Abstract The Parameterized Inapproximability Hypothesis (PIH) is the analog of the PCP theorem in the world of parameterized complexity. It asserts that no FPT algorithm can distinguish a satisfiable 2CSP instance from one which is only $$(1-\varepsilon )$$ ( 1 - ε ) -satisfiable (where the parameter is the number of variables) for some constant $$0<\varepsilon <1$$ 0 < ε < 1 . We consider a minimization version of CSPs (Min CSP), where one may assign r values to each variable, and the goal is to ensure that every constraint is satisfied by some choice among the $$r \times r$$ r × r pairs of values assigned to its variables (call such a CSP instance r list satisfiable). We prove the following strong parameterized inapproximability for Min CSP: For every $$r \ge 1$$ r ≥ 1 , it is $${\mathsf {W[1]}}$$ W [ 1 ] -hard to tell if a 2CSP instance is satisfiable or is not even r list satisfiable. We refer to this statement as “Baby PIH," following the recently proved Baby PCP Theorem (Barto and Kozik, 2021). Our proof adapts the combinatorial arguments underlying the Baby PCP theorem, overcoming some basic obstacles that arise in the parameterized setting. Furthermore, our reduction runs in time polynomially bounded in both the number of variables and the alphabet size and thus implies the Baby PCP theorem as well.

Abstract. A famous conjecture of Tuza states that the minimum number of edges needed to cover all the triangles in a graph is at most twice the maximum number of edge-disjoint triangles. This conjecture was couched in a broader setting by Aharoni and Zerbib, who proposed a hypergraph version of this conjecture and also studied its implied fractional versions. We establish the fractional version of the Aharoni–Zerbib conjecture up to lower order terms. Specifically, we give a factor [Formula: see text] approximation based on LP rounding for an algorithmic version of the hypergraph Turán problem ([Formula: see text]). The objective in [Formula: see text] is to pick the smallest collection of [Formula: see text]-sized subsets of vertices of an input [Formula: see text]-uniform hypergraph such that every hyperedge contains one of these subsets. Aharoni and Zerbib also posed whether Tuza’s conjecture and its hypergraph versions could follow from nontrivial duality gaps between vertex covers and matchings on hypergraphs that exclude certain subhypergraphs, for instance, a “tent” structure that cannot occur in the incidence of triangles and edges. We give a strong negative answer to this question by exhibiting tent-free hypergraphs, and indeed [Formula: see text]-free hypergraphs for any finite family [Formula: see text] of excluded subhypergraphs, whose vertex covers must include almost all the vertices. The algorithmic questions arising in the above study can be phrased as instances of vertex cover on simple hypergraphs, whose hyperedges can pairwise share at most one vertex. We prove that the trivial factor [Formula: see text] approximation for vertex cover is hard to improve for simple [Formula: see text]-uniform hypergraphs. However, for set cover on simple [Formula: see text]-vertex hypergraphs, the greedy algorithm achieves a factor [Formula: see text], better than the optimal [Formula: see text] factor for general hypergraphs.

The Directed Steiner Network (DSN) problem takes as input a directed edge-weighted graph G=(V,E) and a set {D}subseteq V x V of k demand pairs. The aim is to compute the cheapest network N subseteq G for which there is an s -> t path for each (s,t)in {D}. It is known that this problem is notoriously hard as there is no k^{1/4-o(1)}-approximation algorithm under Gap-ETH, even when parameterizing the runtime by k [Dinur & Manurangsi, ITCS 2018]. In light of this, we systematically study several special cases of DSN and determine their parameterized approximability for the parameter k. For the bi-DSN_Planar problem, the aim is to compute a planar optimum solution N subseteq G in a bidirected graph G, i.e. for every edge uv of G the reverse edge vu exists and has the same weight. This problem is a generalization of several well-studied special cases. Our main result is that this problem admits a parameterized approximation scheme (PAS) for k. We also prove that our result is tight in the sense that (a) the runtime of our PAS cannot be significantly improved, and (b) it is unlikely that a PAS exists for any generalization of bi-DSN_Planar, unless FPT=W[1]. Additionally we study several generalizations of bi-DSN_Planar and obtain upper and lower bounds on obtainable runtimes parameterized by k. One important special case of DSN is the Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph (SCSS) problem, for which the solution network N subseteq G needs to strongly connect a given set of k terminals. It has been observed before that for SCSS a parameterized 2-approximation exists when parameterized by k [Chitnis et al., IPEC 2013]. We show a tight inapproximability result: under Gap-ETH there is no (2-{epsilon})-approximation algorithm parameterized by k (for any epsilon>0). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a W[1]-hard problem admitting a non-trivial parameterized approximation factor which is also known to be tight! Additionally we show that when restricting the input of SCSS to bidirected graphs, the problem remains NP-hard but becomes FPT for k.

