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Our goal in this paper is to propose a \textit{combinatorial algorithm} that beats the only such algorithm known previously, the greedy one. We study the polynomial approximation of the Maximum Vertex Cover Problem in bipartite graphs by a purely combinatorial algorithm and present a computer assisted analysis of it, ...
We consider the hashing of a set $X\subseteq U$ with $|X|=m$ using a simple tabulation hash function $h:U\to [n]=\{0,\dots,n-1\}$ and analyse the number of non-empty bins, that is, the size of $h(X)$. We show that the expected size of $h(X)$ matches that with fully random hashing to within low-order terms.
We consider the Min-$r$-Lin$(Z_m)$ problem: given a system $S$ of length-$r$ linear equations modulo $m$, find $Z \subseteq S$ of minimum cardinality such that $S-Z$ is satisfiable. The problem is NP-hard and UGC-hard to approximate in polynomial time within any constant factor even when $r = m = 2$.
Design and analysis of constant competitive deterministic semi-online algorithms for the multi-processor scheduling problem with small number of identical machines have gained significant research interest in the last two decades. In the semi-online scheduling problem for makespan minimization, we are given a sequence...
Given vectors $v_1,\dots,v_n\in\mathbb{R}^d$ and a matroid $M=([n],I)$, we study the problem of finding a basis $S$ of $M$ such that $\det(\sum_{i \in S}v_i v_i^\top)$ is maximized. This problem appears in a diverse set of areas such as experimental design, fair allocation of goods, network design, and machine learnin...
The dynamic partial sorting problem asks for an algorithm that maintains lists of numbers under the link, cut and change value operations, and queries the sorted sequence of the $k$ least numbers in one of the lists. We first solve the problem in $O(k\log (n))$ time for queries and $O(\log (n))$ time for updates using...
Embeddings of graphs into distributions of trees that preserve distances in expectation are a cornerstone of many optimization algorithms. Unfortunately, online or dynamic algorithms which use these embeddings seem inherently randomized and ill-suited against adaptive adversaries.
We study the decremental All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) problem in undirected edge-weighted graphs. The input to the problem is an $n$-vertex $m$-edge graph $G$ with non-negative edge lengths, that undergoes a sequence of edge deletions.
Graph partition is a key component to achieve workload balance and reduce job completion time in parallel graph processing systems. Among the various partition strategies, edge partition has demonstrated more promising performance in power-law graphs than vertex partition and thereby has been more widely adopted as th...
We use exponential start time clustering to design faster and more work-efficient parallel graph algorithms involving distances. Previous algorithms usually rely on graph decomposition routines with strict restrictions on the diameters of the decomposed pieces.
In this paper we consider multiple constrained resource allocation problems, where the constraints can be specified by formulating activity dependency restrictions or by using game-theoretic models. All the problems are focused on generic resources, with a few exceptions which consider financial resources in particula...
An ortho-polygon visibility representation $\Gamma$ of a $1$-plane graph $G$ (OPVR of $G$) is an embedding preserving drawing that maps each vertex of $G$ to a distinct orthogonal polygon and each edge of $G$ to a vertical or horizontal visibility between its end-vertices. The representation $\Gamma$ has vertex comple...
We describe a $\frac{3}{2}$-approximation algorithm for the Forest Augmentation Problem (\textsf{FAP}), which is a special case of the Weighted 2-Edge-Connected Spanning Subgraph Problem (\textsf{Weighted 2-ECSS}). This significantly improves upon the previous best ratio $1.9973$, and proceeds toward the goal of a $\f...
Given a vertex-weighted connected graph $G = (V, E)$, the maximum weight internal spanning tree (MwIST for short) problem asks for a spanning tree $T$ of $G$ such that the total weight of the internal vertices in $T$ is maximized. The un-weighted variant, denoted as MIST, is NP-hard and APX-hard, and the currently bes...
We give efficient deterministic one-pass streaming algorithms for finding an ellipsoidal approximation of a symmetric convex polytope. The algorithms are near-optimal in that their approximation factors differ from that of the optimal offline solution only by a factor sub-logarithmic in the aspect ratio of the polytop...
