We present a new distance oracle in the fully dynamic setting: given a weighted undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ with $n$ vertices undergoing both edge insertions and deletions, and an arbitrary parameter $ε$ where $ε\in[1/\log^{c} n,1]$ and $c>0$ is a small constant, we can deterministically maintain a data structure with $n^ε$ worst-case update time that, given any pair of vertices $(u,v)$, returns a $2^{{\rm poly}(1/ε)}$-approximate distance between $u$ and $v$ in ${\rm poly}(1/ε)\log\log n$ query time.
Our algorithm significantly advances the state-of-the-art in two aspects, both for fully dynamic algorithms and even decremental algorithms. First, no existing algorithm with worst-case update time guarantees a $o(n)$-approximation while also achieving an $n^{2-Ω(1)}$ update and $n^{o(1)}$ query time, while our algorithm offers a constant $O_ε(1)$-approximation with $n^ε$ update time and $O_ε(\log \log n)$ query time. Second, even if amortized update time is allowed, it is the first deterministic constant-approximation algorithm with $n^{1-Ω(1)}$ update and query time. The best result in this direction is the recent deterministic distance oracle by Chuzhoy and Zhang [STOC 2023] which achieves an approximation of $(\log\log n)^{2^{O(1/ε^{3})}}$ with amortized update time of $n^ε$ and query time of $2^{{\rm poly}(1/ε)}\log n\log\log n$.
We obtain the result by dynamizing tools related to length-constrained expanders [Haeupler-Räcke-Ghaffari, STOC 2022; Haeupler-Hershkowitz-Tan, 2023; Haeupler-Huebotter-Ghaffari, 2022]. Our technique completely bypasses the 40-year-old Even-Shiloach tree, which has remained the most pervasive tool in the area but is inherently amortized.
We present a deterministic dynamic connectivity data structure for undirected graphs with worst case update time $O\left(\sqrt{\frac{n(\log\log n)^2}{\log n}}\right)$ and constant query time. This improves on the previous best deterministic worst case algorithm of Frederickson (STOC 1983) and Eppstein Galil, Italiano, and Nissenzweig (J. ACM 1997), which had update time $O(\sqrt{n})$. All other algorithms for dynamic connectivity are either randomized (Monte Carlo) or have only amortized performance guarantees.
We construct data structures for extremal and pairwise distances in directed graphs in the presence of transient edge failures. Henzinger et al. [ITCS 2017] initiated the study of fault-tolerant (sensitivity) oracles for the diameter and vertex eccentricities. We extend this with a special focus on space efficiency. We present several new data structures, among them the first fault-tolerant eccentricity oracle for dual failures in subcubic space. We further prove lower bounds that show limits to approximation vs. space and diameter vs. space trade-offs for fault-tolerant oracles. They highligh…
We present deterministic algorithms for maintaining a $(3/2 + ε)$ and $(2 + ε)$-approximate maximum matching in a fully dynamic graph with worst-case update times $\hat{O}(\sqrt{n})$ and $\tilde{O}(1)$ respectively. The fastest known deterministic worst-case update time algorithms for achieving approximation ratio $(2 - δ)$ (for any $δ> 0$) and $(2 + ε)$ were both shown by Roghani et al. [2021] with update times $O(n^{3/4})$ and $O_ε(\sqrt{n})$ respectively. We close the gap between worst-case and amortized algorithms for the two approximation ratios as the best deterministic amortized update …
In this paper, we study oracle-efficient algorithms for beyond worst-case analysis of online learning. We focus on two settings. First, the smoothed analysis setting of [RST11,HRS22] where an adversary is constrained to generating samples from distributions whose density is upper bounded by $1/σ$ times the uniform density. Second, the setting of $K$-hint transductive learning, where the learner is given access to $K$ hints per time step that are guaranteed to include the true instance. We give the first known oracle-efficient algorithms for both settings that depend only on the pseudo (or VC) …
