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 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.

This paper continues the investigation of the connection between proof systems and approximation. The emphasis is on proving tight non-approximability results via consideration of measures like the "free bit complexity" and the "amortized free bit complexity" of proof systems.

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

This paper considers the problem of computing the dense k-vertex subgraph of a given graph, namely, the subgraph with the most edges. An approximation algorithm is developed for the problem, with approximation ratio O(n ffi ), for some ffi ! 1=3. 1 Introduction We study the dense k-subgraph (DkS) maximization problem, of computing the dense k- vertex subgraph of a given graph. That is, on input a graph G and a parameter k, we are interested in finding a set of k vertices with maximum average degree in the subgraph induced by this set. As this problem is NP-hard (say, by reduction from Clique), we consider approximation algorithms for this problem. We obtain a polynomial time algorithm that on any input (G; k) returns a subgraph of size k whose average degree is within a factor of at most n ffi from the optimum solution, where n is the number of vertices in the input graph G, and ffi ! 1=3 is some universal constant. Unfortunately, we are unable to present a complementary negati...

We describe a few applications of semide nite programming in combinatorial optimization.

We prove a number of improved inaproximability results, including the best up to date explicit approximation thresholds for MIS problem of bounded degree, bounded occurrences MAX-2SAT, and bounded degree Node Cover. We prove also for the first time inapproximability of the problem of Sorting by Reversals and display an explicit approximation threshold. This last problem was proved only recently to be NP-hard, in contrast to its signed version which is computable in polynomial time.

This survey examines the state of the art of a variety of problems related to pseudo-Boolean optimization, i.e. to the optimization of set functions represented by closed algebraic expressions. The main parts of the survey examine general pseudo-Boolean optimization, the specially important case of quadratic pseudo-Boolean optimization (to which every pseudo-Boolean optimization can be reduced), several other important special classes, and approximation algorithms.

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.

An instance of MAX 3CSP is a collection of m clauses of the form f i (z i1 ; z i2 ; z i3 ), where the z ij 's are literals, or constants, from the set f0; 1; x 1 ; : : : ; xn ; x 1 ; : : : ; xng, and the f i 's are arbitrary Boolean functions depending on (at most) three variables. Each clause has a non-negative weight w i associated with it. A solution to the instance is an assignment of 0-1 values to the variables x 1 ; : : : ; xn that maximizes P n i=1 w i f i (z i1 ; z i2 ; z i3 ), the total weight of the satisfied clauses. The MAX 3CSP problem is clearly a generalization of the MAX 3SAT problem. (In an instance of the MAX 3SAT problem f i (z i1 ; z i2 ; z i3 ) = z i1 z i2 z i3 for every i.) Karloff and Zwick have recently obtained a 8 -approximation algorithm for MAX 3SAT. Their algorithm is based on a new semidefinite relaxation of the problem. Hastad showed that no polynomial time algorithm can achieve a better performance ratio, unless P=NP. Here we use similar techniques to obtain a -approximation algorithm for MAX 3CSP. The performance ratio of this algorithm is also optimal, as follows again from the work of Hastad. We also obtain better performance ratios for several special cases of the problem. Our results include: 2 -approximation algorithm for MAX 3AND, the problem in which each clause is of the form z i1 z i2 z i3 . This result is optimal and it implies the result for MAX 3CSP.