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In the dynamic network model, the communication graph is assumed to be connected in every round but is otherwise arbitrary. We consider the related setting of $p$-partitioned dynamic networks, in which the communication graph in each round…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2014-08-05 Adam Sealfon , Aikaterini Sotiraki

We consider a two-way trading problem, where investors buy and sell a stock whose price moves within a certain range. Naturally they want to maximize their profit. Investors can perform up to $k$ trades, where each trade must involve the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2017-06-19 Stanley P. Y. Fung

We study the computational complexity of some explainable clustering problems in the framework proposed by [Dasgupta et al., ICML 2020], where explainability is achieved via axis-aligned decision trees. We consider the $k$-means,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-08-23 Eduardo Sany Laber

Finding exponential separation between quantum and classical information tasks is like striking gold in quantum information research. Such an advantage is believed to hold for quantum computing but is proven for quantum communication…

We prove the first, even super-polynomial, lower bounds on the size of tropical (min,+) and (max,+) circuits approximating given optimization problems. Many classical dynamic programming (DP) algorithms for optimization problems are pure in…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2020-12-24 Stasys Jukna , Hannes Seiwert

The time-optimal $k$-server problem minimizes the time spent serving all requests instead of the distances traveled. We give a lower bound of $2k-1$ on the competitive ratio of any deterministic online algorithm for this problem, which…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-03-10 Fabian Frei , Dennis Komm , Moritz Stocker , Philip Whittington

Constrained maximization of submodular functions poses a central problem in combinatorial optimization. In many realistic scenarios, a number of agents need to maximize multiple submodular objectives over the same ground set. We study such…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-07-22 Georgios Amanatidis , Georgios Birmpas , Philip Lazos , Stefano Leonardi , Rebecca Reiffenhäuser

We study a new class of contract design problems where a principal delegates the execution of multiple projects to a set of agents. The principal's expected reward from each project is a combinatorial function of the agents working on it.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-06-09 Tal Alon , Matteo Castiglioni , Junjie Chen , Tomer Ezra , Yingkai Li , Inbal Talgam-Cohen

Distributionally robust control is a well-studied framework for optimal decision making under uncertainty, with the objective of minimizing an expected cost function over control actions, assuming the most adverse probability distribution…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-08-12 Alexandros E. Tzikas , Lukas Fiechtner , Arec Jamgochian , Mykel J. Kochenderfer

Contract theories have been proposed to formally support distributed and decentralized system design while ensuring safe system integration. In this paper we propose hypercontracts, a generic model with a richer structure for its underlying…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2022-06-14 Inigo Incer , Albert Benveniste , Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli , Sanjit A. Seshia

We introduce and study a computational version of the principal-agent problem -- a classic problem in Economics that arises when a principal desires to contract an agent to carry out some task, but has incomplete information about the agent…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-05-18 David Hyland , Julian Gutierrez , Michael Wooldridge

Optimal mechanism design enjoys a beautiful and well-developed theory, and also a number of killer applications. Rules of thumb produced by the field influence everything from how governments sell wireless spectrum licenses to how the major…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2014-09-23 Tim Roughgarden

We investigate how contracts can be used to regulate the interaction between processes. To do that, we study a variant of the concurrent constraints calculus presented in [1], featuring primitives for multi-party synchronization via…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2010-10-28 Massimo Bartoletti , Roberto Zunino

Succinct representations of a graph have been objects of central study in computer science for decades. In this paper, we study the operation called \emph{Distance Preserving Graph Contractions}, which was introduced by Bernstein et al.…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2019-12-03 Siddhartha Jain

Motivated by fairness concerns, we study the `portfolio problem': given an optimization problem with set $D$ of feasible solutions, a class $\mathbf{C}$ of fairness objective functions on $D$, and an approximation factor $\alpha \ge 1$, a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-09-24 Swati Gupta , Jai Moondra , Mohit Singh

We identify and analyze a fundamental limitation of the classical projected subgradient method in nonsmooth convex optimization: the inevitable failure caused by the absence of valid subgradients at boundary points. We show that, under…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-17 Zhihan Zhu , Yanhao Zhang , Yong Xia

Two kinds of approximation algorithms exist for the k-BALANCED PARTITIONING problem: those that are fast but compute unsatisfying approximation ratios, and those that guarantee high quality ratios but are slow. In this paper we prove that…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2019-04-29 Andreas Emil Feldmann

This paper investigates a specific class of nonsmooth nonconvex optimization problems in the face of data uncertainty, namely, robust optimization problems, where the given objective function can be expressed as a difference of two…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-20 Feryal Mashkoorzadeh , Nooshin Movahedian

We study the optimal design of electricity contracts among a population of consumers with different needs. This question is tackled within the framework of Principal-Agent problems in presence of adverse selection. The particular features…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-09-17 Clémence Alasseur , Ivar Ekeland , Romuald Elie , Nicolás Hernández Santibáñez , Dylan Possamaï

Simon in his FOCS'94 paper was the first to show an exponential gap between classical and quantum computation. The problem he dealt with is now part of a well-studied class of problems, the hidden subgroup problems. We study Simon's problem…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Pascal Koiran , Vincent Nesme , Natacha Portier