We revisit the vertex-failure connectivity oracle problem. This is one of the most basic graph data structure problems under vertex updates, yet its complexity is still not well-understood. We essentially settle the complexity of this problem by showing a new data structure whose space, preprocessing time, update time, and query time are simultaneously optimal up to sub-polynomial factors assuming popular conjectures. Moreover, the data structure is deterministic. More precisely, for any integer $d_{\star}$, the data structure preprocesses a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges in $\hat{O…
We study dynamic planar graphs with $n$ vertices, subject to edge deletion, edge contraction, edge insertion across a face, and the splitting of a vertex in specified corners. We dynamically maintain a combinatorial embedding of such a planar graph, subject to connectivity and $2$-vertex-connectivity (biconnectivity) queries between pairs of vertices. Whenever a query pair is connected and not biconnected, we find the first and last cutvertex separating them. Additionally, we allow local changes to the embedding by flipping the embedding of a subgraph that is connected by at most two vertices …
Given an undirected, unweighted planar graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, we present a truly subquadratic size distance oracle for reporting exact shortest-path distances between any pair of vertices of $G$ in constant time. For any $\varepsilon > 0$, our distance oracle takes up $O(n^{5/3+\varepsilon})$ space and is capable of answering shortest-path distance queries exactly for any pair of vertices of $G$ in worst-case time $O(\log (1/\varepsilon))$. Previously no truly sub-quadratic size distance oracles with constant query time for answering exact all-pairs shortest paths distance queries existe…
In this work we derandomize two central results in graph algorithms, replacement paths and distance sensitivity oracles (DSOs) matching in both cases the running time of the randomized algorithms. For the replacement paths problem, let G = (V,E) be a directed unweighted graph with n vertices and m edges and let P be a shortest path from s to t in G. The {\sl replacement paths} problem is to find for every edge e \in P the shortest path from s to t avoiding e. Roditty and Zwick [ICALP 2005] obtained a randomized algorithm with running time of ~O(m \sqrt{n}). Here we provide the first determinis…
We consider the task of graph exploration. An $n$-node graph has unlabeled nodes, and all ports at any node of degree $d$ are arbitrarily numbered $0,\dots, d-1$. A mobile agent has to visit all nodes and stop. The exploration time is the number of edge traversals. We consider the problem of how much knowledge the agent has to have a priori, in order to explore the graph in a given time, using a deterministic algorithm. This a priori information (advice) is provided to the agent by an oracle, in the form of a binary string, whose length is called the size of advice. We consider two types of or…
This paper gives a new deterministic algorithm for the dynamic Minimum Spanning Forest (MSF) problem in the EREW PRAM model, where the goal is to maintain a MSF of a weighted graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges while supporting edge insertions and deletions. We show that one can solve the dynamic MSF problem using $O(\sqrt n)$ processors and $O(\log n)$ worst-case update time, for a total of $O(\sqrt n \log n)$ work. This improves on the work of Ferragina [IPPS 1995] which costs $O(\log n)$ worst-case update time and $O(n^{2/3} \log{\frac{m}{n}})$ work.