In this paper we study two fully-dynamic multi-dimensional vector load balancing problems with recourse. The adversary presents a stream of n job insertions and deletions, where each job j is a vector in ℝ^d_{≥ 0}. In the vector scheduling problem, the algorithm must maintain an assignment of the active jobs to m identical machines to minimize the makespan (maximum load on any dimension on any machine). In the vector bin packing problem, the algorithm must maintain an assignment of active jobs into a number of bins of unit capacity in all dimensions, to minimize the number of bins currently used. In both problems, the goal is to maintain solutions that are competitive against the optimal solution for the active set of jobs, at every time instant. The algorithm is allowed to change the assignment from time to time, with the secondary objective of minimizing the amortized recourse, which is the average cardinality of the change of the assignment per update to the instance. For the vector scheduling problem, we present two simple algorithms. The first is a randomized algorithm with an O(1) amortized recourse and an O(log d/log log d) competitive ratio against oblivious adversaries. The second algorithm is a deterministic algorithm that is competitive against adaptive adversaries but with a slightly higher competitive ratio of O(log d) and a per-job recourse guarantee bounded by Õ(log n + log d log OPT). We also prove a sharper instance-dependent recourse guarantee for the deterministic algorithm. For the vector bin packing problem, we make the so-called small jobs assumption that the size of all jobs in all the coordinates is O(1/log d) and present a simple O(1)-competitive algorithm with O(log n) recourse against oblivious adversaries. For both problems, the main challenge is to determine when and how to migrate jobs to maintain competitive solutions. Our central idea is that for each job, we make these decisions based only on the active set of jobs that are "earlier" than this job in some ordering ≺ of the jobs.

For a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP), a robust satisfaction algorithm is one that outputs an assignment satisfying most of the constraints on instances that are near-satisfiable. It is known that the CSPs that admit efficient robust satisfaction algorithms are precisely those of bounded width, i.e., CSPs whose satisfiability can be checked by a simple local consistency algorithm (eg., 2-SAT or Horn-SAT in the Boolean case). While the exact satisfiability of a bounded width CSP can be checked by combinatorial algorithms, the robust algorithm is based on rounding a canonical Semi Definite Programming(SDP) relaxation.

In the problem of scheduling with non-uniform communication delays, the input is a set of jobs with precedence constraints. Associated with every precedence constraint between a pair of jobs is a communication delay, the time duration the scheduler has to wait between the two jobs if they are scheduled on different machines. The objective is to assign the jobs to machines to minimize the makespan of the schedule. Despite being a fundamental problem in theory and a consequential problem in practice, the approximability of scheduling problems with communication delays is not very well understood. One of the top ten open problems in scheduling theory, in the influential list by Schuurman and Woeginger and its latest update by Bansal, asks if the problem admits a constant-factor approximation algorithm. In this paper, we answer this question in the negative by proving a logarithmic hardness for the problem under the standard complexity theory assumption that NP-complete problems do not admit quasi-polynomial-time algorithms. Our hardness result is obtained using a surprisingly simple reduction from a problem that we call Unique Machine Precedence constraints Scheduling (UMPS). We believe that this problem is of central importance in understanding the hardness of many scheduling problems and we conjecture that it is very hard to approximate. Among other things, our conjecture implies a logarithmic hardness of related machine scheduling with precedences, a long-standing open problem in scheduling theory and approximation algorithms.

A famous conjecture of Tuza states that the minimum number of edges needed to cover all the triangles in a graph is at most twice the maximum number of edge-disjoint triangles. This conjecture was couched in a broader setting by Aharoni and Zerbib who proposed a hypergraph version of this conjecture, and also studied its implied fractional versions. We establish the fractional version of the Aharoni-Zerbib conjecture up to lower order terms. Specifically, we give a factor approximation based on LP rounding for an algorithmic version of the hypergraph Turán problem (AHTP). The objective in AHTP is to pick the smallest collection of (t–1)-sized subsets of vertices of an input t-uniform hypergraph such that every hyperedge contains one of these subsets. Aharoni and Zerbib also posed whether Tuza's conjecture and its hypergraph versions could follow from non-trivial duality gaps between vertex covers and matchings on hypergraphs that exclude certain sub-hypergraphs, for instance, a “tent” structure that cannot occur in the incidence of triangles and edges. We give a strong negative answer to this question, by exhibiting tent-free hypergraphs, and indeed ℱ-free hypergraphs for any finite family ℱ of excluded sub-hypergraphs, whose vertex covers must include almost all the vertices. The algorithmic questions arising in the above study can be phrased as instances of vertex cover on simple hypergraphs, whose hyperedges can pairwise share at most one vertex. We prove that the trivial factor t approximation for vertex cover is hard to improve for simple t-uniform hypergraphs. However, for set cover on simple n-vertex hypergraphs, the greedy algorithm achieves a factor (ln n)/2, better than the optimal ln n factor for general hypergraphs.

