Related papers: Algorithmic barriers from phase transitions

A point $p \in \mathbb{R}^d$ is said to dominate another point $q \in \mathbb{R}^d$ if the coordinate of $p$ is greater than or equal to the coordinate of $q$ in every dimension. A set of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is dominance-free if any…

It is a classical result that a random permutation of $n$ elements has, on average, about $\log n$ cycles. We generalise this fact to all directed $d$-regular graphs on $n$ vertices by showing that, on average, a random cycle-factor of such…

We discuss an analysis of Constraint Satisfaction problems, such as Sphere Packing, K-SAT and Graph Coloring, in terms of an effective energy landscape. Several intriguing geometrical properties of the solution space become in this light…

We consider worst case time bounds for NP-complete problems including 3-SAT, 3-coloring, 3-edge-coloring, and 3-list-coloring. Our algorithms are based on a constraint satisfaction (CSP) formulation of these problems. 3-SAT is equivalent to…

Let N^{+}(k)= 2^{k/2} k^{3/2} f(k) and N^{-}(k)= 2^{k/2} k^{1/2} g(k) where 1=o(f(k)) and g(k)=o(1). We show that the probability of a random 2-coloring of {1,2,...,N^{+}(k)} containing a monochromatic k-term arithmetic progression…

A square coloring of a graph $G$ is a coloring of the square $G^2$ of $G$, that is, a coloring of the vertices of $G$ such that any two vertices that are at distance at most $2$ in $G$ receive different colors. We investigate the complexity…

In this paper we propose a deterministic algorithm for approximately counting the $k$-colourings of sparse random graphs $G(n,d/n)$. In particular, our algorithm computes in polynomial time a $(1\pm n^{-\Omega(1)})$approximation of the…

Let $P_k$ be a path, $C_k$ a cycle on $k$ vertices, and $K_{k,k}$ a complete bipartite graph with $k$ vertices on each side of the bipartition. We prove that (1) for any integers $k, t>0$ and a graph $H$ there are finitely many subgraph…

The distribution of overlaps of solutions of a random CSP is an indicator of the overall geometry of its solution space. For random $k$-SAT, nonrigorous methods from Statistical Physics support the validity of the ``one step replica…

We resolve a long-standing open question, about the existence of a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the average-case \textsc{Decision Tree} problem with uniform probability distribution over the hypotheses. We answer the question…

This paper considers the problem of completing a rating matrix based on sub-sampled matrix entries as well as observed social graphs and hypergraphs. We show that there exists a \emph{sharp threshold} on the sample probability for the task…

The typical complexity of Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs) can be investigated by means of random ensembles of instances. The latter exhibit many threshold phenomena besides their satisfiability phase transition, in particular a…

Let $\Phi = (V, \mathcal{C})$ be a constraint satisfaction problem on variables $v_1,\dots, v_n$ such that each constraint depends on at most $k$ variables and such that each variable assumes values in an alphabet of size at most $[q]$.…

This paper investigates the semi-streaming complexity of \textit{$k$-partial coloring}, a generalization of proper graph coloring. For $k \geq 1$, a $k$-partial coloring requires that each vertex $v$ in an $n$-node graph is assigned a color…

We provide a polynomial-time algorithm for b-Coloring on graphs of constant clique-width. This unifies and extends nearly all previously known polynomial time results on graph classes, and answers open questions posed by Campos and Silva…

Any graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ admits a proper vertex coloring with $\Delta + 1$ colors that can be found via a simple sequential greedy algorithm in linear time and space. But can one find such a coloring via a sublinear algorithm?…

Given a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices, partitioned in k equal parts such that every hyperedge includes one vertex from each part, the k-dimensional matching problem asks whether there is a disjoint collection of the hyperedges which…

We investigate the question whether Subset Sum can be solved by a polynomial-time algorithm with access to a certificate of length poly(k) where k is the maximal number of bits in an input number. In other words, can it be solved using only…

A balanced colouring of a graph is one in which every colour appears the same number of times. Given a fixed graph $H$ on $r$ vertices and a balanced $k$-colouring of the complete graph $K_{nrk}$, Hollom (2025) asked the following question:…

NP-complete problems should be hard on some instances but those may be extremely rare. On generic instances many such problems, especially related to random graphs, have been proven easy. We show the intractability of random instances of a…