arXiv subjects

Virginia Vassilevska Williams

Publications and source records attributed to Virginia Vassilevska Williams.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Improved Approximation for Longest Common Subsequence over Small Alphabets

This paper investigates the approximability of the Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) problem. The fastest algorithm for solving the LCS problem exactly runs in essentially quadratic time in the length of the input, and it is known that under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis the quadratic running time cannot be beaten. There are no such limitations for the approximate computation of the LCS however, except in some limited scenarios. There is also a scarcity of approximation algorithms. When the two given strings are over an alphabet of size $k$, returning the subsequence formed by the most frequent symbol occurring in both strings achieves a $1/k$ approximation for the LCS. It is an open problem whether a better than $1/k$ approximation can be achieved in truly subquadratic time ($O(n^{2-δ})$ time for constant $δ>0$). A recent result [Rubinstein and Song SODA'2020] showed that a $1/2+ε$ approximation for the LCS over a binary alphabet is possible in truly subquadratic time, provided the input strings have the same length. In this paper we show that if a $1/2+ε$ approximation (for $ε>0$) is achievable for binary LCS in truly subquadratic time when the input strings can be unequal, then for every constant $k$, there is a truly subquadratic time algorithm that achieves a $1/k+δ$ approximation for $k$-ary alphabet LCS for some $δ>0$. Thus the binary case is the hardest. We also show that for every constant $k$, if one is given two strings of \emph{equal} length over a $k$-ary alphabet, one can obtain a $1/k+ε$ approximation for some constant $ε>0$ in truly subquadratic time, thus extending the Rubinstein and Song result to all alphabets of constant size.

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arXiv2021

Faster Monotone Min-Plus Product, Range Mode, and Single Source Replacement Paths

One of the most basic graph problems, All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) is known to be solvable in $n^{3-o(1)}$ time, and it is widely open whether it has an $O(n^{3-ε})$ time algorithm for $ε> 0$. To better understand APSP, one often strives to obtain subcubic time algorithms for structured instances of APSP and problems equivalent to it, such as the Min-Plus matrix product. A natural structured version of Min-Plus product is Monotone Min-Plus product which has been studied in the context of the Batch Range Mode [SODA'20] and Dynamic Range Mode [ICALP'20] problems. This paper improves the known algorithms for Monotone Min-Plus Product and for Batch and Dynamic Range Mode, and establishes a connection between Monotone Min-Plus Product and the Single Source Replacement Paths (SSRP) problem on an $n$-vertex graph with potentially negative edge weights in $\{-M, \ldots, M\}$. SSRP with positive integer edge weights bounded by $M$ can be solved in $\tilde{O}(Mn^ω)$ time, whereas the prior fastest algorithm for graphs with possibly negative weights [FOCS'12] runs in $O(M^{0.7519} n^{2.5286})$ time, the current best running time for directed APSP with small integer weights. Using Monotone Min-Plus Product, we obtain an improved $O(M^{0.8043} n^{2.4957})$ time SSRP algorithm, showing that SSRP with constant negative integer weights is likely easier than directed unweighted APSP, a problem that is believed to require $n^{2.5-o(1)}$ time. Complementing our algorithm for SSRP, we give a reduction from the Bounded-Difference Min-Plus Product problem studied by Bringmann et al. [FOCS'16] to negative weight SSRP. This reduction shows that it might be difficult to obtain an $\tilde{O}(M n^ω)$ time algorithm for SSRP with negative weight edges, thus separating the problem from SSRP with only positive weight edges.

