Related papers: PLS-complete problems with lexicographic cost func…
We consider the problem of finding a local optimum for Max-Cut with FLIP-neighborhood, in which exactly one node changes the partition. Schaeffer and Yannakakis (SICOMP, 1991) showed PLS-completeness of this problem on graphs with unbounded…
The class PLS (Polynomial Local Search) captures the complexity of finding a solution that is locally optimal and has proven to be an important concept in the theory of local search. It has been shown that local search versions of various…
In the NP-hard Max $c$-Cut problem, one is given an undirected edge-weighted graph $G$ and aims to color the vertices of $G$ with $c$ colors such that the total weight of edges with distinctly colored endpoints is maximal. The case with…
Bitstrings can be permuted via permutations and compared via the lexicographic order. In this paper we study the complexity of finding a minimum of a bitstring via given permutations. As a global optima is known to be NP-complete, we study…
The minimum and maximum cuts of an undirected edge-weighted graph are classic problems in graph theory. While the Min-Cut Problem can be solved in P, the Max-Cut Problem is NP-Complete. Exact and heuristic methods have been developed for…
Finding locally optimal solutions for max-cut and max-$k$-cut are well-known PLS-complete problems. An instinctive approach to finding such a locally optimum solution is the FLIP method. Even though FLIP requires exponential time in…
We show that the simplest local search heuristics for two natural Euclidean clustering problems are PLS-complete. First, we show that the Hartigan--Wong method for $k$-Means clustering is PLS-complete, even when $k = 2$. Second, we show the…
Local search algorithms for NP-hard problems such as Max-Cut frequently perform much better in practice than worst-case analysis suggests. Smoothed analysis has proved an effective approach to understanding this: a substantial literature…
In this thesis, we settle the computational complexity of some fundamental questions in polynomial optimization. These include the questions of (i) finding a local minimum, (ii) testing local minimality of a point, and (iii) deciding…
In 1988, Johnson, Papadimitriou and Yannakakis wrote that "Practically all the empirical evidence would lead us to conclude that finding locally optimal solutions is much easier than solving NP-hard problems". Since then the empirical…
Given a graph $G$ of degree $k$ over $n$ vertices, we consider the problem of computing a near maximum cut or a near minimum bisection in polynomial time. For graphs of girth $2L$, we develop a local message passing algorithm whose…
We prove that the maximum independent set approximation problem with polylogarithmic approximation factor is P-SLOCAL-complete. Thus an efficient algorithm for the maximum independent set approximation in the LOCAL model implies efficient…
Exact solution of hard combinatorial optimization problems often relies on strong convex relaxations, but solving these relaxations repeatedly inside a branch-and-bound algorithm can be prohibitively expensive. Hence, we consider this…
In this paper, we study the complexity of computing locally optimal solutions for weighted versions of standard set problems such as SetCover, SetPacking, and many more. For our investigation, we use the framework of PLS, as defined in…
Graph Balancing is the problem of orienting the edges of a weighted multigraph so as to minimize the maximum weighted in-degree. Since the introduction of the problem the best algorithm known achieves an approximation ratio of $1.75$ and it…
Local search is a fundamental optimization technique that is both widely used in practice and deeply studied in theory, yet its computational complexity remains poorly understood. The traditional frameworks, PLS and the standard algorithm…
One powerful technique to solve NP-hard optimization problems in practice is branch-and-reduce search---which is branch-and-bound that intermixes branching with reductions to decrease the input size. While this technique is known to be very…
Logic-Based Benders Decomposition (LBBD) and its Branch-and-Cut variant, namely Branch-and-Check, enjoy an extensive applicability on a broad variety of problems, including scheduling. Although LBBD offers problem-specific cuts to impose…
We study the optimization version of the set partition problem (where the difference between the partition sums are minimized), which has numerous applications in decision theory literature. While the set partitioning problem is NP-hard and…
We investigate the space complexity of certain perfect matching problems over bipartite graphs embedded on surfaces of constant genus (orientable or non-orientable). We show that the problems of deciding whether such graphs have (1) a…