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In this paper, we study the following problem. Consider a setting where a proposal is offered to the vertices of a given network $G$, and the vertices must conduct a vote and decide whether to accept the proposal or reject it. Each vertex $v$ has its own valuation of the proposal; we say that $v$ is ``happy'' if its valuation is positive (i.e., it expects to gain from adopting the proposal) and ``sad'' if its valuation is negative. However, vertices do not base their vote merely on their own valuation. Rather, a vertex $v$ is a \emph{proponent} of the proposal if the majority of its neighbors are happy with it and an \emph{opponent} in the opposite case. At the end of the vote, the network collectively accepts the proposal whenever the majority of its vertices are proponents. We study this problem for regular graphs with loops. Specifically, we consider the class $\mathcal{G}_{n|d|h}$ of $d$-regular graphs of odd order $n$ with all $n$ loops and $h$ happy vertices. We are interested in establishing necessary and sufficient conditions for the class $\mathcal{G}_{n|d|h}$ to contain a labeled graph accepting the proposal, as well as conditions to contain a graph rejecting the proposal. We also discuss connections to the existing literature, including that on majority domination, and investigate the properties of the obtained conditions., 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Discrete Applied Mathematics

The Distance Realization problem is defined as follows. Given an n × n matrix D of nonnegative integers, interpreted as inter-vertex distances, find an n-vertex weighted or unweighted graph G realizing D, i.e., whose inter-vertex distances satisfy dist_G(i,j) = D_{i,j} for every 1 ≤ i < j ≤ n, or decide that no such realizing graph exists. The problem was studied for general weighted and unweighted graphs, as well as for cases where the realizing graph is restricted to a specific family of graphs (e.g., trees or bipartite graphs). An extension of Distance Realization that was studied in the past is where each entry in the matrix D may contain a range of consecutive permissible values. We refer to this extension as Range Distance Realization (or Range-DR). Restricting each range to at most k values yields the problem k-Range Distance Realization (or k-Range-DR). The current paper introduces a new extension of Distance Realization, in which each entry D_{i,j} of the matrix may contain an arbitrary set of acceptable values for the distance between i and j, for every 1 ≤ i < j ≤ n. We refer to this extension as Set Distance Realization (Set-DR), and to the restricted problem where each entry may contain at most k values as k-Set Distance Realization (or k-Set-DR). We first show that 2-Range-DR is NP-hard for unweighted graphs (implying the same for 2-Set-DR). Next we prove that 2-Set-DR is NP-hard for unweighted and weighted trees. We then explore Set-DR where the realization is restricted to the families of stars, paths, or cycles. For the weighted case, our positive results are that for each of these families there exists a polynomial time algorithm for 2-Set-DR. On the hardness side, we prove that 6-Set-DR is NP-hard for stars and 5-Set-DR is NP-hard for paths and cycles. For the unweighted case, our results are the same, except for the case of unweighted stars, for which k-Set-DR is polynomially solvable for any k., LIPIcs, Vol. 241, 47th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2022), pages 13:1-13:14

A singularly (near) optimal distributed algorithm is one that is (near) optimal in two criteria, namely, its time and message complexities. For synchronous CONGEST networks, such algorithms are known for fundamental distributed computing problems such as leader election [Kutten et al., JACM 2015] and Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) construction [Pandurangan et al., STOC 2017, Elkin, PODC 2017]. However, it is open whether a singularly (near) optimal bound can be obtained for the MST construction problem in general asynchronous CONGEST networks. In this paper, we present a randomized distributed MST algorithm that, with high probability, computes an MST in asynchronous CONGEST networks and takes Õ(D^{1+ε} + √n) time and Õ(m) messages, where n is the number of nodes, m the number of edges, D is the diameter of the network, and ε > 0 is an arbitrarily small constant (both time and message bounds hold with high probability). Since Ω̃(D+√n) and Ω(m) are respective time and message lower bounds for distributed MST construction in the standard KT₀ model, our algorithm is message optimal (up to a polylog(n) factor) and almost time optimal (except for a D^ε factor). Our result answers an open question raised in Mashregi and King [DISC 2019] by giving the first known asynchronous MST algorithm that has sublinear time (for all D = O(n^{1-ε})) and uses Õ(m) messages. Using a result of Mashregi and King [DISC 2019], this also yields the first asynchronous MST algorithm that is sublinear in both time and messages in the KT₁ CONGEST model. A key tool in our algorithm is the construction of a low diameter rooted spanning tree in asynchronous CONGEST that has depth Õ(D^{1+ε}) (for an arbitrarily small constant ε > 0) in Õ(D^{1+ε}) time and Õ(m) messages. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such construction that is almost singularly optimal in the asynchronous setting. This tree construction may be of independent interest as it can also be used for efficiently performing basic tasks such as verified broadcast and convergecast in asynchronous networks., LIPIcs, Vol. 246, 36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2022), pages 19:1-19:24

This paper addresses the classical problem of characterizing degree sequences that can be realized by a bipartite graph. For the simpler variant of the problem, where a partition of the sequence into the two sides of the bipartite graph is given as part of the input, a complete characterization was given by Gale and Ryser over 60 years ago. However, the general question, in which both the partition and the realizing graph need to be determined, is still open. This paper provides an overview of some of the known results on this problem in interesting special cases, including realizations by bipartite graphs and bipartite multigraphs., LIPIcs, Vol. 227, 18th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2022), pages 1:1-1:17

