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For the classical maximum coverage problem, the greedy algorithm achieves a worst-case $1-1/e$ approximation, which is optimal unless $\text{P} = \text{NP}$. The notion of coverage appears in a wide range of optimization tasks, where…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-04-29 Eric Balkanski , Jason Chatzitheodorou , Flore Sentenac

We study a linear quadratic regulation problem with a constraint where the control input can be nonzero only at a limited number of times. Given that this constraint leads to a combinational optimization problem, we adopt a greedy method to…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-03-26 Shumpei Nishida , Kunihisa Okano

A key problem in emerging complex cyber-physical networks is the design of information and control topologies, including sensor and actuator selection and communication network design. These problems can be posed as combinatorial set…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-11-20 Tyler Summers , Maryam Kamgarpour

The frame algorithm uses a simple recursive formula to approximate an unknown vector from its frame coefficients. This note introduces an adaptive version of the frame algorithm that maximizes the error reduction between steps in terms of…

Functional Analysis · Mathematics 2025-06-24 Brody Dylan Johnson

We consider the problem of maximizing a monotone nondecreasing set function under multiple constraints, where the constraints are also characterized by monotone nondecreasing set functions. We propose two greedy algorithms to solve the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-05-09 Lintao Ye , Zhi-Wei Liu , Ming Chi , Vijay Gupta

We consider the problem of approximating a given element $f$ from a Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$ by means of greedy algorithms and the application of such procedures to the regression problem in statistical learning theory. We improve on the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2009-09-29 Andrew R. Barron , Albert Cohen , Wolfgang Dahmen , Ronald A. DeVore

We consider classes of objective functions of cardinality constrained maximization problems for which the greedy algorithm guarantees a constant approximation. We propose the new class of $\gamma$-$\alpha$-augmentable functions and prove…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2022-10-05 Yann Disser , David Weckbecker

We consider the problem of sparse atomic optimization, where the notion of "sparsity" is generalized to meaning some linear combination of few atoms. The definition of atomic set is very broad; popular examples include the standard basis,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-12-30 Thomas Zhang

We study the problem of maximizing a non-monotone submodular function under multiple knapsack constraints. We propose a simple discrete greedy algorithm to approach this problem, and prove that it yields strong approximation guarantees for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-02-19 Vanja Doskoč , Tobias Friedrich , Andreas Göbel , Frank Neumann , Aneta Neumann , Francesco Quinzan

We present a simple performance bound for the greedy scheme in string optimization problems that obtains strong results. Our approach vastly generalizes the group of previously established greedy curvature bounds by Conforti and…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-05-11 Brandon Van Over , Bowen Li , Edwin K. P. Chong , Ali Pezeshki

We study minimum entropy submodular optimization, a common generalization of the minimum entropy set cover problem, studied earlier by Cardinal et al., and the submodular set cover problem. We give a general bound of the approximation…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2014-02-19 Cosmin Bonchiş , Gabriel Istrate

We study influence maximization on temporal networks. This is a special setting where the influence function is not submodular, and there is no optimality guarantee for solutions achieved via greedy optimization. We perform an exhaustive…

Physics and Society · Physics 2022-09-05 Sirag Erkol , Dario Mazzilli , Filippo Radicchi

Multimodal learning considers learning from multi-modality data, aiming to fuse heterogeneous sources of information. However, it is not always feasible to leverage all available modalities due to memory constraints. Further, training on…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-25 Runxiang Cheng , Gargi Balasubramaniam , Yifei He , Yao-Hung Hubert Tsai , Han Zhao

This letter studies the problem of minimizing increasing set functions, or equivalently, maximizing decreasing set functions, over the base of a matroid. This setting has received great interest, since it generalizes several applied…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-03-02 Orcun Karaca , Daniel Tihanyi , Maryam Kamgarpour

We study the problem of maximizing a continuous DR-submodular function that is not necessarily smooth. We prove that the continuous greedy algorithm achieves an $[(1-1/e)\OPT-\epsilon]$ guarantee when the function is monotone and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-09-29 Duksang Lee , Nam Ho-Nguyen , Dabeen Lee

We prove that no online algorithm (even randomized, against an oblivious adversary) is better than 1/2-competitive for welfare maximization with coverage valuations, unless $NP = RP$. Since the Greedy algorithm is known to be…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2013-01-31 Michael Kapralov , Ian Post , Jan Vondrak

This paper defines weak-$\alpha$-supermodularity for set functions. Many optimization objectives in machine learning and data mining seek to minimize such functions under cardinality constrains. We prove that such problems benefit from a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-02-24 Christos Boutsidis , Edo Liberty , Maxim Sviridenko

In many prediction problems, it is not uncommon that the number of variables used to construct a forecast is of the same order of magnitude as the sample size, if not larger. We then face the problem of constructing a prediction in the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2016-02-08 Alessio Sancetta

We consider a class of discrete optimization problems that aim to maximize a submodular objective function subject to a distributed partition matroid constraint. More precisely, we consider a networked scenario in which multiple agents…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-11-19 Alexander Robey , Arman Adibi , Brent Schlotfeldt , George J. Pappas , Hamed Hassani

This paper studies the problem of maximizing a monotone submodular function under an unknown knapsack constraint. A solution to this problem is a policy that decides which item to pack next based on the past packing history. The robustness…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-10-25 Max Klimm , Martin Knaack