arXiv subjects

Ananth Narayanan

Publications and source records attributed to Ananth Narayanan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A Fast Deterministic Algorithm for $(\Delta+1)$-edge coloring in CONGEST

Vizing's theorem states that any graph of maximum degree $\Delta$ can be properly edge-colored with $\Delta + 1$ colors (which is optimal in general). A recent breakthrough result by Bernshteyn showed that such a $(\Delta + 1)$-edge coloring can be found deterministically in $poly(\Delta,\log n)$ rounds in the LOCAL model of distributed computing, where $n$ denotes the number of vertices of the input graph [J. Comb. Theory 2022]. Since then, the exponent in the $poly(\log n)$-part of the runtime has been improved by Christiansen [STOC 2023] and Bernshteyn and Dhawan [J. Comb. Theory, Series B, 2025]. However, the algorithms used in all of these works use large messages, leaving open the question for efficient algorithms in the more restrictive CONGEST model. We answer this question by presenting the first $poly(\Delta,\log n)$-round algorithm for $(\Delta + 1)$-edge coloring in the CONGEST model. Our algorithm is deterministic and the $n$-dependency of its runtime, $\tilde{O}(\log^5 n)$, matches the best published dependency in the LOCAL model.

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arXiv2025

Optimal Deterministic Rendezvous in Labeled Lines

In a rendezvous task, some mobile agents dispersed in a network have to gather at an arbitrary common site. We consider the rendezvous problem on the infinite labeled line, with $2$ agents, without communication, and a synchronous notion of time. Each node on the line is labeled with a unique positive integer. The initial distance between the agents is denoted by $D$. Time is divided into rounds and measured from the moment an agent first wakes up. We denote by $\tau$ the delay between the two agents' wake up times. If awake in a given round $T$, an agent at a node $v$ has three options: stay at the node $v$, take port $0$, or take port $1$. If it decides to stay, the agent will still be at node $v$ in round $T+1$. Otherwise, it will be at one of the two neighbors of $v$ on the infinite line, depending on the port it chose. The agents achieve rendezvous in $T$ rounds if they are at the same node in round $T$. We aim for a deterministic algorithm for this problem. The problem was recently considered by Miller and Pelc [Distributed Computing 2025]. With $\ell_{\max}$ the largest label of the two starting nodes, they showed that no algorithm can guarantee rendezvous in $o(D \log^* \ell_{\max})$ rounds. The lower bound follows from a connection with the LOCAL model of distributed computing, and holds even if the agents are guaranteed simultaneous wake-up ($\tau = 0$) and are told their initial distance $D$. Miller and Pelc also gave an algorithm of optimal matching complexity $O(D \log^* \ell_{\max})$ when the agents know $D$, but only obtained the higher bound of $O(D^2 (\log^* \ell_{\max})^3)$ when $D$ is unknown to the agents. We improve this complexity to a tight $O(D \log^* \ell_{\max})$. In fact, our algorithm achieves rendezvous in $O(D \log^* \ell_{\min})$ rounds, where $\ell_{\min}$ is the smallest label within distance $O(D)$ of the two starting positions.

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arXiv2025

Towards Optimal Deterministic LOCAL Algorithms on Trees

While obtaining optimal algorithms for the most important problems in the LOCAL model has been one of the central goals in the area of distributed algorithms since its infancy, tight complexity bounds are elusive for many problems even when considering \emph{deterministic} complexities on \emph{trees}. We take a step towards remedying this issue by providing a way to relate the complexity of a problem $\Pi$ on trees to its truly local complexity, which is the (asymptotically) smallest function $f$ such that $\Pi$ can be solved in $O(f(\Delta)+\log^*n)$ rounds. More specifically, we develop a transformation that takes an algorithm $\mathcal A$ for $\Pi$ with a runtime of $O(f(\Delta)+\log^*n)$ rounds as input and transforms it into an $O(f(g(n))+\log^* n)$-round algorithm $\mathcal{A}'$ on trees, where $g$ is the function that satisfies $g(n)^{f(g(n))}=n$. If $f$ is the truly local complexity of $\Pi$ (i.e., if $\mathcal{A}$ is asymptotically optimal), then $\mathcal{A}'$ is an asymptotically optimal algorithm on trees, conditioned on a natural assumption on the nature of the worst-case instances of $\Pi$. Our transformation works for any member of a wide class of problems, including the most important symmetry-breaking problems. As an example of our transformation we obtain the first strongly sublogarithmic algorithm for $(\text{edge-degree+1})$-edge coloring (and therefore also $(2\Delta-1)$-edge coloring) on trees, exhibiting a runtime of $O(\log^{12/13} n)$ rounds. This breaks through the $\Omega(\log n/\log\log n)$-barrier that is a fundamental lower bound for other symmetry-breaking problems such as maximal independent set or maximal matching (that already holds on trees), and proves a separation between these problems and the aforementioned edge coloring problems on trees. We extend a subset of our results to graphs of bounded arboricity.

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arXiv2025

On the Locality of Hall's Theorem

The last five years of research on distributed graph algorithms have seen huge leaps of progress, both regarding algorithmic improvements and impossibility results: new strong lower bounds have emerged for many central problems and exponential improvements over the state of the art have been achieved for the runtimes of many algorithms. Nevertheless, there are still large gaps between the best known upper and lower bounds for many important problems. The current lower bound techniques for deterministic algorithms are often tailored to obtaining a logarithmic bound and essentially cannot be used to prove lower bounds beyond $\Omega(\log n)$. In contrast, the best deterministic upper bounds are often polylogarithmic, raising the fundamental question of how to resolve the gap between logarithmic lower and polylogarithmic upper bounds and finally obtain tight bounds. We develop a novel algorithm design technique aimed at closing this gap. In essence, each node finds a carefully chosen local solution in $O(\log n)$ rounds and we guarantee that this solution is consistent with the other nodes' solutions without coordination. The local solutions are based on a distributed version of Hall's theorem that may be of independent interest and motivates the title of this work. We showcase our framework by improving on the state of the art for the following fundamental problems: edge coloring, bipartite saturating matchings and hypergraph sinkless orientation. In particular, we obtain an asymptotically optimal $O(\log n)$-round algorithm for $3\Delta/2$-edge coloring in bounded degree graphs. The previously best bound for the problem was $O(\log^4 n)$ rounds, obtained by plugging in the state-of-the-art maximal independent set algorithm from arXiv:2303.16043 into the $3\Delta/2$-edge coloring algorithm from arXiv:1711.05469 .

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