We present randomized approximation algorithms for the maximum cut (MAX CUT) and maximum 2-satisfiability (MAX 2SAT) problems that always deliver solutions of expected value at least .87856 times the optimal value. These algorithms use a simple and elegant technique that randomly rounds the solution to a nonlinear programming relaxation. This relaxation can be interpreted both as a semidefinite program and as an eigenvalue minimization problem. The best previously known approximation algorithms for these problems had performance guarantees of ...

We show that every language in NP has a probablistic verifier that checks membership proofs for it using logarithmic number of random bits and by examining a constant number of bits in the proof. If a string is in the language, then there exists a proof such that the verifier accepts with probability 1 (i.e., for every choice of its random string). For strings not in the language, the verifier rejects every provided “proof " with probability at least 1/2. Our result builds upon and improves a recent result of Arora and Safra [6] whose verifiers examine a nonconstant number of bits in the proof (though this number is a very slowly growing function of the input length). As a consequence we prove that no MAX SNP-hard problem has a polynomial time approximation scheme, unless NP=P. The class MAX SNP was defined by Papadimitriou and Yannakakis [82] and hard problems for this class include vertex cover, maximum satisfiability, maximum cut, metric TSP, Steiner trees and shortest superstring. We also improve upon the clique hardness results of Feige, Goldwasser, Lovász, Safra and Szegedy [42], and Arora and Safra [6] and shows that there exists a positive ɛ such that approximating the maximum clique size in an N-vertex graph to within a factor of N ɛ is NP-hard. 1

We prove optimal, up to an arbitrary ffl? 0, inapproximability results for Max-Ek-Sat for k * 3, maximizing the number of satisfied linear equations in an over-determined system of linear equations modulo a prime p and Set Splitting. As a consequence of these results we get improved lower bounds for the efficient approximability of many optimization problems studied previously. In particular, for Max-E2-Sat, Max-Cut, Max-di-Cut, and Vertex cover. Warning: Essentially this paper has been published in JACM and is subject to copyright restrictions. In particular it is for personal use only.

We study the question of determining whether an unknown function has a particular property or is ffl-far from any function with that property. A property testing algorithm is given a sample of the value of the function on instances drawn according to some distribution, and possibly may query the function on instances of its choice. First, we establish some connections between property testing and problems in learning theory. Next, we focus on testing graph properties, and devise algorithms to test whether a graph has properties such as being k-colorable or having a ae-clique (clique of density ae w.r.t the vertex set). Our graph property testing algorithms are probabilistic and make assertions which are correct with high probability, utilizing only poly(1=ffl) edge-queries into the graph, where ffl is the distance parameter. Moreover, the property testing algorithms can be used to efficiently (i.e., in time linear in the number of vertices) construct partitions of the graph which corre...

We show that a parallel repetition of any two-prover one-round proof system (MIP(2, 1)) decreases the probability of error at an exponential rate. No constructive bound was previously known. The constant in the exponent (in our analysis) depends only on the original probability of error and on the total number of possible answers of the two provers. The dependency on the total number of possible answers is logarithmic, which was recently proved to be almost the best possible [U. Feige and O. Verbitsky, Proc. 11th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 1996, pp. 70--76].

We present a new technique, inspired by zero-knowledge proof systems, for proving lower bounds on approximating the chromatic number of a graph. To illustrate this technique we present simple reductions from max-3-coloring and max-3-sat, showing that it is hard to approximate the chromatic number within \Omega\Gamma N ffi ), for some ffi ? 0. We then apply our technique in conjunction with the probabilistically checkable proofs of Hastad, and show that it is hard to approximate the chromatic number to within\Omega\Gamma N 1\Gammaffl ) for any ffl ? 0, assuming NP 6` ZPP. Here, ZPP denotes the class of languages decidable by a random expected polynomial-time algorithm that makes no errors. Our result matches (up to low order terms) the known gap for approximating the size of the largest independent set. Previous O(N ffi ) gaps for approximating the chromatic number (such as those by Lund and Yannakakis, and by Furer) did not match the gap for independent set, and do not extend...

In this paper we show a reduction from the Unique Games problem to the problem of approximating MAX-CUT to within a factor of ffGW + ffl, for all ffl> 0; here ffGW ss.878567 denotes the approximation ratio achieved by the Goemans-Williamson algorithm [25]. This implies that if the Unique Games

Contents 1 Introduction 2 1.1 Notations and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 Problem Formulations 4 2.1 Integer Programming Formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 Continuous Formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 Computational Complexity 12 4 Bounds and Estimates 15 5 Exact Algorithms 19 5.1 Enumerative Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 5.2 Exact Algorithms for the Unweighted Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5.3 Exact Algorithms for the Weighted Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 6 Heuristics 27 6.1 Sequential Greedy Heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.2 Local Search Heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.3 Advanced Search Heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6.3.1 Simulated annealing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6.3.2 Neural networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The primal-dual method is a standard tool in the design of algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems. This chapter shows how the primal-dual method can be modified to provide good approximation algorithms for a wide variety of NP-hard problems. We concentrate on results from recent research applying the primal-dual method to problems in network design.

We further develop the study of testing graph properties as initiated by Goldreich, Goldwasser and Ron. Whereas they view graphs as represented by their adjacency matrix and measure distance between graphs as a fraction of all possible vertex pairs, we view graphs as represented by bounded-length incidence lists and measure distance between graphs as a fraction of the maximum possible number of edges. Thus, while the previous model is most appropriate for the study of dense graphs, our model is most appropriate for the study of bounded-degree graphs. In particular, we present randomized algorithms for testing whether an unknown boundeddegree graph is connected, k-connected (for k ? 1), planar, etc. Our algorithms work in time polynomial in 1=ffl, always accept the graph when it has the tested property, and reject with high probability if the graph is ffl-away from having the property. For example, the 2-Connectivity algorithm rejects (w.h.p.) any N-vertex d-degree graph for which more ...