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arXiv2021

Towards Tight Approximation Bounds for Graph Diameter and Eccentricities

Among the most important graph parameters is the Diameter, the largest distance between any two vertices. There are no known very efficient algorithms for computing the Diameter exactly. Thus, much research has been devoted to how fast this parameter can be approximated. Chechik et al. showed that the diameter can be approximated within a multiplicative factor of $3/2$ in $\tilde{O}(m^{3/2})$ time. Furthermore, Roditty and Vassilevska W. showed that unless the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH) fails, no $O(n^{2-ε})$ time algorithm can achieve an approximation factor better than $3/2$ in sparse graphs. Thus the above algorithm is essentially optimal for sparse graphs for approximation factors less than $3/2$. It was, however, completely plausible that a $3/2$-approximation is possible in linear time. In this work we conditionally rule out such a possibility by showing that unless SETH fails no $O(m^{3/2-ε})$ time algorithm can achieve an approximation factor better than $5/3$. Another fundamental set of graph parameters are the Eccentricities. The Eccentricity of a vertex $v$ is the distance between $v$ and the farthest vertex from $v$. Chechik et al. showed that the Eccentricities of all vertices can be approximated within a factor of $5/3$ in $\tilde{O}(m^{3/2})$ time and Abboud et al. showed that no $O(n^{2-ε})$ algorithm can achieve better than $5/3$ approximation in sparse graphs. We show that the runtime of the $5/3$ approximation algorithm is also optimal under SETH. We also show that no near-linear time algorithm can achieve a better than $2$ approximation for the Eccentricities and that this is essentially tight: we give an algorithm that approximates Eccentricities within a $2+δ$ factor in $\tilde{O}(m/δ)$ time for any $0<δ<1$. This beats all Eccentricity algorithms in Cairo et al.

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arXiv2021

Algorithms, Reductions and Equivalences for Small Weight Variants of All-Pairs Shortest Paths

APSP with small integer weights in undirected graphs [Seidel'95, Galil and Margalit'97] has an $\tilde{O}(n^ω)$ time algorithm, where $ω<2.373$ is the matrix multiplication exponent. APSP in directed graphs with small weights however, has a much slower running time that would be $Ω(n^{2.5})$ even if $ω=2$ [Zwick'02]. To understand this $n^{2.5}$ bottleneck, we build a web of reductions around directed unweighted APSP. We show that it is fine-grained equivalent to computing a rectangular Min-Plus product for matrices with integer entries; the dimensions and entry size of the matrices depend on the value of $ω$. As a consequence, we establish an equivalence between APSP in directed unweighted graphs, APSP in directed graphs with small $(\tilde{O}(1))$ integer weights, All-Pairs Longest Paths in DAGs with small weights, approximate APSP with additive error $c$ in directed graphs with small weights, for $c\le \tilde{O}(1)$ and several other graph problems. We also provide fine-grained reductions from directed unweighted APSP to All-Pairs Shortest Lightest Paths (APSLP) in undirected graphs with $\{0,1\}$ weights and $\#_{\text{mod}\ c}$APSP in directed unweighted graphs (computing counts mod $c$). We complement our hardness results with new algorithms. We improve the known algorithms for APSLP in directed graphs with small integer weights and for approximate APSP with sublinear additive error in directed unweighted graphs. Our algorithm for approximate APSP with sublinear additive error is optimal, when viewed as a reduction to Min-Plus product. We also give new algorithms for variants of #APSP in unweighted graphs, as well as a near-optimal $\tilde{O}(n^3)$-time algorithm for the original #APSP problem in unweighted graphs. Our techniques also lead to a simpler alternative for the original APSP problem in undirected graphs with small integer weights.

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arXiv2020

Distributed Distance Approximation

Diameter, radius and eccentricities are fundamental graph parameters, which are extensively studied in various computational settings. Typically, computing approximate answers can be much more efficient compared with computing exact solutions. In this paper, we give a near complete characterization of the trade-offs between approximation ratios and round complexity of distributed algorithms for approximating these parameters, with a focus on the weighted and directed variants. Furthermore, we study \emph{bi-chromatic} variants of these parameters defined on a graph whose vertices are colored either red or blue, and one focuses only on distances for pairs of vertices that are colored differently. Motivated by applications in computational geometry, bi-chromatic diameter, radius and eccentricities have been recently studied in the sequential setting [Backurs et al. STOC'18, Dalirrooyfard et al. ICALP'19]. We provide the first distributed upper and lower bounds for such problems. Our technical contributions include introducing the notion of \emph{approximate pseudo-center}, which extends the \emph{pseudo-centers} of [Choudhary and Gold SODA'20], and presenting an efficient distributed algorithm for computing approximate pseudo-centers. On the lower bound side, our constructions introduce the usage of new functions into the framework of reductions from 2-party communication complexity to distributed algorithms.

