Finding a \emph{single} best solution is the most common objective in combinatorial optimization problems. However, such a single solution may not be applicable to real-world problems as objective functions and constraints are only "approximately" formulated for original real-world problems. To solve this issue, finding \emph{multiple} solutions is a natural direction, and diversity of solutions is an important concept in this context. Unfortunately, finding diverse solutions is much harder than finding a single solution. To cope with difficulty, we investigate the approximability of finding diverse solutions. As a main result, we propose a framework to design approximation algorithms for finding diverse solutions, which yields several outcomes including constant-factor approximation algorithms for finding diverse matchings in graphs and diverse common bases in two matroids and PTASes for finding diverse minimum cuts and interval schedulings.
Given a directed graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with a special vertex $s$, the directed minimum degree spanning tree problem requires computing a incoming spanning tree rooted at $s$ whose maximum tree in-degree is the smallest among all such trees. The problem is known to be NP-hard, since it generalizes the Hamiltonian path problem. The best LP-based polynomial time algorithm can achieve an approximation of $Δ^*+2$ [Bansal et al, 2009], where $Δ^*$ denotes the optimal maximum tree in-degree. As for purely combinatorial algorithms (algorithms that do not use LP), the best approximation is $O(Δ^*+\…
We revisit the minimum dominating set problem on graphs with arboricity bounded by $α$. Bansal and Umboh [BU17] gave an $O(α)$-approximation LP rounding algorithm, which also translates into a near-linear time algorithm using general-purpose approximation results for explicit mixed packing and covering or pure covering LPs [KY14, You14, AZO19, Qua10]. Moreover, [BU17] showed that it is NP-hard to achieve an asymptotic improvement for the approximation factor. On the other hand, the previous two non-LP-based algorithms, by Lenzen and Wattenhofer [LW10], and Jones et al. [JLR+13], achieve an app…
The Max-Cut problem is a fundamental NP-hard problem, which is attracting attention in the field of quantum computation these days. Regarding the approximation algorithm of the Max-Cut problem, algorithms based on semidefinite programming have achieved much better approximation ratios than combinatorial algorithms. Therefore, filling the gap is an interesting topic as combinatorial algorithms also have some merits. In sparse graphs, there is a linear-time combinatorial algorithm with the approximation ratio $\frac{1}{2}+\frac{n-1}{4m}$ [Ngoc and Tuza, Comb. Probab. Comput. 1993], which is know…
Stochastic Combinatorial Optimization via Poisson Approximation
研究了几种随机组合问题，包括期望效用最大化问题、随机背包问题和随机装箱问题。在这些问题中，一个常见的技术挑战是优化一组随机变量之和的某个函数。困难主要是由于和的概率分布是一组分布的卷积，这不是一个容易处理的目标函数。为了解决这个困难，我们引入泊松近似技术。该技术是基于泊松近似定理发现的Le Cam，它使我们能够近似分布的总和的一组随机变量使用复合泊松分布。我们首先研究最近引入的期望效用最大化问题[Li and Despande，FOCS11]。对于单调和Lipschitz效用函数，我们得到一个加性PTAS，如果有一个多维PTAS的多目标版本的问题，严格推广了以前的结果。对于随机装箱问题（在[Kleinberg、Rabani和Tardos，STOC 97]中介绍），我们证明了存在一个多项式时间算法，如果我们放宽每个箱的大小和溢出概率，则该算法最多使用最佳箱数eps。对于随机背包，我们展示了一个1+ eps近似使用eps额外容量，即使每个项目的大小和奖励可能是相关的，并允许取消项目。这概括了以前的工作[Balghat，Goel和Khanna，SODA 11]的情况下没有相关性和取消。我们的算法也更简单。我们还提出了一个因子2+eps近似算法的随机背包取消。目前已知的近似因子为8 [Gupta，Krishnaswamy，Molinaro and Ravi，FOCS11]。
Recent progress on robust clustering led to constant-factor approximations for Robust Matroid Center. After a first combinatorial $7$-approximation that is based on a matroid intersection approach, two tight LP-based $3$-approximations were discovered, both relying on the Ellipsoid Method. In this paper, we show how a carefully designed, yet very simple, greedy selection algorithm gives a $5$-approximation. An important ingredient of our approach is a well-chosen use of Rado matroids. This enables us to capture with a single matroid a relaxed version of the original matroid, which, as we show,…
In this paper, we study the following robust optimization problem. Given an independence system and candidate objective functions, we choose an independent set, and then an adversary chooses one objective function, knowing our choice. Our goal is to find a randomized strategy (i.e., a probability distribution over the independent sets) that maximizes the expected objective value. To solve the problem, we propose two types of schemes for designing approximation algorithms. One scheme is for the case when objective functions are linear. It first finds an approximately optimal aggregated strategy…
A longstanding open problem in Algorithmic Mechanism Design is to design computationally-efficient truthful mechanisms for (approximately) maximizing welfare in combinatorial auctions with submodular bidders. The first such mechanism was obtained by Dobzinski, Nisan, and Schapira [STOC'06] who gave an $O(\log^2{m})$-approximation where $m$ is the number of items. This problem has been studied extensively since, culminating in an $O(\sqrt{\log{m}})$-approximation mechanism by Dobzinski [STOC'16]. We present a computationally-efficient truthful mechanism with approximation ratio that improves up…