In this work, we study the problem of approximating the distance to subsequence-freeness in the sample-based distribution-free model. For a given subsequence (word) $w = w_1 \dots w_k$, a sequence (text) $T = t_1 \dots t_n$ is said to contain $w$ if there exist indices $1 \leq i_1 < \dots < i_k \leq n$ such that...
In a DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service), an attacker gains control of many network users through a virus. Then the controlled users send many requests to a victim, leading to its resources being depleted.
Releasing all pairwise shortest path (APSP) distances between vertices on general graphs under weight Differential Privacy (DP) is known as a challenging task. In the previous attempt of (Sealfon 2016}, by adding Laplace noise to each edge weight or to each output distance, to achieve DP with some fixed budget, with h...
For a partial word $w$ the longest common compatible prefix of two positions $i,j$, denoted $lccp(i,j)$, is the largest $k$ such that $w[i,i+k-1]\uparrow w[j,j+k-1]$, where $\uparrow$ is the compatibility relation of partial words (it is not an equivalence relation). The LCCP problem is to preprocess a partial word in...
The problem Level Planarity asks for a crossing-free drawing of a graph in the plane such that vertices are placed at prescribed y-coordinates (called levels) and such that every edge is realized as a y-monotone curve. In the variant Constrained Level Planarity, each level y is equipped with a partial order <_y on ...
Motivated by tensions between data privacy for individual citizens, and societal priorities such as counterterrorism and the containment of infectious disease, we introduce a computational model that distinguishes between parties for whom privacy is explicitly protected, and those for whom it is not (the targeted subpo...
Prefix-free parsing (PFP) was introduced by Boucher et al. (2019) as a preprocessing step to ease the computation of Burrows-Wheeler Transforms (BWTs) of genomic databases. Given a string $S$, it produces a dictionary $D$ and a parse $P$ of overlapping phrases such that $\mathrm{BWT} (S)$ can be computed from $D$ and ...
Hierarchical structure and repetition are prevalent in graphs originating from nature or engineering. These patterns can be represented by a class of parametric-structure graphs, which are defined by templates that generate structure by way of repeated instantiation.
For $k\geq 3$, a k-rollercoaster is a sequence of numbers whose every maximal contiguous subsequence, that is increasing or decreasing, has length at least $k$; $3$-rollercoasters are called simply rollercoasters. Given a sequence of distinct numbers, we are interested in computing its maximum-length (not necessarily ...
The construction of cut trees (also known as Gomory-Hu trees) for a given graph enables the minimum-cut size of the original graph to be obtained for any pair of vertices. Cut trees are a powerful back-end for graph management and mining, as they support various procedures related to the minimum cut, maximum flow, and...
Histograms, i.e., piece-wise constant approximations, are a popular tool used to represent data distributions. Traditionally, the difference between the histogram and the underlying distribution (i.e., the approximation error) is measured using the $L_p$ norm, which sums the differences between the two functions over ...
We present an efficient fixed-parameter algorithm for #SAT parameterized by the incidence treewidth, i.e., the treewidth of the bipartite graph whose vertices are the variables and clauses of the given CNF formula; a variable and a clause are joined by an edge if and only if the variable occurs in the clause. Our algo...
Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problems (RCPSPs) without preemption are well-known NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. A feasible RCPSP solution consists of a time-ordered schedule of jobs with corresponding execution modes, respecting precedence and resources constraints.
Routing and scheduling problems are fundamental problems in combinatorial optimization, and also have many applications. Most variations of these problems are NP-Hard, so we need to use heuristics to solve these problems on large instances, which are fast and yet come close to the optimal value.
In this paper we introduce the linear clique-width, linear NLC-width, neighbourhood-width, and linear rank-width for directed graphs. We compare these parameters with each other as well as with the previously defined parameters directed path-width and directed cut-width.
