arXiv subjects

Kazuo Iwama

Publications and source records attributed to Kazuo Iwama.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Minimum Partition of Polygons under Width and Cut Constraints

We study the problem of partitioning a polygon into the minimum number of subpolygons using cuts in predetermined directions such that each resulting subpolygon satisfies a given width constraint. A polygon satisfies the unit-width constraint for a set of unit vectors if the length of the orthogonal projection of the polygon on a line parallel to a vector in the set is at most one. We analyze structural properties of the minimum partition numbers, focusing on monotonicity under polygon containment. We show that the minimum partition number of a simple polygon is at least that of any subpolygon, provided that the subpolygon satisfies a certain orientation-wise convexity with respect to the polygon. As a consequence, we prove a partition analogue of Bang's conjecture about coverings of convex regions in the plane: for any partition of a convex body in the plane, the sum of relative widths of all parts is at least one. For any convex polygon, there exists a direction along which an optimal partition is achieved by parallel cuts. Given such a direction, an optimal partition can be computed in linear time.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

Marriage and Roommate

This paper has two objectives. One is to give a linear time algorithm that solves the stable roommates problem (i.e., obtains one stable matching) using the stable marriage problem. The idea is that a stable matching of a roommate instance $I$ is a stable matching (that however must satisfy a certain condition) of some marriage instance $I'$. $I'$ is obtained just by making two copies of $I$, one for the men's table and the other for the women's table. The second objective is to investigate the possibility of reducing the roommate problem to the marriage problem (with a one-to-one correspondence between their stable matchings) in polynomial time. For a given $I$, we construct the rotation POSET $P$ of $I'$ and then we ``halve'' it to obtain $P'$, by which we can forget the above condition and can use all the closed subsets of $P'$ for all the stable matchings of $I$. Unfortunately, this approach works (runs in polynomial time) only for restricted instances.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2022

Improving the Bounds of the Online Dynamic Power Management Problem

We investigate the {\em power-down mechanism} which decides when a machine transitions between states such that the total energy consumption, characterized by execution cost, idle cost and switching cost, is minimized. In contrast to most of the previous studies on the offline model, we focus on the online model in which a sequence of jobs with their release time, execution time and deadline, arrive in an online fashion. More precisely, we exploit a different switching on and off strategy and present an upper bound of 3, and further show a lower bound of 2.1, in a dual-machine model, introduced by Chen et al. in 2014 [STACS 2014: 226-238], both of which beat the currently best result.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2021

Tight Competitive Analyses of Online Car-sharing Problems

The car-sharing problem, proposed by Luo, Erlebach and Xu in 2018, mainly focuses on an online model in which there are two locations: 0 and 1, and $k$ total cars. Each request which specifies its pick-up time and pick-up location (among 0 and 1, and the other is the drop-off location) is released in each stage a fixed amount of time before its specified start (i.e. pick-up) time. The time between the booking (i.e. released) time and the start time is enough to move empty cars between 0 and 1 for relocation if they are not used in that stage. The model, called $k$S2L-F, assumes that requests in each stage arrive sequentially regardless of the same booking time and the decision (accept or reject) must be made immediately. The goal is to accept as many requests as possible. In spite of only two locations, the analysis does not seem easy and the (tight) competitive ratio (CR) is only known to be 2.0 for $k=2$ and 1.5 for a restricted value of $k$, i.e., a multiple of three. In this paper, we remove all the holes of unknown CR's; namely we prove that the CR is $\frac{2k}{k + \lfloor k/3 \rfloor}$ for all $k\geq 2$. Furthermore, if the algorithm can delay its decision until all requests have come in each stage, the CR is improved to roughly 4/3. We can take this advantage even further, precisely we can achieve a CR of $\frac{2+R}{3}$ if the number of requests in each stage is at most $Rk$, $1 \leq R \leq 2$, where we do not have to know the value of $R$ in advance. Finally we demonstrate that randomization also helps to get (slightly) better CR's.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2018

Reconstructing Strings from Substrings: Optimal Randomized and Average-Case Algorithms