The paper considers the SUPPORTED model of distributed computing introduced by Schmid and Suomela [HotSDN'13], generalizing the LOCAL and CONGEST models. In this framework, multiple instances of the same problem, differing from each other by the subnetwork to which they apply, recur over time, and need to be solved efficiently online. To do that, one may rely on an initial preprocessing phase for computing some useful information. This preprocessing phase makes it possible, in some cases, to overcome locality-based time lower bounds. A first contribution of the current paper is expanding the spectrum of problem types to which the SUPPORTED model applies. In addition to subnetwork-defined recurrent problems, we introduce also recurrent problems of two additional types: (i) instances defined by partial client sets, and (ii) instances defined by partially fixed outputs. Our second contribution is illustrating the versatility of the SUPPORTED framework by examining recurrent variants of three classical graph problems. The first problem is Minimum Client Dominating Set (CDS), a recurrent version of the classical dominating set problem with each recurrent instance requiring us to dominate a partial client set. We provide a constant time approximation scheme for CDS on trees and planar graphs. The second problem is Color Completion (CC), a recurrent version of the coloring problem in which each recurrent instance comes with a partially fixed coloring (of some of the vertices) that must be completed. We study the minimum number of new colors and the minimum total number of colors necessary for completing this task. The third problem we study is a recurrent version of Locally Checkable Labellings (LCL) on paths of length $n$. We show that such problems have complexities that are either $\Theta(1)$ or $\Theta(n)$, extending the results of Foerster et al. [INFOCOM'19]., Comment: 48 pages, 11 figures

We consider the problem of characterizing degree sequences that can be realized by a bipartite graph. If a partition of the sequence into the two sides of the bipartite graph is given as part of the input, then a complete characterization has been established over 60 years ago. However, the general question, in which a partition and a realizing graph need to be determined, is still open. We investigate the role of an important class of special partitions, called High-Low partitions, which separate the degrees of a sequence into two groups, the high degrees and the low degrees. We show that when the High-Low partition exists and satisfies some natural properties, analysing the High-Low partition resolves the bigraphic realization problem. For sequences that are known to be not realizable by a bipartite graph or that are undecided, we provide approximate realizations based on the High-Low partition., LIPIcs, Vol. 241, 47th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2022), pages 14:1-14:15

We study the Budgeted Dominating Set (BDS) problem on uncertain graphs, namely, graphs with a probability distribution p associated with the edges, such that an edge e exists in the graph with probability p(e). The input to the problem consists of a vertex-weighted uncertain graph 𝒢 = (V, E, p, ω) and an integer budget (or solution size) k, and the objective is to compute a vertex set S of size k that maximizes the expected total domination (or total weight) of vertices in the closed neighborhood of S. We refer to the problem as the Probabilistic Budgeted Dominating Set (PBDS) problem. In this article, we present the following results on the complexity of the PBDS problem. 1) We show that the PBDS problem is NP-complete even when restricted to uncertain trees of diameter at most four. This is in sharp contrast with the well-known fact that the BDS problem is solvable in polynomial time in trees. We further show that PBDS is 𝖶[1]-hard for the budget parameter k, and under the Exponential time hypothesis it cannot be solved in n^o(k) time. 2) We show that if one is willing to settle for (1-ε) approximation, then there exists a PTAS for PBDS on trees. Moreover, for the scenario of uniform edge-probabilities, the problem can be solved optimally in polynomial time. 3) We consider the parameterized complexity of the PBDS problem, and show that Uni-PBDS (where all edge probabilities are identical) is 𝖶[1]-hard for the parameter pathwidth. On the other hand, we show that it is FPT in the combined parameters of the budget k and the treewidth. 4) Finally, we extend some of our parameterized results to planar and apex-minor-free graphs. Our first hardness proof (Thm. 1) makes use of the new problem of k-Subset Σ-Π Maximization (k-SPM), which we believe is of independent interest. We prove its NP-hardness by a reduction from the well-known k-SUM problem, presenting a close relationship between the two problems., LIPIcs, Vol. 202, 46th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2021), pages 32:1-32:22

The classical degree realization problem is defined as follows: Given a sequence d�� = (d_1,���,d_n) of positive integers, construct an n-vertex graph in which each vertex u_i has degree d_i (or decide that no such graph exists). In this article, we present and study the related selected neighbor degree realization problem, which requires that each vertex u_i of G has a neighbor of degree d_i. We solve the problem when G is required to be acyclic (i.e., a forest), and present a sufficient and necessary condition for a given sequence to be realizable., LIPIcs, Vol. 212, 32nd International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2021), pages 27:1-27:15

We study a graph realization problem that pertains to degrees in vertex neighborhoods. The classical problem of degree sequence realizability asks whether or not a given sequence of n positive integers is equal to the degree sequence of some n-vertex undirected simple graph. While the realizability problem of degree sequences has been well studied for different classes of graphs, there has been relatively little work concerning the realizability of other types of information profiles, such as the vertex neighborhood profiles. In this paper we introduce and explore the minimum degrees in vertex neighborhood profile as it is one of the most natural extensions of the classical degree profile to vertex neighboring degree profiles. Given a graph G = (V,E), the min-degree of a vertex v ∈ V, namely MinND(v), is given by min{deg(w) ∣ w ∈ N[v]}. Our input is a sequence σ = (d_𝓁^{n_𝓁}, ⋯ , d₁^{n₁}), where d_{i+1} > d_i and each n_i is a positive integer. We provide some necessary and sufficient conditions for σ to be realizable. Furthermore, under the restriction that the realization is acyclic, i.e., a tree or a forest, we provide a full characterization of realizable sequences, along with a corresponding constructive algorithm. We believe our results are a crucial step towards understanding extremal neighborhood degree relations in graphs.

