Related papers: Approximating Pandora's Box with Correlations
We study stochastic optimal control problems for (possibly degenerate) McKean-Vlasov controlled diffusions and obtain discrete-time as well as finite interacting particle approximations. (i) Under mild assumptions, we first prove the…
Prize-Collecting Steiner Tree (PCST) is a generalization of the Steiner Tree problem, a fundamental problem in computer science. In the classic Steiner Tree problem, we aim to connect a set of vertices known as terminals using the…
The automaton constrained tree knapsack problem is a variant of the knapsack problem in which the items are associated with the vertices of the tree, and we can select a subset of items that is accepted by a top-down tree automaton. If the…
We present a time-optimal deterministic distributed algorithm for approximating a minimum weight vertex cover in hypergraphs of rank $f$. This problem is equivalent to the Minimum Weight Set Cover Problem in which the frequency of every…
We consider the following generalization of binary search in sorted arrays to tree domains. In each step of the search, an algorithm is querying a vertex $q$, and as a reply, it receives an answer, which either states that $q$ is the…
In the Correlation Clustering problem we are given $n$ nodes, and a preference for each pair of nodes indicating whether we prefer the two endpoints to be in the same cluster or not. The output is a clustering inducing the minimum number of…
We study the D-optimal Data Fusion (DDF) problem, which aims to select new data points, given an existing Fisher information matrix, so as to maximize the logarithm of the determinant of the overall Fisher information matrix. We show that…
We study the problem of approximating a discrete probability distribution, such as the next-token distribution of a large language model, by a dyadic distribution induced by a binary tree under encoding rate constraints. The objective is to…
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…
Stochastic dynamic matching problems have recently gained attention in the stochastic-modeling community due to their diverse applications, such as supply-chain management and kidney exchange programs. In this paper, we study a matching…
We study the exploration problem with approximate linear action-value functions in episodic reinforcement learning under the notion of low inherent Bellman error, a condition normally employed to show convergence of approximate value…
We present an approximation algorithm for the Prize-collecting Ordered Traveling Salesman Problem (PCOTSP), which simultaneously generalizes the Prize-collecting TSP and the Ordered TSP. The Prize-collecting TSP is well-studied and has a…
Uniform cost-distance Steiner trees minimize the sum of the total length and weighted path lengths from a dedicated root to the other terminals. They are applied when the tree is intended for signal transmission, e.g. in chip design or…
This paper considers an optimization problem for a dynamical system whose evolution depends on a collection of binary decision variables. We develop scalable approximation algorithms with provable suboptimality bounds to provide…
A Fixed-Parameter Tractable (\FPT) $\rho$-approximation algorithm for a minimization (resp. maximization) parameterized problem $P$ is an FPT algorithm that, given an instance $(x, k)\in P$ computes a solution of cost at most $k \cdot…
One often encounters the curse of dimensionality in the application of dynamic programming to determine optimal policies for controlled Markov chains. In this paper, we provide a method to construct sub-optimal policies along with a bound…
The goal of the \emph{alignment problem} is to align a (given) point cloud $P = \{p_1,\cdots,p_n\}$ to another (observed) point cloud $Q = \{q_1,\cdots,q_n\}$. That is, to compute a rotation matrix $R \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \times 3}$ and a…
It is well-known that an algorithm exists which approximates the NP-complete problem of Set Cover within a factor of ln(n), and it was recently proven that this approximation ratio is optimal unless P = NP. This optimality result is the…
We consider the numerical taxonomy problem of fitting a positive distance function ${D:{S\choose 2}\rightarrow \mathbb R_{>0}}$ by a tree metric. We want a tree $T$ with positive edge weights and including $S$ among the vertices so that…
We investigate the problem of best policy identification in discounted linear Markov Decision Processes in the fixed confidence setting under a generative model. We first derive an instance-specific lower bound on the expected number of…