Given a graph with a source vertex $s$, the Single Source Replacement Paths (SSRP) problem is to compute, for every vertex $t$ and edge $e$, the length $d(s,t,e)$ of a shortest path from $s$ to $t$ that avoids $e$. A Single-Source Distance Sensitivity Oracle (Single-Source DSO) is a data structure that answers queries of the form $(t,e)$ by returning the distance $d(s,t,e)$. We show how to deterministically compress the output of the SSRP problem on $n$-vertex, $m$-edge graphs with integer edge weights in the range $[1,M]$ into a Single-Source DSO of size $O(M^{1/2}n^{3/2})$ with query time $\…
In a graph $G$ with a source $s$, we design a distance oracle that can answer the following query: Query$(s,t,e)$ -- find the length of shortest path from a fixed source $s$ to any destination vertex $t$ while avoiding any edge $e$. We design a deterministic algorithm that builds such an oracle in $\tilde{O}(m\sqrt n)$ time. Our oracle uses $\tilde{O}(n\sqrt n)$ space and can answer queries in $\tilde{O}(1)$ time. Our oracle is an improvement of the work of Bilò et al. (ESA 2021) in the preprocessing time, which constructs the first deterministic oracle for this problem in $\tilde{O}(m\sqrt n+…
We consider the problem of maintaining an approximately maximum (fractional) matching and an approximately minimum vertex cover in a dynamic graph. Starting with the seminal paper by Onak and Rubinfeld [STOC 2010], this problem has received significant attention in recent years. There remains, however, a polynomial gap between the best known worst case update time and the best known amortised update time for this problem, even after allowing for randomisation. Specifically, Bernstein and Stein [ICALP 2015, SODA 2016] have the best known worst case update time. They present a deterministic data…
In this paper, we develop deterministic fully dynamic algorithms for computing approximate distances in a graph with worst-case update time guarantees. In particular, we obtain improved dynamic algorithms that, given an unweighted and undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ undergoing edge insertions and deletions, and a parameter $ 0 < ε\leq 1 $, maintain $(1+ε)$-approximations of the $st$-distance between a given pair of nodes $ s $ and $ t $, the distances from a single source to all nodes ("SSSP"), the distances from multiple sources to all nodes ("MSSP"), or the distances between all nodes ("APSP"). O…
Real-world networks are prone to breakdowns. Typically in the underlying graph $G$, besides the insertion or deletion of edges, the set of active vertices changes overtime. A vertex might work actively, or it might fail, and gets isolated temporarily. The active vertices are grouped as a set $S$. $S$ is subjected to updates, i.e., a failed vertex restarts, or an active vertex fails, and gets deleted from $S$. Dynamic subgraph connectivity answers the queries on connectivity between any two active vertices in the subgraph of $G$ induced by $S$. The problem is solved by a dynamic data structure,…
We show how one can use certain deterministic algorithms for higher-value constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) to speed up deterministic local search for 3-SAT. This way, we improve the deterministic worst-case running time for 3-SAT to O(1.439^n).
It is widely assumed that $O(m+\lg σ)$ is the best one can do for finding a pattern of length $m$ in a compacted trie storing strings over an alphabet of size $σ$, if one insists on linear-size data structures and deterministic worst-case running times [Cole et al., ICALP'06]. In this article, we first show that a rather straightforward combination of well-known ideas yields $O(m+\lg\lg σ)$ deterministic worst-case searching time for static tries. Then we move on to dynamic tries, where we achieve a worst-case bound of $O(m+\frac{\lg^{2}\lgσ}{\lg\lg\lgσ})$ per query or update, which should aga…
A Deterministic $0.401$-Approximation for Non-monotone Submodular Maximization under Matroid Constraints
State Key Lab of Processors, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院计算技术研究所处理器重点实验室）；School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学计算机科学与技术学院）
Thorup [FOCS'01, JACM'04] and Klein [SODA'01] independently showed that there exists a $(1+ε)$-approximate distance oracle for planar graphs with $O(n (\log n)ε^{-1})$ space and $O(ε^{-1})$ query time. While the dependency on $n$ is nearly linear, the space-query product of their oracles depend quadratically on $1/ε$. Many follow-up results either improved the space \emph{or} the query time of the oracles while having the same, sometimes worst, dependency on $1/ε$. Kawarabayashi, Sommer, and Thorup [SODA'13] were the first to improve the dependency on $1/ε$ from quadratic to nearly linear (at …