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arXiv2020

Monochromatic Triangles, Intermediate Matrix Products, and Convolutions

The most studied linear algebraic operation, matrix multiplication, has surprisingly fast $O(n^ω)$ time algorithms for $ω<2.373$. On the other hand, the $(\min,+)$ matrix product which is at the heart of many fundamental graph problems such as APSP, has received only minor improvements over its brute-force cubic running time and is widely conjectured to require $n^{3-o(1)}$ time. There is a plethora of matrix products and graph problems whose complexity seems to lie in the middle of these two problems. For instance, the Min-Max matrix product, the Minimum Witness matrix product, APSP in directed unweighted graphs and determining whether an edge-colored graph contains a monochromatic triangle, can all be solved in $\tilde O(n^{(3+ω)/2})$ time. A similar phenomenon occurs for convolution problems, where analogous intermediate problems can be solved in $\tilde O(n^{1.5})$ time. Can one improve upon the running times for these intermediate problems, in either the matrix product or the convolution world? Or, alternatively, can one relate these problems to each other and to other key problems in a meaningful way? This paper makes progress on these questions by providing a network of fine-grained reductions. We show for instance that APSP in directed unweighted graphs and Minimum Witness product can be reduced to both the Min-Max product and a variant of the monochromatic triangle problem. We also show that a natural convolution variant of monochromatic triangle is fine-grained equivalent to the famous 3SUM problem. As this variant is solvable in $O(n^{1.5})$ time and 3SUM is in $O(n^2)$ time (and is conjectured to require $n^{2-o(1)}$ time), our result gives the first fine-grained equivalence between natural problems of different running times.

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arXiv2020

New Techniques for Proving Fine-Grained Average-Case Hardness

The recent emergence of fine-grained cryptography strongly motivates developing an average-case analogue of Fine-Grained Complexity (FGC). This paper defines new versions of OV, $k$SUM and zero-$k$-clique that are both worst-case and average-case fine-grained hard assuming the core hypotheses of FGC. We then use these as a basis for fine-grained hardness and average-case hardness of other problems. The new problems represent their inputs in a certain ``factored'' form. We call them ``factored''-OV, ``factored''-zero-$k$-clique and ``factored''-$3$SUM. We show that factored-$k$-OV and factored $k$SUM are equivalent and are complete for a class of problems defined over Boolean functions. Factored zero-$k$-clique is also complete, for a different class of problems. Our hard factored problems are also simple enough that we can reduce them to many other problems, e.g.~to edit distance, $k$-LCS and versions of Max-Flow. We further consider counting variants of the factored problems and give WCtoACFG reductions for them for a natural distribution. Through FGC reductions we then get average-case hardness for well-studied problems like regular expression matching from standard worst-case FGC assumptions. To obtain our WCtoACFG reductions, we formalize the framework of [Boix-Adsera et al. 2019] that was used to give a WCtoACFG reduction for counting $k$-cliques. We define an explicit property of problems such that if a problem has that property one can use the framework on the problem to get a WCtoACFG self reduction. We then use the framework to slightly extend Boix-Adsera et al.'s average-case counting $k$-cliques result to average-case hardness for counting arbitrary subgraph patterns of constant size in $k$-partite graphs...

