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We study a certain relaxation of the classic vertex coloring problem, namely, a coloring of vertices of undirected, simple graphs, such that there are no monochromatic triangles. We give the first classification of the problem in terms of classic and parametrized algorithms. Several computational complexity results are also presented, which improve on the previous results found in the literature. We propose the new structural parameter for undirected, simple graphs -- the triangle-free chromatic number $\chi_3$. We bound $\chi_3$ by other known structural parameters. We also present two classes of graphs with interesting coloring properties, that play pivotal role in proving useful observation about our problem. We give/ask several conjectures/questions throughout this paper to encourage new research in the area of graph coloring., Comment: Extended abstract

We consider the problem of identity testing and recovering (that is, interpolating) of a "hidden" monic polynomials $f$, given an oracle access to $f(x)^e$ for $x\in\mathbb F_q$, where $\mathbb F_q$ is the finite field of $q$ elements and an extension fields access is not permitted. The naive interpolation algorithm needs $de+1$ queries, where $d =\max\{{\rm deg}\ f, {\rm deg }\ g\}$ and thus requires $ de

In this paper we study the MAX-CUT problem on power law graphs (PLGs) with power law exponent $\beta$. We prove some new approximability results on that problem. In particular we show that there exist polynomial time approximation schemes (PTAS) for MAX-CUT on PLGs for the power law exponent $\beta$ in the interval $(0,2)$. For $\beta>2$ we show that for some $\epsilon>0$, MAX-CUT is NP-hard to approximate within approximation ratio $1+\epsilon$, ruling out the existence of a PTAS in this case. Moreover we give an approximation algorithm with improved constant approximation ratio for the case of $\beta>2$., Comment: 19 pages

$\delta$-hyperbolic graphs, originally conceived by Gromov in 1987, occur often in many network applications; for fixed $\delta$, such graphs are simply called hyperbolic graphs and include non-trivial interesting classes of "non-expander" graphs. The main motivation of this paper is to investigate the effect of the hyperbolicity measure $\delta$ on expansion and cut-size bounds on graphs (here $\delta$ need not be a constant), and the asymptotic ranges of $\delta$ for which these results may provide improved approximation algorithms for related combinatorial problems. To this effect, we provide constructive bounds on node expansions for $\delta$-hyperbolic graphs as a function of $\delta$, and show that many witnesses (subsets of nodes) for such expansions can be computed efficiently even if the witnesses are required to be nested or sufficiently distinct from each other. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first such constructive bounds proven. We also show how to find a large family of s-t cuts with relatively small number of cut-edges when s and t are sufficiently far apart. We then provide algorithmic consequences of these bounds and their related proof techniques for two problems for $\delta$-hyperbolic graphs (where $\delta$ is a function $f$ of the number of nodes, the exact nature of growth of $f$ being dependent on the particular problem considered)., Comment: Final corrected author version, to appear in the journal Algorithmica

In this paper we study the special case of Graphic TSP where the underlying graph is a power law graph (PLG). We give a refined analysis of some of the current best approximation algorithms and show that an improved approximation ratio can be achieved for certain ranges of the power law exponent $\beta$. For the value of power law exponent $\beta=1.5$ we obtain an approximation ratio of $1.34$ for Graphic TSP. Moreover we study the $(1,2)$-TSP with the underlying graph of $1$-edges being a PLG. We show improved approximation ratios in the case of underlying deterministic PLGs for $\beta$ greater than $1.666$. For underlying random PLGs we further improve the analysis and show even better expected approximation ratio for the range of $\beta$ between $1$ and $3.5$. On the other hand we prove the first explicit inapproximability bounds for $(1,2)$-TSP for an underlying power law graph.

In this paper we study a problem of vertex two-coloring of undirected graph such that there is no monochromatic cycle of given length. We show that this problem is hard to solve. We give a proof by presenting a reduction from variation of satisfiability (SAT) problem. We show nice properties of coloring cliques with two colors which plays pivotal role in the reduction construction.