Multidimensional packing problems generalize the classical packing problems such as Bin Packing, Multiprocessor Scheduling by allowing the jobs to be d-dimensional vectors. While the approximability of the scalar problems is well understood, there has been a significant gap between the approximation algorithms and the hardness results for the multidimensional variants. In this paper, we close this gap by giving almost tight hardness results for these problems. 1)We show that Vector Bin Packing has no$\Omega(\log d)$factor asymptotic approximation algorithm when$d$is a large constant, assuming$\mathrm{P}\neq\text{NP}$. This matches the ln d + O (1) factor approximation algorithms (Chekuri, Khanna SICOMP 2004, Bansal, Caprara, Sviridenko SICOMP 2009, Bansal, Eliáš, Khan SODA 2016) upto constants. 2)We show that Vector Scheduling has no polyno-mial time algorithm with an approximation ratio of$\Omega((\log d)^{1-\epsilon})$when$d$is part of the input, assuming$\text{NP}\nsubseteq$ZPTIME$\left(n^{(\log n)^{O(1)}}\right)$. This almost matches the$O\left(\frac{\log d}{\log\log d}\right)$factor algorithms(Harris, Srinivasan JACM 2019, Im, Kell, Kulkarni, Panigrahi SICOMP 2019). We also show that the problem is NP-hard to approximate within$(\log \log d)^{\omega(1)}$. 3)We show that Vector Bin Covering is NP-hard to approx-imate within$\Omega\left(\frac{\log d}{\log\log d}\right)$when$d$is part of the input, almost matching the O (log d) factor algorithm (Alon et al., Algorithmica 1998). Previously, no hardness results that grow with$d$were known for Vector Scheduling and Vector Bin Covering when$d$is part of the input and for Vector Bin Packing when$d$is a fixed constant.

In the classical Online Metric Matching problem, we are given a metric space with $k$ servers. A collection of clients arrive in an online fashion, and upon arrival, a client should irrevocably be matched to an as-yet-unmatched server. The goal is to find an online matching which minimizes the total cost, i.e., the sum of distances between each client and the server it is matched to. We know deterministic algorithms~\cite{KP93,khuller1994line} that achieve a competitive ratio of $2k-1$, and this bound is tight for deterministic algorithms. The problem has also long been considered in specialized metrics such as the line metric or metrics of bounded doubling dimension, with the current best result on a line metric being a deterministic $O(\log k)$ competitive algorithm~\cite{raghvendra2018optimal}. Obtaining (or refuting) $O(\log k)$-competitive algorithms in general metrics and constant-competitive algorithms on the line metric have been long-standing open questions in this area. In this paper, we investigate the robustness of these lower bounds by considering the Online Metric Matching with Recourse problem where we are allowed to change a small number of previous assignments upon arrival of a new client. Indeed, we show that a small logarithmic amount of recourse can significantly improve the quality of matchings we can maintain. For general metrics, we show a simple \emph{deterministic} $O(\log k)$-competitive algorithm with $O(\log k)$-amortized recourse, an exponential improvement over the $2k-1$ lower bound when no recourse is allowed. We next consider the line metric, and present a deterministic algorithm which is $3$-competitive and has $O(\log k)$-recourse, again a substantial improvement over the best known $O(\log k)$-competitive algorithm when no recourse is allowed.

Dinur’s celebrated proof of the PCP theorem alternates two main steps in several iterations: gap amplification to increase the soundness gap by a large constant factor (at the expense of much larger alphabet size), and a composition step that brings back the alphabet size to an absolute constant (at the expense of a fixed constant factor loss in the soundness gap). We note that the gap amplification can produce a Label Cover CSP. This allows us to reduce the alphabet size via a direct long-code based reduction from Label Cover to a Boolean CSP. Our composition step thus bypasses the concept of Assignment Testers from Dinur’s proof, and we believe it is more intuitive - it is just a gadget reduction. The analysis also uses only elementary facts (Parseval’s identity) about Fourier Transforms over the hypercube.

The d-to-1 conjecture of Khot asserts that it is NP-hard to satisfy an ε fraction of constraints of a satisfiable d-to-1 Label Cover instance, for arbitrarily small ε > 0. We prove that the d-to-1 conjecture for any fixed d implies the hardness of coloring a 3-colorable graph with C colors for arbitrarily large integers C. Earlier, the hardness of O(1)-coloring a 4-colorable graphs is known under the 2-to-1 conjecture, which is the strongest in the family of d-to-1 conjectures, and the hardness for 3-colorable graphs is known under a certain "fish-shaped" variant of the 2-to-1 conjecture.