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arXiv2020

Monochromatic Triangles, Triangle Listing and APSP

One of the main hypotheses in fine-grained complexity is that All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) for $n$-node graphs requires $n^{3-o(1)}$ time. Another famous hypothesis is that the $3$SUM problem for $n$ integers requires $n^{2-o(1)}$ time. Although there are no direct reductions between $3$SUM and APSP, it is known that they are related: there is a problem, $(\min,+)$-convolution that reduces in a fine-grained way to both, and a problem Exact Triangle that both fine-grained reduce to. In this paper we find more relationships between these two problems and other basic problems. Pătraşcu had shown that under the $3$SUM hypothesis the All-Edges Sparse Triangle problem in $m$-edge graphs requires $m^{4/3-o(1)}$ time. The latter problem asks to determine for every edge $e$, whether $e$ is in a triangle. It is equivalent to the problem of listing $m$ triangles in an $m$-edge graph where $m=\tilde{O}(n^{1.5})$, and can be solved in $O(m^{1.41})$ time [Alon et al.'97] with the current matrix multiplication bounds, and in $\tilde{O}(m^{4/3})$ time if $ω=2$. We show that one can reduce Exact Triangle to All-Edges Sparse Triangle, showing that All-Edges Sparse Triangle (and hence Triangle Listing) requires $m^{4/3-o(1)}$ time also assuming the APSP hypothesis. This allows us to provide APSP-hardness for many dynamic problems that were previously known to be hard under the $3$SUM hypothesis. We also consider the previously studied All-Edges Monochromatic Triangle problem. Via work of [Lincoln et al.'20], our result on All-Edges Sparse Triangle implies that if the All-Edges Monochromatic Triangle problem has an $O(n^{2.5-ε})$ time algorithm for $ε>0$, then both the APSP and $3$SUM hypotheses are false. We also connect the problem to other ``intermediate'' problems, whose runtimes are between $O(n^ω)$ and $O(n^3)$, such as the Max-Min product problem.

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arXiv2020

Tight Hardness for Shortest Cycles and Paths in Sparse Graphs

Fine-grained reductions have established equivalences between many core problems with $\tilde{O}(n^3)$-time algorithms on $n$-node weighted graphs, such as Shortest Cycle, All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP), Radius, Replacement Paths, Second Shortest Paths, and so on. These problems also have $\tilde{O}(mn)$-time algorithms on $m$-edge $n$-node weighted graphs, and such algorithms have wider applicability. Are these $mn$ bounds optimal when $m \ll n^2$? Starting from the hypothesis that the minimum weight $(2\ell+1)$-Clique problem in edge weighted graphs requires $n^{2\ell+1-o(1)}$ time, we prove that for all sparsities of the form $m = Θ(n^{1+1/\ell})$, there is no $O(n^2 + mn^{1-ε})$ time algorithm for $ε>0$ for \emph{any} of the below problems: Minimum Weight $(2\ell+1)$-Cycle in a directed weighted graph, Shortest Cycle in a directed weighted graph, APSP in a directed or undirected weighted graph, Radius (or Eccentricities) in a directed or undirected weighted graph, Wiener index of a directed or undirected weighted graph, Replacement Paths in a directed weighted graph, Second Shortest Path in a directed weighted graph, Betweenness Centrality of a given node in a directed weighted graph. That is, we prove hardness for a variety of sparse graph problems from the hardness of a dense graph problem. Our results also lead to new conditional lower bounds from several related hypothesis for unweighted sparse graph problems including $k$-cycle, shortest cycle, Radius, Wiener index and APSP.

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arXiv2020

Conditionally optimal approximation algorithms for the girth of a directed graph

It is known that a better than $2$-approximation algorithm for the girth in dense directed unweighted graphs needs $n^{3-o(1)}$ time unless one uses fast matrix multiplication. Meanwhile, the best known approximation factor for a combinatorial algorithm running in $O(mn^{1-ε})$ time (by Chechik et al.) is $3$. Is the true answer $2$ or $3$? The main result of this paper is a (conditionally) tight approximation algorithm for directed graphs. First, we show that under a popular hardness assumption, any algorithm, even one that exploits fast matrix multiplication, would need to take at least $mn^{1-o(1)}$ time for some sparsity $m$ if it achieves a $(2-ε)$-approximation for any $ε>0$. Second we give a $2$-approximation algorithm for the girth of unweighted graphs running in $\tilde{O}(mn^{3/4})$ time, and a $(2+ε)$-approximation algorithm (for any $ε>0$) that works in weighted graphs and runs in $\tilde{O}(m\sqrt n)$ time. Our algorithms are combinatorial. We also obtain a $(4+ε)$-approximation of the girth running in $\tilde{O}(mn^{\sqrt{2}-1})$ time, improving upon the previous best $\tilde{O}(m\sqrt n)$ running time by Chechik et al. Finally, we consider the computation of roundtrip spanners. We obtain a $(5+ε)$-approximate roundtrip spanner on $\tilde{O}(n^{1.5}/ε^2)$ edges in $\tilde{O}(m\sqrt n/ε^2)$ time. This improves upon the previous approximation factor $(8+ε)$ of Chechik et al. for the same running time.