This paper concerns designing distributed algorithms that are singularly optimal, i.e., algorithms that are simultaneously time and message optimal, for the fundamental leader election problem in networks. Our main result is a randomized distributed leader election algorithm for asynchronous complete networks that is essentially (up to a polylogarithmic factor) singularly optimal. Our algorithm uses O(n) messages with high probability and runs in O(log² n) time (with high probability) to elect a unique leader. The O(n) message complexity should be contrasted with the Ω(n log n) lower bounds for the deterministic message complexity of leader election algorithms (regardless of time), proven by Korach, Moran, and Zaks (TCS, 1989) for asynchronous algorithms and by Afek and Gafni (SIAM J. Comput., 1991) for synchronous networks. Hence, our result also separates the message complexities of randomized and deterministic leader election. More importantly, our (randomized) time complexity of O(log² n) for obtaining the optimal O(n) message complexity is significantly smaller than the long-standing Θ̃(n) time complexity obtained by Afek and Gafni and by Singh (SIAM J. Comput., 1997) for message optimal (deterministic) election in asynchronous networks. Afek and Gafni also conjectured that Θ̃(n) time would be optimal for message-optimal asynchronous algorithms. Our result shows that randomized algorithms are significantly faster. Turning to synchronous complete networks, Afek and Gafni showed an essentially singularly optimal deterministic algorithm with O(log n) time and O(n log n) messages. Ramanathan et al. (Distrib. Comput. 2007) used randomization to improve the message complexity, and showed a randomized algorithm with O(n) messages but still with O(log n) time (with failure probability O(1 / log^{Ω(1)}n)). Our second result shows that synchronous complete networks admit a tightly singularly optimal randomized algorithm, with O(1) time and O(n) messages (both bounds are optimal). Moreover, our algorithm’s time bound holds with certainty, and its message bound holds with high probability, i.e., 1-1/n^c for constant c. Our results demonstrate that leader election can be solved in a simultaneously message and time-efficient manner in asynchronous complete networks using randomization. It is open whether this is possible in asynchronous general networks., LIPIcs, Vol. 179, 34th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2020), pages 22:1-22:18

The classical Hotelling game is played on a line segment whose points represent uniformly distributed clients. The $n$ players of the game are servers who need to place themselves on the line segment, and once this is done, each client gets served by the player closest to it. The goal of each player is to choose its location so as to maximize the number of clients it attracts. In this paper we study a variant of the Hotelling game where each client $v$ has a tolerance interval, randomly distributed according to some density function $f$, and $v$ gets served by the nearest among the players eligible for it, namely, those that fall within its interval. (If no such player exists, then $v$ abstains.) It turns out that this modification significantly changes the behavior of the game and its states of equilibria. In particular, it may serve to explain why players sometimes prefer to "spread out", rather than to cluster together as dictated by the classical Hotelling game. We consider two variants of the game: symmetric games, where clients have the same tolerance range to their left and right, and asymmetric games, where the left and right ranges of each client are determined independently of each other. We fully characterize the Nash equilibria of the 2-player game. For at least 3 players, we characterize a specific class of strategy profiles, referred to as canonical profiles, and show that these profiles are the only ones that may yield Nash equilibria in our game. Moreover, the canonical profile, if exists, is uniquely defined for every $n$ and $f$. In both the symmetric and asymmetric setting, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the canonical profile to be a Nash equilibrium, and demonstrate their application for several distributions.

The Hotelling game consists of n servers each choosing a point on the line segment, so as to maximize the amount of clients it attracts. Clients are uniformly distributed along the line, and each client buys from the closest server. In this paper, we study a fault-prone version of the Hotelling game, where the line fails at multiple random locations. Each failure disconnects the line, blocking the passage of clients. We show that the game admits a Nash equilibrium if and only if the rate of faults exceeds a certain threshold, and calculate that threshold approximately. Moreover, when a Nash equilibrium exists we show it is unique and construct it explicitly. Hence, somewhat surprisingly, the potential occurrence of failures has a stabilizing effect on the game (provided there are enough of them). Additionally, we study the social cost of the game (measured in terms of the total transportation cost of the clients), which also seems to benefit in a certain sense from the potential presence of failures.

