Abstract. We present a polynomial-time randomized algorithm for estimating the permanent of an arbitrary n ×n matrix with nonnegative entries. This algorithm—technically a “fully-polynomial randomized approximation scheme”—computes an approximation that is, with high probability, within arbitrarily small specified relative error of the true value of the permanent. Categories and Subject Descriptors: F.2.2 [Analysis of algorithms and problem complexity]: Nonnumerical

Abstract not found

The paper is concerned with tools for the quantitative analysis of finite Markov chains whose states are combinatorial structures. Chains of this kind have algorithmic applications in many areas, including random sampling, approximate counting, statistical physics and combinatorial optimisation. The efficiency of the resulting algorithms depends crucially on the mixing rate of the chain, i.e., the time taken for it to reach its stationary or equilibrium distribution. The paper presents a new upper bound on the mixing rate, based on the solution to a multicommodity flow problem in the Markov chain viewed as a graph. The bound gives sharper estimates for the mixing rate of several important complex Markov chains. As a result, improved bounds are obtained for the runtimes of randomised approximation algorithms for various problems, including computing the permanent of a 0-1 matrix, counting matchings in graphs, and computing the partition function of a ferromagnetic Ising system. Moreove...

A new algorithm for finding a maximum matching in a general graph is presented; its special feature being that the only computationally non-trivial step required in its execution is the inversion of a single integer matrix. Since this step can be parallelized, we get a simple parallel (RNC2) algorithm. At the heart of our algorithm lies a probabilistic lemma, the isolating lemma. We show applications of this lemma to parallel computation and randomized reductions.

We give algorithms to find the following simply described approximation to a given matrix. Given an m \Theta n matrix A with entries between say-1 and 1, and an error parameter ffl between 0 and 1, we find a matrix D (implicitly) which is the sum of O(1=ffl 2 ) simple rank 1 matrices so that the sum of entries of any submatrix (among the 2 m+n ) of (A \Gamma D) is at most fflmn in absolute value. Our algorithm takes time dependent only on ffl and the allowed probability of failure (not on m;n). We draw on two lines of research to develop the algorithms: one is built around the fundamental Regularity Lemma of Szemer'edi in Graph Theory and the constructive version of Alon, Duke, Leffman, Rodl and Yuster. The second one is from the papers of Arora, Karger and Karpinski, Fernandez de la Vega and most directly Goldwasser, Goldreich and Ron who develop approximation algorithms for a set of graph problems, typical of which is the maximum cut problem. ?From our matrix approximation, the...

Approximation algorithms can sometimes provide efficient solutions when no efficient exact computation is known. In particular, approximations are often useful in a distributed setting where the inputs are held by different parties and may be extremely large. Furthermore, for some applications, the parties want to compute a function of their inputs securely, without revealing more information than necessary. In this work we study the question of simultaneously addressing the above efficiency and security concerns via what we call secure approximations. We start by extending standard definitions of secure (exact) computation to the setting of secure approximations. Our definitions guarantee that no additional information is revealed by the approximation beyond what follows from the output of the function being approximated. We then study the complexity of specific secure approximation problems. In particular, we obtain a sublinear-communication protocol for securely approximating the Hamming distance and a polynomial-time protocol for securely approximating the permanent and related #P-hard problems. 1

In the last decade important relations between Laplace eigenvalues and eigenvectors of graphs and several other graph parameters were discovered. In these notes we present some of these results and discuss their consequences. Attention is given to the partition and the isoperimetric properties of graphs, the max-cut problem and its relation to semidefinite programming, rapid mixing of Markov chains, and to extensions of the results to infinite graphs.

.<F3.827e+05> We consider a finite random walk on a weighted graph<F3.539e+05><F3.827e+05> G; we show that the fraction of time spent in a set of vertices<F3.539e+05> A<F3.827e+05> converges to the stationary probability<F3.539e+05><F3.827e+05><F3.539e+05><F3.827e+05> #(A) with error probability exponentially small in the length of the random walk and the square of the size of the deviation from<F3.539e+05><F3.827e+05><F3.539e+05><F3.827e+05> #(A). The exponential bound is in terms of the expansion of<F3.539e+05> G<F3.827e+05> and improves previous results of [D. Aldous,<F3.405e+05> Probab. Engrg. Inform.<F3.827e+05> Sci., 1 (1987), pp. 33--46], [L. Lovasz and M. Simonovits,<F3.405e+05> Random Structures<F3.827e+05> Algorithms, 4 (1993), pp. 359--412], [M. Ajtai, J. Komlos, and E. Szemeredi,<F3.405e+05> Deterministic simulation of<F3.827e+05> logspace, in Proc. 19th ACM Symp. on Theory of Computing, 1987]. We show that taking the sample average from one trajectory gives a more e#cien...

A token located at some vertex v of a connected, undirected graph G on n vertices is said to be taking a "random walk" on G if, whenever it is instructed to move, it moves with equal probability to any of the neighbors of v. We consider the following problem: suppose that two tokens are placed on G, and at each tick of the clock a certain demon decides which of them is to make the next move. The demon is trying to keep the tokens apart as long as possible. What is the expected time M before they meet? The problem arises in the study of self-stabilizing systems, a topic of recent interest in distributed computing. Since previous upper bounds for M were exponential in n, the issue was to obtain a polynomial bound. We use a novel potential function argument to show that in the worst case M = \Gamma 4 27 + o(1) \Delta n 3 . 1 Introduction Let G be a connected graph on n vertices, and let v be a fixed vertex of G. A random walk on G, beginning at v, is a stochastic process whose stat...

This paper outlines the use of rapidly mixing Markov Chains in randomized polynomial time algorithms to solve approximately certain counting prob-lems. They fall into two classes: combinatorial problems like counting the number of perfect matchings in certain graphs and geometric ones like computing the volumes of convex sets.