We study a family of closely-related distributed graph problems, which we call degree splitting, where roughly speaking the objective is to partition (or orient) the edges such that each node's degree is split almost uniformly. Our findings lead to answers for a number of problems, a sampling of which includes: -- We present a @math round deterministic algorithm for @math -edge-coloring, where @math denotes the maximum degree. Modulo the @math factor, this settles one of the long-standing open problems of the area from the 1990's (see e.g. Panconesi and Srinivasan [PODC'92]). Indeed, a weaker requirement of @math -edge-coloring in @math rounds was asked for in the 4th open question in the Distributed Graph Coloring book by Barenboim and Elkin. -- We show that sinkless orientation---i.e., orienting edges such that each node has at least one outgoing edge---on @math -regular graphs can be solved in @math rounds randomized and in @math rounds deterministically. These prove the corresponding lower bounds by [STOC'16] and Chang, Kopelowitz, and Pettie [FOCS'16] to be tight. Moreover, these show that sinkless orientation exhibits an exponential separation between its randomized and deterministic complexities, akin to the results of for @math -coloring @math -regular trees. -- We present a randomized @math round algorithm for orienting @math -arboricity graphs with maximum out-degree @math . This can be also turned into a decomposition into @math forests when @math and into @math pseduo-forests when @math . Obtaining an efficient distributed decomposition into less than @math forests was stated as the 10th open problem in the book by Barenboim and Elkin.
One related problem which has received attention recently is , where the objective is to orient edges of a @math -regular graph such that each node has out-degree at least @math . Note that this is clearly a much weaker requirement than that of the directed degree splitting problem. Recently, @cite_13 gave an elegant @math round lower bound for this problem, which was then extended by @cite_21 to an @math lower bound for deterministic algorithms. For this weaker orientation problem, we can achieve much better round complexities, which match the respective lower bounds.
@cite_21 @cite_13
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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. We show that any randomised Monte Carlo distributed algorithm for the Lov 'asz local lemma requires @math communication rounds, assuming that it finds a correct assignment with high probability. Our result holds even in the special case of @math , where @math is the maximum degree of the dependency graph. By prior work, there are distributed algorithms for the Lov 'asz local lemma with a running time of @math rounds in bounded-degree graphs, and the best lower bound before our work was @math rounds [ 2014].