The classical problem of degree sequence realizability asks whether or not a given sequence of $n$ positive integers is equal to the degree sequence of some $n$-vertex undirected simple graph. While the realizability problem of degree sequences has been well studied for different classes of graphs, there has been relatively little work concerning the realizability of other types of information profiles, such as the vertex neighborhood profiles. In this paper, we initiate the study of neighborhood degree profiles. We focus on the natural problem of realizing maximum and minimum neighborhood degrees. More specifically, we ask the following question: Given a sequence $D$ of $n$ non-negative integers $0\leq d_1\leq \cdots \leq d_n$, does there exist a simple graph with vertices $v_1,\ldots, v_n$ such that for every $1\le i \le n$, the maximum (resp. minimum) degree in the neighborhood of $v_i$ is exactly $d_i$? We provide in this work various results for both maximum as well as minimum neighborhood degree for general $n$ vertex graphs. Our results are first of its kind that studies extremal neighborhood degree profiles. For maximum neighborhood degree profiles, we provide a {\em complete realizability criteria}. In comparison, we observe that the minimum neighborhood profiles are not so well-behaved, for these our necessary and sufficient conditions for realizability {\em differ by a factor of at most two}., Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures

International audience; Cet article démontre que la règle de l'attachement préférentiel apparait comme *unique* équilibre de Nash d'un jeu naturel de formation de réseaux sociaux. Dans ce jeu, les nœuds se joignent au réseau l'un après l'autre, et chaque nœud souhaite maximiser son degré ultime, ce dernier représentant son capital social dans la "société" composée des nœuds et de leurs connexions. Ce résultat fournit un argument formel supplémentaire en faveur de l'utilisation du modèle de l'attachement préférentiel, conçu initialement pour capturer le mécanisme intuitif selon lequel les plus favorisés tendent à accroître leur avantage sur les autres acteurs.

The $n$-player Hotelling game calls for each player to choose a point on the line segment, so as to maximize the size of his Voronoi cell. This paper studies fault-tolerant versions of the Hotelling game. Two fault models are studied: line faults and player faults. The first model assumes that the environment is prone to failure: with some probability, a disconnection occurs at a random point on the line, splitting it into two separate segments and modifying each player's Voronoi cell accordingly. A complete characterization of the Nash equilibria of this variant is provided for every $n$. Additionally, a one to one correspondence is shown between equilibria of this variant and of the Hotelling game with no faults. The second fault model assumes the players are prone to failure: each player is removed from the game with i.i.d. probability, changing the payoffs of the remaining players accordingly. It is shown that for $n \geq 3$ this variant of the game has no Nash equilibria.

It is known that individuals in social networks tend to exhibit homophily (a.k.a. assortative mixing) in their social ties, which implies that they prefer bonding with others of their own kind. But what are the reasons for this phenomenon? Is it that such relations are more convenient and easier to maintain? Or are there also some more tangible benefits to be gained from this collective behaviour? The current work takes a game-theoretic perspective on this phenomenon, and studies the conditions under which different assortative mixing strategies lead to equilibrium in an evolving social network. We focus on a biased preferential attachment model where the strategy of each group (e.g., political or social minority) determines the level of bias of its members toward other group members and non-members. Our first result is that if the utility function that the group attempts to maximize is the degree centrality of the group, interpreted as the sum of degrees of the group members in the network, then the only strategy achieving Nash equilibrium is a perfect homophily, which implies that cooperation with other groups is harmful to this utility function. A second, and perhaps more surprising, result is that if a reward for inter-group cooperation is added to the utility function (e.g., externally enforced by an authority as a regulation), then there are only two possible equilibria, namely, perfect homophily or perfect heterophily, and it is possible to characterize their feasibility spaces. Interestingly, these results hold regardless of the minority-majority ratio in the population. We believe that these results, as well as the game-theoretic perspective presented herein, may contribute to a better understanding of the forces that shape the groups and communities of our society.

We analyze the domination game, where two players, Dominator and Staller, construct together a dominating set M in a given graph, by alternately selecting vertices into M. Each move must increase the size of the dominated set. The players have opposing goals: Dominator wishes M to be as small as possible, and Staller has the opposite goal. Kinnersley, West and Zamani conjectured that when both players play optimally on an isolate-free forest, there is a guaranteed upper bound for the size of the dominating set that depends only on the size n of the forest. This bound is 3n/5 when the first player is Dominator, and (3n+2)/5 when the first player is Staller. The conjecture was proved for specific families of forests by Kinnersley et al. and later extended by Bujtas. Here we prove it for all isolate-free forests, by supplying an algorithm for Dominator that guarantees the desired bound.

The random graph model has recently been extended to a random preferential attachment graph model, in order to enable the study of general asymptotic properties in network types that are better represented by the preferential attachment evolution model than by the ordinary (uniform) evolution lodel. Analogously, this paper extends the random {\em hypergraph} model to a random {\em preferential attachment hypergraph} model. We then analyze the degree distribution of random preferential attachment hypergraphs and show that they possess heavy tail degree distribution properties similar to those of random preferential attachment graphs. However, our results show that the exponent of the degree distribution is sensitive to whether one considers the structure as a hypergraph or as a graph., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

Recent evidence shows that in many societies worldwide the relative sizes of the economic and social elites are continuously shrinking. Is this a natural social phenomenon? What are the forces that shape this process? We try to address these questions by studying a Core-Periphery social structure composed of a social elite, namely, a relatively small but well-connected and highly influential group of powerful individuals, and the rest of society, the periphery. Herein, we present a novel axiom-based model for the forces governing the mutual influences between the elite and the periphery. Assuming a simple set of axioms, capturing the elite's dominance, robustness, compactness and density, we are able to draw strong conclusions about the elite-periphery structure. In particular, we show that a balance of powers between elite and periphery and an elite size that is sub-linear in the network size are universal properties of elites in social networks that satisfy our axioms. We note that the latter is in controversy to the common belief that the elite size converges to a linear fraction of society (most recently claimed to be 1%). We accompany these findings with a large scale empirical study on about 100 real-world networks, which supports our results.