We design the first efficient sensitivity oracles and dynamic algorithms for a variety of parameterized problems. Our main approach is to modify the algebraic coding technique from static parameterized algorithm design, which had not previously been used in a dynamic context. We particularly build off of the `extensor coding' method of Brand, Dell and Husfeldt [STOC'18], employing properties of the exterior algebra over different fields. For the $k$-Path detection problem for directed graphs, it is known that no efficient dynamic algorithm exists (under popular assumptions from fine-grained co…
We show that every labelled planar graph $G$ can be assigned a canonical embedding $ϕ(G)$, such that for any planar $G'$ that differs from $G$ by the insertion or deletion of one edge, the number of local changes to the combinatorial embedding needed to get from $ϕ(G)$ to $ϕ(G')$ is $O(\log n)$. In contrast, there exist embedded graphs where $Ω(n)$ changes are necessary to accommodate one inserted edge. We provide a matching lower bound of $Ω(\log n)$ local changes, and although our upper bound is worst-case, our lower bound hold in the amortized case as well. Our proof is based on BC trees an…
The maximum matching problem in dynamic graphs subject to edge updates (insertions and deletions) has received much attention over the last few years; a multitude of approximation/time tradeoffs were obtained, improving upon the folklore algorithm, which maintains a maximal (and hence $2$-approximate) matching in $O(n)$ worst-case update time in $n$-node graphs. We present the first deterministic algorithm which outperforms the folklore algorithm in terms of {\em both} approximation ratio and worst-case update time. Specifically, we give a $(2-Ω(1))$-approximate algorithm with $O(m^{3/8})=O(n^…
A maximal matching can be maintained in fully dynamic (supporting both addition and deletion of edges) $n$-vertex graphs using a trivial deterministic algorithm with a worst-case update time of O(n). No deterministic algorithm that outperforms the na\"ıve O(n) one was reported up to this date. The only progress in this direction is due to Ivković and Lloyd \cite{IL93}, who in 1993 devised a deterministic algorithm with an \emph{amortized} update time of $O((n+m)^{\sqrt{2}/2})$, where $m$ is the number of edges. In this paper we show the first deterministic fully dynamic algorithm that outperfo…
We give new deterministic bounds for fully-dynamic graph connectivity. Our data structure supports updates (edge insertions/deletions) in $O(\log^2n/\log\log n)$ amortized time and connectivity queries in $O(\log n/\log\log n)$ worst-case time, where $n$ is the number of vertices of the graph. This improves the deterministic data structures of Holm, de Lichtenberg, and Thorup (STOC 1998, J.ACM 2001) and Thorup (STOC 2000) which both have $O(\log^2n)$ amortized update time and $O(\log n/\log\log n)$ worst-case query time. Our model of computation is the same as that of Thorup, i.e., a pointer m…
The gist of many (NP-)hard combinatorial problems is to decide whether a universe of $n$ elements contains a witness consisting of $k$ elements that match some prescribed pattern. For some of these problems there are known advanced algebra-based FPT algorithms which solve the decision problem but do not return the witness. We investigate techniques for turning such a YES/NO-decision oracle into an algorithm for extracting a single witness, with an objective to obtain practical scalability for large values of $n$. By relying on techniques from combinatorial group testing, we demonstrate that a …
Given two matroids $\mathcal{M}_1 = (V, \mathcal{I}_1)$ and $\mathcal{M}_2 = (V, \mathcal{I}_2)$ over an $n$-element integer-weighted ground set $V$, the weighted matroid intersection problem aims to find a common independent set $S^{*} \in \mathcal{I}_1 \cap \mathcal{I}_2$ maximizing the weight of $S^{*}$. In this paper, we present a simple deterministic algorithm for weighted matroid intersection using $\tilde{O}(nr^{3/4}\log{W})$ rank queries, where $r$ is the size of the largest intersection of $\mathcal{M}_1$ and $\mathcal{M}_2$ and $W$ is the maximum weight. This improves upon the best p…
Given a directed weighted graph $G=(V,E)$ undergoing vertex insertions \emph{and} deletions, the All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) problem asks to maintain a data structure that processes updates efficiently and returns after each update the distance matrix to the current version of $G$. In two breakthrough results, Italiano and Demetrescu [STOC '03] presented an algorithm that requires $\tilde{O}(n^2)$ \emph{amortized} update time, and Thorup showed in [STOC '05] that \emph{worst-case} update time $\tilde{O}(n^{2+3/4})$ can be achieved. In this article, we make substantial progress on the probl…
