homomorphisms, namely injective homomorphisms , directed homomorphisms , and injective directed homomorphisms , and obtain polynomial families complete for VF, VBP, VP, and VNP under each one of these. The polynomial families have the following properties: • The polynomial families complete for VF, VBP, and VP are model independent, i.e., they do not use a particular instance of a formula, algebraic branching programs, or circuit for characterising VF, VBP, or VP, respectively. • All the polynomial families are hard under p -projections.

Multiplicative Parameterization Above a Guarantee

Parameterization above a guarantee is a successful paradigm in Parameterized Complexity. To the best of our knowledge, all fixed-parameter tractable problems in this paradigm share an additive form defined as follows. Given an instance ( I,k ) of some (parameterized) problem π with a guarantee g(I) , decide whether I admits a solution of size at least (or at most) k + g(I) . Here, g(I) is usually a lower bound on the minimum size of a solution. Since its introduction in 1999 for M AX SAT and M AX C UT (with g(I) being half the number of clauses and half the number of edges, respectively, in the input), analysis of parameterization above a guarantee has become a very active and fruitful topic of research. We highlight a multiplicative form of parameterization above (or, rather, times) a guarantee: Given an instance ( I,k ) of some (parameterized) problem π with a guarantee g(I) , decide whether I admits a solution of size at least (or at most) k · g(I) . In particular, we study the Long Cycle problem with a multiplicative parameterization above the girth g(I) of the input graph, which is the most natural guarantee for this problem, and provide a fixed-parameter algorithm. Apart from being of independent interest, this exemplifies how parameterization above a multiplicative guarantee can arise naturally. We also show that, for any fixed constant ε > 0, multiplicative parameterization above g(I) 1+ε of Long Cycle yields para-NP-hardness, thus our parameterization is tight in this sense. We complement our main result with the design (or refutation of the existence) of fixed-parameter algorithms as well as kernelization algorithms for additional problems parameterized multiplicatively above girth.