Inspired by social networks and complex systems, we propose a core-periphery network architecture that supports fast computation for many distributed algorithms and is robust and efficient in number of links. Rather than providing a concrete network model, we take an axiom-based design approach. We provide three intuitive (and independent) algorithmic axioms and prove that any network that satisfies all axioms enjoys an efficient algorithm for a range of tasks (e.g., MST, sparse matrix multiplication, etc.). We also show the minimality of our axiom set: for networks that satisfy any subset of the axioms, the same efficiency cannot be guaranteed for any deterministic algorithm.

This paper addresses the problem of designing a {\em fault-tolerant} $(\alpha, \beta)$ approximate BFS structure (or {\em FT-ABFS structure} for short), namely, a subgraph $H$ of the network $G$ such that subsequent to the failure of some subset $F$ of edges or vertices, the surviving part of $H$ still contains an \emph{approximate} BFS spanning tree for (the surviving part of) $G$, satisfying $dist(s,v,H\setminus F) \leq \alpha \cdot dist(s,v,G\setminus F)+\beta$ for every $v \in V$. We first consider {\em multiplicative} $(\alpha,0)$ FT-ABFS structures resilient to a failure of a single edge and present an algorithm that given an $n$-vertex unweighted undirected graph $G$ and a source $s$ constructs a $(3,0)$ FT-ABFS structure rooted at $s$ with at most $4n$ edges (improving by an $O(\log n)$ factor on the near-tight result of \cite{BS10} for the special case of edge failures). Assuming at most $f$ edge failures, for constant integer $f>1$, we prove that there exists a (poly-time constructible) $(3(f+1), (f+1) \log n)$ FT-ABFS structure with $O(f n)$ edges. We then consider {\em additive} $(1,\beta)$ FT-ABFS structures. In contrast to the linear size of $(\alpha,0)$ FT-ABFS structures, we show that for every $\beta \in [1, O(\log n)]$ there exists an $n$-vertex graph $G$ with a source $s$ for which any $(1,\beta)$ FT-ABFS structure rooted at $s$ has $\Omega(n^{1+\epsilon(\beta)})$ edges, for some function $\epsilon(\beta) \in (0,1)$. In particular, $(1,3)$ FT-ABFS structures admit a lower bound of $\Omega(n^{5/4})$ edges. Our lower bounds are complemented by an upper bound, showing that there exists a poly-time algorithm that for every $n$-vertex unweighted undirected graph $G$ and source $s$ constructs a $(1,4)$ FT-ABFS structure rooted at $s$ with at most $O(n^{4/3})$ edges.

This paper addresses the problem of designing a sparse {\em fault-tolerant} BFS tree, or {\em FT-BFS tree} for short, namely, a sparse subgraph $T$ of the given network $G$ such that subsequent to the failure of a single edge or vertex, the surviving part $T'$ of $T$ still contains a BFS spanning tree for (the surviving part of) $G$. Our main results are as follows. We present an algorithm that for every $n$-vertex graph $G$ and source node $s$ constructs a (single edge failure) FT-BFS tree rooted at $s$ with $O(n \cdot \min\{\Depth(s), \sqrt{n}\})$ edges, where $\Depth(s)$ is the depth of the BFS tree rooted at $s$. This result is complemented by a matching lower bound, showing that there exist $n$-vertex graphs with a source node $s$ for which any edge (or vertex) FT-BFS tree rooted at $s$ has $\Omega(n^{3/2})$ edges. We then consider {\em fault-tolerant multi-source BFS trees}, or {\em FT-MBFS trees} for short, aiming to provide (following a failure) a BFS tree rooted at each source $s\in S$ for some subset of sources $S\subseteq V$. Again, tight bounds are provided, showing that there exists a poly-time algorithm that for every $n$-vertex graph and source set $S \subseteq V$ of size $\sigma$ constructs a (single failure) FT-MBFS tree $T^*(S)$ from each source $s_i \in S$, with $O(\sqrt{\sigma} \cdot n^{3/2})$ edges, and on the other hand there exist $n$-vertex graphs with source sets $S \subseteq V$ of cardinality $\sigma$, on which any FT-MBFS tree from $S$ has $\Omega(\sqrt{\sigma}\cdot n^{3/2})$ edges. Finally, we propose an $O(\log n)$ approximation algorithm for constructing FT-BFS and FT-MBFS structures. The latter is complemented by a hardness result stating that there exists no $\Omega(\log n)$ approximation algorithm for these problems under standard complexity assumptions.

The celebrated Perron--Frobenius (PF) theorem is stated for irreducible nonnegative square matrices, and provides a simple characterization of their eigenvectors and eigenvalues. The importance of this theorem stems from the fact that eigenvalue problems on such matrices arise in many fields of science and engineering, including dynamical systems theory, economics, statistics and optimization. However, many real-life scenarios give rise to nonsquare matrices. A natural question is whether the PF Theorem (along with its applications) can be generalized to a nonsquare setting. Our paper provides a generalization of the PF Theorem to nonsquare matrices. The extension can be interpreted as representing client-server systems with additional degrees of freedom, where each client may choose between multiple servers that can cooperate in serving it (while potentially interfering with other clients). This formulation is motivated by applications to power control in wireless networks, economics and others, all of which extend known examples for the use of the original PF Theorem. We show that the option of cooperation between servers does not improve the situation, in the sense that in the optimal solution no cooperation is needed, and only one server needs to serve each client. Hence, the additional power of having several potential servers per client translates into \emph{choosing} the best single server and not into \emph{sharing} the load between the servers in some way, as one might have expected. The two main contributions of the paper are (i) a generalized PF Theorem that characterizes the optimal solution for a non-convex nonsquare problem, and (ii) an algorithm for finding the optimal solution in polynomial time.

