arXiv subjects

Michael Lampis

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Lampis.

65 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Parameterized Approximation Schemes using Graph Widths

Combining the techniques of approximation algorithms and parameterized complexity has long been considered a promising research area, but relatively few results are currently known. In this paper we study the parameterized approximability of a number of problems which are known to be hard to solve exactly when parameterized by treewidth or clique-width. Our main contribution is to present a natural randomized rounding technique that extends well-known ideas and can be used for both of these widths. Applying this very generic technique we obtain approximation schemes for a number of problems, evading both polynomial-time inapproximability and parameterized intractability bounds.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2013

The Computational Complexity of the Game of Set and its Theoretical Applications

The game of SET is a popular card game in which the objective is to form Sets using cards from a special deck. In this paper we study single- and multi-round variations of this game from the computational complexity point of view and establish interesting connections with other classical computational problems. Specifically, we first show that a natural generalization of the problem of finding a single Set, parameterized by the size of the sought Set is W-hard; our reduction applies also to a natural parameterization of Perfect Multi-Dimensional Matching, a result which may be of independent interest. Second, we observe that a version of the game where one seeks to find the largest possible number of disjoint Sets from a given set of cards is a special case of 3-Set Packing; we establish that this restriction remains NP-complete. Similarly, the version where one seeks to find the smallest number of disjoint Sets that overlap all possible Sets is shown to be NP-complete, through a close connection to the Independent Edge Dominating Set problem. Finally, we study a 2-player version of the game, for which we show a close connection to Arc Kayles, as well as fixed-parameter tractability when parameterized by the number of rounds played.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2013

Closing a Gap in the Complexity of Refinement Modal Logic

Refinement Modal Logic (RML), which was recently introduced by Bozzelli et al., is an extension of classical modal logic which allows one to reason about a changing model. In this paper we study computational complexity questions related to this logic, settling a number of open problems. Specifically, we study the complexity of satisfiability for the existential fragment of RML, a problem posed by Bozzelli, van Ditmarsch and Pinchinat. Our main result is a tight PSPACE upper bound for this problem, which we achieve by introducing a new tableau system. As a direct consequence, we obtain a tight characterization of the complexity of RML satisfiability for any fixed number of alternations of refinement quantifiers. Additionally, through a simple reduction we establish that the model checking problem for RML is PSPACE-complete, even for formulas with a single quantifier.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2013

Parameterized Algorithms for Modular-Width

It is known that a number of natural graph problems which are FPT parameterized by treewidth become W-hard when parameterized by clique-width. It is therefore desirable to find a different structural graph parameter which is as general as possible, covers dense graphs but does not incur such a heavy algorithmic penalty. The main contribution of this paper is to consider a parameter called modular-width, defined using the well-known notion of modular decompositions. Using a combination of ILPs and dynamic programming we manage to design FPT algorithms for Coloring and Partitioning into paths (and hence Hamiltonian path and Hamiltonian cycle), which are W-hard for both clique-width and its recently introduced restriction, shrub-depth. We thus argue that modular-width occupies a sweet spot as a graph parameter, generalizing several simpler notions on dense graphs but still evading the "price of generality" paid by clique-width.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2013

New Inapproximability Bounds for TSP

In this paper, we study the approximability of the metric Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and prove new explicit inapproximability bounds for that problem. The best up to now known hardness of approximation bounds were 185/184 for the symmetric case (due to Lampis) and 117/116 for the asymmetric case (due to Papadimitriou and Vempala). We construct here two new bounded occurrence CSP reductions which improve these bounds to 123/122 and 75/74, respectively. The latter bound is the first improvement in more than a decade for the case of the asymmetric TSP. One of our main tools, which may be of independent interest, is a new construction of a bounded degree wheel amplifier used in the proof of our results.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2012

Local Improvement Gives Better Expanders

It has long been known that random regular graphs are with high probability good expanders. This was first established in the 1980s by Bollobás by directly calculating the probability that a set of vertices has small expansion and then applying the union bound. In this paper we improve on this analysis by relying on a simple high-level observation: if a graph contains a set of vertices with small expansion then it must also contain such a set of vertices that is locally optimal, that is, a set whose expansion cannot be made smaller by exchanging a vertex from the set with one from the set's complement. We show that the probability that a set of vertices satisfies this additional property is significantly smaller. Thus, after again applying the union bound, we obtain improved lower bounds on the expansion of random $Δ$-regular graphs for $Δ\ge 4$. In fact, the gains from this analysis increase as $Δ$ grows, a fact we explain by extending our technique to general $Δ$. Thus, in the end we obtain an improvement not only for some small special cases but on the general asymptotic bound on the expansion of $Δ$-regular graphs given by Bollobás.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2012

Improved Inapproximability for TSP

The Traveling Salesman Problem is one of the most studied problems in computational complexity and its approximability has been a long standing open question. Currently, the best known inapproximability threshold known is 220/219 due to Papadimitriou and Vempala. Here, using an essentially different construction and also relying on the work of Berman and Karpinski on bounded occurrence CSPs, we give an alternative and simpler inapproximability proof which improves the bound to 185/184.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2012

Scrabble is PSPACE-Complete

In this paper we study the computational complexity of the game of Scrabble. We prove the PSPACE-completeness of a derandomized model of the game, answering an open question of Erik Demaine and Robert Hearn.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2009

Parameterized Modal Satisfiability

We investigate the parameterized computational complexity of the satisfiability problem for modal logic and attempt to pinpoint relevant structural parameters which cause the problem's combinatorial explosion, beyond the number of propositional variables v. To this end we study the modality depth, a natural measure which has appeared in the literature, and show that, even though modal satisfiability parameterized by v and the modality depth is FPT, the running time's dependence on the parameters is a tower of exponentials (unless P=NP). To overcome this limitation we propose several possible alternative parameters, namely diamond dimension, box dimension and modal width. We show fixed-parameter tractability results using these measures where the exponential dependence on the parameters is much milder than in the case of modality depth thus leading to FPT algorithms for modal satisfiability with much more reasonable running times.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2009

Algorithmic Meta-Theorems for Graphs of Bounded Vertex Cover

Possibly the most famous algorithmic meta-theorem is Courcelle's theorem, which states that all MSO-expressible graph properties are decidable in linear time for graphs of bounded treewidth. Unfortunately, the running time's dependence on the MSO formula describing the problem is in general a tower of exponentials of unbounded height, and there exist lower bounds proving that this cannot be improved even if we restrict ourselves to deciding FO logic on trees. In this paper we attempt to circumvent these lower bounds by focusing on a subclass of bounded treewidth graphs, the graphs of bounded vertex cover. By using a technique different from the standard decomposition and dynamic programming technique of treewidth we prove that in this case the running time implied by Courcelle's theorem can be improved dramatically, from non-elementary to doubly and singly exponential for MSO and FO logic respectively. Our technique relies on a new graph width measure we introduce, for which we show some additional results that may indicate that it is of independent interest. We also prove lower bound results which show that our upper bounds cannot be improved significantly, under widely believed complexity assumptions. Our work answers an open problem posed by Michael Fellows.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2009

Vertex Cover Problem Parameterized Above and Below Tight Bounds

We study the well-known Vertex Cover problem parameterized above and below tight bounds. We show that two of the parameterizations (both were suggested by Mahajan, Raman and Sikdar, J. Computer and System Sciences, 75(2):137--153, 2009) are fixed-parameter tractable and two other parameterizations are W[1]-hard (one of them is, in fact, W[2]-hard).

cs.CC↗