arXiv subjects

Mikkel Thorup

Publications and source records attributed to Mikkel Thorup.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Instance-Optimality of Bidirectional Dijkstra on Simple Graphs

We study the shortest-path problem on graphs with positive real-valued edge weights. Given a source vertex $s$ and a target vertex $t$, the goal is to calculate the length of the shortest path from $s$ to $t$. We are particularly interested in instances that can be solved in sublinear time. Recently, Haeupler, Hlad\'ik, Rozho\v{n}, Tarjan, and T\v{e}tek proved that (a version of) the bidirectional Dijkstra's algorithm is instance-optimal on positively weighted multigraphs, both directed and undirected, considering the number of vertices and edges queried by the algorithm. However, multigraphs are not the canonical setting for the shortest-path problem. The problem is typically formulated on simple graphs without loops and parallel edges. They therefore left as an open problem whether bidirectional Dijkstra remains instance-optimal on simple weighted graphs. We answer this question, but for simple graphs, the answer is more complex, depending on the setting. We show that bidirectional Dijkstra is still instance-optimal on simple undirected weighted graphs under the order-oblivious model, where incident edges are given in a random order. In contrast, under the order-dependent model, where incident edges have a given order, we show that bidirectional Dijkstra is not instance-optimal. For simple directed weighted graphs, we show that bidirectional Dijkstra is not instance-optimal under either the order-oblivious or the order-dependent model, being off by a factor of $\Theta(m/n)$ in both cases. We further show that no algorithm can have instance-optimality ratio $o(m/n)$ under the order-dependent model, or under the order-oblivious model when $m=O(n\sqrt{n})$. On the positive side, the above results imply that bidirectional Dijkstra is instance-optimal up to logarithmic factors on all sparse directed and undirected graphs satisfying $m/n=\log^{O(1)} n$.

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arXiv2026

Connectivity augmentation is fixed-parameter tractable

In the vertex connectivity augmentation problem, we are given an undirected $n$-vertex graph $G$, a set of links $L \subseteq \binom{V(G)}{2} \setminus E(G)$, and integers $\lambda$ and $k$. The task is to insert at most $k$ links from $L$ to $G$ to make $G$ $\lambda$-vertex-connected. We show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) when parameterized by $\lambda$ and $k$, by giving an algorithm with running time $2^{O(k \log (k + \lambda))} n^{O(1)}$. This improves upon a recent result of Carmesin and Ramanujan [SODA'26], who showed that the problem is FPT parameterized by $k$ but only when $\lambda \le 4$. We also consider the analogous edge connectivity augmentation problem, where the goal is to make $G$ $\lambda$-edge-connected. We show that the problem is FPT when parameterized by $k$ only, by giving an algorithm with running time $2^{O(k \log k)} n^{O(1)}$. Previously, such results were known only under additional assumptions on the edge connectivity of $G$.

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arXiv2026

The Four Color Theorem with Linearly Many Reducible Configurations and Near-Linear Time Coloring

We give a near-linear time 4-coloring algorithm for planar graphs, improving on the previous quadratic time algorithm by Robertson et al. from 1996. Such an algorithm cannot be achieved by the known proofs of the Four Color Theorem (4CT). Technically speaking, we show the following significant generalization of the 4CT: every planar triangulation contains linearly many pairwise non-touching reducible configurations or pairwise non-crossing obstructing cycles of length at most 5 (which all allow for making effective 4-coloring reductions). The known proofs of the 4CT only show the existence of a single reducible configuration or obstructing cycle in the above statement. The existence is proved using the discharging method based on combinatorial curvature. It identifies reducible configurations in parts where the local neighborhood has positive combinatorial curvature. Our result significantly strengthens the known proofs of 4CT, showing that we can also find reductions in large ``flat" parts where the curvature is zero, and moreover, we can make reductions almost anywhere in a given planar graph. This also opens possibilities for extensions to higher surfaces since we can find such flat parts in any large-width triangulation of any fixed surface. From a computational perspective, the old proofs allowed us to apply induction on a problem that is smaller by some additive constant. The inductive step took linear time, resulting in a quadratic total time. With our linear number of reducible configurations or obstructing cycles, we can reduce the problem size by a constant factor. Our inductive step takes $O(n\log n)$ time, yielding a 4-coloring in $O(n\log n)$ total time. To efficiently handle a linear number of reducible configurations, we need them to be sufficiently robust to be useful in other applications. All our reducible configurations are what is known as D-reducible.