The problem called "String reconstruction from substrings" is a mathematical model of sequencing by hybridization that plays an important role in DNA sequencing. In this problem, we are given a blackbox oracle holding an unknown string ${\mathcal X}$ and are required to obtain (reconstruct) ${\mathcal X}$ through "substring queries" $Q(S)$. $Q(S)$ is given to the oracle with a string $S$ and the answer of the oracle is Yes if ${\mathcal X}$ includes $S$ as a substring and No otherwise. Our goal is to minimize the number of queries for the reconstruction. In this paper, we deal with only binary strings for ${\mathcal X}$ whose length $n$ is given in advance by using a sequence of good $S$'s. In 1995, Skiena and Sundaram first studied this problem and obtained an algorithm whose query complexity is $n+O(\log n)$. Its information theoretic lower bound is $n$, and they posed an obvious open question; if we can remove the $O(\log n)$ additive term. No progress has been made until now. This paper gives two partially positive answers to this open question. One is a randomized algorithm whose query complexity is $n+O(1)$ with high probability and the other is an average-case algorithm also having a query complexity of $n+O(1)$ on average. The $n$ lower bound is still true for both cases, and hence they are optimal up to an additive constant.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2017

Improved Average Complexity for Comparison-Based Sorting

This paper studies the average complexity on the number of comparisons for sorting algorithms. Its information-theoretic lower bound is $n \lg n - 1.4427n + O(\log n)$. For many efficient algorithms, the first $n\lg n$ term is easy to achieve and our focus is on the (negative) constant factor of the linear term. The current best value is $-1.3999$ for the MergeInsertion sort. Our new value is $-1.4106$, narrowing the gap by some $25\%$. An important building block of our algorithm is "two-element insertion," which inserts two numbers $A$ and $B$, $A<B$, into a sorted sequence $T$. This insertion algorithm is still sufficiently simple for rigorous mathematical analysis and works well for a certain range of the length of $T$ for which the simple binary insertion does not, thus allowing us to take a complementary approach with the binary insertion.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2015

Stable Nash Equilibria in the Gale-Shapley Matching Game

In this article we study the stable marriage game induced by the men-proposing Gale-Shapley algorithm. Our setting is standard: all the lists are complete and the matching mechanism is the men-proposing Gale-Shapley algorithm. It is well known that in this setting, men cannot cheat, but women can. In fact, Teo, Sethuraman and Tan \cite{TST01}, show that there is a polynomial time algorithm to obtain, for a given strategy (the set of all lists) $Q$ and a woman $w$, the best partner attainable by changing her list. However, what if the resulting matching is not stable with respect to $Q$? Obviously, such a matching would be vulnerable to further manipulation, but is not mentioned in \cite{TST01}. In this paper, we consider (safe) manipulation that implies a stable matching in a most general setting. Specifically, our goal is to decide for a given $Q$, if w can manipulate her list to obtain a strictly better partner with respect to the true strategy $P$ (which may be different from $Q$), and also the outcome is a stable matching for $P$.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2012

Reputation Games for Undirected Graphs

J. Hopcroft and D. Sheldon originally introduced network reputation games to investigate the self-interested behavior of web authors who want to maximize their PageRank on a directed web graph by choosing their outlinks in a game theoretic manner. They give best response strategies for each player and characterize properties of web graphs which are Nash equilibria. In this paper we consider three different models for PageRank games on undirected graphs such as certain social networks. In undirected graphs players may delete links at will, but typically cannot add links without the other player's permission. In the deletion-model players are free to delete any of their bidirectional links but may not add links. We study the problem of determining whether the given graph represents a Nash equilibrium or not in this model. We give an $O(n^{2})$ time algorithm for a tree, and a parametric $O(2^{k}n^{4})$ time algorithm for general graphs, where $k$ is the maximum vertex degree in any biconnected component of the graph. In the request- delete-model players are free to delete any bidirectional links and add any directed links, since these additions can be done unilaterally and can be viewed as requests for bidirected links. For this model we give an $O(n^3)$ time algorithm for verifying Nash equilibria in trees. Finally, in the add-delete- model we allow a node to make arbitrary deletions and the addition of a single bidirectional link if it would increase the page rank of the other player also. In this model we give a parametric algorithm for verifying Nash equilibria in general graphs and characterize so called $α$-insensitive Nash Equilibria. We also give a result showing a large class of graphs where there is an edge addition that causes the PageRank of both of its endpoints to increase, suggesting convergence towards complete subgraphs.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2012