The paper tackles the power of randomization in the context of locality by analyzing the ability to`boost' the success probability of deciding a distributed language. The main outcome of this analysis is that the distributed computing setting contrasts significantly with the sequential one as far as randomization is concerned. Indeed, we prove that in some cases, the ability to increase the success probability for deciding distributed languages is rather limited. Informally, a (p,q)-decider for a language L is a distributed randomized algorithm which accepts instances in L with probability at least p and rejects instances outside of L with probability at least q. It is known that every hereditary language that can be decided in t rounds by a (p,q)-decider, where p^2+q>1, can actually be decided deterministically in O(t) rounds. In one of our results we give evidence supporting the conjecture that the above statement holds for all distributed languages. This is achieved by considering the restricted case of path topologies. We then turn our attention to the range below the aforementioned threshold, namely, the case where p^2+q\leq1. We define B_k(t) to be the set of all languages decidable in at most t rounds by a (p,q)-decider, where p^{1+1/k}+q>1. It is easy to see that every language is decidable (in zero rounds) by a (p,q)-decider satisfying p+q=1. Hence, the hierarchy B_k provides a spectrum of complexity classes between determinism and complete randomization. We prove that all these classes are separated: for every integer k\geq 1, there exists a language L satisfying L\in B_{k+1}(0) but L\notin B_k(t) for any t=o(n). In addition, we show that B_\infty(t) does not contain all languages, for any t=o(n). Finally, we show that if the inputs can be restricted in certain ways, then the ability to boost the success probability becomes almost null.

This paper establishes tight bounds for the Minimum-weight Spanning Tree (MST) verification problem in the distributed setting. Specifically, we provide an MST verification algorithm that achieves {\em simultaneously} $\tilde{O}(|E|)$ messages and $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{n} + D)$ time, where $|E|$ is the number of edges in the given graph $G$ and $D$ is $G$'s diameter. On the negative side, we show that any MST verification algorithm must send $\Omega(|E|)$ messages and incur $\tilde{\Omega}(\sqrt{n} + D)$ time in worst case. Our upper bound result appears to indicate that the verification of an MST may be easier than its construction, since for MST construction, both lower bounds of $\Omega(|E|)$ messages and $\Omega(\sqrt{n} + D)$ time hold, but at the moment there is no known distributed algorithm that constructs an MST and achieves {\em simultaneously} $\tilde{O}(|E|)$ messages and $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{n} + D)$ time. Specifically, the best known time-optimal algorithm (using $\tO(\sqrt{n} + D)$ time) requires $O(|E|+n^{3/2})$ messages, and the best known message-optimal algorithm (using $\tO(|E|)$ messages) requires $O(n)$ time. On the other hand, our lower bound results indicate that the verification of an MST is not significantly easier than its construction.

National audience

A general instance of a Degree-Constrained Subgraph problem consists of an edge-weighted or vertex-weighted graph G and the objective is to find an optimal weighted subgraph, subject to certain degree constraints on the vertices of the subgraph. This paper considers three natural Degree-Constrained Subgraph problems and studies their behavior in terms of approximation algorithms. These problems take as input an undirected graph G=(V,E), with |V|=n and |E|=m. Our results, together with the definition of the three problems, are listed below. 1- The Maximum Degree-Bounded Connected Subgraph (MDBCS_d) problem takes as input a weight function w: E -> R+ and an integer d>1, and asks for a subset of edges E' such that the subgraph G'=(V,E') is connected, has maximum degree at most d, and the total edge-weight is maximized. We prove that MDBCS_d is not in APX for any d>1 (this was known only for d=2) and we provide a min{m/log n, nd/2log n}-approximation algorithm for unweighted graphs, and a min{n/2,m/d}-approximation algorithm for weighted graphs. 2- The Minimum Subgraph of Minimum Degree d (MSMD_d) problem consists in finding a smallest subgraph of G (in terms of number of vertices) with minimum degree at least d. For d=2 it corresponds to finding a shortest cycle of the graph. We prove that MSMD_d is not in APX for any d>2 and we provide an n/logn-approximation algorithm for the classes of graphs excluding a fixed graph as a minor, using dynamic programming techniques and a known structural result on graph minors. 3- The Dual Degree-Dense k-Subgraph (DDDkS) problem consists in finding a subgraph H of G such that |V(H)

