No Arabic abstract
The $k$-truss, introduced by Cohen (2005), is a graph where every edge is incident to at least $k$ triangles. This is a relaxation of the clique. It has proved to be a useful tool in identifying cohesive subnetworks in a variety of real-world graphs. Despite its simplicity and its utility, the combinatorial and algorithmic aspects of trusses have not been thoroughly explored. We provide nearly-tight bounds on the edge counts of $k$-trusses. We also give two improved algorithms for finding trusses in large-scale graphs. First, we present a simplified and faster algorithm, based on approach discussed in Wang & Cheng (2012). Second, we present a theoretical algorithm based on fast matrix multiplication; this converts a triangle-generation algorithm of Bjorklund et al. (2014) into a dynamic data structure.
While recent work suggests that quantum computers can speed up the solution of semidefinite programs, little is known about the quantum complexity of more general convex optimization. We present a quantum algorithm that can optimize a convex function over an $n$-dimensional convex body using $tilde{O}(n)$ queries to oracles that evaluate the objective function and determine membership in the convex body. This represents a quadratic improvement over the best-known classical algorithm. We also study limitations on the power of quantum computers for general convex optimization, showing that it requires $tilde{Omega}(sqrt n)$ evaluation queries and $Omega(sqrt{n})$ membership queries.
The prior independent framework for algorithm design considers how well an algorithm that does not know the distribution of its inputs approximates the expected performance of the optimal algorithm for this distribution. This paper gives a method that is agnostic to problem setting for proving lower bounds on the prior independent approximation factor of any algorithm. The method constructs a correlated distribution over inputs that can be generated both as a distribution over i.i.d. good-for-algorithms distributions and as a distribution over i.i.d. bad-for-algorithms distributions. Prior independent algorithms are upper-bounded by the optimal algorithm for the latter distribution even when the true distribution is the former. Thus, the ratio of the expected performances of the Bayesian optimal algorithms for these two decompositions is a lower bound on the prior independent approximation ratio. The techniques of the paper connect prior independent algorithm design, Yaos Minimax Principle, and information design. We apply this framework to give new lower bounds on several canonical prior independent mechanism design problems.
The problem of attaining energy efficiency in distributed systems is of importance, but a general, non-domain-specific theory of energy-minimal scheduling is far from developed. In this paper, we classify the problems of energy-minimal scheduling and present theoretical foundations of the same. We derive results concerning energy-minimal scheduling of independent jobs in a distributed system with functionally similar machines with different working and idle power ratings. The machines considered in our system can have identical as well as different speeds. If the jobs can be divided into arbitrary parts, we show that the minimum-energy schedule can be generated in linear time and give exact scheduling algorithms. For the cases where jobs are non-divisible, we prove that the scheduling problems are NP-hard and also give approximation algorithms for the same along with their bounds.
We consider the problem of testing graph cluster structure: given access to a graph $G=(V, E)$, can we quickly determine whether the graph can be partitioned into a few clusters with good inner conductance, or is far from any such graph? This is a generalization of the well-studied problem of testing graph expansion, where one wants to distinguish between the graph having good expansion (i.e. being a good single cluster) and the graph having a sparse cut (i.e. being a union of at least two clusters). A recent work of Czumaj, Peng, and Sohler (STOC15) gave an ingenious sublinear time algorithm for testing $k$-clusterability in time $tilde{O}(n^{1/2} text{poly}(k))$: their algorithm implicitly embeds a random sample of vertices of the graph into Euclidean space, and then clusters the samples based on estimates of Euclidean distances between the points. This yields a very efficient testing algorithm, but only works if the cluster structure is very strong: it is necessary to assume that the gap between conductances of accepted and rejected graphs is at least logarithmic in the size of the graph $G$. In this paper we show how one can leverage more refined geometric information, namely angles as opposed to distances, to obtain a sublinear time tester that works even when the gap is a sufficiently large constant. Our tester is based on the singular value decomposition of a natural matrix derived from random walk transition probabilities from a small sample of seed nodes. We complement our algorithm with a matching lower bound on the query complexity of testing clusterability. Our lower bound is based on a novel property testing problem, which we analyze using Fourier analytic tools. As a byproduct of our techniques, we also achieve new lower bounds for the problem of approximating MAX-CUT value in sublinear time.
We present new lower bounds that show that a polynomial number of passes are necessary for solving some fundamental graph problems in the streaming model of computation. For instance, we show that any streaming algorithm that finds a weighted minimum $s$-$t$ cut in an $n$-vertex undirected graph requires $n^{2-o(1)}$ space unless it makes $n^{Omega(1)}$ passes over the stream. To prove our lower bounds, we introduce and analyze a new four-player communication problem that we refer to as the hidden-pointer chasing problem. This is a problem in spirit of the standard pointer chasing problem with the key difference that the pointers in this problem are hidden to players and finding each one of them requires solving another communication problem, namely the set intersection problem. Our lower bounds for graph problems are then obtained by reductions from the hidden-pointer chasing problem. Our hidden-pointer chasing problem appears flexible enough to find other applications and is therefore interesting in its own right. To showcase this, we further present an interesting application of this problem beyond streaming algorithms. Using a reduction from hidden-pointer chasing, we prove that any algorithm for submodular function minimization needs to make $n^{2-o(1)}$ value queries to the function unless it has a polynomial degree of adaptivity.