We study the problem of estimating the size of the maximum matching in the sublinear-time setting. This problem has been extensively studied, with several known upper and lower bounds. A notable result by Behnezhad (FOCS 2021) established a 2-approximation in \(\tilde O(n)\) time.

We study the dynamic correlation clustering problem with \emph{adaptive} edge label flips. In correlation clustering, we are given a $n$-vertex complete graph whose edges are labeled either $(+)$ or $(-)$, and the goal is to minimize the total number of $(+)$ edges between clusters and the number of $(-)$ edges within clusters. We consider the dynamic setting with adversarial robustness, in which the \emph{adaptive} adversary can flip the label of an edge based on the current output of the algorithm. Our main result is a randomized algorithm that always maintains an $O(1)$-approximation to the optimal correlation clustering with $O(\log^{2}{n})$ amortized update time. Prior to our work, no algorithm with $O(1)$-approximation and $\text{polylog}{(n)}$ update time for the adversarially robust setting was known. We further validate our theoretical results with experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets with competitive empirical performances. Our main technical ingredient is an algorithm that maintains \emph{sparse-dense decomposition} with $\text{polylog}{(n)}$ update time, which could be of independent interest.

We consider the problem of finding a minimum cut of a weighted graph presented as a single-pass stream. While graph sparsification in streams has been intensively studied, the specific application of finding minimum cuts in streams is less well-studied. To this end, we show upper and lower bounds on minimum cut problems in insertion-only streams for a variety of settings, including for both randomized and deterministic algorithms, for both arbitrary and random order streams, and for both approximate and exact algorithms. One of our main results is an Õ(n/ε) space algorithm with fast update time for approximating a spectral cut query with high probability on a stream given in an arbitrary order. Our result breaks the Ω(n/ε²) space lower bound required of a sparsifier that approximates all cuts simultaneously. Using this result, we provide streaming algorithms with near optimal space of Õ(n/ε) for minimum cut and approximate all-pairs effective resistances, with matching space lower-bounds. The amortized update time of our algorithms is Õ(1), provided that the number of edges in the input graph is at least (n/ε²)^{1+o(1)}. We also give a generic way of incorporating sketching into a recursive contraction algorithm to improve the post-processing time of our algorithms. In addition to these results, we give a random-order streaming algorithm that computes the exact minimum cut on a simple, unweighted graph using Õ(n) space. Finally, we give an Ω(n/ε²) space lower bound for deterministic minimum cut algorithms which matches the best-known upper bound up to polylogarithmic factors.

We study subgraph counting over fully dynamic graphs, which undergo edge insertions and deletions. Counting subgraphs is a fundamental problem in graph theory with numerous applications across various fields, including database theory, social network analysis, and computational biology. In database theory, we can use dynamic subgraph counting algorithms on layered graphs to maintain the sizes of joins of databases that undergo updates. Specifically, the problem of finding the number of elements in a cyclic join of size k is equivalent to counting the number of k-cycles in k-layered graphs. For example, let R, S, and T be relations that have schemas (A, B), (B, C), and (C, A) respectively. Then the size of the join of R with S with T is given by the number of triangles in the corresponding layered graph where there is a layer for each attribute, the vertices are the attribute values and the edges represent the tuples of attribute values in the relations. Maintaining the number of triangles in fully dynamic graphs is very well studied and has an upper bound of O(√m) for the update time [KNN+20]. There is also a conditional lower bound of Ω(m 1/2-γ ) for any constant γ>0, for the update time [HKNS15] under the Online Matrix-Vector (OMv) conjecture implying that O(√m) is the ''right answer' for the update time of counting triangles. More recently, [HHH22] studied the problem of maintaining the number of 4-cycles in fully dynamic graphs and designed an algorithm with O(m 2/3 ) update time which is a natural generalization of the approach for counting triangles. They also studied the problem of counting 4-cliques showing that the folklore upper bound of O(m) for the update time is tight under the static combinatorial 4-clique conjecture by giving a lower bound of Ω(m 1-γ ) for any γ>0. Thus, it seems natural that O(m 2/3 ) might be the correct answer for the complexity of the update time for counting 4-cycles. In this work, we present an improved algorithm for maintaining the number of 4-cycles in fully dynamic graphs. Our algorithm achieves a worst-case update time of O(m 2/3-ε ) for some constant ε>0. We also show that the problem of counting 4-cycles is equivalent in layered graphs and general graphs. Our approach crucially uses fast matrix multiplication and leverages recent developments therein to get an improved runtime. Using the current best value of the matrix multiplication exponent ω=2.371339 we get ε=0.009811 and if we assume the best possible exponent i.e. ω=2 then we get ε=1/24. There is also a lower bound of Ω(m 1/2-γ ) for any constant γ>0, for the update time [HKNS15,HHH22], so there is still a big gap between the best-known upper and lower bounds. The key message of our paper is demonstrating that O(m 2/3 ) is not the correct answer for the complexity of the update time.

We study the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem on general graphs within the framework of learning-augmented algorithms. The MIS problem is known to be NP-hard and is also NP-hard to approximate to within a factor of $n^{1-δ}$ for any $δ>0$. We show that we can break this barrier in the presence of an oracle obtained through predictions from a machine learning model that answers vertex membership queries for a fixed MIS with probability $1/2+\varepsilon$. In the first setting we consider, the oracle can be queried once per vertex to know if a vertex belongs to a fixed MIS, and the oracle returns the correct answer with probability $1/2 + \varepsilon$. Under this setting, we show an algorithm that obtains an $\tilde{O}(\sqrtΔ/\varepsilon)$-approximation in $O(m)$ time where $Δ$ is the maximum degree of the graph. In the second setting, we allow multiple queries to the oracle for a vertex, each of which is correct with probability $1/2 + \varepsilon$. For this setting, we show an $O(1)$-approximation algorithm using $O(n/\varepsilon^2)$ total queries and $\tilde{O}(m)$ runtime.

We present novel lower bounds in the Merlin-Arthur (MA) communication model and the related annotated streaming or stream verification model. The MA communication model extends the classical communication model by introducing an all-powerful but untrusted player, Merlin, who knows the inputs of the usual players, Alice and Bob, and attempts to convince them about the output. We focus on the online MA (OMA) model where Alice and Merlin each send a single message to Bob, who needs to catch Merlin if he is dishonest and announce the correct output otherwise. Most known functions have OMA protocols with total communication significantly smaller than what would be needed without Merlin. In this work, we introduce the notion of non-trivial-OMA complexity of a function. This is the minimum total communication required when we restrict ourselves to only non-trivial protocols where Alice sends Bob fewer bits than what she would have sent without Merlin. We exhibit the first explicit functions that have this complexity superlinear - even exponential - in their classical one-way complexity: this means the trivial protocol, where Merlin communicates nothing and Alice and Bob compute the function on their own, is exponentially better than any non-trivial protocol in terms of total communication. These OMA lower bounds also translate to the annotated streaming model, the MA analogue of single-pass data streaming. We show large separations between the classical streaming complexity and the non-trivial annotated streaming complexity (for the analogous notion in this setting) of fundamental problems such as counting distinct items, as well as of graph problems such as connectivity and k-connectivity in a certain edge update model called the support graph turnstile model that we introduce here.

Correlation clustering is a fundamental optimization problem at the intersection of machine learning and theoretical computer science. Motivated by applications to big data processing, recent years have witnessed a flurry of results on this problem in the streaming model. In this model, the algorithm needs to process the input $n$-vertex graph by making one or few passes over the stream of its edges and using a limited memory, much smaller than the input size. All previous work on streaming correlation clustering have focused on semi-streaming algorithms with $\Omega(n)$ memory, whereas in this work, we study streaming algorithms with much smaller memory requirement of only $\text{polylog}{(n)}$ bits. This stringent memory requirement is in the same spirit of classical streaming algorithms that instead of recovering a full solution to the problem---which can be prohibitively large with such small memory as is the case in our problem---, aimed to learn certain statistical properties of their inputs. In our case, this translates to determining the ``(correlation) clusterability'' of input graphs, or more precisely, estimating the cost of the optimal correlation clustering solution. As our main result, we present two novel algorithms that in only $\text{polylog}{(n)}$ space are able to estimate the optimal correlation clustering cost up to some constant multiplicative factor plus some extra additive error. One of the algorithms outputs a $3$-multiplicative approximation plus $o(n^2)$ additive approximation, and the other one improves the additive error further down at the cost of increasing the multiplicative factor to some large constant. We then present new lower bounds that justify this mix of both multiplicative and additive error approximation in our algorithms.

We optimally resolve the space complexity for the problem of finding an α-approximate minimum vertex cover (αMVC) in dynamic graph streams. We give a randomised algorithm for αMVC which uses O(n²/α²) bits of space matching Dark and Konrad’s lower bound [CCC 2020] up to constant factors. By computing a random greedy matching, we identify "easy" instances of the problem which can trivially be solved by returning the entire vertex set. The remaining "hard" instances, then have sparse induced subgraphs which we exploit to get our space savings and solve αMVC. Achieving this type of optimality result is crucial for providing a complete understanding of a problem, and it has been gaining interest within the dynamic graph streaming community. For connectivity, Nelson and Yu [SODA 2019] improved the lower bound showing that Ω(n log³ n) bits of space is necessary while Ahn, Guha, and McGregor [SODA 2012] have shown that O(n log³ n) bits is sufficient. For finding an α-approximate maximum matching, the upper bound was improved by Assadi and Shah [ITCS 2022] showing that O(n²/α³) bits is sufficient while Dark and Konrad [CCC 2020] have shown that Ω(n²/α³) bits is necessary. The space complexity, however, remains unresolved for many other dynamic graph streaming problems where further improvements can still be made.

We present an algorithm for the maximum matching problem in dynamic (insertion-deletions) streams with asymptotically optimal space: for any n-vertex graph, our algorithm with high probability outputs an α-approximate matching in a single pass using O(n²/α³) bits of space. A long line of work on the dynamic streaming matching problem has reduced the gap between space upper and lower bounds first to n^{o(1)} factors [Assadi-Khanna-Li-Yaroslavtsev; SODA 2016] and subsequently to polylog factors [Dark-Konrad; CCC 2020]. Our upper bound now matches the Dark-Konrad lower bound up to O(1) factors, thus completing this research direction. Our approach consists of two main steps: we first (provably) identify a family of graphs, similar to the instances used in prior work to establish the lower bounds for this problem, as the only "hard" instances to focus on. These graphs include an induced subgraph which is both sparse and contains a large matching. We then design a dynamic streaming algorithm for this family of graphs which is more efficient than prior work. The key to this efficiency is a novel sketching method, which bypasses the typical loss of polylog(n)-factors in space compared to standard L₀-sampling primitives, and can be of independent interest in designing optimal algorithms for other streaming problems.