Our previous paper applied a lopsided version of the Lovász Local Lemma that allows negative dependency graphs to the space of random injections from an $m$-element set to an $n$-element set. Equivalently, the same story can be told about the space of random matchings in $K_{n,m}$. Now we show how the cited version of the Lovász Local Lemma applies to the space of random matchings in $K_{2n}$. We also prove tight upper bounds that asymptotically match the lower bound given by the Lovász Local Lemma. As a consequence, we give new proofs to results on the enumeration of $d$-regular graphs. The tight upper bounds can be modified to the space of matchings in $K_{n,m}$, where they yield as application asymptotic formulas for permutation and Latin rectangle enumeration problems. The strength of the method is shown by a new result: enumeration of graphs by degree sequence or bipartite degree sequence and girth. As another application, we provide a new proof to the classical probabilistic result of Erd\H os that showed the existence of graphs with arbitrary large girth and chromatic number. If the degree sequence satisfies some mild conditions, almost all graphs with this degree sequence and prescribed girth have high chromatic number.
The Lovász Local Lemma is a seminal result in probabilistic combinatorics. It gives a sufficient condition on a probability space and a collection of events for the existence of an outcome that simultaneously avoids all of those events. Over the years, more general conditions have been discovered under which the conclusion of the lemma continues to hold. In this note we provide short proofs of two of those more general results: Shearer's lemma and the cluster expansion lemma, in their "lopsided" form. We conclude by using the cluster expansion lemma to prove that the symmetric form of the loca…
An old result by Shearer relates the Lovász Local Lemma with the independent set polynomial on graphs, and consequently, as observed by Scott and Sokal, with the partition function of the hard core lattice gas on graphs. We use this connection and a recent result on the analyticity of the logarithm of the partition function of the abstract polymer gas to get an improved version of the Lovász Local Lemma. As applications we obtain tighter bounds on conditions for the existence of latin transversal matrices and the satisfiability of k-SAT forms.
We provide an alternative constructive proof of the Asymmetric Lovász Local Lemma. Our proof uses the classic algorithmic framework of Moser and the analysis introduced by Giotis, Kirousis, Psaromiligkos, and Thilikos in "On the algorithmic Lovász Local Lemma and acyclic edge coloring", combined with the work of Bender and Richmond on the multivariable Lagrange Inversion formula.
Covering arrays find important application in software and hardware interaction testing. For practical applications it is useful to determine or bound the minimum number of rows, CAN$(t,k,v)$, in a covering array for given values of the parameters $t,k$ and $v$. Asymptotic upper bounds for CAN$(t,k,v)$ have earlier been established using the Stein-Lovász-Johnson strategy and the Lovász local lemma. A series of improvements on these bounds is developed in this paper. First an estimate for the discrete Stein-Lovász-Johnson bound is derived. Then using alteration, the Stein-Lovász-Johnson bound i…
We illustrate the use of probability theory in existential proofs, focusing on the Lovász Local Lemma. This result gives a lower bound for the probability of avoiding a suitable finite collection of events. We describe some applications of this result in hypergraph packing and Latin transversals.
Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$ with vertex set $V(G)$. A subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ is an $(a,b)$-dominating set if every vertex $v\in S$ is adjacent to at least $a$ vertices in $S$ and every $v\in V\setminus S$ is adjacent to at least $b$ vertices in $S$. The minimum cardinality of an $(a,b)$-dominating set of $G$ is the $(a,b)$-domination number of $G$, denoted by $γ_{a,b}(G)$. There are various results about upper bounds for $γ_{a,b}(G)$ when $G$ is regular or $a$ and $b$ are small numbers. In the first part of this paper, for a given graph $G$ with the minimum degree of $\max\{a,b…
The Lovasz Local Lemma is a seminal result in probabilistic combinatorics. It gives a sufficient condition on a probability space and a collection of events for the existence of an outcome that simultaneously avoids all of those events. Finding such an outcome by an efficient algorithm has been an active research topic for decades. Breakthrough work of Moser and Tardos (2009) presented an efficient algorithm for a general setting primarily characterized by a product structure on the probability space. In this work we present an efficient algorithm for a much more general setting. Our main assu…
We propose a new algorithmic framework, called "partial rejection sampling", to draw samples exactly from a product distribution, conditioned on none of a number of bad events occurring. Our framework builds (perhaps surprising) new connections between the variable framework of the Lovász Local Lemma and some classical sampling algorithms such as the "cycle-popping" algorithm for rooted spanning trees. Among other applications, we discover new algorithms to sample satisfying assignments of k-CNF formulas with bounded variable occurrences.