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arXiv2026

Pivot based correlation clustering in the presence of good clusters

The classic pivot based clustering algorithm of Ailon, Charikar and Chawla [JACM'08] is factor 3, but all concrete examples showing that it is no better than 3 are based on some very good clusters, e.g., a complete graph minus a matching. By removing all good clusters before we make each pivot step, we show that this improves the approximation ratio to $2.9991$. To aid in this, we also show how our proposed algorithm performs on synthetic datasets, where the algorithm performs remarkably well, and shows improvements over both the algorithm for locating good clusters and the classic pivot algorithm.

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arXiv2025

Instance-Optimality of Bidirectional PageRank Estimation

We study the problem of estimating a vertex's PageRank within a constant relative error, with constant probability. We prove that an adaptive variant of the simple classic bidirectional algorithm is instance-optimal up to a polylogarithmic factor for all directed graphs of order $n$ whose maximum in- and out-degrees are at most a constant fraction of $n$. In other words, there is no correct algorithm that can be faster than our algorithm on any such graph by more than a polylogarithmic factor. We further extend the instance-optimality to all graphs in which at most a polylogarithmic number of vertices have unbounded degrees. This covers all sparse graphs with $\tilde{O}(n)$ edges. In addition, we provide a counterexample showing that the bidirectional algorithm is not instance-optimal for graphs whose degrees are mostly equal to $n$. We also consider weighted graphs and multigraphs. We show that the bidirectional algorithm is instance-optimal on \emph{all} multigraphs, but for weighted simple graphs, we have almost the same limitations as for unweighted simple graphs.

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arXiv2025

PageRank Centrality in Directed Graphs with Bounded In-Degree

We study the computational complexity of locally estimating a node's PageRank centrality in a directed graph $G$. For any node $t$, its PageRank centrality $\pi(t)$ is defined as the probability that a random walk in $G$, starting from a uniformly chosen node, terminates at $t$, where each step terminates with a constant probability $\alpha\in(0,1)$. To obtain a multiplicative $\big(1\pm O(1)\big)$-approximation of $\pi(t)$ with probability $\Omega(1)$, the previously best upper bound is $O(n^{1/2}\min\{ \Delta_{in}^{1/2},\Delta_{out}^{1/2},m^{1/4}\})$ from [Wang, Wei, Wen, Yang, STOC '24], where $n$ and $m$ denote the number of nodes and edges in $G$, and $\Delta_{in}$ and $\Delta_{out}$ upper bound the in-degrees and out-degrees of $G$, respectively. Using a refinement of the proof in the same paper, we establish a lower bound of $\Omega(n^{1/2}\min\{\Delta_{in}^{1/2}/n^{\gamma},\Delta_{out}^{1/2}/n^{\gamma},m^{1/4}\})$, where $\gamma=\frac{1}{2}(2\max\{\log_{1/(1-\alpha)}\Delta_{in},1\}-1)^{-1}$. As $\gamma$ only depends on $\Delta_{in}$ and $n^{\gamma}=O(1)$ for $\Delta_{in}=\Omega\left(n^{\Omega(1)}\right)$, the known upper bound is tight if we only parameterize the complexity by $n$, $m$, and $\Delta_{out}$. However, there remains a gap of $\Omega(n^{\gamma})$ when considering $\Delta_{in}$, and this gap is large when $\Delta_{in}$ is small. In the extreme case where $\Delta_{in}\le1/(1-\alpha)$, we have $\gamma=1/2$, leading to a gap of $\Omega(n^{1/2})$ between the bounds $O(n^{1/2})$ and $\Omega(1)$. In this paper, we present a new algorithm that achieves the above lower bound (up to logarithmic factors). The algorithm assumes that $n$ and the bounds $\Delta_{in}$ and $\Delta_{out}$ are known in advance. Our key technique is a novel randomized backwards propagation process that only propagates selectively based on Monte Carlo estimated PageRank scores.

