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The maximum bipartite matching problem is among the most fundamental and well-studied problems in combinatorial optimization. A beautiful and celebrated combinatorial algorithm of Hopcroft and Karp [26] shows that maximum bipartite matching can be solved in O(m√n) time on a graph with n vertices and m edges. For the case of very dense graphs, a different approach based on fast matrix multiplication was subsequently developed [27, 39], that achieves a running time of O(n2.371). For the next several decades, these results represented the fastest known algorithms for the problem until in 2013, a ground-breaking work of Madry [36] gave a significantly faster algorithm for sparse graphs. Subsequently, a sequence of works developed increasingly faster algorithms for solving maximum bipartite matching, and more generally directed maximum flow, culminating in a spectacular recent breakthrough [9] that gives an m1+o(1) time algorithm for maximum bipartite matching (and more generally, for min cost flows). These more recent developments collectively represented a departure from earlier combinatorial approaches: they all utilized continuous techniques based on interior-point methods for solving linear programs. This raises a natural question: are continuous techniques essential to obtaining fast algorithms for the bipartite matching problem? Our work makes progress on this question by presenting a new, purely combinatorial algorithm for bipartite matching, that, on moderately dense graphs outperforms both Hopcroft- Karp and the fast matrix multiplication based algorithms. Similar to the classical algorithms for bipartite matching, our approach is based on iteratively augmenting a current matching using augmenting paths in the (directed) residual flow network. A common method for designing fast algorithms for directed flow problems is via the multiplicative weights update (MWU) framework, that effectively reduces the flow problem to decremental single-source shortest paths (SSSP) in directed graphs. Our main observation is that a slight modification of this reduction results in a special case of SSSP that appears significantly easier than general decremental directed SSSP. Our main technical contribution is an efficient algorithm for this special case of SSSP, that outperforms the current state of the art algorithms for general decremental SSSP with adaptive adversary, leading to a deterministic algorithm for bipartite matching, whose running time is Õ(m1/3n5/3). This new algorithm thus starts to outperform the Hopcroft-Karp algorithm in graphs with m = ω(n7/4), and it also outperforms the fast matrix multiplication based algorithms on dense graphs. We believe that this framework for obtaining faster combinatorial algorithms for bipartite matching by exploiting the special properties of the resulting decremental SSSP instances is one of the main conceptual contributions of our work that we hope paves the way for even faster combinatorial algorithms for bipartite matching. Finally, using a standard reduction from the maximum vertex-capacitated s-t flow problem in directed graphs to maximum bipartite matching, we also obtain an O(m1/3n5/3) time deterministic algorithm for maximum vertex-capacitated s-t flow when all vertex capacities are identical. 

We study the fully dynamic All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) problem in undirected edge-weighted graphs. Given an n-vertex graph G with non-negative edge lengths, that undergoes an online sequence of edge insertions and deletions, the goal is to support approximate distance queries and shortest-path queries. We provide a deterministic algorithm for this problem, that, for a given precision parameter є, achieves approximation factor (loglogn)2O(1/є3), and has amortized update time O(nєlogL) per operation, where L is the ratio of longest to shortest edge length. Query time for distance-query is O(2O(1/є)· logn· loglogL), and query time for shortest-path query is O(|E(P)|+2O(1/є)· logn· loglogL), where P is the path that the algorithm returns. To the best of our knowledge, even allowing any o(n)-approximation factor, no adaptive-update algorithms with better than Θ(m) amortized update time and better than Θ(n) query time were known prior to this work. We also note that our guarantees are stronger than the best current guarantees for APSP in decremental graphs in the adaptive-adversary setting. In order to obtain these results, we consider an intermediate problem, called Recursive Dynamic Neighborhood Cover (RecDynNC), that was formally introduced in [Chuzhoy, STOC ’21]. At a high level, given an undirected edge-weighted graph G undergoing an online sequence of edge deletions, together with a distance parameter D, the goal is to maintain a sparse D-neighborhood cover of G, with some additional technical requirements. Our main technical contribution is twofolds. First, we provide a black-box reduction from APSP in fully dynamic graphs to the RecDynNC problem. Second, we provide a new deterministic algorithm for the RecDynNC problem, that, for a given precision parameter є, achieves approximation factor (loglogm)2O(1/є2), with total update time O(m1+є), where m is the total number of edges ever present in G. This improves the previous algorithm of [Chuzhoy, STOC ’21], that achieved approximation factor (logm)2O(1/є) with similar total update time. Combining these two results immediately leads to the deterministic algorithm for fully-dynamic APSP with the guarantees stated above. 

