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.

Given a collection F of subsets of S = f1; : : : ; ng, set cover is the problem of selecting as few as possible subsets from F such that their union covers S, and max k-cover is the problem of selecting k subsets from F such that their union has maximum cardinality. Both these problems are NP-hard. We prove that (1 \Gamma o(1)) ln n is a threshold below which set cover cannot be approximated efficiently, unless NP has slightly superpolynomial time algorithms. This closes the gap (up to low order terms) between the ratio of approximation achievable by the greedy algorithm (which is (1 \Gamma o(1)) ln n), and previous results of Lund and Yannakakis, that showed hardness of approximation within a ratio of (log 2 n)=2 ' 0:72 lnn. For max k-cover we show an approximation threshold of (1 \Gamma 1=e) (up to low order terms), under the assumption that P != NP .

In this survey, we review work in machine learning on methods for handling data sets containing large amounts of irrelevant information. We focus on two key issues: the problem of selecting relevant features, and the problem of selecting relevant examples. We describe the advances that have been made on these topics in both empirical and theoretical work in machine learning, and we present a general framework that we use to compare different methods. We close with some challenges for future work in this area.

We present a general approximation technique for a large class of graph problems. Our technique mostly applies to problems of covering, at minimum cost, the vertices of a graph with trees, cycles or paths satisfying certain requirements. In particular, many basic combinatorial optimization problems fit in this framework, including the shortest path, minimum-cost spanning tree, minimum-weight perfect matching, traveling salesman and Steiner tree problems. Our techniqueproduces approximation algorithms that run in O(n² log n) time and come within a factor of 2 of optimal for most of these problems. For instance, we obtain a 2-approximationalgorithm for the minimum-weight perfect matching problem under the triangle inequality. Our running time of O(n² log n) time compares favorably with the best strongly polynomial exact algorithms running in O(n³) time for dense graphs. A similar result is obtained for the 2-matchingproblem and its variants. We also derive the first approxi...

Abstract. We present a polynomial time approximation scheme for Euclidean TSP in fixed dimensions. For every fixed c � 1 and given any n nodes in � 2, a randomized version of the scheme finds a (1 � 1/c)-approximation to the optimum traveling salesman tour in O(n(log n) O(c) ) time. When the nodes are in � d, the running time increases to O(n(log n) (O(�dc))d�1). For every fixed c, d the running time is n � poly(log n), that is nearly linear in n. The algorithm can be derandomized, but this increases the running time by a factor O(n d). The previous best approximation algorithm for the problem (due to Christofides) achieves a 3/2-approximation in polynomial time. We also give similar approximation schemes for some other NP-hard Euclidean problems: Minimum Steiner Tree, k-TSP, and k-MST. (The running times of the algorithm for k-TSP and k-MST involve an additional multiplicative factor k.) The previous best approximation algorithms for all these problems achieved a constant-factor approximation. We also give efficient approximation schemes for Euclidean Min-Cost Matching, a problem that can be solved exactly in polynomial time. All our algorithms also work, with almost no modification, when distance is measured using any geometric norm (such as �p for p � 1 or other Minkowski norms). They also have simple parallel (i.e., NC) implementations.

We examine the problem of generating definite noun phrases that are appropri-ate referring expressions: that is, noun phrases that (a) successfully identify the intended referent to the hearer whilst (b) not conveying to him or her any false conversational implicatures (Grice, 1975). We review several possible computa-tional interpretotions of the conversational implicature maxims, with different computational costs, and argue that the simplest may be the best, because it seems to be closest to what human speakers do. We describe our recommended algorithm in detail, along with a specification of the resources a host system must provide in order to make use of the algorithm, and an implementation used in the natural language generation component of the IDAS system. 1.

It has recently been shown that local search is surprisingly good at finding satisfying assignments for certain classes of CNF formulas [24]. In this paper we demonstrate that the power of local search for satisfiability testing can be further enhanced by employinga new strategy, called "mixed random walk", for escaping from local minima. We present experimental results showing how this strategy allows us to handle formulas that are substantially larger than those that can be solved with basic local search. We also present a detailed comparison of our random walk strategy with simulated annealing. Our results show that mixed random walk is the superior strategy on several classes of computationally difficult problem instances. Finally, we present results demonstrating the effectiveness of local search with walk for solving circuit synthesis and diagnosis problems.

In this paper, we study the performance of route query control mechanisms for the Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) for ad hoc networks. ZRP proactively maintains routing information for a local neighborhood (routing zone), while reactively acquiring routes to destinations beyond the routing zone. This hybrid routing approach can be more efficient than traditional routing schemes. However, without proper query control techniques, the ZRP cannot provide the expected reduction in the control traffic.

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