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arXiv2025

Faster All-Pairs Optimal Electric Car Routing

We present a randomized $\tilde{O}(n^{3.5})$-time algorithm for computing \emph{optimal energetic paths} for an electric car between all pairs of vertices in an $n$-vertex directed graph with positive and negative \emph{costs}. The optimal energetic paths are finite and well-defined even if the graph contains negative-cost cycles. This makes the problem much more challenging than standard shortest paths problems. More specifically, for every two vertices $s$ and~$t$ in the graph, the algorithm computes $\alpha_B(s,t)$, the maximum amount of charge the car can reach~$t$ with, if it starts at~$s$ with full battery, i.e., with charge~$B$, where~$B$ is the capacity of the battery. In the presence of negative-cost cycles, optimal paths are not necessarily simple. For dense graphs, our new $\tilde{O}(n^{3.5})$ time algorithm improves on a previous $\tilde{O}(mn^{2})$-time algorithm of Dorfman et al. [ESA 2023] for the problem. The \emph{cost} of an arc is the amount of charge taken from the battery of the car when traversing the arc. The charge in the battery can never exceed the capacity~$B$ of the battery and can never be negative. An arc of negative cost may correspond, for example, to a downhill road segment, while an arc with a positive cost may correspond to an uphill segment. A negative-cost cycle, if one exists, can be used in certain cases to charge the battery to its capacity. This makes the problem more interesting and more challenging. Negative-cost cycles may arise when certain road segments have magnetic charging strips, or when the electric car has solar panels. Combined with a result of Dorfman et al. [SOSA 2024], this also provides a randomized $\tilde{O}(n^{3.5})$-time algorithm for computing \emph{minimum-cost paths} between all pairs of vertices in an $n$-vertex graph when the battery can be externally recharged, at varying costs, at intermediate vertices.

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arXiv2025

Estimating Random-Walk Probabilities in Directed Graphs

We study discounted random walks in directed graphs. In each step, the walk either terminates with a constant probability $\alpha$, or proceeds to a random out-neighbor. Our goal is to estimate the probability $\pi(s, t)$ that a discounted random walk starting from $s$ terminates at $t$. This probability is also known as the Personalized PageRank (PPR) score, which measures the relevance of $t$ to $s$, for instance, when $s$ and $t$ are web pages on the Internet. We aim to estimate $\pi(s, t)$ within a constant relative error with constant probability. A variety of algorithms have been developed for several problem variants, such as single-pair, single-source, single-target, and single-node estimation, under both worst-case and average-case settings, and for different combinations of allowed graph queries. However, in many important cases, there remain polynomial gaps between known upper and lower bounds. In this paper, we establish tight upper and lower bounds (up to logarithmic factors of $n$) for all problem variants and query combinations, closing all existing gaps in both the worst-case and average-case settings. Below we give some examples for the worst-case settings. As an upper-bound example, the classic power method estimates $\pi(s,t)$ if it is above a threshold $\delta$ in time $O(m\log(1/\delta))$ but $\pi(s,t)$ can be as small as $1/n^{\Theta(n)}$. For contrast, we propose algorithms that deterministically estimate arbitrarily small $\pi(s,t)$ in $O(m\log n)$ time. As a lower-bound example, we improve the lower bound for the single-pair problem from $\Omega(\min\{n,1/\delta\})$ to $\Omega(\min\{m,1/\delta\})$, which is optimal (up to logarithmic factors) since a simple Monte Carlo estimate takes $O(1/\delta)$ time.

