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Model-Agnostic Approximation of Constrained Forest Problems

Alipasha Montaseri
Sharif University of Technology
PhD Application Talk
AG 1, AG 2, AG 3, INET, AG 4, AG 5, D6, SWS, RG1, MMCI  
AG Audience
English

Date, Time and Location

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
09:30
30 Minutes
Virtual talk
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Abstract

"Constrained Forest Problems (CFPs) as introduced by Goemans and Williamson in 1995 capture a wide range of network design problems with edge subsets as solutions, such as Minimum Spanning Tree, Steiner Forest, and Point-to-Point Connection. While individual CFPs have been studied extensively in individual computational models, a unified approach to solving general CFPs in multiple computational models has been lacking. Against this background, we present the shell-decomposition algorithm, a model-agnostic meta-algorithm that efficiently computes a (2+ϵ)-approximation to CFPs for a broad class of forest functions. To demonstrate the power and flexibility of this result, we instantiate our algorithm for 3 fundamental, NP-hard CFPs (Steiner Forest, Point-to-Point Connection, and Facility Placement and Connection) in 3 different computational models (Congest, PRAM, and Multi-Pass Streaming). For example, for constant ϵ, we obtain the following (2+ϵ)-approximations in the Congest model:
  1. For Steiner Forest specified via input components, where each node knows the identifier of one of k disjoint subsets of V (the input components), we achieve a deterministic (2+ϵ)-approximation in Õ(√n+D+k) rounds, where D is the hop diameter of the graph.
  2. For Steiner Forest specified via symmetric connection requests, where connection requests are issued to pairs of nodes, we leverage randomized equality testing to reduce the running time to Õ(√n+D), succeeding with high probability.
  3. For Point-to-Point Connection, we provide a (2+ϵ)-approximation in Õ(√n+D) rounds.
  4. For Facility Placement and Connection, a relative of non-metric Uncapacitated Facility Location, we obtain a (2+ϵ)-approximation in O(√n+D) rounds.
We further show how to replace the √n+D term by the complexity of solving Partwise Aggregation, achieving (near-)universal optimality in any setting in which a solution to Partwise Aggregation in near-shortcut-quality time is known."

Contact

Ina Geisler
+49 681 9325 1802
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Virtual Meeting Details

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Ina Geisler, 01/24/2025 11:08
Ina Geisler, 01/24/2025 11:07 -- Created document.