Related papers: Approximating the discrete time-cost tradeoff prob…
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…
We consider a natural generalization of the Partial Vertex Cover problem. Here an instance consists of a graph G = (V,E), a positive cost function c: V-> Z^{+}, a partition $P_1,..., P_r$ of the edge set $E$, and a parameter $k_i$ for each…
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…
We consider single-machine scheduling problems that are natural generalizations or variations of the min-sum set cover problem and the min-sum vertex cover problem. For each of these problems, we give new approximation algorithms. Some of…
We consider the Demand Strip Packing problem (DSP), in which we are given a set of jobs, each specified by a processing time and a demand. The task is to schedule all jobs such that they are finished before some deadline $D$ while…
This paper describes a simple greedy D-approximation algorithm for any covering problem whose objective function is submodular and non-decreasing, and whose feasible region can be expressed as the intersection of arbitrary (closed upwards)…
We study the $b$-matching problem in bipartite graphs $G=(S,R,E)$. Each vertex $s\in S$ is a server with individual capacity $b_s$. The vertices $r\in R$ are requests that arrive online and must be assigned instantly to an eligible server.…
This paper introduces the Simultaneous assignment problem. Let us given a graph with a weight and a capacity function on its edges, and a set of its subgraphs along with a degree upper bound function for each of them. We are also given a…
In the $d$-Scattered Set problem we are asked to select at least $k$ vertices of a given graph, so that the distance between any pair is at least $d$. We study the problem's (in-)approximability and offer improvements and extensions of…
We study approximation algorithms for scheduling problems with the objective of minimizing total weighted completion time, under identical and related machine models with job precedence constraints. We give algorithms that improve upon many…
We study differentially private (DP) algorithms for stochastic convex optimization: the problem of minimizing the population loss given i.i.d. samples from a distribution over convex loss functions. A recent work of Bassily et al. (2019)…
The vertex cover problem is one of the most important and intensively studied combinatorial optimization problems. Khot and Regev (2003) proved that the problem is NP-hard to approximate within a factor $2 - \epsilon$, assuming the Unique…
We study the Second Price Matching problem, introduced by Azar, Birnbaum, Karlin, and Nguyen in 2009. In this problem, a bipartite graph (bidders and goods) is given, and the profit of a matching is the number of matches containing a second…
In this paper we propose an improved approximation scheme for the Vector Bin Packing problem (VBP), based on the combination of (near-)optimal solution of the Linear Programming (LP) relaxation and a greedy (modified first-fit) heuristic.…
Several probabilistic models from high-dimensional statistics and machine learning reveal an intriguing --and yet poorly understood-- dichotomy. Either simple local algorithms succeed in estimating the object of interest, or even…
In recent years much effort has been concentrated towards achieving polynomial time lower bounds on algorithms for solving various well-known problems. A useful technique for showing such lower bounds is to prove them conditionally based on…
This paper gives poly-logarithmic-round, distributed D-approximation algorithms for covering problems with submodular cost and monotone covering constraints (Submodular-cost Covering). The approximation ratio D is the maximum number of…
Finding a minimum vertex cover in a network is a fundamental NP-complete graph problem. One way to deal with its computational hardness, is to trade the qualitative performance of an algorithm (allowing non-optimal outputs) for an improved…
We pursue a study of the Generalized Demand Matching problem, a common generalization of the $b$-Matching and Knapsack problems. Here, we are given a graph with vertex capacities, edge profits, and asymmetric demands on the edges. The goal…
In probably approximately correct (PAC) reinforcement learning (RL), an agent is required to identify an $\epsilon$-optimal policy with probability $1-\delta$. While minimax optimal algorithms exist for this problem, its instance-dependent…