In this work, we consider the $k$-Canadian Traveller Problem ($k$-CTP) under the learning-augmented framework proposed by Lykouris & Vassilvitskii. $k$-CTP is a generalization of the shortest path problem, and involves a traveller who knows the entire graph in advance and wishes to find the shortest route from a s...
For any hereditary graph class $F$, we construct optimal adjacency labeling schemes for the classes of subgraphs and induced subgraphs of Cartesian products of graphs in $F$. As a consequence, we show that, if $F$ admits efficient adjacency labels (or, equivalently, small induced-universal graphs) meeting the informat...
We study the problem of maximizing a monotone submodular function subject to a Multiple Knapsack constraint. The input is a set $I$ of items, each has a non-negative weight, and a set of bins of arbitrary capacities.
We consider a class of multivariate recurrences frequently arising in the worst case analysis of Davis-Putnam-style exponential time backtracking algorithms for NP-hard problems. We describe a technique for proving asymptotic upper bounds on these recurrences, by using a suitable weight function to reduce the problem ...
We consider the Bin Packing problem with a partition matroid constraint. The input is a set of items of sizes in $(0,1]$, and a partition matroid over the items.
We present an oblivious walk for point location in 2-dimensional triangulations and a corresponding, strictly monotonically decreasing distance measure.
We suggest a method for holding a dictionary data structure, which maps keys to values, in the spirit of Bloom Filters. The space requirements of the dictionary we suggest are much smaller than those of a hashtable.
In this paper, we present a simple combinatorial algorithm that solves symmetric diagonally dominant (SDD) linear systems in nearly-linear time. It uses very little of the machinery that previously appeared to be necessary for a such an algorithm.
Cloud providers handle substantial number of requests to create and delete virtual machines (VMs) on a daily basis, where the unknown sequence of requests eventually leads to resource fragmentation. To mitigate this issue, periodic consolidation of VMs into fewer number of physical hosts is an important cost-saving pr...
This paper deals with the problem of preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling of pipelines subject to external corrosion defects. The preventive maintenance strategy involves an inspection step at some epoch, together with a repair schedule.
Recently, lattice-reduction-aided detectors have been proposed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to give performance with full diversity like maximum likelihood receiver, and yet with complexity similar to linear receivers. However, these lattice-reduction-aided detectors are based on the traditional L...
In the $k$-connected directed Steiner tree problem ($k$-DST), we are given an $n$-vertex directed graph $G=(V,E)$ with edge costs, a connectivity requirement $k$, a root $r\in V$ and a set of terminals $T\subseteq V$. The goal is to find a minimum-cost subgraph $H\subseteq G$ that has $k$ internally disjoint paths fro...
Assembling genomic sequences from a set of overlapping reads is one of the most fundamental problems in computational biology. Algorithms addressing the assembly problem fall into two broad categories -- based on the data structures which they employ.
In this paper we provide an $\tilde{O}(nd+d^{3})$ time randomized algorithm for solving linear programs with $d$ variables and $n$ constraints with high probability. To obtain this result we provide a robust, primal-dual $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{d})$-iteration interior point method inspired by the methods of Lee and Sidford (...
Tree edit distance is a well-studied measure of dissimilarity between rooted trees with node labels. It can be computed in $O(n^3)$ time [Demaine, Mozes, Rossman, and Weimann, ICALP 2007], and fine-grained hardness results suggest that the weighted version of this problem cannot be solved in truly subcubic time unless...
Most hash tables have an insertion time of $O(1)$, possibly qualified as expected and/or amortised. While insertions into cuckoo hash tables indeed seem to take $O(1)$ expected time in practice, only polylogarithmic guarantees are proven in all but the simplest of practically relevant cases.
We consider the problem of finding the smallest graph that contains two input trees each with at most $n$ vertices preserving their distances. In other words, we look for an isometric-universal graph with the minimum number of vertices for two given trees.
We study the problem of enumerating all rooted directed spanning trees (arborescences) of a directed graph (digraph) $G=(V,E)$ of $n$ vertices. An arborescence $A$ consisting of edges $e_1,\ldots,e_{n-1}$ can be represented as a monomial $e_1\cdot e_2 \cdots e_{n-1}$ in variables $e \in E$.