We consider the rooted prize-collecting walks (PCW) problem, wherein we seek a collection $C$ of rooted walks having minimum prize-collecting cost, which is the (total cost of walks in $C$) + (total node-reward of nodes not visited by any walk in $C$). This problem arises naturally as the Lagrangian relaxation of both orienteering, where we seek a length-bounded walk of maximum reward, and the $\ell$-stroll problem, where we seek a minimum-length walk covering at least $\ell$ nodes. Our main contribution is to devise a simple, combinatorial algorithm for the PCW problem in directed graphs that…
Nagoya University（名古屋大学）；Kyoto University（京都大学）；National Institute of Informatics（国立信息学研究所）
Finding diverse solutions in combinatorial problems recently has received considerable attention (Baste et al. 2020; Fomin et al. 2020; Hanaka et al. 2021). In this paper we study the following type of problems: given an integer $k$, the problem asks for $k$ solutions such that the sum of pairwise (weighted) Hamming distances between these solutions is maximized. Such solutions are called diverse solutions. We present a polynomial-time algorithm for finding diverse shortest $st$-paths in weighted directed graphs. Moreover, we study the diverse version of other classical combinatorial problems …
We present a computationally-efficient truthful mechanism for combinatorial auctions with subadditive bidders that achieves an $O((\log\!\log{m})^3)$-approximation to the maximum welfare in expectation using $O(n)$ demand queries; here $m$ and $n$ are the number of items and bidders, respectively. This breaks the longstanding logarithmic barrier for the problem dating back to the $O(\log{m}\cdot\log\!\log{m})$-approximation mechanism of Dobzinski from 2007. Along the way, we also improve and considerably simplify the state-of-the-art mechanisms for submodular bidders.
Approximating (Unweighted) Tree Augmentation via Lift-and-Project (Part 0: $1.8+ε$ approximation for (Unweighted) TAP)
本文利用Lasserre（Sum of Squares）系统研究了无权树扩充问题（TAP）。我们证明了（$1.8+ε$）相对于SDP松弛的近似保证，这与ACM TALG（2009）中Even，Feldman，Kortsarz和Nutov的组合近似保证相匹配，其中$ε>0$是常数。我们推广了Even等人的积分解的组合分析，通过Rothvovich（arXiv：1111.5473，2011）和Karlin，Mathieu和Nguyen（IPCO 2011）的分解结果，确定了Lasserre系统分数阶解的一些性质。
We consider hypergraphs on vertices $P\cup R$ where each hyperedge contains exactly one vertex in $P$. Our goal is to select a matching that covers all of $P$, but we allow each selected hyperedge to drop all but an $(1/α)$-fraction of its intersection with $R$ (thus relaxing the matching constraint). Here $α$ is to be minimized. We dub this problem the Combinatorial Santa Claus problem, since we show in this paper that this problem and the Santa Claus problem are almost equivalent in terms of their approximability. The non-trivial observation that any uniform regular hypergraph admits a relax…
In this paper a class of robust two-stage combinatorial optimization problems is discussed. It is assumed that the uncertain second stage costs are specified in the form of a convex uncertainty set, in particular polyhedral or ellipsoidal ones. It is shown that the robust two-stage versions of basic network and selection problems are NP-hard, even in a very restrictive cases. Some exact and approximation algorithms for the general problem are constructed. Polynomial and approximation algorithms for the robust two-stage versions of basic problems, such as the selection and shortest path problem…
The Dyck language, which consists of well-balanced sequences of parentheses, is one of the most fundamental context-free languages. The Dyck edit distance quantifies the number of edits (character insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to make a given parenthesis sequence well-balanced. RNA Folding involves a similar problem, where a closing parenthesis can match an opening parenthesis of the same type irrespective of their ordering. For example, in RNA Folding, both $\tt{()}$ and $\tt{)(}$ are valid matches, whereas the Dyck language only allows $\tt{()}$ as a match. Using fast ma…
We introduce fast algorithms for correlation clustering with respect to the Min Max objective that provide constant factor approximations on complete graphs. Our algorithms are the first purely combinatorial approximation algorithms for this problem. We construct a novel semi-metric on the set of vertices, which we call the correlation metric, that indicates to our clustering algorithms whether pairs of nodes should be in the same cluster. The paper demonstrates empirically that, compared to prior work, our algorithms sacrifice little in the objective quality to obtain significantly better run…
Thompson sampling (TS) has attracted a lot of interest in the bandit area. It was introduced in the 1930s but has not been theoretically proven until recent years. All of its analysis in the combinatorial multi-armed bandit (CMAB) setting requires an exact oracle to provide optimal solutions with any input. However, such an oracle is usually not feasible since many combinatorial optimization problems are NP-hard and only approximation oracles are available. An example (Wang and Chen, 2018) has shown the failure of TS to learn with an approximation oracle. However, this oracle is uncommon and i…