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arXiv2025

Static to Dynamic Correlation Clustering

Correlation clustering is a well-studied problem, first proposed by Bansal, Blum, and Chawla [Mach. Learn. '04]. The input is an unweighted, undirected graph. The problem is to cluster the vertices so as to minimize the number of edges between vertices in different clusters and missing edges between vertices inside the same cluster. This problem has a wide application in data mining and machine learning. We introduce a general framework that transforms existing static correlation clustering algorithms into fully-dynamic ones that work against an adaptive adversary. We show how to apply our framework to known efficient correlation clustering algorithms, starting from the classic 3-approximate Pivot algorithm from Ailon, Charikar and Newman [JACM'08]. Applied to the most recent sublinear $1.485$-approximation algorithm from Cao, Cohen-Addad, Lee, Li, Lolck, Newman, Thorup, Vogl, Yan and Zhang [STOC'25], we get a $1.485$-approximation fully-dynamic algorithm that works with worst-case constant update time. The original static algorithm gets its approximation factor with constant probability, and we get the same against an adaptive adversary in the sense that for any given update step, not known to our algorithm, our solution is a $1.485$-approximation with constant probability when we reach this update. Most of previous dynamic algorithms, including the celebrated result from Behnezhad, Charikar, Ma and Tan [FOCS'19], had approximation factors around $3$ in expectation, and they could only handle an oblivious adversary. A recent algorithm by Braverman, Dharangutte, Pai, Shah, and Wang [AISTATS'25] could handle an adaptive adversary, but it has a large unspecified constant approximation ratio. This contrasts with our general transformation, which works with all the best approximation factors known for the static case.

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arXiv2025

Solving the Correlation Cluster LP in Sublinear Time

Correlation Clustering is a fundamental and widely-studied problem in unsupervised learning and data mining. The input is a graph and the goal is to construct a clustering minimizing the number of inter-cluster edges plus the number of missing intra-cluster edges. CCL+24 introduced the cluster LP for Correlation Clustering, which they argued captures the problem much more succinctly than previous linear programming formulations. However, the cluster LP has exponential size, with a variable for every possible set of vertices in the input graph. Nevertheless, CCL+24 showed how to find a feasible solution for the cluster LP in time $O(n^{\text{poly}(1/\epsilon)})$ with objective value at most $(1+\epsilon)$ times the value of an optimal solution for the respective Correlation Clustering instance. Furthermore, they showed how to round a solution to the cluster LP, yielding a $(1.485+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for the Correlation Clustering problem. The main technical result of this paper is a new approach to find a feasible solution for the cluster LP with objective value at most $(1+\epsilon)$ of the optimum in time $\widetilde O(2^{\text{poly}(1/\epsilon)} n)$, where $n$ is the number of vertices in the graph. We also show how to implement the rounding within the same time bounds, thus achieving a fast $(1.485+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for the Correlation Clustering problem. This bridges the gap between state-of-the-art methods for approximating Correlation Clustering and the recent focus on fast algorithms.

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arXiv2025

A Faster Algorithm for Constrained Correlation Clustering

In the Correlation Clustering problem we are given $n$ nodes, and a preference for each pair of nodes indicating whether we prefer the two endpoints to be in the same cluster or not. The output is a clustering inducing the minimum number of violated preferences. In certain cases, however, the preference between some pairs may be too important to be violated. The constrained version of this problem specifies pairs of nodes that must be in the same cluster as well as pairs that must not be in the same cluster (hard constraints). The output clustering has to satisfy all hard constraints while minimizing the number of violated preferences. Constrained Correlation Clustering is APX-Hard and has been approximated within a factor 3 by van Zuylen et al. [SODA '07] using $\Omega(n^{3\omega})$ time. In this work, using a more combinatorial approach, we show how to approximate this problem significantly faster at the cost of a slightly weaker approximation factor. In particular, our algorithm runs in $\widetilde{O}(n^3)$ time and approximates Constrained Correlation Clustering within a factor 16. To achieve our result we need properties guaranteed by a particular influential algorithm for (unconstrained) Correlation Clustering, the CC-PIVOT algorithm. This algorithm chooses a pivot node $u$, creates a cluster containing $u$ and all its preferred nodes, and recursively solves the rest of the problem. As a byproduct of our work, we provide a derandomization of the CC-PIVOT algorithm that still achieves the 3-approximation; furthermore, we show that there exist instances where no ordering of the pivots can give a $(3-\varepsilon)$-approximation, for any constant $\varepsilon$. Finally, we introduce a node-weighted version of Correlation Clustering, which can be approximated within factor 3 using our insights on Constrained Correlation Clustering.

