Knapsack and Subset Sum with Small Items

Adam Teodor Polak, Lars Rohwedder
2021
Conference paper

Abstract

Knapsack and Subset Sum are fundamental NP-hard problems in combinatorial optimization. Recently there has been a growing interest in understanding the best possible pseudopolynomial running times for these problems with respect to various parameters. In this paper we focus on the maximum item size s and the maximum item value v. We give algorithms that run in time O(n + s³) and O(n + v³) for the Knapsack problem, and in time Õ(n + s^{5/3}) for the Subset Sum problem. Our algorithms work for the more general problem variants with multiplicities, where each input item comes with a (binary encoded) multiplicity, which succinctly describes how many times the item appears in the instance. In these variants n denotes the (possibly much smaller) number of distinct items. Our results follow from combining and optimizing several diverse lines of research, notably proximity arguments for integer programming due to Eisenbrand and Weismantel (TALG 2019), fast structured (min,+)-convolution by Kellerer and Pferschy (J. Comb. Optim. 2004), and additive combinatorics methods originating from Galil and Margalit (SICOMP 1991).

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/287708?ln=en

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

Adam Teodor Polak

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, …, M}. SSRP with positive integer edge weights bounded by M can be solved in Õ(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 Õ(M n^{ω}) time algorithm for SSRP with negative weight edges, thus separating the problem from SSRP with only positive weight edges.

Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik2021

A (2+epsilon)-Approximation Algorithm for Preemptive Weighted Flow Time on a Single Machine

Lars Rohwedder

Weighted flow time is a fundamental and very well-studied objective function in scheduling. In this paper, we study the setting of a single machine with preemptions. The input consists of a set of jobs, characterized by their processing times, release times, and weights and we want to compute a (possibly preemptive) schedule for them. The objective is to minimize the sum of the weighted flow times of the jobs, where the flow time of a job is the time between its release date and its completion time. It had been a long-standing open problem to find a polynomial time O(1)-approximation algorithm for this setting. In a recent break-through result, Batra, Garg, and Kumar (FOCS 2018) found such an algorithm if the input data are polynomially bounded integers, and Feige, Kulkarni, and Li (SODA 2019) presented a black-box reduction to this setting. The resulting approximation ratio is a (not explicitly stated) constant which is at least 10000. In this paper we improve this ratio to 2 + epsilon. The algorithm by Batra, Garg, and Kumar (FOCS 2018) reduces the problem to DEMAND MULTICUT ON TREES and solves the resulting instances via LP-rounding and a dynamic program. Instead, we first reduce the problem to a (different) geometric problem while losing only a factor 1 + epsilon, and then solve its resulting instances up to a factor of 2 + epsilon by a dynamic program. In particular, our reduction ensures certain structural properties, thanks to which we do not need LP-rounding methods. We believe that our result makes substantial progress towards finding a PTAS for weighted flow time on a single machine.

ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2021

In this thesis we give new algorithms for two fundamental graph problems. We develop novel ways of using linear programming formulations, even exponential-sized ones, to extract structure from problem instances and to guide algorithms in making progress. Somewhat surprisingly, similar polyhedral techniques can be harnessed in the two seemingly disparate settings. In the first part of the thesis we address a benchmark problem in combinatorial optimization: the asymmetric traveling salesman problem (ATSP). It consists in finding the shortest tour that visits all vertices of a given directed graph with weights on edges. Due to its NP-hardness, the theoretical study of algorithms for ATSP has focused on approximation algorithms: ones that are provably both efficient and give solutions competitive with the optimum. Specifically, a rho-approximation algorithm for ATSP is one that runs in polynomial time and always outputs a tour that is at most rho times longer than the shortest tour. Finding such an approximation algorithm with rho bounded (i.e., a constant factor) had been a long-standing open problem. In this thesis, we give such an algorithm. Our approximation guarantee is analyzed with respect to the standard linear programming relaxation, and thus our result also confirms the conjectured constant integrality gap of that relaxation. Our techniques build upon the constant-factor approximation algorithm for the special case of node-weighted metrics due to Svensson. In particular, we give a generic reduction to structured instances that resemble but are more general than those arising from node-weighted metrics. This reduction takes advantage of a laminar family of vertex sets that arises from the linear programming relaxation. In the second part of the thesis we address the perfect matching problem. The first polynomial-time algorithm for it, given by Edmonds in 1965, is historically associated with the introduction of the class P and our notion that polynomial-time'' means efficient''. That algorithm is sequential and deterministic. We have also known since the 1980s that the matching problem has efficient parallel algorithms if the use of randomness is allowed. Formally, it is in the class RNC, i.e., it has randomized algorithms that use polynomially many processors and run in polylogarithmic time. However, we do not know if randomness is necessary - that is, whether the matching problem is in the class NC. In this thesis we show that the matching problem is in quasi-NC. That is, we give a deterministic parallel algorithm that runs in O(log^3 n) time on n^{O(log^2 n)} processors. The result is obtained by a derandomization of the Isolation Lemma for perfect matchings, which was introduced in the classic paper by Mulmuley, Vazirani and Vazirani to obtain an RNC algorithm. Our proof extends the framework of Fenner, Gurjar and Thierauf, who proved the analogous result in the special case of bipartite graphs. Compared to that setting, several new ingredients are needed due to the significantly more complex structure of perfect matchings in general graphs. In particular, our proof heavily relies on the laminar structure of the faces of the perfect matching polytope.

EPFL2019