For a directed graph $G$ with $n$ vertices and a start vertex $u_{\sf start}$, we wish to (approximately) sample an $L$-step random walk over $G$ starting from $u_{\sf start}$ with minimum space using an algorithm that only makes few passes over the edges of the graph. This problem found many applications, for instanc...
The $k$-cut problem asks, given a connected graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, to find a minimum-weight set of edges whose removal splits $G$ into $k$ connected components. We give the first polynomial-time algorithm with approximation factor $2-\epsilon$ (with constant $\epsilon > 0$) for the $k$-cut problem in...
We give a simple polynomial-time algorithm to exactly count the number of Euler Tours (ETs) of any Eulerian generalized series-parallel graph, and show how to adapt this algorithm to exactly sample a random ET of the given generalized series-parallel graph. Note that the class of generalized seriesparallel graphs incl...
We give new algorithms based on Markov chains to sample and approximately count satisfying assignments to $k$-uniform CNF formulas where each variable appears at most $d$ times. For any $k$ and $d$ satisfying $kd<n^{o(1)}$ and $k\ge 20\log k + 20\log d + 60$, the new sampling algorithm runs in close to linear time,...
In the online Steiner tree problem, the input is a set of vertices that appear one-by-one, and we have to maintain a Steiner tree on the current set of vertices. The cost of the tree is the total length of edges in the tree, and we want this cost to be close to the cost of the optimal Steiner tree at all points in tim...
In a wind farm turbines convert wind energy into electrical energy. The generation of each turbine is transmitted, possibly via other turbines, to a substation that is connected to the power grid.
We propose a model for recoverable robust optimization with commitment. Given a combinatorial optimization problem and uncertainty about elements that may fail, we ask for a robust solution that, after the failing elements are revealed, can be augmented in a limited way.
We consider the well-studied cake cutting problem in which the goal is to find an envy-free allocation based on queries from $n$ agents. The problem has received attention in computer science, mathematics, and economics.
We present the first sublinear-time algorithm for a distributed message-passing network sto compute its edge connectivity $\lambda$ exactly in the CONGEST model, as long as there are no parallel edges. Our algorithm takes $\tilde O(n^{1-1/353}D^{1/353}+n^{1-1/706})$ time to compute $\lambda$ and a cut of cardinality $...
We consider the edge-weighted online stochastic matching problem, in which an edge-weighted bipartite graph G=(I\cup J, E) with offline vertices J and online vertex types I is given. The online vertices have types sampled from I with probability proportional to the arrival rates of online vertex types.
In a typical optimization problem, the task is to pick one of a number of options with the lowest cost or the highest value. In practice, these cost/value quantities often come through processes such as measurement or machine learning, which are noisy, with quantifiable noise distributions.
Rank and select are fundamental operations in succinct data structures, that is, data structures whose space consumption approaches the information-theoretic optimal. The performance of these primitives is central to the overall performance of succinct data structures.
We study the growth of a time-ordered rooted tree by probabilistic attachment of new vertices to leaves. We construct a likelihood function of the leaves based on the connectivity of the tree.
We introduce the $st$-cut version the Sparsest-Cut problem, where the goal is to find a cut of minimum sparsity among those separating two distinguished vertices $s,t\in V$. Clearly, this problem is at least as hard as the usual (non-$st$) version.
The leafage of a chordal graph G is the minimum integer l such that G can be realized as an intersection graph of subtrees of a tree with l leaves. We consider structural parameterization by the leafage of classical domination and cut problems on chordal graphs.
Wordle is a single-player word-based game where the objective is to guess the 5-letter word in a maximum of 6 tries. The game was released to the public in October 2021 and has since gained popularity with people competing against each other to maintain daily streaks and guess the word in a minimum number of tries.
Computing shortest paths is one of the most researched topics in algorithm engineering. Currently available algorithms compute shortest paths in mere fractions of a second on continental sized road networks.
