Optimal 4-Approximation for the Correlated Pandora's Problem
Data Structures and Algorithms
2025-10-13 v2
Abstract
The Correlated Pandora's Problem posed by Chawla et al. (2020) generalizes the classical Pandora's Problem by allowing the numbers inside the Pandora's boxes to be correlated. It also generalizes the Min Sum Set Cover problem, and is related to the Uniform Decision Tree problem. This paper gives an optimal 4-approximation for the Correlated Pandora's Problem, matching the lower bound of 4 from Min Sum Set Cover.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.17029,
title = {Optimal 4-Approximation for the Correlated Pandora's Problem},
author = {Nikhil Bansal and Zhiyi Huang and Zixuan Zhu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.17029},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
to appear in FOCS 2025