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arXiv2020

Equivalences between triangle and range query problems

We define a natural class of range query problems, and prove that all problems within this class have the same time complexity (up to polylogarithmic factors). The equivalence is very general, and even applies to online algorithms. This allows us to obtain new improved algorithms for all of the problems in the class. We then focus on the special case of the problems when the queries are offline and the number of queries is linear. We show that our range query problems are runtime-equivalent (up to polylogarithmic factors) to counting for each edge $e$ in an $m$-edge graph the number of triangles through $e$. This natural triangle problem can be solved using the best known triangle counting algorithm, running in $O(m^{2ω/(ω+1)}) \leq O(m^{1.41})$ time. Moreover, if $ω=2$, the $O(m^{2ω/(ω+1)})$ running time is known to be tight (within $m^{o(1)}$ factors) under the 3SUM Hypothesis. In this case, our equivalence settles the complexity of the range query problems. Our problems constitute the first equivalence class with this peculiar running time bound. To better understand the complexity of these problems, we also provide a deeper insight into the family of triangle problems, in particular showing black-box reductions between triangle listing and per-edge triangle detection and counting. As a byproduct of our reductions, we obtain a simple triangle listing algorithm matching the state-of-the-art for all regimes of the number of triangles. We also give some not necessarily tight, but still surprising reductions from variants of matrix products, such as the $(\min,\max)$-product.

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arXiv2020

New Algorithms and Hardness for Incremental Single-Source Shortest Paths in Directed Graphs

In the dynamic Single-Source Shortest Paths (SSSP) problem, we are given a graph $G=(V,E)$ subject to edge insertions and deletions and a source vertex $s\in V$, and the goal is to maintain the distance $d(s,t)$ for all $t\in V$. Fine-grained complexity has provided strong lower bounds for exact partially dynamic SSSP and approximate fully dynamic SSSP [ESA'04, FOCS'14, STOC'15]. Thus much focus has been directed towards finding efficient partially dynamic $(1+ε)$-approximate SSSP algorithms [STOC'14, ICALP'15, SODA'14, FOCS'14, STOC'16, SODA'17, ICALP'17, ICALP'19, STOC'19, SODA'20, SODA'20]. Despite this rich literature, for directed graphs there are no known deterministic algorithms for $(1+ε)$-approximate dynamic SSSP that perform better than the classic ES-tree [JACM'81]. We present the first such algorithm. We present a \emph{deterministic} data structure for incremental SSSP in weighted digraphs with total update time $\tilde{O}(n^2 \log W)$ which is near-optimal for very dense graphs; here $W$ is the ratio of the largest weight in the graph to the smallest. Our algorithm also improves over the best known partially dynamic \emph{randomized} algorithm for directed SSSP by Henzinger et al. [STOC'14, ICALP'15] if $m=ω(n^{1.1})$. We also provide improved conditional lower bounds. Henzinger et al. [STOC'15] showed that under the OMv Hypothesis, the partially dynamic exact $s$-$t$ Shortest Path problem in undirected graphs requires amortized update or query time $m^{1/2-o(1)}$, given polynomial preprocessing time. Under a hypothesis about finding Cliques, we improve the update and query lower bound for algorithms with polynomial preprocessing time to $m^{0.626-o(1)}$. Further, under the $k$-Cycle hypothesis, we show that any partially dynamic SSSP algorithm with $O(m^{2-ε})$ preprocessing time requires amortized update or query time $m^{1-o(1)}$.

