Related papers: Approximating Subdense Instances of Covering Probl…
We revisit the optimization from samples (OPS) model, which studies the problem of optimizing objective functions directly from the sample data. Previous results showed that we cannot obtain a constant approximation ratio for the maximum…
We develop a polynomial time 3/2-approximation algorithm to solve the vertex cover problem on a class of graphs satisfying a property called ``active edge hypothesis''. The algorithm also guarantees an optimal solution on specially…
Given a weighted hypergraph $\mathcal{H}(V, \mathcal{E} \subseteq 2^V, w)$, the approximate $k$-cover problem seeks for a size-$k$ subset of $V$ that has the maximum weighted coverage by \emph{sampling only a few hyperedges} in…
Typical performance of approximation algorithms is studied for randomized minimum vertex cover problems. A wide class of random graph ensembles characterized by an arbitrary degree distribution is discussed with some theoretical frameworks.…
In the vertex cover problem, the input is a graph $G$ and an integer $k$, and the goal is to decide whether there is a set of vertices $S$ of size at most $k$ such that every edge of $G$ is incident on at least one vertex in $S$. We study…
We prove new explicit inapproximability results for the Vertex Cover Problem on the Power Law Graphs and some functional generalizations of that class of graphs. Our results depend on special bounded degree amplifier constructions for those…
The problem of minimizing a polynomial over the standard simplex is one of the basic NP-hard nonlinear optimization problems --- it contains the maximum clique problem in graphs as a special case. It is known that the problem allows a…
The classic lower bound of Kuhn, Moscibroda and Wattenhofer [JACM 2016] states that approximate maximum matching and approximate vertex cover (among other problems) in the LOCAL model require $\Omega(\min\{\sqrt{\frac{\log n}{\log\log n}},…
It has long been known, since the classical work of (Arora, Karger, Karpinski, JCSS~99), that \MC\ admits a PTAS on dense graphs, and more generally, \kCSP\ admits a PTAS on "dense" instances with $\Omega(n^k)$ constraints. In this paper we…
We study minimum vertex cover problems on random \alpha-uniform hypergraphs using two different approaches, a replica method in statistical mechanics of random systems and a leaf removal algorithm. It is found that there exists a phase…
We study the approximability of the maximum size independent set (MIS) problem in bounded degree graphs. This is one of the most classic and widely studied NP-hard optimization problems. We focus on the well known minimum degree greedy…
The Euclidean $k$-means problem is a classical problem that has been extensively studied in the theoretical computer science, machine learning and the computational geometry communities. In this problem, we are given a set of $n$ points in…
Given a simple graph $G = (V, E)$ and a constant integer $k \ge 2$, the $k$-path vertex cover problem ({\sc P$k$VC}) asks for a minimum subset $F \subseteq V$ of vertices such that the induced subgraph $G[V - F]$ does not contain any path…
$\newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon}$ We observe that a $(1-\eps)$-approximation algorithm to Independent Set, that works for any induced subgraph of the input graph, can be used, via a polynomial time reduction, to provide a…
We consider the classical Minimum Crossing Number problem: given an $n$-vertex graph $G$, compute a drawing of $G$ in the plane, while minimizing the number of crossings between the images of its edges. This is a fundamental and extensively…
We extend the concept of polynomial time approximation algorithms to apply to problems for hierarchically specified graphs, many of which are PSPACE-complete. Assuming P != PSPACE, the existence or nonexistence of such efficient…
A cycle cover of a graph is a set of cycles such that every vertex is part of exactly one cycle. An L-cycle cover is a cycle cover in which the length of every cycle is in the set L. We investigate how well L-cycle covers of minimum weight…
We establish almost tight upper and lower approximation bounds for the Vertex Cover problem on dense k-partite hypergraphs.
Interdiction problems ask about the worst-case impact of a limited change to an underlying optimization problem. They are a natural way to measure the robustness of a system, or to identify its weakest spots. Interdiction problems have been…
First, we study geometric variants of the standard set cover motivated by assignment of directional antenna and shipping with deadlines, providing the first known polynomial-time exact solutions. Next, we consider the following general…