National audience; Cet article traite de l'exploration d'un réseau par un agent mobile, ou {\em robot}, modélisé par un automate fini. Le robot ne dispose pas de connaissances préalables sur la topologie du réseau, ni même sur sa taille. Sa tâche consiste à explorer chacun des n{\oe}uds du réseau. Il a été montré que, pour tout robot $\cR$ à $K$ états, et pour tout $d\geq 3$, il existe un réseau de degré maximum $d$ et d'au plus $K+1$ n{\oe}uds que $\cR$ ne réussit pas à explorer. Ce papier s'intéresse à la possibilité d'aider le robot en ajoutant des étiquettes de petite taille aux n{\oe}uds grâce à un calcul préalable. Nous décrivons un algorithme d'exploration qui, étant donné des étiquettes appropriées sur 2~bits (en fait des étiquettes de trois valeurs différentes), permet à un robot d'explorer tous les réseaux. De plus, nous décrivons un algorithme linéaire calculant un tel étiquetage. Nous montrons également comment modifier notre méthode d'étiquetage afin qu'un robot puisse explorer tous les réseaux de degré constant, avec des étiquettes de seulement 1~bit (donc des étiquettes de deux valeurs différentes seulement). Autrement dit, alors qu'il n'existe pas de robot capable d'explorer tous les réseaux (non étiquetés) de degré maximum~3, il existe un robot $\cR^*$ et un moyen de colorier les n{\oe}uds en noir et blanc tel que $\cR^*$ réussit à explorer tous les réseaux coloriés de degré maximum~3.

National audience; Cet article traite de l'exploration d'un réseau par un agent mobile, ou {\em robot}, modélisé par un automate fini. Le réseau est anonyme, au sens que les nœuds ne disposent pas nécessairement d'un étiquetage global. Le robot ne dispose pas de connaissances préalables sur la topologie du réseau, ni même sur sa taille. Sa tâche consiste à traverser chacun des liens du réseau. Nous montrons que, pour tout robot à $K$ états, et pour tout $d\geq 3$, il existe un réseau de degré maximum $d$ et d'au plus $K+1$ nœuds que le robot ne réussit pas à explorer. Cette borne $K+1$ améliore toutes les bornes connues jusqu'aujourd'hui. Nous montrons également que, pour explorer tous les graphes de diamètre $D$ et de degré maximum $d$, un robot doit disposer de $\Omega(D\log{d})$ bits de mémoire, et ce même si l'on restreint l'exploration aux réseaux planaires. Enfin, nous montrons que cette borne est asymptotiquement optimale, en décrivant un algorithme qui permet à un robot possédant une mémoire de $O(D\log{d})$ bits d'explorer tous les réseaux de diamètre $D$ et de degré maximum $d$. Ceci nous permet donc de conclure que la complexité mémoire du problème de l'exploration de réseaux est $\Theta(D\log{d})$ bits.

International audience

Motivated by Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) in telecommunication networks, we investigate the problem of designing a directed virtual topology on a directed physical topology, which consists in finding a set of directed virtual paths (VPs) satisfying some constraints in terms of load (the number of VPs sharing a physical link) and hop count (the number of VPs used to establish a connection). For both general and particular networks, such as paths, cycles, meshes, tori and trees, we derive tight bounds on the virtual diameter (the maximum hop count for a connection) as a function of the network capacity (the maximum load of a physical link).

International audience

International audience

Given a simple graph G = (VE) and a set of sources S subseteq V denote for each node v in V by L_v the lexicographically ordered list of distance/source pairs (d(sv)s) where s in S. For integers dk in N cup infinity we consider the source detection or (Sdk) detection task requiring each node v to learn the first k entries of L_v (if for all of them d(sv)

Objective: Recent randomized controlled trials have demonstrated an association between uterine closure technique at the time of cesarean delivery and short- and long-term operative outcomes with varied results. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine types of suture material used for cesarean delivery. Data sources: Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from inception of each database to October 2021. Study eligibility criteria: All randomized controlled trials that compared types of suture materials used for hysterotomy closure during low-transverse cesarean delivery at ≥24 weeks' gestation and examined maternal outcomes were included for this review. The primary outcome was estimated blood loss. Secondary outcomes included additional surgical complications. Methods: Results were summarized as mean difference or risk ratio with associated 95% confidence intervals. The quality of studies was evaluated with the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for judging risk of bias. Heterogeneity was measured using I-squared (Higgins I2). Results: This review included 7 randomized controlled trials, of which 3 compared multifilament with barbed suture (136 vs 136 participants), 3 compared multifilament with conventional monofilament suture (245 vs 244 participants), and 1 trial compared multifilament with chromic suture (4590 vs 4595 participants). Primary analysis showed no difference in estimated blood loss between the multifilament and the barbed suture group (mean difference, 46.2 mL; 95% confidence interval, -13.6 to 105.9), nor in change in hemoglobin concentration between the multifilament and the conventional monofilament group (mean difference, -0.1%; 95% confidence interval, -0.5 to 0.3). Secondary outcomes showed a reduction in operative time with barbed vs multifilament suture (mean difference, 1.9 minutes; 95% confidence interval, 0.03-3.8). Analysis also demonstrated an increased uterine scar thickness with use of conventional monofilament vs multifilament suture (mean difference, -1.05 mm; 95% confidence interval, -1.9 to -0.2). Conclusion: This meta-analysis does not support a specific type of suture material for uterine closure at cesarean delivery because of insufficient data. Although barbed suture was associated with an overall decrease in operative time, and use of conventional monofilament suture was associated with an increase in uterine scar thickness, the clinical utility of these differences is not clear. Further adequate randomized controlled trials are warranted for evaluation of different suture materials for hysterotomy closure. Keywords: barbed suture; cesarean deliery; hysterotomy; monofilament; multifilament; pregnancy; suture material; suture technique; uterine closure; uterus.

