arXiv subjects

Nikos Parotsidis

Publications and source records attributed to Nikos Parotsidis.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Dynamic Algorithms for the Massively Parallel Computation Model

The Massive Parallel Computing (MPC) model gained popularity during the last decade and it is now seen as the standard model for processing large scale data. One significant shortcoming of the model is that it assumes to work on static datasets while, in practice, real-world datasets evolve continuously. To overcome this issue, in this paper we initiate the study of dynamic algorithms in the MPC model. We first discuss the main requirements for a dynamic parallel model and we show how to adapt the classic MPC model to capture them. Then we analyze the connection between classic dynamic algorithms and dynamic algorithms in the MPC model. Finally, we provide new efficient dynamic MPC algorithms for a variety of fundamental graph problems, including connectivity, minimum spanning tree and matching.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2019

Strong Connectivity in Directed Graphs under Failures, with Application

In this paper, we investigate some basic connectivity problems in directed graphs (digraphs). Let $G$ be a digraph with $m$ edges and $n$ vertices, and let $G\setminus e$ be the digraph obtained after deleting edge $e$ from $G$. As a first result, we show how to compute in $O(m+n)$ worst-case time: $(i)$ The total number of strongly connected components in $G\setminus e$, for all edges $e$ in $G$. $(ii)$ The size of the largest and of the smallest strongly connected components in $G\setminus e$, for all edges $e$ in $G$. Let $G$ be strongly connected. We say that edge $e$ separates two vertices $x$ and $y$, if $x$ and $y$ are no longer strongly connected in $G\setminus e$. As a second set of results, we show how to build in $O(m+n)$ time $O(n)$-space data structures that can answer in optimal time the following basic connectivity queries on digraphs: $(i)$ Report in $O(n)$ worst-case time all the strongly connected components of $G\setminus e$, for a query edge $e$. $(ii)$ Test whether an edge separates two query vertices in $O(1)$ worst-case time. $(iii)$ Report all edges that separate two query vertices in optimal worst-case time, i.e., in time $O(k)$, where $k$ is the number of separating edges. (For $k=0$, the time is $O(1)$). All of the above results extend to vertex failures. All our bounds are tight and are obtained with a common algorithmic framework, based on a novel compact representation of the decompositions induced by the $1$-connectivity (i.e., $1$-edge and $1$-vertex) cuts in digraphs, which might be of independent interest. With the help of our data structures we can design efficient algorithms for several other connectivity problems on digraphs and we can also obtain in linear time a strongly connected spanning subgraph of $G$ with $O(n)$ edges that maintains the $1$-connectivity cuts of $G$ and the decompositions induced by those cuts.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2019

Faster Algorithms for All-Pairs Bounded Min-Cuts

The All-Pairs Min-Cut problem (aka All-Pairs Max-Flow) asks to compute a minimum $s$-$t$ cut (or just its value) for all pairs of vertices $s,t$. We study this problem in directed graphs with unit edge/vertex capacities (corresponding to edge/vertex connectivity). Our focus is on the $k$-bounded case, where the algorithm has to find all pairs with min-cut value less than $k$, and report only those. The most basic case $k=1$ is the Transitive Closure (TC) problem, which can be solved in graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges in time $O(mn)$ combinatorially, and in time $O(n^ω)$ where $ω<2.38$ is the matrix-multiplication exponent. These time bounds are conjectured to be optimal. We present new algorithms and conditional lower bounds that advance the frontier for larger $k$, as follows: (i) A randomized algorithm for vertex capacities that runs in time $O((nk)^ω)$. (ii) Two deterministic algorithms for edge capacities (which is more general) that work in DAGs and further reports a minimum cut for each pair. The first algorithm is combinatorial (does not involve matrix multiplication) and runs in time $O(2^{O(k^2)}\cdot mn)$. The second algorithm can be faster on dense DAGs and runs in time $O((k\log n)^{4^k+o(k)} n^ω)$. (iii) The first super-cubic lower bound of $n^{ω-1-o(1)} k^2$ time under the $4$-Clique conjecture, which holds even in the simplest case of DAGs with unit vertex capacities. It improves on the previous (SETH-based) lower bounds even in the unbounded setting $k=n$. For combinatorial algorithms, our reduction implies an $n^{2-o(1)} k^2$ conditional lower bound. Thus, we identify new settings where the complexity of the problem is (conditionally) higher than that of TC.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2019

Dominating Sets and Connected Dominating Sets in Dynamic Graphs

In this paper we study the dynamic versions of two basic graph problems: Minimum Dominating Set and its variant Minimum Connected Dominating Set. For those two problems, we present algorithms that maintain a solution under edge insertions and edge deletions in time $O(Δ\cdot \text{polylog}~n)$ per update, where $Δ$ is the maximum vertex degree in the graph. In both cases, we achieve an approximation ratio of $O(\log n)$, which is optimal up to a constant factor (under the assumption that $P \ne NP$). Although those two problems have been widely studied in the static and in the distributed settings, to the best of our knowledge we are the first to present efficient algorithms in the dynamic setting. As a further application of our approach, we also present an algorithm that maintains a Minimal Dominating Set in $O(min(Δ, \sqrt{m}))$ per update.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2018