In this survey paper, we will present a number of core algorithmic questions concerning several transitive reduction problems on network that have applications in network synthesis and analysis involving cellular processes. Our starting point will be the so-called minimum equivalent digraph problem, a classic computational problem in combinatorial algorithms. We will subsequently consider a few non-trivial extensions or generalizations of this problem motivated by applications in systems biology. We will then discuss the applications of these algorithmic methodologies in the context of three major biological research questions: synthesizing and simplifying signal transduction networks, analyzing disease networks, and measuring redundancy of biological networks.

We design two deterministic polynomial time algorithms for variants of a problem introduced by Edmonds in 1967: determine the rank of a matrix M whose entries are homogeneous linear polynomials over the integers. Given a linear subspace B of the n by n matrices over some field F, we consider the following problems: symbolic matrix rank (SMR) is the problem to determine the maximum rank among matrices in B, symbolic determinant identity testing (SDIT) is the question to decide whether there exists a nonsingular matrix in B. The constructive versions of these problems are asking to find a matrix of maximum rank, respectively a nonsingular matrix, if there exists one. Our first algorithm solves the constructive SMR when B is spanned by unknown rank one matrices, answering an open question of Gurvits. Our second algorithm solves the constructive SDIT when B is spanned by triangularizable matrices, but the triangularization is not given explicitly. Both algorithms work over finite fields of size at least n+1 and over the rational numbers, and the first algorithm actually solves (the non-constructive) SMR independently from the field size. Our main tool to obtain these results is to generalize Wong sequences, a classical method to deal with pairs of matrices, to the case of pairs of matrix spaces., Comment: 25 pages; improved presentation; fix some gaps

We prove explicit approximation hardness results for the Graphic TSP on cubic and subcubic graphs as well as the new inapproximability bounds for the corresponding instances of the (1,2)-TSP. The proof technique uses new modular constructions of simulating gadgets for the restricted cubic and subcubic instances. The modular constructions used in the paper could be also of independent interest.

In this paper, we study the approximability of the metric Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and prove new explicit inapproximability bounds for that problem. The best up to now known hardness of approximation bounds were 185/184 for the symmetric case (due to Lampis) and 117/116 for the asymmetric case (due to Papadimitriou and Vempala). We construct here two new bounded occurrence CSP reductions which improve these bounds to 123/122 and 75/74, respectively. The latter bound is the first improvement in more than a decade for the case of the asymmetric TSP. One of our main tools, which may be of independent interest, is a new construction of a bounded degree wheel amplifier used in the proof of our results.

We give logarithmic lower bounds for the approximability of the Minimum Dominating Set problem in connected (alpha,beta)-Power Law Graphs. We give also a best up to now upper approximation bound on the problem for the case of the parameters beta>2. We develop also a new functional method for proving lower approximation bounds and display a sharp phase transition between approximability and inapproximability of the underlying problem. This method could also be of independent interest., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures

We present a polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm for optimal partitions in the shortest path metric induced by a tree. This resolves, among other things, the exact complexity status of the optimal partition problems in one dimensional geometric metric settings. Our method of solution could be also of independent interest in other applications. We discuss also an extension of our method to the class of metrics induced by the bounded treewidth graphs.

We prove new explicit inapproximability results for the Vertex Cover Problem on the Power Law Graphs and some functional generalizations of that class of graphs. Our results depend on special bounded degree amplifier constructions for those classes of graphs and could be also of independent interest., Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures

The exact complexity of geometric cuts and bisections is the longstanding open problem including even the dimension one. In this paper, we resolve this problem for dimension one (the real line) by designing an exact polynomial time algorithm. Our results depend on a new technique of dealing with metric equalities and their connection to dynamic programming. The method of our solution could be also of independent interest.

The problem of finding a nontrivial factor of a polynomial f(x) over a finite field F_q has many known efficient, but randomized, algorithms. The deterministic complexity of this problem is a famous open question even assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis (GRH). In this work we improve the state of the art by focusing on prime degree polynomials; let n be the degree. If (n-1) has a `large' r-smooth divisor s, then we find a nontrivial factor of f(x) in deterministic poly(n^r,log q) time; assuming GRH and that s > sqrt{n/(2^r)}. Thus, for r = O(1) our algorithm is polynomial time. Further, for r > loglog n there are infinitely many prime degrees n for which our algorithm is applicable and better than the best known; assuming GRH. Our methods build on the algebraic-combinatorial framework of m-schemes initiated by Ivanyos, Karpinski and Saxena (ISSAC 2009). We show that the m-scheme on n points, implicitly appearing in our factoring algorithm, has an exceptional structure; leading us to the improved time complexity. Our structure theorem proves the existence of small intersection numbers in any association scheme that has many relations, and roughly equal valencies and indistinguishing numbers.

