English

Fixed-Parameter Tractable Submodular Maximization over a Matroid

Data Structures and Algorithms 2025-09-03 v1

Abstract

In this paper, we design fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithms for (non-monotone) submodular maximization subject to a matroid constraint, where the matroid rank rr is treated as a fixed parameter that is independent of the total number of elements nn. We provide two FPT algorithms: one for the offline setting and another for the random-order streaming setting. Our streaming algorithm achieves a 12ε\frac{1}{2}-\varepsilon approximation using O~(rpoly(ε))\widetilde{O}\left(\frac{r}{\textrm{poly}(\varepsilon)}\right) memory, while our offline algorithm obtains a 11eε1-\frac{1}{e}-\varepsilon approximation with n2O~(rpoly(ε))n\cdot 2^{\widetilde{O}\left(\frac{r}{\textrm{poly}(\varepsilon)}\right)} runtime and O~(rpoly(ε))\widetilde{O}\left(\frac{r}{\textrm{poly}(\varepsilon)}\right) memory. Both approximation factors are near-optimal in their respective settings, given existing hardness results. In particular, our offline algorithm demonstrates that--unlike in the polynomial-time regime--there is essentially no separation between monotone and non-monotone submodular maximization under a matroid constraint in the FPT framework.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.01591,
  title  = {Fixed-Parameter Tractable Submodular Maximization over a Matroid},
  author = {Shamisa Nematollahi and Adrian Vladu and Junyao Zhao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.01591},
  year   = {2025}
}