D. Krieger and J. Shallit have proved that every real number greater than 1 is a critical exponent of some sequence. We show how this result can be derived from some general statements about sequences whose subsequences have (almost) maximal Kolmogorov complexity. In this way one can also construct a sequence that has no "approximate" fractional powers with exponent that exceeds a given value.
We give an algorithmic local lemma by establishing a sufficient condition for the uniform random walk on a directed graph to reach a sink quickly. Our work is inspired by Moser's entropic method proof of the Lovász Local Lemma (LLL) for satisfiability and completely bypasses the Probabilistic Method formulation of the LLL. In particular, our method works when the underlying state space is entirely unstructured. Similarly to Moser's argument, the key point is that the inevitability of reaching a sink is established by bounding the entropy of the walk as a function of time.
Covering arrays are generalizations of orthogonal arrays that have been widely studied and are used in software testing. The probabilistic method has been employed to derive upper bounds on the sizes of minimum covering arrays and give asymptotic upper bounds that are logarithmic on the number of columns of the array. This corresponds to test suites with a desired level of coverage of the parameter space where we guarantee the number of test cases is logarithmic on the number of parameters of the system. In this paper, we study variable strength covering arrays, a generalization of covering ar…
We develop tools for analyzing focused stochastic local search algorithms. These are algorithms which search a state space probabilistically by repeatedly selecting a constraint that is violated in the current state and moving to a random nearby state which, hopefully, addresses the violation without introducing many new ones. A large class of such algorithms arise from the algorithmization of the Lovász Local Lemma, a non-constructive tool for proving the existence of satisfying states. Here we give tools that provide a unified analysis of such algorithms and of many more, expressing them as …
We elucidate the close connection between the repulsive lattice gas in equilibrium statistical mechanics and the Lovasz local lemma in probabilistic combinatorics. We show that the conclusion of the Lovasz local lemma holds for dependency graph G and probabilities {p_x} if and only if the independent-set polynomial for G is nonvanishing in the polydisc of radii {p_x}. Furthermore, we show that the usual proof of the Lovasz local lemma -- which provides a sufficient condition for this to occur -- corresponds to a simple inductive argument for the nonvanishing of the independent-set polynomial i…
Gao, Jackson, and Seward (see arXiv:1201.0513) proved that every countably infinite group $Γ$ admits a nonempty free subshift $X \subseteq \{0,1\}^Γ$. Furthermore, a theorem of Seward and Tucker-Drob (see arXiv:1402.4184) implies that every countably infinite group $Γ$ admits a free subshift $X \subseteq \{0,1\}^Γ$ that supports an invariant probability measure. Aubrun, Barbieri, and Thomassé (see arXiv:1507.03369) used the Lovász Local Lemma to give a short alternative proof of the Gao--Jackson--Seward theorem. Recently, Elek (see arXiv:1702.01631) followed another approach involving the Lová…
Moser and Tardos (2010) gave an algorithmic proof of the lopsided Lovász local lemma (LLL) in the variable framework, where each of the undesirable events is assumed to depend on a subset of a collection of independent random variables. For the proof, they define a notion of a lopsided dependency between the events suitable for this framework. In this work, we strengthen this notion, defining a novel directed notion of dependency and prove LLL for the corresponding graph. We show that this graph can be strictly sparser (thus the sufficient condition for LLL weaker) compared with graphs that co…
We give a probabilistic analysis of a Moser-type algorithm for the Lovász Local Lemma (LLL), adjusted to search for acyclic edge colorings of a graph. We thus improve the best known upper bound to acyclic chromatic index, also obtained by analyzing a similar algorithm, but through the entropic method (basically counting argument). Specifically we show that a graph with maximum degree $Δ$ has an acyclic proper edge coloring with at most $\lceil 3.74(Δ-1)\rceil+1 $ colors, whereas, previously, the best bound was $4(Δ-1)$. The main contribution of this work is that it comprises a probabilistic an…
Szemerédi's regularity lemma is a fundamental tool in extremal graph theory, theoretical computer science and combinatorial number theory. Lovász and Szegedy [L. Lovász and B. Szegedy: Szemerédi's Lemma for the analyst, Geometric and Functional Analysis 17 (2007), 252-270] gave a Hilbert space interpretation of the lemma and an interpretation in terms of compact- ness of the space of graph limits. In this paper we prove several compactness results in a Banach space setting, generalising results of Lovász and Szegedy as well as a result of Borgs, Chayes, Cohn and Zhao [C. Borgs, J.T. Chayes, H.…
We prove game-theoretic versions of several classical results on nonrepetitive sequences, showing the existence of winning strategies using an extension of the Lovász Local Lemma which can dramatically reduce the number of edges needed in a dependency graph when there is an ordering underlying the significant dependencies of events. This appears to represent the first successful application of a Local Lemma to games.