Online Reciprocal Recommendation with Theoretical Performance Guarantees

A reciprocal recommendation problem is one where the goal of learning is not just to predict a user's preference towards a passive item (e.g., a book), but to recommend the targeted user on one side another user from the other side such that a mutual interest between the two exists. The problem thus is sharply different from the more traditional items-to-users recommendation, since a good match requires meeting the preferences of both users. We initiate a rigorous theoretical investigation of the reciprocal recommendation task in a specific framework of sequential learning. We point out general limitations, formulate reasonable assumptions enabling effective learning and, under these assumptions, we design and analyze a computationally efficient algorithm that uncovers mutual likes at a pace comparable to those achieved by a clearvoyant algorithm knowing all user preferences in advance. Finally, we validate our algorithm against synthetic and real-world datasets, showing improved empirical performance over simple baselines.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2018

Incremental Strong Connectivity and 2-Connectivity in Directed Graphs

In this paper, we present new incremental algorithms for maintaining data structures that represent all connectivity cuts of size one in directed graphs (digraphs), and the strongly connected components that result by the removal of each of those cuts. We give a conditional lower bound that provides evidence that our algorithms may be tight up to sub-polynomial factors. As an additional result, with our approach we can also maintain dynamically the $2$-vertex-connected components of a digraph during any sequence of edge insertions in a total of $O(mn)$ time. This matches the bounds for the incremental maintenance of the $2$-edge-connected components of a digraph.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2018

Balancing Information Exposure in Social Networks

Social media has brought a revolution on how people are consuming news. Beyond the undoubtedly large number of advantages brought by social-media platforms, a point of criticism has been the creation of echo chambers and filter bubbles, caused by social homophily and algorithmic personalization. In this paper we address the problem of balancing the information exposure in a social network. We assume that two opposing campaigns (or viewpoints) are present in the network, and that network nodes have different preferences towards these campaigns. Our goal is to find two sets of nodes to employ in the respective campaigns, so that the overall information exposure for the two campaigns is balanced. We formally define the problem, characterize its hardness, develop approximation algorithms, and present experimental evaluation results. Our model is inspired by the literature on influence maximization, but we offer significant novelties. First, balance of information exposure is modeled by a symmetric difference function, which is neither monotone nor submodular, and thus, not amenable to existing approaches. Second, while previous papers consider a setting with selfish agents and provide bounds on best response strategies (i.e., move of the last player), we consider a setting with a centralized agent and provide bounds for a global objective function.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2017

All-Pairs 2-Reachability in $\mathcal{O}(n^ω\log n)$ Time

In the $2$-reachability problem we are given a directed graph $G$ and we wish to determine if there are two (edge or vertex) disjoint paths from $u$ to $v$, for a given pair of vertices $u$ and $v$. In this paper, we present an algorithm that computes $2$-reachability information for all pairs of vertices in $\mathcal{O}(n^ω\log n)$ time, where $n$ is the number of vertices and $ω$ is the matrix multiplication exponent. Hence, we show that the running time of all-pairs $2$-reachability is only within a $\log$ factor of transitive closure. Moreover, our algorithm produces a witness (i.e., a separating edge or a separating vertex) for all pair of vertices where $2$-reachability does not hold. By processing these witnesses, we can compute all the edge- and vertex-dominator trees of $G$ in $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ additional time, which in turn enables us to answer various connectivity queries in $\mathcal{O}(1)$ time. For instance, we can test in constant time if there is a path from $u$ to $v$ avoiding an edge $e$, for any pair of query vertices $u$ and $v$, and any query edge $e$, or if there is a path from $u$ to $v$ avoiding a vertex $w$, for any query vertices $u$, $v$, and $w$.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2017

Faster Algorithms for Computing Maximal 2-Connected Subgraphs in Sparse Directed Graphs

Connectivity related concepts are of fundamental interest in graph theory. The area has received extensive attention over four decades, but many problems remain unsolved, especially for directed graphs. A directed graph is 2-edge-connected (resp., 2-vertex-connected) if the removal of any edge (resp., vertex) leaves the graph strongly connected. In this paper we present improved algorithms for computing the maximal 2-edge- and 2-vertex-connected subgraphs of a given directed graph. These problems were first studied more than 35 years ago, with $\widetilde{O}(mn)$ time algorithms for graphs with m edges and n vertices being known since the late 1980s. In contrast, the same problems for undirected graphs are known to be solvable in linear time. Henzinger et al. [ICALP 2015] recently introduced $O(n^2)$ time algorithms for the directed case, thus improving the running times for dense graphs. Our new algorithms run in time $O(m^{3/2})$, which further improves the running times for sparse graphs. The notion of 2-connectivity naturally generalizes to k-connectivity for $k>2$. For constant values of k, we extend one of our algorithms to compute the maximal k-edge-connected in time $O(m^{3/2} \log{n})$, improving again for sparse graphs the best known algorithm by Henzinger et al. [ICALP 2015] that runs in $O(n^2 \log n)$ time.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2017

