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The widely studied edge modification problems ask how to minimally alter a graph to satisfy certain structural properties. In this paper, we introduce and study a new edge modification problem centered around transforming a given graph into…
We provide algorithms for the minimum 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph problem and the minimum 2-vertex-connected spanning subgraph problem with approximation ratio both $\frac{4}{3}$. Using a common theme, the algorithms and their…
Consider a graph with n nodes and m edges, independent edge weights and lengths, and arbitrary distance demands for node pairs. The spanner problem asks for a minimum-weight subgraph that satisfies these demands via sufficiently short paths…
Given an undirected graph $G$, the Densest $k$-subgraph problem (DkS) asks to compute a set $S \subset V$ of cardinality $\left\lvert S\right\rvert \leq k$ such that the weight of edges inside $S$ is maximized. This is a fundamental NP-hard…
Let $H$ be a fixed undirected graph on $k$ vertices. The $H$-hitting set problem asks for deleting a minimum number of vertices from a given graph $G$ in such a way that the resulting graph has no copies of $H$ as a subgraph. This problem…
We present an $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm with quasi-polynomial running time for computing the maximum weight independent set of polygons out of a given set of polygons in the plane (specifically, the running time is $n^{O(…
Can we efficiently compute optimal solutions to instances of a hard problem from optimal solutions to neighboring (i.e., locally modified) instances? For example, can we efficiently compute an optimal coloring for a graph from optimal…
This paper studies lower bounds for fundamental optimization problems in the CONGEST model. We show that solving problems exactly in this model can be a hard task, by providing $\tilde{\Omega}(n^2)$ lower bounds for cornerstone problems,…
This paper presents a fast and simple new 2-approximation algorithm for minimum weighted vertex cover. The unweighted version of this algorithm is equivalent to a well-known greedy maximal independent set algorithm. We prove that this…
In this paper we construct an approximation algorithm for the Minimum Vertex Cover Problem (Min-VC) with an expected approximation ratio of 2-f(beta) for random Power Law Graphs (PLG) in the (alpha,beta)-model of Aiello et. al., where…
The Euler genus of a graph is a fundamental and well-studied parameter in graph theory and topology. Computing it has been shown to be NP-hard by [Thomassen '89 & '93], and it is known to be fixed-parameter tractable. However, the…
We present the first polynomial-time approximation schemes (PTASes) for the following subset-connectivity problems in edge-weighted graphs of bounded genus: Steiner tree, low-connectivity survivable-network design, and subset TSP. The…
We study the NP-complete Maximum Outerplanar Subgraph problem. The previous best known approximation ratio for this problem is 2/3. We propose a new approximation algorithm which improves the ratio to 7/10.
We consider the classic Set Cover problem in the data stream model. For $n$ elements and $m$ sets ($m\geq n$) we give a $O(1/\delta)$-pass algorithm with a strongly sub-linear $\tilde{O}(mn^{\delta})$ space and logarithmic approximation…
We study the classic NP-Hard problem of finding the maximum $k$-set coverage in the data stream model: given a set system of $m$ sets that are subsets of a universe $\{1,\ldots,n \}$, find the $k$ sets that cover the most number of distinct…
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…
The Sparsest Cut is a fundamental optimization problem that has been extensively studied. For planar inputs the problem is in $P$ and can be solved in $\tilde{O}(n^3)$ time if all vertex weights are $1$. Despite a significant amount of…
We give an asymptotic approximation scheme (APTAS) for the problem of packing a set of circles into a minimum number of unit square bins. To obtain rational solutions, we use augmented bins of height $1+\gamma$, for some arbitrarily small…
We give the first polynomial-time approximation schemes (PTASs) for the following problems: (1) uniform facility location in edge-weighted planar graphs; (2) $k$-median and $k$-means in edge-weighted planar graphs; (3) $k$-means in…
We improve the running time of the general algorithmic technique known as Baker's approach (1994) on H-minor-free graphs from O(n^{f(|H|)}) to O(f(|H|) n^{O(1)}). The numerous applications include e.g. a 2-approximation for coloring and…