Reconstructing Strings from Substrings with Quantum Queries

This paper investigates the number of quantum queries made to solve the problem of reconstructing an unknown string from its substrings in a certain query model. More concretely, the goal of the problem is to identify an unknown string $S$ by making queries of the following form: "Is $s$ a substring of $S$?", where $s$ is a query string over the given alphabet. The number of queries required to identify the string $S$ is the query complexity of this problem. First we show a quantum algorithm that exactly identifies the string $S$ with at most $3/4N + o(N)$ queries, where $N$ is the length of $S$. This contrasts sharply with the classical query complexity $N$. Our algorithm uses Skiena and Sundaram's classical algorithm and the Grover search as subroutines. To make them effectively work, we develop another subroutine that finds a string appearing only once in $S$, which may have an independent interest. We also prove two lower bounds. The first one is a general lower bound of $Ω(\frac{N}{\log^2{N}})$, which means we cannot achieve a query complexity of $O(N^{1-ε})$ for any constant $ε$. The other one claims that if we cannot use queries of length roughly between $\log N$ and $3 \log N$, then we cannot achieve a query complexity of any sublinear function in $N$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Quantum Counterfeit Coin Problems

The counterfeit coin problem requires us to find all false coins from a given bunch of coins using a balance scale. We assume that the balance scale gives us only ``balanced'' or ``tilted'' information and that we know the number k of false coins in advance. The balance scale can be modeled by a certain type of oracle and its query complexity is a measure for the cost of weighing algorithms (the number of weighings). In this paper, we study the quantum query complexity for this problem. Let Q(k,N) be the quantum query complexity of finding all k false coins from the N given coins. We show that for any k and N such that k < N/2, Q(k,N)=O(k^{1/4}), contrasting with the classical query complexity, Ω(k\log(N/k)), that depends on N. So our quantum algorithm achieves a quartic speed-up for this problem. We do not have a matching lower bound, but we show some evidence that the upper bound is tight: any algorithm, including our algorithm, that satisfies certain properties needs Ω(k^{1/4}) queries.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Average/Worst-Case Gap of Quantum Query Complexities by On-Set Size

This paper considers the query complexity of the functions in the family F_{N,M} of N-variable Boolean functions with onset size M, i.e., the number of inputs for which the function value is 1, where 1<= M <= 2^{N}/2 is assumed without loss of generality because of the symmetry of function values, 0 and 1. Our main results are as follows: (1) There is a super-linear gap between the average-case and worst-case quantum query complexities over F_{N,M} for a certain range of M. (2) There is no super-linear gap between the average-case and worst-case randomized query complexities over F_{N,M} for every M. (3) For every M bounded by a polynomial in N, any function in F_{N,M} has quantum query complexity Theta (sqrt{N}). (4) For every M=O(2^{cN}) with an arbitrary large constant c<1, any function in F_{N,M} has randomized query complexity Omega (N).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

On Two Dimensional Orthogonal Knapsack Problem

In this paper, we study the following knapsack problem: Given a list of squares with profits, we are requested to pack a sublist of them into a rectangular bin (not a unit square bin) to make profits in the bin as large as possible. We first observe there is a Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme (PTAS) for the problem of packing weighted squares into rectangular bins with large resources, then apply the PTAS to the problem of packing squares with profits into a rectangular bin and get a $\frac65+ε$ approximation algorithm.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2007

Unbounded-Error Classical and Quantum Communication Complexity

Since the seminal work of Paturi and Simon \cite[FOCS'84 & JCSS'86]{PS86}, the unbounded-error classical communication complexity of a Boolean function has been studied based on the arrangement of points and hyperplanes. Recently, \cite[ICALP'07]{INRY07} found that the unbounded-error {\em quantum} communication complexity in the {\em one-way communication} model can also be investigated using the arrangement, and showed that it is exactly (without a difference of even one qubit) half of the classical one-way communication complexity. In this paper, we extend the arrangement argument to the {\em two-way} and {\em simultaneous message passing} (SMP) models. As a result, we show similarly tight bounds of the unbounded-error two-way/one-way/SMP quantum/classical communication complexities for {\em any} partial/total Boolean function, implying that all of them are equivalent up to a multiplicative constant of four. Moreover, the arrangement argument is also used to show that the gap between {\em weakly} unbounded-error quantum and classical communication complexities is at most a factor of three.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Unbounded-error One-way Classical and Quantum Communication Complexity

