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arXiv · 2508.02182

Near-Optimal Differentially Private Graph Algorithms via the Multidimensional AboveThreshold Mechanism

Laxman Dhulipala·Monika Henzinger·George Z. Li·Quanquan C. Liu·A. R. Sricharan·Leqi Zhu
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Abstract

Many differentially private and classical non-private graph algorithms rely crucially on determining whether some property of each vertex meets a threshold. For example, for the $k$-core decomposition problem, the classic peeling algorithm iteratively removes a vertex if its induced degree falls below a threshold. The sparse vector technique (SVT) is generally used to transform non-private threshold queries into private ones with only a small additive loss in accuracy. However, a naive application of SVT in the graph setting leads to an amplification of the error by a factor of $n$ due to composition, as SVT is applied to every vertex. In this paper, we resolve this problem by formulating a novel generalized sparse vector technique which we call the Multidimensional AboveThreshold (MAT) Mechanism which generalizes SVT (applied to vectors with one dimension) to vectors with multiple dimensions. As an application, we solve a number of important graph problems with better bounds than previous work. We apply our MAT mechanism to obtain a set of improved bounds for a variety of problems including $k$-core decomposition, densest subgraph, low out-degree ordering, and vertex coloring. We give a tight local edge DP algorithm for $k$-core decomposition with $O(\epsilon^{-1}\log n)$ additive error and no multiplicative error in $O(n)$ rounds. We also give a new $(2+\eta)$-factor multiplicative, $O(\epsilon^{-1}\log n)$ additive error algorithm in $O(\log^2 n)$ rounds for any constant $\eta > 0$. Both of these results are asymptotically tight against our new lower bound of $\Omega(\log n)$ for any constant-factor approximation algorithm for $k$-core decomposition. Our new algorithms for $k$-core also directly lead to new algorithms for densest subgraph and low out-degree ordering. Our novel private defective coloring algorithms uses number of colors proportional to the arboricity of the graph.

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Laxman Dhulipala, Monika Henzinger, George Z. Li, Quanquan C. Liu, A. R. Sricharan, Leqi Zhu. 2025-08-04. Near-Optimal Differentially Private Graph Algorithms via the Multidimensional AboveThreshold Mechanism. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02182

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