Minimizing the weighted completion times ($P \mid \mid Σw_j C_j$) and weighted number of tardy jobs ($P \mid \mid Σw_j U_j$) on multiple identical machines are two classical NP-hard scheduling problems. As shown by Lenté et al. (2014), both problems can be solved in time ${O}^{\star}(3^n)$. In this paper, we improve these bounds to ${O}(2.755^n)$ and ${O}^{\star}(2^n)$, respectively. Our algorithm for $P \mid \mid Σw_j C_j$ exploits the meet-in-the-middle paradigm and an efficient data structure answering linear programming queries. Additionally, when the number of machines is at most $6$, we show that the running time for $P \mid \mid Σw_j C_j$ can further be improved. Both scheduling problems are generalizations of the classical Bin Packing problem, which can be solved in ${O}^{\star}(2^n)$ time. Improving this running time is an important open question. We show that, when assuming the Asymptotic Rank Conjecture (ARC), Bin Packing can be solved in time ${O}((2-\varepsilon)^n)$ for some $\varepsilon >0$. Our algorithm makes use of two main ingredients: the recent ${O}((2-\varepsilon)^n)$-time algorithm of Nederlof et al. [SICOMP'23] for Bin Packing when the number of bins is a fixed constant, and the ${O}((2-\varepsilon)^n)$-time algorithm of Björklund et al. [SODA'25] for special instances of the $3$-way Partitioning problem when assuming ARC.

The randomized online-LOCAL model captures a number of models of computing; it is at least as strong as all of these models: - the classical LOCAL model of distributed graph algorithms, - the quantum version of the LOCAL model, - finitely dependent distributions [e.g. Holroyd 2016], - any model that does not violate physical causality [Gavoille, Kosowski, Markiewicz, DISC 2009], - the SLOCAL model [Ghaffari, Kuhn, Maus, STOC 2017], and - the dynamic-LOCAL and online-LOCAL models [Akbari et al., ICALP 2023]. In general, the online-LOCAL model can be much stronger than the LOCAL model. For example, there are locally checkable labeling problems (LCLs) that can be solved with logarithmic locality in the online-LOCAL model but that require polynomial locality in the LOCAL model. However, in this work we show that in trees, many classes of LCL problems have the same locality in deterministic LOCAL and randomized online-LOCAL (and as a corollary across all the above-mentioned models). In particular, these classes of problems do not admit any distributed quantum advantage. We present a near-complete classification for the case of rooted regular trees. We also fully classify the super-logarithmic region in unrooted regular trees. Finally, we show that in general trees (rooted or unrooted, possibly irregular, possibly with input labels) problems that are global in deterministic LOCAL remain global also in the randomized online-LOCAL model.

The Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree problem takes as input a set P of points in the Euclidean plane and finds the minimum length network interconnecting all the points of P. In this paper, in continuation to the works of [Du et al., 1987] and [Weng and Booth, 1995], we study Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree when P is formed by the vertices of a pair of regular, concentric and parallel n-gons. We restrict our attention to the cases where the two polygons are not very close to each other. In such cases, we show that Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree is polynomial-time solvable, and we describe an explicit structure of a Euclidean Steiner minimal tree for P. We also consider point sets P of size n where the number of input points not on the convex hull of P is f(n) ≤ n. We give an exact algorithm with running time 2^𝒪(f(n) log n) for such input point sets P. Note that when f(n) = 𝒪(n/(log n)), our algorithm runs in single-exponential time, and when f(n) = o(n) the running time is 2^o(n log n) which is better than the known algorithm in [Hwang et al., 1992]. We know that no FPTAS exists for Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree unless P = NP [Garey et al., 1977]. On the other hand FPTASes exist for Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree on convex point sets [Scott Provan, 1988]. In this paper, we show that if the number of input points in P not belonging to the convex hull of P is 𝒪(log n), then an FPTAS exists for Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree. In contrast, we show that for any ε ∈ (0,1], when there are Ω(n^ε) points not belonging to the convex hull of the input set, then no FPTAS can exist for Euclidean Steiner Minimal Tree unless P = NP.