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  1. Abstract

    We consider the problem of covering multiple submodular constraints. Given a finite ground setN, a weight function$$w: N \rightarrow \mathbb {R}_+$$w:NR+,rmonotone submodular functions$$f_1,f_2,\ldots ,f_r$$f1,f2,,froverNand requirements$$k_1,k_2,\ldots ,k_r$$k1,k2,,krthe goal is to find a minimum weight subset$$S \subseteq N$$SNsuch that$$f_i(S) \ge k_i$$fi(S)kifor$$1 \le i \le r$$1ir. We refer to this problem asMulti-Submod-Coverand it was recently considered by Har-Peled and Jones (Few cuts meet many point sets. CoRR.arxiv:abs1808.03260Har-Peled and Jones 2018) who were motivated by an application in geometry. Even with$$r=1$$r=1Multi-Submod-Covergeneralizes the well-known Submodular Set Cover problem (Submod-SC), and it can also be easily reduced toSubmod-SC. A simple greedy algorithm gives an$$O(\log (kr))$$O(log(kr))approximation where$$k = \sum _i k_i$$k=ikiand this ratio cannot be improved in the general case. In this paper, motivated by several concrete applications, we consider two ways to improve upon the approximation given by the greedy algorithm. First, we give a bicriteria approximation algorithm forMulti-Submod-Coverthat covers each constraint to within a factor of$$(1-1/e-\varepsilon )$$(1-1/e-ε)while incurring an approximation of$$O(\frac{1}{\epsilon }\log r)$$O(1ϵlogr)in the cost. Second, we consider the special case when each$$f_i$$fiis a obtained from a truncated coverage function and obtain an algorithm that generalizes previous work on partial set cover (Partial-SC), covering integer programs (CIPs) and multiple vertex cover constraints Bera et al. (Theoret Comput Sci 555:2–8 Bera et al. 2014). Both these algorithms are based on mathematical programming relaxations that avoid the limitations of the greedy algorithm. We demonstrate the implications of our algorithms and related ideas to several applications ranging from geometric covering problems to clustering with outliers. Our work highlights the utility of the high-level model and the lens of submodularity in addressing this class of covering problems.

     
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  2. Free, publicly-accessible full text available September 11, 2024
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  6. Intersection graphs of planar geometric objects such as intervals, disks, rectangles and pseudodisks are well-studied. Motivated by various applications, Butman et al. (ACM Trans. Algorithms, 2010) considered algorithmic questions in intersection graphs of $t$-intervals. A $t$-interval is a union of $t$ intervals --- these graphs are also referred to as multiple-interval graphs. Subsequent work by Kammer et al.\ (APPROX-RANDOM 2010) considered intersection graphs of $t$-disks (union of $t$ disks), and other geometric objects. In this paper we revisit some of these algorithmic questions via more recent developments in computational geometry. For the \emph{minimum-weight dominating set problem} in $t$-interval graphs, we obtain a polynomial-time $O(t \log t)$-approximation algorithm, improving upon the previously known polynomial-time $t^2$-approximation by Butman et al. In the same class of graphs we show that it is $\NP$-hard to obtain a $(t-1-\epsilon)$-approximation for any fixed $t \ge 3$ and $\epsilon > 0$. The approximation ratio for dominating set extends to the intersection graphs of a collection of $t$-pseudodisks (nicely intersecting $t$-tuples of closed Jordan domains). We obtain an $\Omega(1/t)$-approximation for the \emph{maximum-weight independent set} in the intersection graph of $t$-pseudodisks in polynomial time. Our results are obtained via simple reductions to existing algorithms by appropriately bounding the union complexity of the objects under consideration. 
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  7. The densest subgraph problem in a graph (\dsg), in the simplest form, is the following. Given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ find a subset $S \subseteq V$ of vertices that maximizes the ratio $|E(S)|/|S|$ where $E(S)$ is the set of edges with both endpoints in $S$. \dsg and several of its variants are well-studied in theory and practice and have many applications in data mining and network analysis. In this paper we study fast algorithms and structural aspects of \dsg via the lens of \emph{supermodularity}. For this we consider the densest supermodular subset problem (\dssp): given a non-negative supermodular function $f: 2^V \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_+$, maximize $f(S)/|S|$. For \dsg we describe a simple flow-based algorithm that outputs a $(1-\eps)$-approximation in deterministic $\tilde{O}(m/\eps)$ time where $m$ is the number of edges. Our algorithm is the first to have a near-linear dependence on $m$ and $1/\eps$ and improves previous methods based on an LP relaxation. It generalizes to hypergraphs, and also yields a faster algorithm for directed \dsg. Greedy peeling algorithms have been very popular for \dsg and several variants due to their efficiency, empirical performance, and worst-case approximation guarantees. We describe a simple peeling algorithm for \dssp and analyze its approximation guarantee in a fashion that unifies several existing results. Boob et al.\ \cite{bgpstww-20} developed an \emph{iterative} peeling algorithm for \dsg which appears to work very well in practice, and made a conjecture about its convergence to optimality. We affirmatively answer their conjecture, and in fact prove that a natural generalization of their algorithm converges to a $(1-\eps)$-approximation for \emph{any} supermodular function $f$; the key to our proof is to consider an LP formulation that is derived via the \Lovasz extension of a supermodular function. For \dsg the bound on the number of iterations we prove is $O(\frac{\Delta \ln |V|}{\lambda^*}\cdot \frac{1}{\eps^2})$ where $\Delta$ is the maximum degree and $\lambda^*$ is the optimum value. Our work suggests that iterative peeling can be an effective heuristic for several objectives considered in the literature. Finally, we show that the $2$-approximation for densest-at-least-$k$ subgraph \cite{ks-09} extends to the supermodular setting. We also give a unified analysis of the peeling algorithm for this problem, and via this analysis derive an approximation guarantee for a generalization of \dssp to maximize $f(S)/g(|S|)$ for a concave function $g$. 
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