We develop a new method for proving explicit approximation lower bounds for TSP problems with bounded metrics improving on the best up to now known bounds. They almost match the best known bounds for unbounded metric TSP problems. In particular, we prove the best known lower bound for TSP with bounded metrics for the metric bound equal to 4.

We study the approximation hardness of the Shortest Superstring, the Maximal Compression and the Maximum Asymmetric Traveling Salesperson (MAX-ATSP) problem. We introduce a new reduction method that produces strongly restricted instances of the Shortest Superstring problem, in which the maximal orbit size is eight (with no character appearing more than eight times) and all given strings having length four. Based on this reduction method, we are able to improve the best up to now known approximation lower bound for the Shortest Superstring problem and the Maximal Compression problem by an order of magnitude. The results imply also an improved approximation lower bound for the MAX-ATSP problem.

Threats on the stability of a financial system may severely affect the functioning of the entire economy, and thus considerable emphasis is placed on the analyzing the cause and effect of such threats. The financial crisis in the current and past decade has shown that one important cause of instability in global markets is the so-called financial contagion, namely the spreading of instabilities or failures of individual components of the network to other, perhaps healthier, components. This leads to a natural question of whether the regulatory authorities could have predicted and perhaps mitigated the current economic crisis by effective computations of some stability measure of the banking networks. Motivated by such observations, we consider the problem of defining and evaluating stabilities of both homogeneous and heterogeneous banking networks against propagation of synchronous idiosyncratic shocks given to a subset of banks. We formalize the homogeneous banking network model of Nier et al. and its corresponding heterogeneous version, formalize the synchronous shock propagation procedures, define two appropriate stability measures and investigate the computational complexities of evaluating these measures for various network topologies and parameters of interest. Our results and proofs also shed some light on the properties of topologies and parameters of the network that may lead to higher or lower stabilities., Comment: to appear in Algorithmica

We present new deterministic algorithms for several cases of the maximum rank matrix completion problem (for short matrix completion), i.e. the problem of assigning values to the variables in a given symbolic matrix as to maximize the resulting matrix rank. Matrix completion belongs to the fundamental problems in computational complexity with numerous important algorithmic applications, among others, in computing dynamic transitive closures or multicast network codings (Harvey et al SODA 2005, Harvey et al SODA 2006). We design efficient deterministic algorithms for common generalizations of the results of Lovasz and Geelen on this problem by allowing linear functions in the entries of the input matrix such that the submatrices corresponding to each variable have rank one. We present also a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for finding the minimal number of generators of a given module structure given by matrices. We establish further several hardness results related to matrix algebras and modules. As a result we connect the classical problem of polynomial identity testing with checking surjectivity (or injectivity) between two given modules. One of the elements of our algorithm is a construction of a greedy algorithm for finding a maximum rank element in the more general setting of the problem. The proof methods used in this paper could be also of independent interest., Comment: 14 pages, preliminary

First, we study geometric variants of the standard set cover motivated by assignment of directional antenna and shipping with deadlines, providing the first known polynomial-time exact solutions. Next, we consider the following general capacitated set cover problem. There is given a set of elements with real weights and a family S of sets of elements. One can use a set if it is a subset of one of the sets on our lists and the sum of weights is at most one. The goal is to cover all the elements with the allowed sets.We show that any polynomial-time algorithm that approximates the un-capacitated version of the set cover problem with ratio r can be converted to an approximation algorithm for the capacitated version with ratio r + 1.357.In particular, the composition of these two results yields a polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the problem of covering a set of customers represented by a weighted n-point set with a minimum number of antennas of variable angular range and fixed capacity with ratio 2.357. Finally, we provide a PTAS for the dual problem where the number of sets (e.g., antennas) to use is fixed and the task is to minimize the maximum set load, in case the sets correspond to line intervals or arcs.