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arXiv2019

Algorithms and Hardness for Diameter in Dynamic Graphs

The diameter, radius and eccentricities are natural graph parameters. While these problems have been studied extensively, there are no known dynamic algorithms for them beyond the ones that follow from trivial recomputation after each update or from solving dynamic All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP), which is very computationally intensive. This is the situation for dynamic approximation algorithms as well, and even if only edge insertions or edge deletions need to be supported. This paper provides a comprehensive study of the dynamic approximation of Diameter, Radius and Eccentricities, providing both conditional lower bounds, and new algorithms whose bounds are optimal under popular hypotheses in fine-grained complexity. Some of the highlights include: - Under popular hardness hypotheses, there can be no significantly better fully dynamic approximation algorithms than recomputing the answer after each update, or maintaining full APSP. - Nearly optimal partially dynamic (incremental/decremental) algorithms can be achieved via efficient reductions to (incremental/decremental) maintenance of Single-Source Shortest Paths. For instance, a nearly $(3/2+ε)$-approximation to Diameter in directed or undirected graphs can be maintained decrementally in total time $m^{1+o(1)}\sqrt{n}/ε^2$. This nearly matches the static $3/2$-approximation algorithm for the problem that is known to be conditionally optimal.

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arXiv2019

Truly Subcubic Min-Plus Product for Less Structured Matrices, with Applications

The goal of this paper is to get truly subcubic algorithms for Min-Plus product for less structured inputs than what was previously known, and to apply them to versions of All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) and other problems. The results are as follows: (1) Our main result is the first truly subcubic algorithm for the Min-Plus product of two $n\times n$ matrices $A$ and $B$ with $\text{polylog}(n)$ bit integer entries, where $B$ has a partitioning into $n^ε\times n^ε$ blocks (for any $ε>0$) where each block is at most $n^δ$-far (for $δ<3-ω$, where $2\leq ω<2.373$) in $\ell_\infty$ norm from a constant rank integer matrix. This result presents the most general case to date of Min-Plus product that is solvable in truly subcubic time. (2) The first application of our main result is a truly subcubic algorithm for APSP in a new type of geometric graph. Our result extends the result of Chan'10 in the case of integer edge weights by allowing the weights to differ from a function of the end-point identities by at most $n^δ$ for small $δ$. (3) In the second application we consider a batch version of the range mode problem in which one is given a length $n$ sequence and $n$ contiguous subsequences, and one is asked to compute the range mode of each subsequence. We give the first $O(n^{1.5-ε})$ time for $ε>0$ algorithm for this batch range mode problem. (4) Our final application is to the Maximum Subarray problem: given an $n\times n$ integer matrix, find the contiguous subarray of maximum entry sum. We show that Maximum Subarray can be solved in truly subcubic, $O(n^{3-ε})$ (for $ε>0$) time, as long as the entries are no larger than $O(n^{0.62})$ in absolute value. We also improve all the known conditional hardness results for the $d$-dimensional variant of Maximum Subarray.

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arXiv2019

Approximation Algorithms for Min-Distance Problems

We study fundamental graph parameters such as the Diameter and Radius in directed graphs, when distances are measured using a somewhat unorthodox but natural measure: the distance between $u$ and $v$ is the minimum of the shortest path distances from $u$ to $v$ and from $v$ to $u$. The center node in a graph under this measure can for instance represent the optimal location for a hospital to ensure the fastest medical care for everyone, as one can either go to the hospital, or a doctor can be sent to help. By computing All-Pairs Shortest Paths, all pairwise distances and thus the parameters we study can be computed exactly in $\tilde{O}(mn)$ time for directed graphs on $n$ vertices, $m$ edges and nonnegative edge weights. Furthermore, this time bound is tight under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis [Roditty-Vassilevska W. STOC 2013] so it is natural to study how well these parameters can be approximated in $O(mn^{1-ε})$ time for constant $ε>0$. Abboud, Vassilevska Williams, and Wang [SODA 2016] gave a polynomial factor approximation for Diameter and Radius, as well as a constant factor approximation for both problems in the special case where the graph is a DAG. We greatly improve upon these bounds by providing the first constant factor approximations for Diameter, Radius and the related Eccentricities problem in general graphs. Additionally, we provide a hierarchy of algorithms for Diameter that gives a time/accuracy trade-off.