In the online bipartite matching with reassignments problem, an algorithm is initially given only one side of the vertex set of a bipartite graph; the vertices on the other side are revealed to the algorithm one by one, along with its incident edges. The algorithm is required to maintain a matching in the current graph, where the algorithm revises the matching after each vertex arrival by reassigning vertices. Bernstein, Holm, and Rotenberg showed that an online algorithm can maintain a matching of maximum cardinality by performing amortized $O(\log^2 n)$ reassignments per arrival. In this pap…
We present trade-offs in the incremental and fully dynamic settings to maintian a proper coloring. For any fully dynamic $2$-coloring algorithm, the maximum of the update time, number of recolorings, and query time is $Ω(\log n)$. We present a deterministic fully dynamic $2$-coloring algorithm with $O(\log^2 n)$ amortized update time, $O(\log n)$ amortized query time, and one recoloring in the worst case. For any incremental $2$-coloring algorithm which explicitly maintains the color of every vertex after each update, the amortized update time and the amortized number of recolorings is $Ω(\log…
We present two new local differentially private algorithms for frequency estimation. One solves the fundamental frequency oracle problem; the other solves the well-known heavy hitters identification problem. Consistent with prior art, these are randomized algorithms. As a function of failure probability~$β$, the former achieves optimal worst-case estimation error for every~$β$, while the latter is optimal when~$β$ is at least inverse polynomial in~$n$, the number of users. In both algorithms, server running time is~$\tilde{O}(n)$ while user running time is~$\tilde{O}(1)$. Our frequency-oracle …
An orientation of a grid is called unique sink orientation (USO) if each of its nonempty subgrids has a unique sink. Particularly, the original grid itself has a unique global sink. In this work we investigate the problem of how to find the global sink using minimum number of queries to an oracle. There are two different oracle models: the vertex query model where the orientation of all edges incident to the queried vertex are provided, and the edge query model where the orientation of the queried edge is provided. In the 2-dimensional case, we design an optimal linear deterministic algorithm …
We revisit the classic problem of dynamically maintaining shortest paths between all pairs of nodes of a directed weighted graph. The allowed updates are insertions and deletions of nodes and their incident edges. We give worst-case guarantees on the time needed to process a single update (in contrast to related results, the update time is not amortized over a sequence of updates). Our main result is a simple randomized algorithm that for any parameter $c>1$ has a worst-case update time of $O(cn^{2+2/3} \log^{4/3}{n})$ and answers distance queries correctly with probability $1-1/n^c$, against …
In this paper, we present several new results on minimizing a nonsmooth and nonconvex function under a Lipschitz condition. Recent work shows that while the classical notion of Clarke stationarity is computationally intractable up to some sufficiently small constant tolerance, the randomized first-order algorithms find a $(δ, ε)$-Goldstein stationary point with the complexity bound of $\tilde{O}(δ^{-1}ε^{-3})$, which is independent of dimension $d \geq 1$~\citep{Zhang-2020-Complexity, Davis-2022-Gradient, Tian-2022-Finite}. However, the deterministic algorithms have not been fully explored, le…
University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）；Boston University（波士顿大学）；IBM Research（IBM研究院）
We present three new algorithms for constructing differentially private synthetic data---a sanitized version of a sensitive dataset that approximately preserves the answers to a large collection of statistical queries. All three algorithms are \emph{oracle-efficient} in the sense that they are computationally efficient when given access to an optimization oracle. Such an oracle can be implemented using many existing (non-private) optimization tools such as sophisticated integer program solvers. While the accuracy of the synthetic data is contingent on the oracle's optimization performance, the…
