Related papers: On the Approximability of Presidential Type Predic…

Manipulation, bribery, and control are well-studied ways of changing the outcome of an election. Many voting rules are, in the general case, computationally resistant to some of these manipulative actions. However when restricted to…

Probabilistically checkable proofs of proximity (PCPP) are proof systems where the verifier is given a 3SAT formula, but has only oracle access to an assignment and a proof. The verifier accepts a satisfying assignment with a valid proof,…

Given $k$ collections of 2SAT clauses on the same set of variables $V$, can we find one assignment that satisfies a large fraction of clauses from each collection? We consider such simultaneous constraint satisfaction problems, and design…

Makespan minimization on unrelated machines is a classic problem in approximation algorithms. No polynomial time $(2-\delta)$-approximation algorithm is known for the problem for constant $\delta> 0$. This is true even for certain special…

Given a fixed arity $k \geq 2$, Min-$k$-CSP on complete instances involves a set of $n$ variables $V$ and one nontrivial constraint for every $k$-subset of variables (so there are $\binom{n}{k}$ constraints). The goal is to find an…

Let $P:\{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}$ be a nontrivial $k$-ary predicate. Consider a random instance of the constraint satisfaction problem $\mathrm{CSP}(P)$ on $n$ variables with $\Delta n$ constraints, each being $P$ applied to $k$ randomly chosen…

We show that for all $\varepsilon>0$, for sufficiently large $q\in\mathbb{N}$ power of $2$, for all $\delta>0$, it is NP-hard to distinguish whether a given $2$-Prover-$1$-Round projection game with alphabet size $q$ has value at least…

We introduce a 2-round stochastic constraint-satisfaction problem, and show that its approximation version is complete for (the promise version of) the complexity class AM. This gives a `PCP characterization' of AM analogous to the PCP…

We present a new distributed model of probabilistically checkable proofs (PCP). A satisfying assignment $x \in \{0,1\}^n$ to a CNF formula $\varphi$ is shared between two parties, where Alice knows $x_1, \dots, x_{n/2}$, Bob knows…

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…

The Promise Constraint Satisfaction Problem (PCSP for short) is a generalization of the well-studied Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). The PCSP has its roots in such classic problems as the Approximate Graph Coloring and the…

Let $\Phi = (V, \mathcal{C})$ be a constraint satisfaction problem on variables $v_1,\dots, v_n$ such that each constraint depends on at most $k$ variables and such that each variable assumes values in an alphabet of size at most $[q]$.…

Consider the Maximum Weight Independent Set problem for rectangles: given a family of weighted axis-parallel rectangles in the plane, find a maximum-weight subset of non-overlapping rectangles. The problem is notoriously hard both in the…

An NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem $\Pi$ is said to have an {\em approximation threshold} if there is some $t$ such that the optimal value of $\Pi$ can be approximated in polynomial time within a ratio of $t$, and it is NP-hard…

We study the efficient approximability of basic graph and logic problems in the literature when instances are specified hierarchically as in \cite{Le89} or are specified by 1-dimensional finite narrow periodic specifications as in…

We prove the #P-hardness of the counting problems associated with various satisfiability, graph and combinatorial problems, when restricted to planar instances. These problems include \begin{romannum} \item[{}] {\sc 3Sat, 1-3Sat, 1-Ex3Sat,…

This thesis explores algorithmic applications and limitations of convex relaxation hierarchies for approximating some discrete and continuous optimization problems. - We show a dichotomy of approximability of constraint satisfaction…

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…

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…

The complexity and approximability of the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) has been actively studied over the last 20 years. A new version of the CSP, the promise CSP (PCSP) has recently been proposed, motivated by open questions about…