Related papers: Maximizing General Set Functions by Submodular Dec…
An instance of the Connected Maximum Cut problem consists of an undirected graph G = (V, E) and the goal is to find a subset of vertices S $\subseteq$ V that maximizes the number of edges in the cut \delta(S) such that the induced graph…
We focus on two central themes in this dissertation. The first one is on decomposing polytopes and polynomials in ways that allow us to perform nonlinear optimization. We start off by explaining important results on decomposing a polytope…
In this paper we study the fundamental problems of maximizing a continuous non-monotone submodular function over the hypercube, both with and without coordinate-wise concavity. This family of optimization problems has several applications…
Optimization of DR-submodular functions has experienced a notable surge in significance in recent times, marking a pivotal development within the domain of non-convex optimization. Motivated by real-world scenarios, some recent works have…
Submodular functions are relevant to machine learning for at least two reasons: (1) some problems may be expressed directly as the optimization of submodular functions and (2) the lovasz extension of submodular functions provides a useful…
A multigraph $G = (V, E)$ is $(k, \ell)$-sparse if every subset $X \subseteq V$ induces at most $\max\{k|X| - \ell, 0\}$ edges. Finding a maximum-size $(k, \ell)$-sparse subgraph is a classical problem in rigidity theory and combinatorial…
In this paper, we study the problem of \textit{constrained} and \textit{stochastic} continuous submodular maximization. Even though the objective function is not concave (nor convex) and is defined in terms of an expectation, we develop a…
Let $(L; \sqcap, \sqcup)$ be a finite lattice and let $n$ be a positive integer. A function $f : L^n \to \mathbb{R}$ is said to be submodular if $f(\tup{a} \sqcap \tup{b}) + f(\tup{a} \sqcup \tup{b}) \leq f(\tup{a}) + f(\tup{b})$ for all…
Submodularity is one of the most important property of combinatorial optimization, and $k$-submodularity is a generalization of submodularity. Maximization of $k$-submodular function is NP-hard, and approximation algorithms are studied. For…
We consider the problem of enumerating optimal solutions for two hypergraph $k$-partitioning problems -- namely, Hypergraph-$k$-Cut and Minmax-Hypergraph-$k$-Partition. The input in hypergraph $k$-partitioning problems is a hypergraph…
Randomization is a fundamental tool used in many theoretical and practical areas of computer science. We study here the role of randomization in the area of submodular function maximization. In this area most algorithms are randomized, and…
Submodular optimization is a special class of combinatorial optimization arising in several machine learning problems, but also in cooperative control of complex systems. In this paper, we consider agents in an asynchronous, unreliable and…
Continuous submodular functions are a category of generally non-convex/non-concave functions with a wide spectrum of applications. The celebrated property of this class of functions - continuous submodularity - enables both exact…
In this work, we present a new algorithm for maximizing a non-monotone submodular function subject to a general constraint. Our algorithm finds an approximate fractional solution for maximizing the multilinear extension of the function over…
Despite there being significant work on developing spectral, and metric embedding based approximation algorithms for hypergraph generalizations of conductance, little is known regarding the approximability of hypergraph partitioning…
We consider the problem of maximizing a nonnegative (possibly non-monotone) submodular set function with or without constraints. Feige et al. [FOCS'07] showed a 2/5-approximation for the unconstrained problem and also proved that no…
Composite function minimization captures a wide spectrum of applications in both computer vision and machine learning. It includes bound constrained optimization, $\ell_1$ norm regularized optimization, and $\ell_0$ norm regularized…
The minimum $s$-$t$ cut problem in graphs is one of the most fundamental problems in combinatorial optimization, and graph cuts underlie algorithms throughout discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science, operations research, and data…
Modular composition is the problem of computing the coefficient vector of the polynomial $f(g(x)) \bmod h(x)$, given as input the coefficient vectors of univariate polynomials $f$, $g$, and $h$ over an underlying field $\mathbb{F}$. While…
Submodular functions have found a wealth of new applications in data science and machine learning models in recent years. This has been coupled with many algorithmic advances in the area of submodular optimization: (SO) $\min/\max~f(S): S…