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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…
The power dominating set (PDS) problem is the following extension of the well-known dominating set problem: find a smallest-size set of nodes $S$ that power dominates all the nodes, where a node $v$ is power dominated if (1) $v$ is in $S$…
We give algorithms for approximating the partition function of the ferromagnetic $q$-color Potts model on graphs of maximum degree $d$. Our primary contribution is a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme for $d$-regular graphs with an…
We formulate a continuous version of the well known discrete hardcore (or independent set) model on a locally finite graph, parameterized by the so-called activity parameter $\lambda > 0$. In this version, the state or "spin value" $x_u$ of…
The emergence of massive graph data sets requires fast mining algorithms. Centrality measures to identify important vertices belong to the most popular analysis methods in graph mining. A measure that is gaining attention is forest…
The NP-hard Metric Dimension problem is to decide for a given graph G and a positive integer k whether there is a vertex subset of size at most k that separates all vertex pairs in G. Herein, a vertex v separates a pair {u,w} if the…
A vertex set $S$ is a generalized $k$-independent set if the induced subgraph $G[S]$ contains no tree on $k$ vertices. The generalized $k$-independence number $\alpha_k(G)$ is the maximum size of such a set. For a tree $T$ with $n$…
The Metropolis process (MP) and Simulated Annealing (SA) are stochastic local search heuristics that are often used in solving combinatorial optimization problems. Despite significant interest, there are very few theoretical results…
We identify a sufficient condition, treewidth-pliability, that gives a polynomial-time algorithm for an arbitrarily good approximation of the optimal value in a large class of Max-2-CSPs parameterised by the class of allowed constraint…
We present approximation algorithms for maximum independent set of pseudo-disks in the plane, both in the weighted and unweighted cases. For the unweighted case, we prove that a local search algorithm yields a \PTAS. For the weighted case,…
Near ubiquitous mobile computing has led to intense interest in dynamic graph theory. This provides a new and challenging setting for algorithmics and complexity theory. For any graph-based problem, the rapid evolution of a (possibly…
A theorem of Ding, Oporowski, Oxley, and Vertigan implies that any sufficiently large twin-free graph contains a large matching, a co-matching, or a half-graph as a semi-induced subgraph. The sizes of these unavoidable patterns are measured…
We establish tight results for rapid mixing of Gibbs samplers for the Ferromagnetic Ising model on general graphs. We show that if \[(d-1)\tanh\beta<1,\] then there exists a constant C such that the discrete time mixing time of Gibbs…
We give a new, short proof that graphs embeddable in a given Euler genus-$g$ surface admit a simple $f(g)$-round $\alpha$-approximation distributed algorithm for Minimum Dominating Set (MDS), where the approximation ratio $\alpha \le 906$.…
The maximum independent set problem is a classic optimization problem that has also been studied quite intensively in the distributed setting. While the problem is hard to approximate in general, there are good approximation algorithms…
The polymer model framework is a classical tool from statistical mechanics that has recently been used to obtain approximation algorithms for spin systems on classes of bounded-degree graphs; examples include the ferromagnetic Potts model…
Connected clustering denotes a family of constrained clustering problems in which we are given a distance metric and an undirected connectivity graph $G$ that can be completely unrelated to the metric. The aim is to partition the $n$…
Let $G$ be a large (simple, unlabeled) dense graph on $n$ vertices. Suppose that we only know, or can estimate, the empirical distribution of the number of subgraphs $F$ that each vertex in $G$ participates in, for some fixed small graph…
Constructing a spanning tree of a graph is one of the most basic tasks in graph theory. We consider a relaxed version of this problem in the setting of local algorithms. The relaxation is that the constructed subgraph is a sparse spanning…
We consider the problem of approximating certain combinatorial polynomials. First, we consider the problem of approximating the Tutte polynomial of a binary matroid with parameters q>= 2 and gamma. (Relative to the classical (x,y)…