Vertex coloring is a central concept in graph theory and an important symmetry-breaking primitive in distributed computing. Whereas degree-Δ graphs may require palettes of Δ+1 colors in the worst case, it is well known that the chromatic number of many natural graph classes can be much smaller. In this paper we give new distributed algorithms to find (Δ/k)-coloring in graphs of girth 4 (triangle-free graphs), girth 5, and trees, where k is at most $(\frac{1}{4}-o(1))\ln\Delta$ in triangle-free graphs and at most (1−o(1))ln Δ in girth-5 graphs and trees, and o(1) is a function of Δ. Specifically, for Δ sufficiently large we can find such a coloring in O(k+log*n) time. Moreover, for any Δ we can compute such colorings in roughly logarithmic time for triangle-free and girth-5 graphs, and in O(logΔ+logΔ logn) time on trees. As a byproduct, our algorithm shows that the chromatic number of triangle-free graphs is at most $(4+o(1))\frac{\Delta}{\ln\Delta}$, which improves on Jamall's recent bound of $(67+o(1))\frac{\Delta}{\ln\Delta}$. Also, we show that (Δ+1)-coloring for triangle-free graphs can be obtained in sublogarithmic time for any Δ.

This work extends what is known so far for a basic model of evolutionary antagonism in undirected networks (graphs). More specifically, this work studies the generalized Moran process, as introduced by Lieberman, Hauert, and Nowak [Nature, 433:312-316, 2005], where the individuals of a population reside on the vertices of an undirected connected graph. The initial population has a single mutant of a fitness value r (typically r>1), residing at some vertex v of the graph, while every other vertex is initially occupied by an individual of fitness 1. At every step of this process, an individual (i.e. vertex) is randomly chosen for reproduction with probability proportional to its fitness, and then it places a copy of itself on a random neighbor, thus replacing the individual that was residing there. The main quantity of interest is the fixation probability, i.e. the probability that eventually the whole graph is occupied by descendants of the mutant. In this work we concentrate on the fixation probability when the mutant is initially on a specific vertex v, thus refining the older notion of Lieberman et al. which studied the fixation probability when the initial mutant is placed at a random vertex. We then aim at finding graphs that have many "strong starts" (or many "weak starts") for the mutant. Thus we introduce a parameterized notion of selective amplifiers (resp. selective suppressors) of evolution. We prove the existence of strong selective amplifiers (i.e. for h(n)=Θ(n) vertices v the fixation probability of v is at least $1-\frac{c(r)}{n}$ for a function c(r) that depends only on r), and the existence of quite strong selective suppressors. Regarding the traditional notion of fixation probability from a random start, we provide strong upper and lower bounds: first we demonstrate the non-existence of "strong universal" amplifiers, and second we prove the Thermal Theorem which states that for any undirected graph, when the mutant starts at vertex v, the fixation probability at least $(r-1) / (r+\frac{\deg v}{\deg_{\min}})$. This theorem (which extends the "Isothermal Theorem" of Lieberman et al. for regular graphs) implies an almost tight lower bound for the usual notion of fixation probability. Our proof techniques are original and are based on new domination arguments which may be of general interest in Markov Processes that are of the general birth-death type.

In this work we consider temporal networks, i.e. networks defined by a labeling λ assigning to each edge of an underlying graph G a set of discrete time-labels. The labels of an edge, which are natural numbers, indicate the discrete time moments at which the edge is available. We focus on path problems of temporal networks. In particular, we consider time-respecting paths, i.e. paths whose edges are assigned by λ a strictly increasing sequence of labels. We begin by giving two efficient algorithms for computing shortest time-respecting paths on a temporal network. We then prove that there is a natural analogue of Menger’s theorem holding for arbitrary temporal networks. Finally, we propose two cost minimization parameters for temporal network design. One is the temporality of G, in which the goal is to minimize the maximum number of labels of an edge, and the other is the temporal cost of G, in which the goal is to minimize the total number of labels used. Optimization of these parameters is performed subject to some connectivity constraint. We prove several lower and upper bounds for the temporality and the temporal cost of some very basic graph families such as rings, directed acyclic graphs, and trees.

Secure multiparty computation (MPC) allows multiple parties to evaluate functions without disclosing the private inputs. Secure comparisons (testing equality and greater-than) are important primitives required by many MPC applications. We propose two equality tests for ℓ-bit values with O(1) online communication that require O(ℓ) respectively O(κ) total work, where κ is a correctness parameter.Combining these with ideas of Toft [16], we obtain (i) a greater-than protocol with sublinear online complexity in the arithmetic black-box model (O(c) rounds and O(c·ℓ1/c ) work online, with c = logℓ resulting in logarithmic online work). In difference to Toft, we do not assume two mutually incorruptible parties, but O(ℓ) offline work is required, and (ii) two greater-than protocols with the same online complexity as the above, but with overall complexity reduced to O(logℓ(κ + loglogℓ)) and O(c·ℓ1/c (κ + logℓ)); these require two mutually incorruptible parties, but are highly competitive with respect to online complexity when compared to existing protocols.

This paper concerns retracts in simply typed lambda calculus assuming βη-equality. We provide a simple tableau proof system which characterises when a type is a retract of another type and which leads to an exponential decision procedure.

ISBN:978-3-8325-3023-5