We propose a new conjecture on hardness of 2-CSP’s, and show that new hardness of approximation results for Densest k-Subgraph and several other problems, including a graph partitioning problem, and a variation of the Graph Crossing Number problem, follow from this conjecture. The conjecture can be viewed as occupying a middle ground between the d-to-1 conjecture, and hardness results for 2-CSP’s that can be obtained via standard techniques, such as Parallel Repetition combined with standard 2-prover protocols for the 3SAT problem. We hope that this work will motivate further exploration of hardness of 2-CSP’s in the regimes arising from the conjecture. We believe that a positive resolution of the conjecture will provide a good starting point for other hardness of approximation proofs. Another contribution of our work is proving that the problems that we consider are roughly equivalent from the approximation perspective. Some of these problems arose in previous work, from which it appeared that they may be related to each other. We formalize this relationship in this work. 

Expander graphs play a central role in graph theory and algorithms. With a number of powerful algorithmic tools developed around them, such as the Cut-Matching game, expander pruning, expander decomposition, and algorithms for decremental All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) in expanders, to name just a few, the use of expanders in the design of graph algorithms has become ubiquitous. Specific applications of interest to us are fast deterministic algorithms for cut problems in static graphs, and algorithms for dynamic distance-based graph problems, such as APSP. Unfortunately, the use of expanders in these settings incurs a number of drawbacks. For example, the best currently known algorithm for decremental APSP in constant-degree expanders can only achieve a (log n) O(1/ 2 ) -approximation with n 1+O( ) total update time for any . All currently known algorithms for the Cut Player in the Cut-Matching game are either randomized, or provide rather weak guarantees: expansion 1/(log n) 1/ with running time n 1+O( ) . This, in turn, leads to somewhat weak algorithmic guarantees for several central cut problems: the best current almost linear time deterministic algorithms for Sparsest Cut, Lowest Conductance Cut, and Balanced Cut can only achieve approximation factor (log n) ω(1). Lastly, when relying on expanders in distancebased problems, such as dynamic APSP, via current methods, it seems inevitable that one has to settle for approximation factors that are at least Ω(log n). In contrast, we do not have any negative results that rule out a factor-5 approximation with near-linear total update time. In this paper we propose the use of well-connected graphs, and introduce a new algorithmic toolkit for such graphs that, in a sense, mirrors the above mentioned algorithmic tools for expanders. One of these new tools is the Distanced Matching game, an analogue of the Cut-Matching game for well-connected graphs. We demonstrate the power of these new tools by obtaining better results for several of the problems mentioned above. First, we design an algorithm for decremental APSP in expanders with significantly better guarantees: in a constant-degree expander, the algorithm achieves (log n) 1+o(1)-approximation, with total update time n 1+o(1). We also obtain a deterministic algorithm for the Cut Player in the Cut-Matching game that achieves expansion 1 (log n) 5+o(1) in time n 1+o(1), deterministic almost linear-time algorithms for Sparsest Cut, Lowest-Conductance Cut, and Minimum Balanced Cut with approximation factors O(poly log n), as well as improved deterministic algorithm for Expander Decomposition. We believe that the use of well-connected graphs instead of expanders in various dynamic distance-based problems (such as APSP in general graphs) has the potential of providing much stronger guarantees, since we are no longer necessarily restricted to superlogarithmic approximation factors. 

We consider the classical Minimum Crossing Number problem: given an n-vertex graph G, compute a drawing of G in the plane, while minimizing the number of crossings between the images of its edges. This is a fundamental and extensively studied problem, whose approximability status is widely open. In all currently known approximation algorithms, the approximation factor depends polynomially on Δ – the maximum vertex degree in G. The best current approximation algorithm achieves an O(n1/2−· (Δ·logn))-approximation, for a small fixed constant є, while the best negative result is APX-hardness, leaving a large gap in our understanding of this basic problem. In this paper we design a randomized O(2O((logn)7/8loglogn)·(Δ))-approximation algorithm for Minimum Crossing Number. This is the first approximation algorithm for the problem that achieves a subpolynomial in n approximation factor (albeit only in graphs whose maximum vertex degree is subpolynomial in n). In order to achieve this approximation factor, we design a new algorithm for a closely related problem called Crossing Number with Rotation System, in which, for every vertex v∈ V(G), the circular ordering, in which the images of the edges incident to v must enter the image of v in the drawing is fixed as part of input. Combining this result with the recent reduction of [Chuzhoy, Mahabadi, Tan ’20] immediately yields the improved approximation algorithm for Minimum Crossing Number.