Decremental Data Structures for Connectivity and Dominators in Directed Graphs

We introduce a new dynamic data structure for maintaining the strongly connected components (SCCs) of a directed graph (digraph) under edge deletions, so as to answer a rich repertoire of connectivity queries. Our main technical contribution is a decremental data structure that supports sensitivity queries of the form "are $ u $ and $ v $ strongly connected in the graph $ G \setminus w $?", for any triple of vertices $ u, v, w $, while $ G $ undergoes deletions of edges. Our data structure processes a sequence of edge deletions in a digraph with $n$ vertices in $O(m n \log{n})$ total time and $O(n^2 \log{n})$ space, where $m$ is the number of edges before any deletion, and answers the above queries in constant time. We can leverage our data structure to obtain decremental data structures for many more types of queries within the same time and space complexity. For instance for edge-related queries, such as testing whether two query vertices $u$ and $v$ are strongly connected in $G \setminus e$, for some query edge $e$. As another important application of our decremental data structure, we provide the first nontrivial algorithm for maintaining the dominator tree of a flow graph under edge deletions. We present an algorithm that processes a sequence of edge deletions in a flow graph in $O(m n \log{n})$ total time and $O(n^2 \log{n})$ space. For reducible flow graphs we provide an $O(mn)$-time and $O(m + n)$-space algorithm. We give a conditional lower bound that provides evidence that these running times may be tight up to subpolynomial factors.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2016

Incremental $2$-Edge-Connectivity in Directed Graphs

In this paper, we initiate the study of the dynamic maintenance of $2$-edge-connectivity relationships in directed graphs. We present an algorithm that can update the $2$-edge-connected blocks of a directed graph with $n$ vertices through a sequence of $m$ edge insertions in a total of $O(mn)$ time. After each insertion, we can answer the following queries in asymptotically optimal time: (i) Test in constant time if two query vertices $v$ and $w$ are $2$-edge-connected. Moreover, if $v$ and $w$ are not $2$-edge-connected, we can produce in constant time a "witness" of this property, by exhibiting an edge that is contained in all paths from $v$ to $w$ or in all paths from $w$ to $v$. (ii) Report in $O(n)$ time all the $2$-edge-connected blocks of $G$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dynamic algorithm for $2$-connectivity problems on directed graphs, and it matches the best known bounds for simpler problems, such as incremental transitive closure.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2015

Approximating the Smallest Spanning Subgraph for 2-Edge-Connectivity in Directed Graphs

Let $G$ be a strongly connected directed graph. We consider the following three problems, where we wish to compute the smallest strongly connected spanning subgraph of $G$ that maintains respectively: the $2$-edge-connected blocks of $G$ (\textsf{2EC-B}); the $2$-edge-connected components of $G$ (\textsf{2EC-C}); both the $2$-edge-connected blocks and the $2$-edge-connected components of $G$ (\textsf{2EC-B-C}). All three problems are NP-hard, and thus we are interested in efficient approximation algorithms. For \textsf{2EC-C} we can obtain a $3/2$-approximation by combining previously known results. For \textsf{2EC-B} and \textsf{2EC-B-C}, we present new $4$-approximation algorithms that run in linear time. We also propose various heuristics to improve the size of the computed subgraphs in practice, and conduct a thorough experimental study to assess their merits in practical scenarios.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2015

2-Vertex Connectivity in Directed Graphs

We complement our study of 2-connectivity in directed graphs, by considering the computation of the following 2-vertex-connectivity relations: We say that two vertices v and w are 2-vertex-connected if there are two internally vertex-disjoint paths from v to w and two internally vertex-disjoint paths from w to v. We also say that v and w are vertex-resilient if the removal of any vertex different from v and w leaves v and w in the same strongly connected component. We show how to compute the above relations in linear time so that we can report in constant time if two vertices are 2-vertex-connected or if they are vertex-resilient. We also show how to compute in linear time a sparse certificate for these relations, i.e., a subgraph of the input graph that has O(n) edges and maintains the same 2-vertex-connectivity and vertex-resilience relations as the input graph, where n is the number of vertices.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2014

2-Edge Connectivity in Directed Graphs

Edge and vertex connectivity are fundamental concepts in graph theory. While they have been thoroughly studied in the case of undirected graphs, surprisingly not much has been investigated for directed graphs. In this paper we study $2$-edge connectivity problems in directed graphs and, in particular, we consider the computation of the following natural relation: We say that two vertices $v$ and $w$ are $2$-edge-connected if there are two edge-disjoint paths from $v$ to $w$ and two edge-disjoint paths from $w$ to $v$. This relation partitions the vertices into blocks such that all vertices in the same block are $2$-edge-connected. Differently from the undirected case, those blocks do not correspond to the $2$-edge-connected components of the graph. We show how to compute this relation in linear time so that we can report in constant time if two vertices are $2$-edge-connected. We also show how to compute in linear time a sparse certificate for this relation, i.e., a subgraph of the input graph that has $O(n)$ edges and maintains the same $2$-edge-connected blocks as the input graph.

cs.DS↗