Related papers: Approximation and Parameterized Complexity of Mini…
In this paper, we develop new tools and connections for exponential time approximation. In this setting, we are given a problem instance and a parameter $\alpha>1$, and the goal is to design an $\alpha$-approximation algorithm with the…
We study the Multiple Cluster Scheduling problem and the Multiple Strip Packing problem. For both problems, there is no algorithm with approximation ratio better than $2$ unless $P = NP$. In this paper, we present an algorithm with…
We study the fundamental problem of finding the best string to represent a given set, in the form of the Closest String problem: Given a set $X \subseteq \Sigma^d$ of $n$ strings, find the string $x^*$ minimizing the radius of the smallest…
Pruhs and Woeginger prove the existence of FPTAS's for a general class of minimization and maximization subset selection problems. Without losing generality from the original framework, we prove how better asymptotic worst-case running…
We study the Euclidean minimum weight perfect matching problem for $n$ points in the plane. It is known that any deterministic approximation algorithm whose approximation ratio depends only on $n$ requires at least $\Omega(n \log n)$ time.…
In this paper we reassess the parameterized complexity and approximability of the well-studied Steiner Forest problem in several graph classes of bounded width. The problem takes an edge-weighted graph and pairs of vertices as input, and…
In the past decade, many parameterized algorithms were developed for packing problems. Our goal is to obtain tradeoffs that improve the running times of these algorithms at the cost of computing approximate solutions. Consider a packing…
For many constraint satisfaction problems, the algorithm which chooses a random assignment achieves the best possible approximation ratio. For instance, a simple random assignment for {\sc Max-E3-Sat} allows 7/8-approximation and for every…
Consider the following social choice problem. Suppose we have a set of $n$ voters and $m$ candidates that lie in a metric space. The goal is to design a mechanism to choose a candidate whose average distance to the voters is as small as…
Some of the most fundamental and well-studied graph parameters are the Diameter (the largest shortest paths distance) and Radius (the smallest distance for which a "center" node can reach all other nodes). The natural and important…
We revisit the classic task of finding the shortest tour of $n$ points in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space, for any fixed constant $d \geq 2$. We determine the optimal dependence on $\varepsilon$ in the running time of an algorithm that…
In this paper we address the problem of electing a committee among a set of $m$ candidates and on the basis of the preferences of a set of $n$ voters. We consider the approval voting method in which each voter can approve as many candidates…
Multidimensional packing problems generalize the classical packing problems such as Bin Packing, Multiprocessor Scheduling by allowing the jobs to be $d$-dimensional vectors. While the approximability of the scalar problems is well…
Given a text $T$ of length $n$ and a pattern $P$ of length $m$, the approximate pattern matching problem asks for computation of a particular \emph{distance} function between $P$ and every $m$-substring of $T$. We consider a…
Explorable heap selection is the problem of selecting the $n$th smallest value in a binary heap. The key values can only be accessed by traversing through the underlying infinite binary tree, and the complexity of the algorithm is measured…
We present a series of almost settled inapproximability results for three fundamental problems. The first in our series is the subexponential-time inapproximability of the maximum independent set problem, a question studied in the area of…
Consider $n$ independent, biased coins, each with a known probability of heads. Presented with an ordering of these coins, flip (i.e., toss) each coin once, in that order, until we have observed both a *head* and a *tail*, or flipped all…
We consider the problem of subset selection for $\ell_{p}$ subspace approximation, i.e., given $n$ points in $d$ dimensions, we need to pick a small, representative subset of the given points such that its span gives $(1+\epsilon)$…
We study the approximability of two related problems on graphs with $n$ nodes and $m$ edges: $n$-Pairs Shortest Paths ($n$-PSP), where the goal is to find a shortest path between $O(n)$ prespecified pairs, and All Node Shortest Cycles…
We study the $d$-dimensional knapsack problem. We are given a set of items, each with a $d$-dimensional cost vector and a profit, along with a $d$-dimensional budget vector. The goal is to select a set of items that do not exceed the budget…