A distance oracle is a compact representation of the shortest distance matrix of a graph. It can be queried to approximate shortest paths between any pair of vertices. Any distance oracle that returns paths of worst-case stretch (2k-1) must require space $Ω(n^{1 + 1/k})$ for graphs of n nodes. The hard cases that enforce this lower bound are, however, rather dense graphs with average degree Ω(n^{1/k}). We present distance oracles that, for sparse graphs, substantially break the lower bound barrier at the expense of higher query time. For any 1 \leq α\leq n, our distance oracles can return stre…
We study the problem of designing worst-case to average-case reductions for quantum algorithms. For all linear problems, we provide an explicit and efficient transformation of quantum algorithms that are only correct on a small (even sub-constant) fraction of their inputs into ones that are correct on all inputs. This stands in contrast to the classical setting, where such results are only known for a small number of specific problems or restricted computational models. En route, we obtain a tight $Ω(n^2)$ lower bound on the average-case quantum query complexity of the Matrix-Vector Multiplica…
As one of the emerging algorithms in the field of Artificial Immune Systems (AIS), the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) has been successfully applied to a number of challenging real-world problems. However, one criticism is the lack of a formal definition, which could result in ambiguity for understanding the algorithm. Moreover, previous investigations have mainly focused on its empirical aspects. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a formal definition of the algorithm, as well as to perform runtime analyses to revealits theoretical aspects. In this paper, we define the deterministic version …
Microsoft Research AI（微软研究院AI）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）
We propose a reduction for non-convex optimization that can (1) turn an stationary-point finding algorithm into an local-minimum finding one, and (2) replace the Hessian-vector product computations with only gradient computations. It works both in the stochastic and the deterministic settings, without hurting the algorithm's performance. As applications, our reduction turns Natasha2 into a first-order method without hurting its performance. It also converts SGD, GD, SCSG, and SVRG into algorithms finding approximate local minima, outperforming some best known results.
Much of reinforcement learning theory is built on top of oracles that are computationally hard to implement. Specifically for learning near-optimal policies in Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs), existing algorithms either need to make strong assumptions about the model dynamics (e.g. deterministic transitions) or assume access to an oracle for solving a hard optimistic planning or estimation problem as a subroutine. In this work we develop the first oracle-free learning algorithm for POMDPs under reasonable assumptions. Specifically, we give a quasipolynomial-time end-to-…
We consider robust optimization problems, where the goal is to optimize in the worst case over a class of objective functions. We develop a reduction from robust improper optimization to Bayesian optimization: given an oracle that returns $α$-approximate solutions for distributions over objectives, we compute a distribution over solutions that is $α$-approximate in the worst case. We show that de-randomizing this solution is NP-hard in general, but can be done for a broad class of statistical learning tasks. We apply our results to robust neural network training and submodular optimization. We…
University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学）；University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学）
We develop theory for using heuristics to solve computationally hard problems in differential privacy. Heuristic approaches have enjoyed tremendous success in machine learning, for which performance can be empirically evaluated. However, privacy guarantees cannot be evaluated empirically, and must be proven --- without making heuristic assumptions. We show that learning problems over broad classes of functions can be solved privately and efficiently, assuming the existence of a non-private oracle for solving the same problem. Our first algorithm yields a privacy guarantee that is contingent on…
We prove lower bounds for higher-order methods in smooth non-convex finite-sum optimization. Our contribution is threefold: We first show that a deterministic algorithm cannot profit from the finite-sum structure of the objective, and that simulating a pth-order regularized method on the whole function by constructing exact gradient information is optimal up to constant factors. We further show lower bounds for randomized algorithms and compare them with the best known upper bounds. To address some gaps between the bounds, we propose a new second-order smoothness assumption that can be seen as…