The paper deals with a multiobjective combinatorial optimization problem with $K$ linear cost functions. The popular Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) criterion is used to aggregate the cost functions and compute a solution. It is well known that minimizing OWA for most basic combinatorial problems is weakly NP-hard even if the number of objectives $K$ equals two, and strongly NP-hard when $K$ is a part of the input. In this paper, the problem with nonincreasing weights in the OWA criterion and a large $K$ is considered. A method of reducing the number of objectives by appropriately aggregating…
We study the classic problem of scheduling $n$ precedence constrained unit-size jobs on $m = O(1)$ machines so as to minimize the makespan. In a recent breakthrough, Levey and Rothvoss \cite{LR16} developed a $(1+ε)$-approximation for the problem with running time $\exp\Big(\exp\Big(O\big(\frac{m^2}{ε^2}\log^2\log n\big)\Big)\Big)$, via the Sherali-Adams lift of the basic linear programming relaxation for the problem by $\exp\Big(O\big(\frac{m^2}{ε^2}\log^2\log n\big)\Big)$ levels. Garg \cite{Garg18} recently improved the number of levels to $\log ^{O(m^2/ε^2)}n$, and thus the running time to …
Motivated by the need for, and growing interest in, modeling uncertainty in data, we introduce and study {\em stochastic minimum-norm optimization}. We have an underlying combinatorial optimization problem where the costs involved are {\em random variables} with given distributions; each feasible solution induces a random multidimensional cost vector, and given a certain objective function, the goal is to find a solution (that does not depend on the realizations of the costs) that minimizes the expected objective value. For instance, in stochastic load balancing, jobs with random processing ti…
The secretary and the prophet inequality problems are central to the field of Stopping Theory. Recently, there has been a lot of work in generalizing these models to multiple items because of their applications in mechanism design. The most important of these generalizations are to matroids and to combinatorial auctions (extends bipartite matching). Kleinberg-Weinberg \cite{KW-STOC12} and Feldman et al. \cite{feldman2015combinatorial} show that for adversarial arrival order of random variables the optimal prophet inequalities give a $1/2$-approximation. For many settings, however, it's conceiv…
Prophet inequalities compare the expected performance of an online algorithm for a stochastic optimization problem to the expected optimal solution in hindsight. They are a major alternative to classic worst-case competitive analysis, of particular importance in the design and analysis of simple (posted-price) incentive compatible mechanisms with provable approximation guarantees. A central open problem in this area concerns subadditive combinatorial auctions. Here $n$ agents with subadditive valuation functions compete for the assignment of $m$ items. The goal is to find an allocation of the …
This paper proposes a new framework for providing approximation guarantees of local search algorithms. Local search is a basic algorithm design technique and is widely used for various combinatorial optimization problems. To analyze local search algorithms for set function maximization, we propose a new notion called localizability of set functions, which measures how effective local improvement is. Moreover, we provide approximation guarantees of standard local search algorithms under various combinatorial constraints in terms of localizability. The main application of our framework is sparse…
Maximizing Expected Utility for Stochastic Combinatorial Optimization Problems
We study the stochastic versions of a broad class of combinatorial problems where the weights of the elements in the input dataset are uncertain. The class of problems that we study includes shortest paths, minimum weight spanning trees, and minimum weight matchings, and other combinatorial problems like knapsack. We observe that the expected value is inadequate in capturing different types of { \em risk-averse} or { \em risk-prone} behaviors, and instead we consider a more general objective which is to maximize the { \em expected utility} of the solution for some given utility function, rathe…
Correlation clustering is a widely studied framework for clustering based on pairwise similarity and dissimilarity scores, but its best approximation algorithms rely on impractical linear programming relaxations. We present faster approximation algorithms that avoid these relaxations, for two well-studied special cases: cluster editing and cluster deletion. We accomplish this by drawing new connections to edge labeling problems related to the principle of strong triadic closure. This leads to faster and more practical linear programming algorithms, as well as extremely scalable combinatorial t…
