A Deterministic Approximation Algorithm for Computing a Permanent of a 0,1 matrix

We construct a deterministic approximation algorithm for computing a permanent of a $0,1$ $n$ by $n$ matrix to within a multiplicative factor $(1+\epsilon)^n$, for arbitrary $\epsilon>0$. When the graph underlying the matrix is a constant degree expander our algorithm runs in polynomial time (PTAS). In the general case the running time of the algorithm is $\exp(O(n^{2\over 3}\log^3n))$. For the class of graphs which are constant degree expanders the first result is an improvement over the best known approximation factor $e^n$ obtained in \cite{LinialSamorodnitskyWigderson}. Our results use a recently developed deterministic approximation algorithm for counting partial matchings of a graph Bayati et al., and Jerrum-Vazirani decomposition method.