We prove a general lemma about partitioning the vertex set of a graph into subgraphs of bounded degree. This lemma extends a sequence of results of Lovász, Catlin, Kostochka and Rabern.
In the framework of the probabilistic method in combinatorics, we revisit the entropy compression method clarifying the setting in which it can be applied and providing a theorem yielding a general constructive criterion. We finally elucidate, through topical examples, the effectiveness of the entropy-compression criterion in comparison with the Lovasz Local Lemma criterion and, in particular, with the improved criterion based on cluster expansion.
We reveal a connection between the incompressibility method and the Lovasz local lemma in the context of Ramsey theory. We obtain bounds by repeatedly encoding objects of interest and thereby compressing strings. The method is demonstrated on the example of van der Waerden numbers. It applies to lower bounds of Ramsey numbers, large transitive subtournaments and other Ramsey phenomena as well.
We present new lower bounds for the size of perfect and separating hash families ensuring their existence. Such new bounds are based on the algorithmic Cluster expansion improved version of the Lovász Local Lemma, which also implies that the Moser-Tardos algorithm finds such hash families in polynomial time.
The Lovász conjecture holds for moderately dense Cayley graphs
University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford（牛津大学数学研究所）；New College, University of Oxford（牛津大学新学院）；Department of Mathematical Engineering and Center for Mathematical Modeling (CNRS IRL2807), University of Chile（智利大学数学工程系与数学建模中心）
Following the groundbreaking algorithm of Moser and Tardos for the Lovasz Local Lemma (LLL), there has been a plethora of results analyzing local search algorithms for various constraint satisfaction problems. The algorithms considered fall into two broad categories: resampling algorithms, analyzed via different algorithmic LLL conditions; and backtracking algorithms, analyzed via entropy compression arguments. This paper introduces a new convergence condition that seamlessly handles resampling, backtracking, and hybrid algorithms, i.e., algorithms that perform both resampling and backtracking…
The Lovász Local Lemma is a powerful probabilistic technique for proving the existence of combinatorial objects. It is especially useful for colouring graphs and hypergraphs with bounded maximum degree. This paper presents a general theorem for colouring hypergraphs that in many instances matches or slightly improves upon the bounds obtained using the Lovász Local Lemma. Moreover, the theorem directly shows that there are exponentially many colourings. The elementary and self-contained proof is inspired by a recent result for nonrepetitive colourings by Rosenfeld [2020]. We apply our general t…
In this paper we investigate the extent to which the Lovász Local Lemma (an important tool in probabilistic combinatorics) can be adapted for the measurable setting. In most applications, the Lovász Local Lemma is used to produce a function $f \colon X \to Y$ with certain properties, where $X$ is some underlying combinatorial structure and $Y$ is a (typically finite) set. Can this function $f$ be chosen to be Borel or $μ$-measurable for some probability Borel measure $μ$ on $X$ (assuming that $X$ is a standard Borel space)? In the positive direction, we prove that if the set of constraints put…
Given a collection of independent events each of which has strictly positive probability, the probability that all of them occur is also strictly positive. The Lovász local lemma (LLL) asserts that this remains true if the events are not too strongly negatively correlated. The formulation of the lemma involves a graph with one vertex per event, with edges indicating potential negative dependence. The word "Local" in LLL reflects that the condition for the negative correlation can be expressed solely in terms of the neighborhood of each vertex. In contrast to this local view, Shearer developed …
This paper is the first from a series of papers that establish a generalization of the basilica decomposition for cardinality minimum joins in grafts. Joins in grafts are also known as $T$-joins in graphs, where $T$ is a given set of vertices, and minimum joins in grafts can be considered as a generalization of perfect matchings in graphs provided in terms of parity. The basilica decomposition is a canonical decomposition applicable to general graphs with perfect matchings, and the general Kotzig-Lovász decomposition is one of the three central concepts that compose this theory. The classical …
We introduce a combinatorial enumeration problem that is solved using generalized Catalan numbers. We also study generalizations of the Cycle Lemma beyond the computation of the generalized Catalan numbers.