Tensor completion is a natural higher-order generalization of matrix completion where the goal is to recover a low-rank tensor from sparse observations of its entries. Existing algorithms are either heuristic without provable guarantees, based on solving large semidefinite programs which are impractical to run, or mak...
In this paper, we study a discrete system of entities residing on a two-dimensional square grid. Each entity is modelled as a node occupying a distinct cell of the grid.
We show variants of spectral sparsification routines can preserve the total spanning tree counts of graphs, which by Kirchhoff's matrix-tree theorem, is equivalent to determinant of a graph Laplacian minor, or equivalently, of any SDDM matrix. Our analyses utilizes this combinatorial connection to bridge between s...
The problem that we consider is the following: given an $n \times n$ array $A$ of positive numbers, find a tiling using at most $p$ rectangles (which means that each array element must be covered by some rectangle and no two rectangles must overlap) that minimizes the maximum weight of any rectangle (the weight of a re...
In this paper we introduce the first efficient external-memory algorithm to compute the bisimilarity equivalence classes of a directed acyclic graph (DAG). DAGs are commonly used to model data in a wide variety of practical applications, ranging from XML documents and data provenance models, to web taxonomies and scie...
In the relay placement problem the input is a set of sensors and a number $r \ge 1$, the communication range of a relay. In the one-tier version of the problem the objective is to place a minimum number of relays so that between every pair of sensors there is a path through sensors and/or relays such that the consecut...
Potential maximal cliques and minimal separators are combinatorial objects which were introduced and studied in the realm of minimal triangulations problems including Minimum Fill-in and Treewidth. We discover unexpected applications of these notions to the field of moderate exponential algorithms.
Bit retrieval is the problem of reconstructing a binary sequence from its periodic autocorrelation, with applications in cryptography and x-ray crystallography. After defining the problem, with and without noise, we describe and compare various algorithms for solving it.
In this paper we present a practical solution with performance guarantees to the problem of dimensionality reduction for very large scale sparse matrices. We show applications of our approach to computing the low rank approximation (reduced SVD) of such matrices.
The Fast Multipole Method (FMM) offers an acceleration for pairwise interaction calculation, known as $N$-body problems, from $\mathcal{O}(N^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(N)$ with $N$ particles. This has brought dramatic increase in the capability of particle simulations in many application areas, such as electrostatics, partic...
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 $\Omega(\log n)$.
In recent years, the expander decomposition method was used to develop many graph algorithms, resulting in major improvements to longstanding complexity barriers. This powerful hammer has led the community to (1) believe that most problems are as easy on worst-case graphs as they are on expanders, and (2) suspect that...
We present the first semi-streaming PTAS for the minimum feedback arc set problem on directed tournaments in a small number of passes. Namely, we obtain a $(1 + \varepsilon)$-approximation in polynomial time $O \left( \text{poly}(n) 2^{\text{poly}(1/\varepsilon)} \right)$, with $p$ passes in $n^{1+1/p} \cdot \text{pol...
In this paper, we introduce a new representation for ordered trees, the weight sequence representation. We then use this to construct new representations for both rooted trees and free trees, namely the canonical weight sequence representation.
An r-pseudoforest is a graph in which each component can be made into a forest by deleting at most r edges, and a d-quasi-forest is a graph in which each component can be made into a forest by deleting at most d vertices. In this paper, we study the parameterized tractability of deleting minimum number of vertices to ...
Hill and Kertz studied the prophet inequality on iid distributions [The Annals of Probability 1982]. They proved a theoretical bound of $1-\frac{1}{e}$ on the approximation factor of their algorithm.
Many datasets exhibit a well-defined structure that can be exploited to design faster search tools, but it is not always clear when such acceleration is possible. Here, we introduce a framework for similarity search based on characterizing a dataset's entropy and fractal dimension.
We study a generalization of the classical median finding problem to batched query case: given an array of unsorted $n$ items and $k$ (not necessarily disjoint) intervals in the array, the goal is to determine the median in {\em each} of the intervals in the array. We give an algorithm that uses $O(n\log n + k\log k \...
We bound the performance guarantees that follow from Turán-like bounds for unweighted and weighted independent sets in bounded-degree graphs. In particular, a randomized approach of Boppana forms a simple 1-round distributed algorithm, as well as a streaming and preemptive online algorithm.
In the tensor completion problem, one seeks to estimate a low-rank tensor based on a random sample of revealed entries. In terms of the required sample size, earlier work revealed a large gap between estimation with unbounded computational resources (using, for instance, tensor nuclear norm minimization) and polynomia...
Sorting, a classical combinatorial process, forms the bedrock of numerous algorithms with varied applications. A related problem involves efficiently finding the corresponding ranks of all the elements - catering to rank queries, data partitioning and allocation, etc.
Complex contagions describe diffusion of behaviors in a social network in settings where spreading requires the influence by two or more neighbors. In a $k$-complex contagion, a cluster of nodes are initially infected, and additional nodes become infected in the next round if they have at least $k$ already infected ne...
Given a graph $G$ cellularly embedded on a surface $\Sigma$ of genus $g$, a cut graph is a subgraph of $G$ such that cutting $\Sigma$ along $G$ yields a topological disk. We provide a fixed parameter tractable approximation scheme for the problem of computing the shortest cut graph, that is, for any $\varepsilon >0...
The paper describes a novel technique that allows to reduce by half the number of delta values that were required to be computed with complexity O(N) in most of the heuristics for the quadratic assignment problem. Using the correlation between the old and new delta values, obtained in this work, a new formula of compl...
In this paper, we consider the $k$-Covering Canadian Traveller Problem ($k$-CCTP), which can be seen as a variant of the Travelling Salesperson Problem. The goal of $k$-CCTP is finding the shortest tour for a traveller to visit a set of locations in a given graph and return to the origin.
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.
We study the problem of interpolating a noisy Fourier-sparse signal in the time duration $[0, T]$ from noisy samples in the same range, where the ground truth signal can be any $k$-Fourier-sparse signal with band-limit $[-F, F]$. Our main result is an efficient Fourier Interpolation algorithm that improves the previou...
The diameter of a graph is one if its most important parameters, being used in many real-word applications. In particular, the diameter dictates how fast information can spread throughout data and communication networks.
The paper presents fault-tolerant (FT) labeling schemes for general graphs, as well as, improved FT routing schemes. For a given $n$-vertex graph $G$ and a bound $f$ on the number of faults, an $f$-FT connectivity labeling scheme is a distributed data structure that assigns each of the graph edges and vertices a short...
The $\ell_2^2$ min-sum $k$-clustering problem is to partition an input set into clusters $C_1,\ldots,C_k$ to minimize $\sum_{i=1}^k\sum_{p,q\in C_i}\|p-q\|_2^2$. Although $\ell_2^2$ min-sum $k$-clustering is NP-hard, it is not known whether it is NP-hard to approximate $\ell_2^2$ min-sum $k$-clustering beyond a certai...
We study the impact of content moderation policies in online communities. In our theoretical model, a platform chooses a content moderation policy and individuals choose whether or not to participate in the community according to the fraction of user content that aligns with their preferences.
Consider the following Stochastic Score Classification Problem. A doctor is assessing a patient's risk of developing a certain disease, and can perform $n$ tests on the patient.
The classical pattern matching paradigm is that of seeking occurrences of one string - the pattern, in another - the text, where both strings are drawn from an alphabet set $\Sigma$. Assuming the text length is $n$ and the pattern length is $m$, this problem can naively be solved in time $O(nm)$.
The tasks of extracting (top-$K$) Frequent Itemsets (FI's) and Association Rules (AR's) are fundamental primitives in data mining and database applications. Exact algorithms for these problems exist and are widely used, but their running time is hindered by the need of scanning the entire dataset, possibly mul...
We study the central All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) problem under the restriction that there are at most $d$ distinct weights on the outgoing edges from every node. For $d=n$ this is the classical (unrestricted) APSP problem that is hypothesized to require cubic time $n^{3-o(1)}$, and at the other extreme, for $d=1$,...