A $k$-uniform hypergraph is said to be $r$-rainbow colorable if there is an $r$-coloring of its vertices such that every hyperedge intersects all $r$ color classes. Given as input such a hypergraph, finding a $r$-rainbow coloring of it is NP-hard for all $k \ge 3$ and $r \ge 2$. Therefore, one settles for finding a rainbow coloring with fewer colors (which is an easier task). When $r=k$ (the maximum possible value), i.e., the hypergraph is $k$-partite, one can efficiently $2$-rainbow color the hypergraph, i.e., $2$-color its vertices so that there are no monochromatic edges. In this work, we consider the next smaller value of $r=k-1$ and prove that in this case it is NP-hard to rainbow color the hypergraph with $q := \lceil \frac{k-2}{2} \rceil$ colors. In particular, for $k \le 6$, it is NP-hard to $2$-color $(k-1)$-rainbow colorable $k$-uniform hypergraphs. Our proof follows the algebraic approach to promise constraint satisfaction problems. It proceeds by characterizing the polymorphisms associated with the approximate rainbow coloring problem, which are rainbow colorings of some product hypergraphs on vertex set $[r]^n$. We prove that any such polymorphism $f: [r]^n \to [q]$ must be $C$-fixing, i.e., there are a small subset $S$ of $C$ coordinates and a setting $a \in [q]^S$ such that fixing $x_{|S} = a$ determines the value of $f(x)$. The key step in our proof is bounding the sensitivity of certain rainbow colorings, thereby arguing that they must be juntas. Armed with the $C$-fixing characterization, our NP-hardness is obtained via a reduction from smooth Label Cover.

A k-uniform hypergraph is said to be r-rainbow colorable if there is an r-coloring of its vertices such that every hyperedge intersects all r color classes. Given as input such a hypergraph, finding a r-rainbow coloring of it is NP-hard for all k >= 3 and r >= 2. Therefore, one settles for finding a rainbow coloring with fewer colors (which is an easier task). When r=k (the maximum possible value), i.e., the hypergraph is k-partite, one can efficiently 2-rainbow color the hypergraph, i.e., 2-color its vertices so that there are no monochromatic edges. In this work we consider the next smaller value of r=k-1, and prove that in this case it is NP-hard to rainbow color the hypergraph with q := ceil[(k-2)/2] colors. In particular, for k <=6, it is NP-hard to 2-color (k-1)-rainbow colorable k-uniform hypergraphs. Our proof follows the algebraic approach to promise constraint satisfaction problems. It proceeds by characterizing the polymorphisms associated with the approximate rainbow coloring problem, which are rainbow colorings of some product hypergraphs on vertex set [r]^n. We prove that any such polymorphism f: [r]^n -> [q] must be C-fixing, i.e., there is a small subset S of C coordinates and a setting a in [q]^S such that fixing x_{|S} = a determines the value of f(x). The key step in our proof is bounding the sensitivity of certain rainbow colorings, thereby arguing that they must be juntas. Armed with the C-fixing characterization, our NP-hardness is obtained via a reduction from smooth Label Cover.

In this paper, we present a new iterative rounding framework for many clustering problems. Using this, we obtain an (α1 + є ≤ 7.081 + є)-approximation algorithm for k-median with outliers, greatly improving upon the large implicit constant approximation ratio of Chen. For k-means with outliers, we give an (α2+є ≤ 53.002 + є)-approximation, which is the first O(1)-approximation for this problem. The iterative algorithm framework is very versatile; we show how it can be used to give α1- and (α1 + є)-approximation algorithms for matroid and knapsack median problems respectively, improving upon the previous best approximations ratios of 8 due to Swamy and 17.46 due to Byrka et al. The natural LP relaxation for the k-median/k-means with outliers problem has an unbounded integrality gap. In spite of this negative result, our iterative rounding framework shows that we can round an LP solution to an almost-integral solution of small cost, in which we have at most two fractionally open facilities. Thus, the LP integrality gap arises due to the gap between almost-integral and fully-integral solutions. Then, using a pre-processing procedure, we show how to convert an almost-integral solution to a fully-integral solution losing only a constant-factor in the approximation ratio. By further using a sparsification technique, the additive factor loss incurred by the conversion can be reduced to any є > 0.

We investigate the decidability of termination, reachability, coverability and deadlock-freeness of Petri nets endowed with a hierarchy on places, and with inhibitor arcs, reset arcs and transfer arcs that respect this hierarchy. We also investigate what happens when we have a mix of these special arcs, some of which respect the hierarchy, while others do not. We settle the decidability status of the above four problems for all combinations of hierarchy, inhibitor, reset and transfer arcs, except the termination problem for two combinations. For both these combinations, we show that the termination problem is as hard as deciding positivity for linear recurrent sequences -- a long-standing open problem.