We design a 3/2 approximation algorithm for the Generalized Steiner Tree problem (GST) in metrics with distances 1 and 2. This is the first polynomial time approximation algorithm for a wide class of non-geometric metric GST instances with approximation factor below 2.

In this paper we develop techniques that eliminate the need of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis (GRH) from various (almost all) known results about deterministic polynomial factoring over finite fields. Our main result shows that given a polynomial f(x) of degree n over a finite field k, we can find in deterministic poly(n^{\log n},\log |k|) time "either" a nontrivial factor of f(x) "or" a nontrivial automorphism of k[x]/(f(x)) of order n. This main tool leads to various new GRH-free results, most striking of which are: (1) Given a noncommutative algebra over a finite field, we can find a zero divisor in deterministic subexponential time. (2) Given a positive integer r such that either 8|r or r has at least two distinct odd prime factors. There is a deterministic polynomial time algorithm to find a nontrivial factor of the r-th cyclotomic polynomial over a finite field. In this paper, following the seminal work of Lenstra (1991) on constructing isomorphisms between finite fields, we further generalize classical Galois theory constructs like cyclotomic extensions, Kummer extensions, Teichmuller subgroups, to the case of commutative semisimple algebras with automorphisms. These generalized constructs help eliminate the dependence on GRH., Comment: 35 pages, preliminary version

We give a 1.25 approximation algorithm for the Steiner Tree Problem with distances one and two, improving on the best known bound for that problem.

We study the problem of computing a minimum equivalent digraph (also known as the problem of computing a strong transitive reduction) and its maximum objective function variant, with two types of extensions. First, we allow to declare a set $D\subset E$ and require that a valid solution $A$ satisfies $D\subset A$ (it is sometimes called transitive reduction problem). In the second extension (called $p$-ary transitive reduction), we have integer edge labeling and we view two paths as equivalent if they have the same beginning, ending and the sum of labels modulo $p$. A solution $A\subseteq E$ is valid if it gives an equivalent path for every original path. For all problems we establish the following: polynomial time minimization of $|A|$ within ratio 1.5, maximization of $|E-A|$ within ratio 2, MAX-SNP hardness even of the length of simple cycles is limited to 5. Furthermore, we believe that the combinatorial technique behind the approximation algorithm for the minimization version might be of interest to other graph connectivity problems as well.

We consider Metropolis Glauber dynamics for sampling proper $q$-colourings of the $n$-vertex complete $b$-ary tree when $3\leq q\leq b/2\ln(b)$. We give both upper and lower bounds on the mixing time. For fixed $q$ and $b$, our upper bound is $n^{O(b/\log b)}$ and our lower bound is $n^{\Omega(b/q \log(b))}$, where the constants implicit in the $O()$ and $\Omega()$ notation do not depend upon $n$, $q$ or $b$.

In this work we relate the deterministic complexity of factoring polynomials (over finite fields) to certain combinatorial objects we call m-schemes. We extend the known conditional deterministic subexponential time polynomial factoring algorithm for finite fields to get an underlying m-scheme. We demonstrate how the properties of m-schemes relate to improvements in the deterministic complexity of factoring polynomials over finite fields assuming the generalized Riemann Hypothesis (GRH). In particular, we give the first deterministic polynomial time algorithm (assuming GRH) to find a nontrivial factor of a polynomial of prime degree n where (n-1) is a smooth number., Comment: 14 pages, preliminary version

Quantum finite automata were introduced by C.Moore, J.P. Crutchfield, and by A.Kondacs and J.Watrous. This notion is not a generalization of the deterministic finite automata. Moreover, it was proved that not all regular languages can be recognized by quantum finite automata. A.Ambainis and R.Freivalds proved that for some languages quantum finite automata may be exponentially more concise rather than both deterministic and probabilistic finite automata. In this paper we introduce the notion of quantum finite multitape automata and prove that there is a language recognized by a quantum finite automaton but not by a deterministic or probabilistic finite automata. This is the first result on a problem which can be solved by a quantum computer but not by a deterministic or probabilistic computer. Additionally we discover unexpected probabilistic automata recognizing complicated languages., Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX