We consider the robustness of computational hardness of problems whose input is obtained by applying independent random deletions to worst-case instances. For some classical @math -hard problems on graphs, such as Coloring, Vertex-Cover, and Hamiltonicity, we examine the complexity of these problems when edges (or vertices) of an arbitrary graph are deleted independently with probability @math . We prove that for @math -vertex graphs, these problems remain as hard as in the worst-case, as long as @math for arbitrary @math , unless @math . We also prove hardness results for Constraint Satisfaction Problems, where random deletions are applied to clauses or variables, as well as the Subset-Sum problem, where items of a given instance are deleted at random.
When @math is sufficiently small, algorithms for random graphs and random formulas can be proven to find the optimal solution (with high probability) for percolated instance. For example, for graph coloring, it is known that for @math with some positive constant @math , with high probability @math is @math -degenerate, and hence can be 3-colored in polynomial time @cite_2 . Since the property of being 2-degenerate is monotone, and as @math -colorability can be decided in polynomial time, it follows that for every @math -vertex graph and @math , one can find in polynomial time with high probability a coloring of the edge percolated graph with the minimum number of colors.
@cite_2
2048267719
Let G3n,p,3 be a random 3-colorable graph on a set of 3n vertices generated as follows. First, split the vertices arbitrarily into three equal color classes, and then choose every pair of vertices of distinct color classes, randomly and independently, to be edges with probability p. We describe a polynomial-time algorithm that finds a proper 3-coloring of G3n,p,3 with high probability, whenever p @math c n, where c is a sufficiently large absolute constant. This settles a problem of Blum and Spencer, who asked if an algorithm can be designed that works almost surely for p @math polylog(n) n [J. Algorithms, 19 (1995), pp. 204--234]. The algorithm can be extended to produce optimal k-colorings of random k-colorable graphs in a similar model as well as in various related models. Implementation results show that the algorithm performs very well in practice even for moderate values of c. We study the graph coloring problem over random graphs of finite average connectivity c. Given a number q of available colors, we find that graphs with low connectivity admit almost always a proper coloring whereas graphs with high connectivity are uncolorable. Depending on q, we find with a one-step replica-symmetry breaking approximation the precise value of the critical average connectivity @math Moreover, we show that below @math there exists a clustering phase @math in which ground states spontaneously divide into an exponential number of clusters. Furthermore, we extended our considerations to the case of single instances showing consistent results. This leads us to propose a different algorithm that is able to color in polynomial time random graphs in the hard but colorable region, i.e., when @math The celebrated Time Hierarchy Theorem for Turing machines states, informally, that more problems can be solved given more time. The extent to which a time hierarchy-type theorem holds in the distributed LOCAL model has been open for many years. It is consistent with previous results that all natural problems in the LOCAL model can be classified according to a small constant number of complexities, such as @math , etc. In this paper we establish the first time hierarchy theorem for the LOCAL model and prove that several gaps exist in the LOCAL time hierarchy. 1. We define an infinite set of simple coloring problems called Hierarchical @math -Coloring . A correctly colored graph can be confirmed by simply checking the neighborhood of each vertex, so this problem fits into the class of locally checkable labeling (LCL) problems. However, the complexity of the @math -level Hierarchical @math -Coloring problem is @math , for @math . The upper and lower bounds hold for both general graphs and trees, and for both randomized and deterministic algorithms. 2. Consider any LCL problem on bounded degree trees. We prove an automatic-speedup theorem that states that any randomized @math -time algorithm solving the LCL can be transformed into a deterministic @math -time algorithm. Together with a previous result, this establishes that on trees, there are no natural deterministic complexities in the ranges @math --- @math or @math --- @math . 3. We expose a gap in the randomized time hierarchy on general graphs. Any randomized algorithm that solves an LCL problem in sublogarithmic time can be sped up to run in @math time, which is the complexity of the distributed Lovasz local lemma problem, currently known to be @math and @math . We study competing first passage percolation on graphs generated by the configuration model. At time 0, vertex 1 and vertex 2 are infected with the type 1 and the type 2 infection, respectively, and an uninfected vertex then becomes type 1 (2) infected at rate @math ( @math ) times the number of edges connecting it to a type 1 (2) infected neighbor. Our main result is that, if the degree distribution is a power-law with exponent @math , then, as the number of vertices tends to infinity and with high probability, one of the infection types will occupy all but a finite number of vertices. Furthermore, which one of the infections wins is random and both infections have a positive probability of winning regardless of the values of @math and @math . The picture is similar with multiple starting points for the infections. When graph Ramsey theory is viewed as a game, "Painter" 2-colors the edges of a graph presented by "Builder". Builder wins if every coloring has a monochromatic copy of a fixed graph @math . In the on-line version, iteratively, Builder presents one edge and Painter must color it. Builder must keep the presented graph in a class @math . Builder wins the game @math if a monochromatic copy of @math can be forced. The on-line degree Ramsey number @math is the least @math such that Builder wins @math when @math is the class of graphs with maximum degree at most @math . Our results include: 1) @math if and only if @math is a linear forest or each component lies inside @math . 2) @math , where @math . 3) @math for a tree @math , where @math and @math are two largest vertex degrees. 4) @math , with @math except for finitely many odd values of @math . 5) @math when @math . The lower bounds come from strategies for Painter that color edges red whenever the red graph remains in a specified class. The upper bounds use a result showing that Builder may assume that Painter plays "consistently". Over the past 30 years numerous algorithms have been designed for symmetry breaking problems in the LOCAL model, such as maximal matching, MIS, vertex coloring, and edge-coloring. For most problems the best randomized algorithm is at least exponentially faster than the best deterministic algorithm. In this paper we prove that these exponential gaps are necessary and establish connections between the deterministic and randomized complexities in the LOCAL model. Each result has a very compelling take-away message: 1. Fast @math -coloring of trees requires random bits: Building on the recent lower bounds of , we prove that the randomized complexity of @math -coloring a tree with maximum degree @math is @math , whereas its deterministic complexity is @math for any @math . This also establishes a large separation between the deterministic complexity of @math -coloring and @math -coloring trees. 2. Randomized lower bounds imply deterministic lower bounds: We prove that any deterministic algorithm for a natural class of problems that runs in @math rounds can be transformed to run in @math rounds. If the transformed algorithm violates a lower bound (even allowing randomization), then one can conclude that the problem requires @math time deterministically. 3. Deterministic lower bounds imply randomized lower bounds: We prove that the randomized complexity of any natural problem on instances of size @math is at least its deterministic complexity on instances of size @math . This shows that a deterministic @math lower bound for any problem implies a randomized @math lower bound. It also illustrates that the graph shattering technique is absolutely essential to the LOCAL model. Let @math be a graph with a threshold function @math such that @math for every vertex @math of @math , where @math is the degree of @math in @math . Suppose we are given a target set @math . This paper considers the following repetitive process on @math . At time step @math the vertices of @math are colored black and the other vertices are colored white. After that, at each time step @math , the colors of white vertices (if any) are updated according to the following rule. All white vertices @math that have at least @math black neighbors at the time step @math are colored black, and the colors of the other vertices do not change. The process runs until no more white vertices can update colors from white to black. The following optimization problem is called Target Set Selection: Find a target set @math of smallest possible size such that all vertices in @math are black at the end of the process. Such an @math is called an optimal target set for @math under the th... We propose a fast methodology for encoding graphs with information-theoretically minimum numbers of bits. Specifically, a graph with property @math is called a @math -graph . If @math satisfies certain properties, then an n-node m-edge @math -graph G can be encoded by a binary string X such that (1) G and X can be obtained from each other in O(n log n) time, and (2) X has at most @math bits for any continuous superadditive function @math so that there are at most @math distinct @math -node @math -graphs. The methodology is applicable to general classes of graphs; this paper focuses on planar graphs. Examples of such @math include all conjunctions over the following groups of properties: (1) G is a planar graph or a plane graph; (2) @math is directed or undirected; (3) @math is triangulated, triconnected, biconnected, merely connected, or not required to be connected; (4) the nodes of G are labeled with labels from @math for @math ; (5) the edges of G are labeled with labels from @math for @math ; and (6) each node (respectively, edge) of G has at most @math self-loops (respectively, @math multiple edges). Moreover, @math and @math are not required to be O(1) for the cases of @math being a plane triangulation. These examples are novel applications of small cycle separators of planar graphs and are the only nontrivial classes of graphs, other than rooted trees, with known polynomial-time information-theoretically optimal coding schemes. The classic all-terminal network reliability problem posits a graph, each of whose edges fails independently with some given probability. The goal is to determine the probability that the network becomes disconnected due to edge failures. This problem has obvious applications in the design of communication networks. Since the problem is @math -complete and thus believed hard to solve exactly, a great deal of research has been devoted to estimating the failure probability. In this paper, we give a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme that, given any n-vertex graph with specified failure probabilities, computes in time polynomial in n and @math an estimate for the failure probability that is accurate to within a relative error of @math with high probability. We also give a deterministic polynomial approximation scheme for the case of small failure probabilities. Some extensions to evaluating probabilities of @math -connectivity, strong connectivity in directed Eulerian graphs and @math -way disconnection, and to evaluating the Tutte polynomial are also described. This version of the paper corrects several errata that appeared in the previous journal publication [D. R. Karger, SIAM J. Comput., 29 (1999), pp. 492--514]. In the hidden clique problem, one needs to find the maximum clique in an @math -vertex graph that has a clique of size @math but is otherwise random. An algorithm of Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov that is based on spectral techniques is known to solve this problem (with high probability over the random choice of input graph) when @math for a sufficiently large constant @math . In this manuscript we present a new algorithm for finding hidden cliques. It too provably works when @math for a sufficiently large constant @math . However, our algorithm has the advantage of being much simpler (no use of spectral techniques), running faster (linear time), and experiments show that the leading constant @math is smaller than in the spectral approach. We also present linear time algorithms that experimentally find even smaller hidden cliques, though it remains open whether any of these algorithms finds hidden cliques of size @math . Given a set @math with @math elements and a family @math of subsets, we show how to partition @math into @math such subsets in @math time. We also consider variations of this problem where the subsets may overlap or are weighted, and we solve the decision, counting, summation, and optimization versions of these problems. Our algorithms are based on the principle of inclusion-exclusion and the zeta transform. In effect we get exact algorithms in @math time for several well-studied partition problems including domatic number, chromatic number, maximum @math -cut, bin packing, list coloring, and the chromatic polynomial. We also have applications to Bayesian learning with decision graphs and to model-based data clustering. If only polynomial space is available, our algorithms run in time @math if membership in @math can be decided in polynomial time. We solve chromatic number in @math time and domatic number in @math time. Finally, we present a family of polynomial space approximation algorithms that find a number between @math and @math in time @math . Given a set of @math n points, each is painted by one of the @math k given colors, we want to choose @math k points with distinct colors to form a color spanning set. For each color spanning set, we can construct the convex hull and the smallest axis-aligned enclosing rectangle, etc. Assuming that each point is chosen independently and identically from the subset of points of the same color, we propose an @math O ( n 2 ) time algorithm to compute the expected area of convex hulls of the color spanning sets and an @math O ( n 2 ) time algorithm to compute the expected perimeter of convex hulls of the color spanning sets. For the expected perimeter (resp. area) of the smallest perimeter (resp. area) axis-aligned enclosing rectangles of the color spanning sets, we present an @math O ( n log n ) (resp. @math O ( n 2 ) ) time algorithm. We also propose a simple approximation algorithm to compute the expected diameter of the color spanning sets. For the expected distance of the closest pair, we show that it is @math # P-complete to compute and there exists no polynomial time @math 2 n 1 - ? approximation algorithm to compute the probability that the closest pair distance of all color spanning sets equals to a given value @math d unless @math P = N P , even in one dimension and when each color paints two points. In this paper we show a new way of constructing deterministic polynomial-time approximation algorithms for computing complex-valued evaluations of a large class of graph polynomials on bounded degree graphs. In particular, our approach works for the Tutte polynomial and independence polynomial, as well as partition functions of complex-valued spin and edge-coloring models. More specifically, we define a large class of graph polynomials @math and show that if @math and there is a disk @math centered at zero in the complex plane such that @math does not vanish on @math for all bounded degree graphs @math , then for each @math in the interior of @math there exists a deterministic polynomial-time approximation algorithm for evaluating @math at @math . This gives an explicit connection between absence of zeros of graph polynomials and the existence of efficient approximation algorithms, allowing us to show new relationships between well-known conjectures. Our work builds on a recent line of work initiated b... Bootstrap percolation on an arbitrary graph has a random initial configuration, where each vertex is occupied with probability @math , independently of each other, and a deterministic spreading rule with a fixed parameter @math : if a vacant site has at least @math occupied neighbours at a certain time step, then it becomes occupied in the next step. This process is well studied on @math ; here we investigate it on regular and general infinite trees and on non-amenable Cayley graphs. The critical probability is the infimum of those values of @math for which the process achieves complete occupation with positive probability. On trees we find the following discontinuity: if the branching number of a tree is strictly smaller than @math , then the critical probability is 1, while it is @math on the @math -ary tree. A related result is that in any rooted tree @math there is a way of erasing @math children of the root, together with all their descendants, and repeating this for all remaining children, and so on, such that the remaining tree @math has branching number @math . We also prove that on any @math -regular non-amenable graph, the critical probability for the @math -rule is strictly positive. We consider properties of edge-colored vertex-ordered graphs, i.e., graphs with a totally ordered vertex set and a finite set of possible edge colors. We show that any hereditary property of such graphs is strongly testable, i.e., testable with a constant number of queries. We also explain how the proof can be adapted to show that any hereditary property of @math -dimensional matrices over a finite alphabet (where row and column order is not ignored) is strongly testable. The first result generalizes the result of Alon and Shapira [FOCS'05, SICOMP'08], who showed that any hereditary graph property (without vertex order) is strongly testable. The second result answers and generalizes a conjecture of Alon, Fischer and Newman [SICOMP'07] concerning testing of matrix properties. The testability is proved by establishing a removal lemma for vertex-ordered graphs. It states that for any finite or infinite family @math of forbidden vertex-ordered graphs, and any @math , there exist @math and @math so that any vertex-ordered graph which is @math -far from being @math -free contains at least @math copies of some @math (with the correct vertex order) where @math . The proof bridges the gap between techniques related to the regularity lemma, used in the long chain of papers investigating graph testing, and string testing techniques. Along the way we develop a Ramsey-type lemma for @math -partite graphs with "undesirable" edges, stating that one can find a Ramsey-type structure in such a graph, in which the density of the undesirable edges is not much higher than the density of those edges in the graph. This paper concerns a number of algorithmic problems on graphs and how they may be solved in a distributed fashion. The computational model is such that each node of the graph is occupied by a processor which has its own ID. Processors are restricted to collecting data from others which are at a distance at most t away from them in t time units, but are otherwise computationally unbounded. This model focuses on the issue of locality in distributed processing, namely, to what extent a global solution to a computational problem can be obtained from locally available data.Three results are proved within this model: • A 3-coloring of an n-cycle requires time @math . This bound is tight, by previous work of Cole and Vishkin. • Any algorithm for coloring the d-regular tree of radius r which runs for time at most @math requires at least @math colors. • In an n-vertex graph of largest degree @math , an @math -coloring may be found in time @math . This paper describes efficient deterministic techniques for breaking symmetry in parallel. These techniques work well on rooted trees and graphs of constant degree or genus. The primary technique allows us to 3-color a rooted tree in @math time on an EREW PRAM using a linear number of processors. These techniques are used to construct fast linear processor algorithms for several problems, including the problem of @math -coloring constant-degree graphs and 5-coloring planar graphs. Lower bounds for 2-coloring directed lists and for finding maximal independent sets in arbitrary graphs are also proved. We give a new proof showing that it is NP-hard to color a 3-colorable graph using just 4 colors. This result is already known , [S. Khanna, N. Linial, and S. Safra, Combinatorica, 20 (2000), pp. 393--415], but our proof is novel because it does not rely on the PCP theorem, while the known one does. This highlights a qualitative difference between the known hardness result for coloring 3-colorable graphs and the factor @math hardness for approximating the chromatic number of general graphs, as the latter result is known to imply (some form of) PCP theorem [M. Bellare, O. Goldreich, and M. Sudan, SIAM J. Comput., 27 (1998), pp. 805--915]. Another aspect in which our proof is novel is in its use of the PCP theorem to show that 4-coloring of 3-colorable graphs remains NP-hard even on bounded-degree graphs (this hardness result does not seem to follow from the earlier reduction of Khanna, Linial, and Safra). We point out that such graphs can always be colored using O(1) colors by a simple greedy algorithm, while the best known algorithm for coloring (general) 3-colorable graphs requires @math colors. Our proof technique also shows that there is an @math such that it is NP-hard to legally 4-color even a @math fraction of the edges of a 3-colorable graph. This paper addresses the cornerstone family of in distributed computing, and investigates the curious gap between randomized and deterministic solutions under bandwidth restrictions. Our main contribution is in providing tools for derandomizing solutions to local problems, when the @math nodes can only send @math -bit messages in each round of communication. We combine bounded independence, which we show to be sufficient for some algorithms, with the method of conditional expectations and with additional machinery, to obtain the following results. Our techniques give a deterministic maximal independent set (MIS) algorithm in the CONGEST model, where the communication graph is identical to the input graph, in @math rounds, where @math is the diameter of the graph. The best known running time in terms of @math alone is @math , which is super-polylogarithmic, and requires large messages. For the CONGEST model, the only known previous solution is a coloring-based @math -round algorithm, where @math is the maximal degree in the graph. On the way to obtaining the above, we show that in the model, which allows all-to-all communication, there is a deterministic MIS algorithm that runs in @math rounds. , where @math is the maximum degree. When @math , the bound improves to @math and holds also for @math -coloring. In addition, we deterministically construct a @math -spanner with @math edges in @math rounds. For comparison, in the more stringent CONGEST model, the best deterministic algorithm for constructing a @math -spanner with @math edges runs in @math rounds. The problem of coloring a graph with the minimum number of colors is well known to be NP-hard, even restricted to k-colorable graphs for constant k ≥ 3. On the other hand, it is known that random k-colorable graphs are easy to k-color. The algorithms for coloring random k-colorable graphs require fairly high edge densities, however. In this paper we present algorithms that color randomly generated k-colorable graphs for much lower edge densities than previous approaches. In addition, to study a wider variety of graph distributions, we also present a model of graphs generated by the semi-random source of Santha and Vazirani (M. Santha and U. V. Vazirani, J. Comput. System Sci.33 (1986), 75-87) that provides a smooth transition between the worst-case and random models. In this model, the graph is generated by a "noisy adversary"-an adversary whose decisions (whether or not to insert a particular edge) have some small (random) probability of being reversed. We show that even for quite low noise rates, semi-random k-colorable graphs can be optimally colored with high probability.