Related papers: Faster Treasure Hunt and Better Strongly Universal…
We consider a classic search problem first proposed by S. Gal in which a Searcher randomizes between unit speed paths on a network, aiming to find a hidden point in minimal expected time in the worst case. This can be viewed as a zero-sum…
We study deterministic online algorithms for the problem of chasing sets of cardinality at most $k$ in a metric space, also known as metrical service systems and equivalent to width-$k$ layered graph traversal. We resolve the 30-year-old…
We give a deterministic algorithm for computing a global minimum vertex cut in a vertex-weighted graph $n$ vertices and $m$ edges in $\widehat O(mn)$ time. This breaks the long-standing $\widehat \Omega(n^{4})$-time barrier in dense graphs,…
Representing visual data using compact binary codes is attracting increasing attention as binary codes are used as direct indices into hash table(s) for fast non-exhaustive search. Recent methods show that ranking binary codes using…
We study the classical problem introduced by R. Isaacs and S. Gal of minimizing the time to find a hidden point $H$ on a network $Q$ moving from a known starting point. Rather than adopting the traditional continuous unit speed path…
Creating robots that can perform general-purpose service tasks in a human-populated environment has been a longstanding grand challenge for AI and Robotics research. One particularly valuable skill that is relevant to a wide variety of…
Finding dense subgraphs is a core problem in graph mining with many applications in diverse domains. At the same time many real-world networks vary over time, that is, the dataset can be represented as a sequence of graph snapshots. Hence,…
We generalize the classical cow-path problem [7, 14, 38, 39] into a question that is relevant for collective foraging in animal groups. Specifically, we consider a setting in which k identical (probabilistic) agents, initially placed at…
We study a nonstationary bandit problem where rewards depend on both actions and latent states, the latter governed by unknown linear dynamics. Crucially, the state dynamics also depend on the actions, resulting in tension between…
We present space-efficient parallel strategies for two fundamental combinatorial search problems, namely, backtrack search and branch-and-bound, both involving the visit of an $n$-node tree of height $h$ under the assumption that a node can…
The true online TD({\lambda}) algorithm has recently been proposed (van Seijen and Sutton, 2014) as a universal replacement for the popular TD({\lambda}) algorithm, in temporal-difference learning and reinforcement learning. True online…
The dynamic optimality conjecture, postulating the existence of an $O(1)$-competitive online algorithm for binary search trees (BSTs), is among the most fundamental open problems in dynamic data structures. Despite extensive work and some…
We consider a swarm of $n$ robots in \mathbb{R}^d. The robots are oblivious, disoriented (no common coordinate system/compass), and have limited visibility (observe other robots up to a constant distance). The basic formation task gathering…
In this paper we address the complexity issues of two agreement problems in oblivious robot networks namely gathering and scattering. These abstractions are fundamental coordination problems in cooperative mobile robotics. Moreover, their…
We introduce a discrete-time search game, in which two players compete to find an object first. The object moves according to a time-varying Markov chain on finitely many states. The players know the Markov chain and the initial probability…
Real-world problems are very difficult to optimize. However, many researchers have been solving benchmark problems that have been extensively investigated for the last decades even if they have very few direct applications. The Traveling…
We investigate a discrete search game called the Multiple Caching Game where the searcher's aim is to find all of a set of $d$ treasures hidden in $n$ locations. Allowed queries are sets of locations of size $k$, and the searcher wins if in…
A mobile agent has to find an inert treasure hidden in the plane. Both the agent and the treasure are modeled as points. This is a variant of the task known as treasure hunt. The treasure is at a distance at most $D$ from the initial…
We analyze parallel algorithms in the context of exhaustive search over totally ordered sets. Imagine an infinite list of "boxes", with a "treasure" hidden in one of them, where the boxes' order reflects the importance of finding the…
Suppose a target is hidden in one of the vertices of an edge-weighted graph according to a known probability distribution. The expanding search problem asks for a search sequence of the vertices so as to minimize the expected time for…