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arXiv2024

Hashing for Sampling-Based Estimation

Hash-based sampling and estimation are common themes in computing. Using hashing for sampling gives us the coordination needed to compare samples from different sets. Hashing is also used when we want to count distinct elements. The quality of the estimator for, say, the Jaccard similarity between two sets, depends on the concentration of the number of sampled elements from their intersection. Often we want to compare one query set against many stored sets to find one of the most similar sets, so we need strong concentration and low error-probability. In this paper, we provide strong explicit concentration bounds for Tornado Tabulation hashing [Bercea, Beretta, Klausen, Houen, and Thorup, FOCS'23] which is a realistic constant time hashing scheme. Previous concentration bounds for fast hashing were off by orders of magnitude, in the sample size needed to guarantee the same concentration. The true power of our result appears when applied in the local uniformity framework by [Dahlgaard, Knudsen, Rotenberg, and Thorup, STOC'15].

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arXiv2024

Instance-Optimality in I/O-Efficient Sampling and Sequential Estimation

Suppose we have a memory storing $0$s and $1$s and we want to estimate the frequency of $1$s by sampling. We want to do this I/O-efficiently, exploiting that each read gives a block of $B$ bits at unit cost; not just one bit. If the input consists of uniform blocks: either all 1s or all 0s, then sampling a whole block at a time does not reduce the number of samples needed for estimation. On the other hand, if bits are randomly permuted, then getting a block of $B$ bits is as good as getting $B$ independent bit samples. However, we do not want to make any such assumptions on the input. Instead, our goal is to have an algorithm with instance-dependent performance guarantees which stops sampling blocks as soon as we know that we have a probabilistically reliable estimate. We prove our algorithms to be instance-optimal among algorithms oblivious to the order of the blocks, which we argue is the strongest form of instance optimality we can hope for. We also present similar results for I/O-efficiently estimating mean with both additive and multiplicative error, estimating histograms, quantiles, as well as the empirical cumulative distribution function. We obtain our above results on I/O-efficient sampling by reducing to corresponding problems in the so-called sequential estimation. In this setting, one samples from an unknown distribution until one can provide an estimate with some desired error probability. We then provide non-parametric instance-optimal results for several fundamental problems: mean and quantile estimation, as well as learning mixture distributions with respect to $\ell_\infty$ and the so-called Kolmogorov-Smirnov distance.

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arXiv2024

Combinatorial Correlation Clustering

Correlation Clustering is a classic clustering objective arising in numerous machine learning and data mining applications. Given a graph $G=(V,E)$, the goal is to partition the vertex set into clusters so as to minimize the number of edges between clusters plus the number of edges missing within clusters. The problem is APX-hard and the best known polynomial time approximation factor is 1.73 by Cohen-Addad, Lee, Li, and Newman [FOCS'23]. They use an LP with $|V|^{1/ε^{Θ(1)}}$ variables for some small $ε$. However, due to the practical relevance of correlation clustering, there has also been great interest in getting more efficient sequential and parallel algorithms. The classic combinatorial \emph{pivot} algorithm of Ailon, Charikar and Newman [JACM'08] provides a 3-approximation in linear time. Like most other algorithms discussed here, this uses randomization. Recently, Behnezhad, Charikar, Ma and Tan [FOCS'22] presented a $3+ε$-approximate solution for solving problem in a constant number of rounds in the Massively Parallel Computation (MPC) setting. Very recently, Cao, Huang, Su [SODA'24] provided a 2.4-approximation in a polylogarithmic number of rounds in the MPC model and in $\tilde{O} (|E|^{1.5})$ time in the classic sequential setting. They asked whether it is possible to get a better than 3-approximation in near-linear time? We resolve this problem with an efficient combinatorial algorithm providing a drastically better approximation factor. It achieves a $\sim 2-2/13 < 1.847$-approximation in sub-linear ($\tilde O(|V|)$) sequential time or in sub-linear ($\tilde O(|V|)$) space in the streaming setting. In the MPC model, we give an algorithm using only a constant number of rounds that achieves a $\sim 2-1/8 < 1.876$-approximation.

