Related papers: Reinforced Generation of Combinatorial Structures:…
AlphaEvolve (Novikov et al., 2025) is a generic evolutionary coding agent that combines the generative capabilities of LLMs with automated evaluation in an iterative evolutionary framework that proposes, tests, and refines algorithmic…
Variational quantum algorithms, such as the Recursive Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (RQAOA), have become increasingly popular, offering promising avenues for employing Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices to address…
A canonical feature of the constraint satisfaction problems in NP is approximation hardness, where in the worst case, finding sufficient-quality approximate solutions is exponentially hard for all known methods. Fundamentally, the lack of…
In the maximum asymmetric traveling salesman problem (Max ATSP) we are given a complete directed graph with nonnegative weights on the edges and we wish to compute a traveling salesman tour of maximum weight. In this paper we give a fast…
In this white paper, we present AlphaEvolve, an evolutionary coding agent that substantially enhances capabilities of state-of-the-art LLMs on highly challenging tasks such as tackling open scientific problems or optimizing critical pieces…
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 define a reduction mechanism for LP and SDP formulations that degrades approximation factors in a controlled fashion. Our reduction mechanism is a minor restriction of classical reductions establishing inapproximability in the context of…
The remarkable achievements of machine learning techniques in analyzing discrete structures have drawn significant attention towards their integration into combinatorial optimization algorithms. Typically, these methodologies improve…
The All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) is a foundational problem in theoretical computer science. Approximating APSP in undirected unweighted graphs has been studied for many years, beginning with the work of Dor, Halperin and Zwick…
We provide a new approach for establishing hardness of approximation results, based on the theory recently introduced by the author. It allows one to directly show that approximating a problem beyond a certain threshold requires…
Recent advances in LLM-guided evolutionary computation, particularly AlphaEvolve, have demonstrated remarkable success in discovering novel mathematical constructions and solving challenging optimization problems. In this article, we…
Evolutionary program synthesis systems such as AlphaEvolve, OpenEvolve, and ShinkaEvolve offer a new approach to AI-assisted mathematical discovery. These systems utilize teams of large language models (LLMs) to generate candidate solutions…
In this paper, we propose the first continuous optimization algorithms that achieve a constant factor approximation guarantee for the problem of monotone continuous submodular maximization subject to a linear constraint. We first prove that…
In the maximum asymmetric traveling salesman problem (Max ATSP) we are given a complete directed graph with nonnegative weights on the edges and we wish to compute a traveling salesman tour of maximum weight. In this paper we give a fast…
In recent years, many design automation methods have been developed to routinely create approximate implementations of circuits and programs that show excellent trade-offs between the quality of output and required resources. This paper…
Combinatorial optimization is among the main applications envisioned for near-term and fault-tolerant quantum computers. In this work, we consider a well-studied quantum algorithm for combinatorial optimization: the Quantum Approximate…
We study the set of solutions to a parameterized, strongly convex optimization problem whose cost depends on uncertain, bounded parameters. We compute a certified outer approximation of the corresponding set of optimizers, using convergence…
We discuss the computational complexity of approximating maximum a posteriori inference in sum-product networks. We first show NP-hardness in trees of height two by a reduction from maximum independent set; this implies non-approximability…
Monotone submodular maximization with a knapsack constraint is NP-hard. Various approximation algorithms have been devised to address this optimization problem. In this paper, we revisit the widely known modified greedy algorithm. First, we…
Recent progress in LLM-driven algorithm discovery, exemplified by DeepMind's AlphaEvolve, has produced new best-known solutions for a range of hard geometric and combinatorial problems. This raises a natural question: to what extent can…