Related papers: A PTAS for the Classical Ising Spin Glass Problem …
We develop a framework for obtaining polynomial time approximation schemes (PTAS) for a class of stochastic dynamic programs. Using our framework, we obtain the first PTAS for the following stochastic combinatorial optimization problems:…
The local search framework for obtaining PTASs for NP-hard geometric optimization problems was introduced, independently, by Chan and Har-Peled (2009) and Mustafa and Ray (2010). In this paper, we generalize the framework by extending its…
We consider the classic Facility Location problem on planar graphs (non-uniform, uncapacitated). Given an edge-weighted planar graph $G$, a set of clients $C\subseteq V(G)$, a set of facilities $F\subseteq V(G)$, and opening costs…
The $k$-cut problem asks, given a connected graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, to find a minimum-weight set of edges whose removal splits $G$ into $k$ connected components. We give the first polynomial-time algorithm with approximation…
The main results of this paper provide an Efficient Polynomial-Time Approximation Scheme (EPTAS) for approximating the genus (and non-orientable genus) of dense graphs. By dense we mean that $|E(G)|\ge \alpha |V(G)|^2$ for some fixed…
An important objective in scheduling literature is to minimize the sum of weighted flow times. We are given a set of jobs where each job is characterized by a release time, a processing time, and a weight. Our goal is to find a preemptive…
We present an algorithm for the optimization and thermal equilibration of spin glasses - or more generally, cost functions of the Ising form $H=\sum_{\langle i j\rangle} J_{ij} s_i s_j + \sum_i h_i s_i$, defined on graphs with arbitrary…
We study the problem of approximating the Ising model partition function with complex parameters on bounded degree graphs. We establish a deterministic polynomial-time approximation scheme for the partition function when the interactions…
We present a polynomial-time Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for estimating the partition function of the antiferromagnetic Ising model on any line graph. The analysis of the algorithm exploits the "winding" technology devised by…
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…
The theoretical models providing mathematical abstractions for several significant optimization problems in machine learning, combinatorial optimization, computer vision and statistical physics have intrinsic similarities. We propose a…
In the Closest String problem one is given a family $\mathcal S$ of equal-length strings over some fixed alphabet, and the task is to find a string $y$ that minimizes the maximum Hamming distance between $y$ and a string from $\mathcal S$.…
The classical transverse field Ising spin- glass model with short-range interactions is investigated beyond the mean- field approximation for a real d- dimensional lattice. We use an appropriate nontrivial modification of the Bethe- Peierls…
We address the classical knapsack problem and a variant in which an upper bound is imposed on the number of items that can be selected. We show that appropriate combinations of rounding techniques yield novel and powerful ways of rounding.…
We consider the problem of finding a lowest cost dominating set in a given disk graph containing $n$ disks. The problem has been extensively studied on subclasses of disk graphs, yet the best known approximation for disk graphs has remained…
We propose a novel quasi-Newton method for solving the sparse inverse covariance estimation problem also known as the graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (GLASSO). This problem is often solved using a second-order…
Baker devised a technique to obtain approximation schemes for many optimization problems restricted to planar graphs; her technique was later extended to more general graph classes. In particular, using the Baker's technique and the minor…
We design the first polynomial time approximation schemes (PTASs) for the Minimum Betweenness problem in tournaments and some related higher arity ranking problems. This settles the approximation status of the Betweenness problem in…
We initiate a systematic study of approximation schemes for fundamental optimization problems on disk graphs, a common generalization of both planar graphs and unit-disk graphs. Our main contribution is a general framework for designing…
Given a graphical model (GM), computing its partition function is the most essential inference task, but it is computationally intractable in general. To address the issue, iterative approximation algorithms exploring certain local…