A graph $G$ with a perfect matching is called saturated if $G+e$ has more perfect matchings than $G$ for any edge $e$ that is not in $G$. Lovász gave a characterization of the saturated graphs called the cathedral theorem, with some applications to the enumeration problem of perfect matchings, and later Szigeti gave another proof. In this paper, we give a new proof with our preceding works which revealed canonical structures of general graphs with perfect matchings. Here, the cathedral theorem is derived in quite a natural way, providing more refined or generalized properties. Moreover, the ne…
Shearer gave a general theorem characterizing the family $\LLL$ of dependency graphs labeled with probabilities $p_v$ which have the property that for any family of events with a dependency graph from $\LLL$ (whose vertex-labels are upper bounds on the probabilities of the events), there is a positive probability that none of the events from the family occur. We show that, unlike the standard Lovász Local Lemma---which is less powerful than Shearer's condition on every nonempty graph---a recently proved `Lefthanded' version of the Local Lemma is equivalent to Shearer's condition for all chorda…
A tight criterion under which the abstract version Lovász Local Lemma (abstract-LLL) holds was given by Shearer decades ago. However, little is known about that of the variable version LLL (variable-LLL) where events are generated by independent random variables, though this model of events is applicable to almost all applications of LLL. We introduce a necessary and sufficient criterion for variable-LLL, in terms of the probabilities of the events and the event-variable graph specifying the dependency among the events. Based on this new criterion, we obtain boundaries for two families of even…
A recent theorem of Bissacot, et al. proved using results about the cluster expansion in statistical mechanics extends the Lovász Local Lemma by weakening the conditions under which its conclusions holds. In this note, we prove an algorithmic analog of this result, extending Moser and Tardos's recent algorithmic Local Lemma, and providing an alternative proof of the theorem of Bissacot, et al. applicable in the Moser-Tardos algorithmic framework.
Recently, Brandt, Maus and Uitto [PODC'19] showed that, in a restricted setting, the dependency of the complexity of the distributed Lovász Local Lemma (LLL) on the chosen LLL criterion exhibits a sharp threshold phenomenon: They proved that, under the LLL criterion $p2^d < 1$, if each random variable affects at most $3$ events, the deterministic complexity of the LLL in the LOCAL model is $O(d^2 + \log^* n)$. In stark contrast, under the criterion $p2^d \leq 1$, there is a randomized lower bound of $Ω(\log \log n)$ by Brandt et al. [STOC'16] and a deterministic lower bound of $Ω(\log n)$ by C…
We study the problem of sampling an approximately uniformly random satisfying assignment for atomic constraint satisfaction problems i.e. where each constraint is violated by only one assignment to its variables. Let $p$ denote the maximum probability of violation of any constraint and let $Δ$ denote the maximum degree of the line graph of the constraints. Our main result is a nearly-linear (in the number of variables) time algorithm for this problem, which is valid in a Lovász local lemma type regime that is considerably less restrictive compared to previous works. In particular, we provide s…
A folklore result uses the Lovasz local lemma to analyze the discrepancy of hypergraphs with bounded degree and edge size. We generalize this result to the context of real matrices with bounded row and column sums.