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arXiv2024

Better coloring of 3-colorable graphs

We consider the problem of coloring a 3-colorable graph in polynomial time using as few colors as possible. This is one of the most challenging problems in graph algorithms. In this paper using Blum's notion of ``progress'', we develop a new combinatorial algorithm for the following: Given any 3-colorable graph with minimum degree $\ds>\sqrt n$, we can, in polynomial time, make progress towards a $k$-coloring for some $k=\sqrt{n/\ds}\cdot n^{o(1)}$. We balance our main result with the best-known semi-definite(SDP) approach which we use for degrees below $n^{0.605073}$. As a result, we show that $\tO(n^{0.19747})$ colors suffice for coloring 3-colorable graphs. This improves on the previous best bound of $\tO(n^{0.19996})$ by Kawarabayashi and Thorup in 2017.

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arXiv2024

Fast Similarity Sketching

We consider the $\textit{Similarity Sketching}$ problem: Given a universe $[u] = \{0,\ldots, u-1\}$ we want a random function $S$ mapping subsets $A\subseteq [u]$ into vectors $S(A)$ of size $t$, such that the Jaccard similarity $J(A,B) = |A\cap B|/|A\cup B|$ between sets $A$ and $B$ is preserved. More precisely, define $X_i = [S(A)[i] = S(B)[i]]$ and $X = \sum_{i\in [t]} X_i$. We want $E[X_i]=J(A,B)$, and we want $X$ to be strongly concentrated around $E[X] = t \cdot J(A,B)$ (i.e. Chernoff-style bounds). This is a fundamental problem which has found numerous applications in data mining, large-scale classification, computer vision, similarity search, etc. via the classic MinHash algorithm. The vectors $S(A)$ are also called $\textit{sketches}$. Strong concentration is critical, for often we want to sketch many sets $B_1,\ldots,B_n$ so that we later, for a query set $A$, can find (one of) the most similar $B_i$. It is then critical that no $B_i$ looks much more similar to $A$ due to errors in the sketch. The seminal $t\times\textit{MinHash}$ algorithm uses $t$ random hash functions $h_1,\ldots, h_t$, and stores $\left ( \min_{a\in A} h_1(A),\ldots, \min_{a\in A} h_t(A) \right )$ as the sketch of $A$. The main drawback of MinHash is, however, its $O(t\cdot |A|)$ running time, and finding a sketch with similar properties and faster running time has been the subject of several papers. (continued...)

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arXiv2024

Minimum-cost paths for electric cars

An electric car equipped with a battery of a finite capacity travels on a road network with an infrastructure of charging stations. Each charging station has a possibly different cost per unit of energy. Traversing a given road segment requires a specified amount of energy that may be positive, zero or negative. The car can only traverse a road segment if it has enough charge to do so (the charge cannot drop below zero), and it cannot charge its battery beyond its capacity. To travel from one point to another the car needs to choose a \emph{travel plan} consisting of a path in the network and a recharging schedule that specifies how much energy to charge at each charging station on the path, making sure of having enough energy to reach the next charging station or the destination. The cost of the plan is the total charging cost along the chosen path. We reduce the problem of computing plans between every two junctions of the network to two problems: Finding optimal energetic paths when no charging is allowed and finding standard shortest paths. When there are no negative cycles in the network, we obtain an $O(n^3)$-time algorithm for computing all-pairs travel plans, where~$n$ is the number of junctions in the network. We obtain slightly faster algorithms under some further assumptions. We also consider the case in which a bound is placed on the number of rechargings allowed.

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arXiv2024

Fully Dynamic Exact Edge Connectivity in Sublinear Time

Given a simple $n$-vertex, $m$-edge graph $G$ undergoing edge insertions and deletions, we give two new fully dynamic algorithms for exactly maintaining the edge connectivity of $G$ in $\tilde{O}(n)$ worst-case update time and $\tilde{O}(m^{1-1/31})$ amortized update time, respectively. Prior to our work, all dynamic edge connectivity algorithms either assumed bounded edge connectivity, guaranteed approximate solutions, or were restricted to edge insertions only. Our results provide an affirmative answer to an open question posed by Thorup [Combinatorica'07].

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