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arXiv2019

Tight Approximation Algorithms for Bichromatic Graph Diameter and Related Problems

Some of the most fundamental and well-studied graph parameters are the Diameter (the largest shortest paths distance) and Radius (the smallest distance for which a "center" node can reach all other nodes). The natural and important $ST$-variant considers two subsets $S$ and $T$ of the vertex set and lets the $ST$-diameter be the maximum distance between a node in $S$ and a node in $T$, and the $ST$-radius be the minimum distance for a node of $S$ to reach all nodes of $T$. The bichromatic variant is the special case in which $S$ and $T$ partition the vertex set. In this paper we present a comprehensive study of the approximability of $ST$ and Bichromatic Diameter, Radius, and Eccentricities, and variants, in graphs with and without directions and weights. We give the first nontrivial approximation algorithms for most of these problems, including time/accuracy trade-off upper and lower bounds. We show that nearly all of our obtained bounds are tight under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH), or the related Hitting Set Hypothesis. For instance, for Bichromatic Diameter in undirected weighted graphs with $m$ edges, we present an $\tilde{O}(m^{3/2})$ time $5/3$-approximation algorithm, and show that under SETH, neither the running time, nor the approximation factor can be significantly improved while keeping the other unchanged.

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arXiv2019

Graph pattern detection: Hardness for all induced patterns and faster non-induced cycles

We consider the pattern detection problem in graphs: given a constant size pattern graph $H$ and a host graph $G$, determine whether $G$ contains a subgraph isomorphic to $H$. Our main results are: * We prove that if a pattern $H$ contains a $k$-clique subgraph, then detecting whether an $n$ node host graph contains a not necessarily induced copy of $H$ requires at least the time for detecting whether an $n$ node graph contains a $k$-clique. The previous result of this nature required that $H$ contains a $k$-clique which is disjoint from all other $k$-cliques of $H$. * We show that if the famous Hadwiger conjecture from graph theory is true, then detecting whether an $n$ node host graph contains a not necessarily induced copy of a pattern with chromatic number $t$ requires at least the time for detecting whether an $n$ node graph contains a $t$-clique. This implies that: (1) under Hadwiger's conjecture for every $k$-node pattern $H$, finding an induced copy of $H$ requires at least the time of $\sqrt k$-clique detection, and at least size $ω(n^{\sqrt{k}/4})$ for any constant depth circuit, and (2) unconditionally, detecting an induced copy of a random $G(k,p)$ pattern w.h.p. requires at least the time of $Θ(k/\log k)$-clique detection, and hence also at least size $n^{Ω(k/\log k)}$ for circuits of constant depth. * Finally, we consider the case when the pattern is a directed cycle on $k$ nodes, and we would like to detect whether a directed $m$-edge graph $G$ contains a $k$-Cycle as a not necessarily induced subgraph. We resolve a 14 year old conjecture of [Yuster-Zwick SODA'04] on the complexity of $k$-Cycle detection by giving a tight analysis of their $k$-Cycle algorithm. Our analysis improves the best bounds for $k$-Cycle detection in directed graphs, for all $k>5$.

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arXiv2018

Limits on All Known (and Some Unknown) Approaches to Matrix Multiplication

We study the known techniques for designing Matrix Multiplication algorithms. The two main approaches are the Laser method of Strassen, and the Group theoretic approach of Cohn and Umans. We define a generalization based on zeroing outs which subsumes these two approaches, which we call the Solar method, and an even more general method based on monomial degenerations, which we call the Galactic method. We then design a suite of techniques for proving lower bounds on the value of $ω$, the exponent of matrix multiplication, which can be achieved by algorithms using many tensors $T$ and the Galactic method. Some of our techniques exploit `local' properties of $T$, like finding a sub-tensor of $T$ which is so `weak' that $T$ itself couldn't be used to achieve a good bound on $ω$, while others exploit `global' properties, like $T$ being a monomial degeneration of the structural tensor of a group algebra. Our main result is that there is a universal constant $\ell>2$ such that a large class of tensors generalizing the Coppersmith-Winograd tensor $CW_q$ cannot be used within the Galactic method to show a bound on $ω$ better than $\ell$, for any $q$. We give evidence that previous lower-bounding techniques were not strong enough to show this. We also prove a number of complementary results along the way, including that for any group $G$, the structural tensor of $\mathbb{C}[G]$ can be used to recover the best bound on $ω$ which the Coppersmith-Winograd approach gets using $CW_{|G|-2}$ as long as the asymptotic rank of the structural tensor is not too large.

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