Let $Φ= (V, \mathcal{C})$ be a constraint satisfaction problem on variables $v_1,\dots, v_n$ such that each constraint depends on at most $k$ variables and such that each variable assumes values in an alphabet of size at most $[q]$. Suppose that each constraint shares variables with at most $Δ$ constraints and that each constraint is violated with probability at most $p$ (under the product measure on its variables). We show that for $k, q = O(1)$, there is a deterministic, polynomial time algorithm to approximately count the number of satisfying assignments and a randomized, polynomial time al…
This note is purely expository and is in Russian. We show how to prove interesting combinatorial results using the local Lovasz lemma. The note is accessible for students having basic knowledge of combinatorics; the notion of independence is defined and the Lovasz lemma is stated and proved. Our exposition follows `Probabilistic methods' of N. Alon and J. Spencer. The main difference is that we show how the proof could have been invented. The material is presented as a sequence of problems, which is peculiar not only to Zen monasteries but also to advanced mathematical education; most problems…
In deriving their characterization of the perfect matchings polytope, Edmonds, Lovász, and Pulleyblank introduced the so-called {\em Tight Cut Lemma} as the most challenging aspect of their work. The Tight Cut Lemma in fact claims {\em bricks} as the fundamental building blocks that constitute a graph in studying the matching polytope and can be referred to as a key result in this field. Even though the Tight Cut Lemma is a matching \textup{(}$1$-matching\textup{)} theoretic statement that consists of purely graph theoretic concepts, the known proofs either employ a linear programming argument…
Recently, Glasner, Tsankov, Weiss, and Zucker showed that if $Γ$ is an infinite discrete group, then every minimal $Γ$-flow is disjoint from the Bernoulli shift $2^Γ$. Their proof is somewhat involved; in particular, it invokes separate arguments for different classes of groups. In this note, we give a short and self-contained proof of their result using purely combinatorial methods applicable to all groups at once. Our proof relies on the Lovász Local Lemma, an important tool in probabilistic combinatorics that has recently found several applications in the study of dynamical systems.
The Lovász Local Lemma is a very powerful tool in probabilistic combinatorics, that is often used to prove existence of combinatorial objects satisfying certain constraints. Moser and Tardos have shown that the LLL gives more than just pure existence results: there is an effective randomized algorithm that can be used to find a desired object. In order to analyze this algorithm Moser and Tardos developed the so-called entropy compression method. It turned out that one could obtain better combinatorial results by a direct application of the entropy compression method rather than simply appealin…
Gao, Jackson, and Seward proved that every countably infinite group $Γ$ admits a nonempty free subshift $X \subseteq 2^Γ$. Here we strengthen this result by showing that free subshifts can be "large" in various senses. Specifically, we prove that for any $k \geqslant 2$ and $h < \log_2 k$, there exists a free subshift $X \subseteq k^Γ$ of Hausdorff dimension and, if $Γ$ is sofic, entropy at least $h$, answering two questions attributed by Gao, Jackson, and Seward to Juan Souto. Furthermore, we establish a general lower bound on the largest "size" of a free subshift $X'$ contained inside a give…
The weighted spanning tree enumerator of a graph $G$ with weighted edges is the sum of the products of edge weights over all the spanning trees in $G$. In the special case that all of the edge weights equal $1$, the weighted spanning tree enumerator counts the number of spanning trees in $G$. The Weighted Matrix-Tree Theorem asserts that the weighted spanning tree enumerator can be calculated from the determinant of a reduced weighted Laplacian matrix of $G$. That determinant, however, is not always easy to compute. In this paper, we show how two well-known results from linear algebra, the Mat…
We show, for any positive integer k, that there exists a graph in which any equitable partition of its vertices into k parts has at least ck^2/\log^* k pairs of parts which are not ε-regular, where c,ε>0 are absolute constants. This bound is tight up to the constant c and addresses a question of Gowers on the number of irregular pairs in Szemerédi's regularity lemma. In order to gain some control over irregular pairs, another regularity lemma, known as the strong regularity lemma, was developed by Alon, Fischer, Krivelevich, and Szegedy. For this lemma, we prove a lower bound of wowzer-type, w…