This paper studies the gap between quantum one-way communication complexity $Q(f)$ and its classical counterpart $C(f)$, under the {\em unbounded-error} setting, i.e., it is enough that the success probability is strictly greater than 1/2. It is proved that for {\em any} (total or partial) Boolean function $f$, $Q(f)=\lceil C(f)/2 \rceil$, i.e., the former is always exactly one half as large as the latter. The result has an application to obtaining (again an exact) bound for the existence of $(m,n,p)$-QRAC which is the $n$-qubit random access coding that can recover any one of $m$ original bits with success probability $\geq p$. We can prove that $(m,n,>1/2)$-QRAC exists if and only if $m\leq 2^{2n}-1$. Previously, only the construction of QRAC using one qubit, the existence of $(O(n),n,>1/2)$-RAC, and the non-existence of $(2^{2n},n,>1/2)$-QRAC were known.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Quantum Network Coding for General Graphs

Network coding is often explained by using a small network model called Butterfly. In this network, there are two flow paths, s_1 to t_1 and s_2 to t_2, which share a single bottleneck channel of capacity one. So, if we consider conventional flow (of liquid, for instance), then the total amount of flow must be at most one in total, say 1/2 for each path. However, if we consider information flow, then we can send two bits (one for each path) at the same time by exploiting two side links, which are of no use for the liquid-type flow, and encoding/decoding operations at each node. This is known as network coding and has been quite popular since its introduction by Ahlswede, Cai, Li and Yeung in 2000. In QIP 2006, Hayashi et al showed that quantum network coding is possible for Butterfly, namely we can send two qubits simultaneously with keeping their fidelity strictly greater than 1/2. In this paper, we show that the result can be extended to a large class of general graphs by using a completely different approach. The underlying technique is a new cloning method called entanglement-free cloning which does not produce any entanglement at all. This seems interesting on its own and to show its possibility is an even more important purpose of this paper. Combining this new cloning with approximation of general quantum states by a small number of fixed ones, we can design a quantum network coding protocol which ``simulates'' its classical counterpart for the same graph.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Quantum Network Coding

Since quantum information is continuous, its handling is sometimes surprisingly harder than the classical counterpart. A typical example is cloning; making a copy of digital information is straightforward but it is not possible exactly for quantum information. The question in this paper is whether or not quantum network coding is possible. Its classical counterpart is another good example to show that digital information flow can be done much more efficiently than conventional (say, liquid) flow. Our answer to the question is similar to the case of cloning, namely, it is shown that quantum network coding is possible if approximation is allowed, by using a simple network model called Butterfly. In this network, there are two flow paths, s_1 to t_1 and s_2 to t_2, which shares a single bottleneck channel of capacity one. In the classical case, we can send two bits simultaneously, one for each path, in spite of the bottleneck. Our results for quantum network coding include: (i) We can send any quantum state |psi_1> from s_1 to t_1 and |psi_2> from s_2 to t_2 simultaneously with a fidelity strictly greater than 1/2. (ii) If one of |psi_1> and |psi_2> is classical, then the fidelity can be improved to 2/3. (iii) Similar improvement is also possible if |psi_1> and |psi_2> are restricted to only a finite number of (previously known) states. (iv) Several impossibility results including the general upper bound of the fidelity are also given.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Strip Packing vs. Bin Packing

In this paper we establish a general algorithmic framework between bin packing and strip packing, with which we achieve the same asymptotic bounds by applying bin packing algorithms to strip packing. More precisely we obtain the following results: (1) Any offline bin packing algorithm can be applied to strip packing maintaining the same asymptotic worst-case ratio. Thus using FFD (MFFD) as a subroutine, we get a practical (simple and fast) algorithm for strip packing with an upper bound 11/9 (71/60). A simple AFPTAS for strip packing immediately follows. (2) A class of Harmonic-based algorithms for bin packing can be applied to online strip packing maintaining the same asymptotic competitive ratio. It implies online strip packing admits an upper bound of 1.58889 on the asymptotic competitive ratio, which is very close to the lower bound 1.5401 and significantly improves the previously best bound of 1.6910 and affirmatively answers an open question posed by Csirik et. al.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2006

New Upper Bounds on The Approximability of 3D Strip Packing

In this paper, we study the 3D strip packing problem in which we are given a list of 3-dimensional boxes and required to pack all of them into a 3-dimensional strip with length 1 and width 1 and unlimited height to minimize the height used. Our results are below: i) we give an approximation algorithm with asymptotic worst-case ratio 1.69103, which improves the previous best bound of $2+ε$ by Jansen and Solis-Oba of SODA 2006; ii) we also present an asymptotic PTAS for the case in which all items have {\em square} bases.

cs.DS↗