Efficient randomised broadcasting in random regular networks with applications in peer-to-peer systems

We consider broadcasting in random d-regular graphs by using a simple modification of the random phone call model introduced by Karp et al. (Proceedings of the FOCS ’00, 2000). In the phone call model, in every time step, each node calls a randomly chosen neighbour to establish a communication channel to this node. The communication channels can then be used bi-directionally to transmit messages. We show that, if we allow every node to choose four distinct neighbours instead of one, then the average number of message transmissions per node required to broadcast a message efficiently decreases exponentially. Formally, we present an algorithm that has time complexity \(O(\log n)\) and uses \(O(n\log \log n)\) transmissions per message. In contrast, we show for the standard model that every distributed algorithm in a restricted address-oblivious model that broadcasts a message in time \(O(\log n)\) requires \(\Omega (n \log n{/} \log d)\) message transmissions. Our algorithm efficiently handles limited communication failures, only requires rough estimates of the number of nodes, and is robust against limited changes in the size of the network. Our results have applications in peer-to-peer networks and replicated databases.     

Tight bounds for parallel randomized load balancing

Given a distributed system of \(n\) balls and \(n\) bins, how evenly can we distribute the balls to the bins, minimizing communication? The fastest non-adaptive and symmetric algorithm achieving a constant maximum bin load requires \(\varTheta (\log \log n)\) rounds, and any such algorithm running for \(r\in {\mathcal {O}}(1)\) rounds incurs a bin load of \(\varOmega ((\log n/\log \log n)^{1/r})\). In this work, we explore the fundamental limits of the general problem. We present a simple adaptive symmetric algorithm that achieves a bin load of 2 in \(\log ^* n+{\mathcal {O}}(1)\) communication rounds using \({\mathcal {O}}(n)\) messages in total. Our main result, however, is a matching lower bound of \((1-o(1))\log ^* n\) on the time complexity of symmetric algorithms that guarantee small bin loads. The essential preconditions of the proof are (i) a limit of \({\mathcal {O}}(n)\) on the total number of messages sent by the algorithm and (ii) anonymity of bins, i.e., the port numberings of balls need not be globally consistent. In order to show that our technique yields indeed tight bounds, we provide for each assumption an algorithm violating it, in turn achieving a constant maximum bin load in constant time.     

A greedy approximation algorithm for minimum-gap scheduling

We consider scheduling of unit-length jobs with release times and deadlines, where the objective is to minimize the number of gaps in the schedule. Polynomial-time algorithms for this problem are known, yet they are rather inefficient, with the best algorithm running in time \(O(n^4)\) and requiring \(O(n^3)\) memory. We present a greedy algorithm that approximates the optimum solution within a factor of 2 and show that our analysis is tight. Our algorithm runs in time \(O(n^2 \log n)\) and needs only O(n) memory. In fact, the running time is \(O(n (g^*+1)\log n)\), where \(g^*\) is the minimum number of gaps.     

Faster search by lackadaisical quantum walk

In the typical model, a discrete-time coined quantum walk searching the 2D grid for a marked vertex achieves a success probability of \(O(1/\log N)\) in \(O(\sqrt{N \log N})\) steps, which with amplitude amplification yields an overall runtime of \(O(\sqrt{N} \log N)\). We show that making the quantum walk lackadaisical or lazy by adding a self-loop of weight 4 / N to each vertex speeds up the search, causing the success probability to reach a constant near 1 in \(O(\sqrt{N \log N})\) steps, thus yielding an \(O(\sqrt{\log N})\) improvement over the typical, loopless algorithm. This improved runtime matches the best known quantum algorithms for this search problem. Our results are based on numerical simulations since the algorithm is not an instance of the abstract search algorithm.     

Recursive Computation of Logarithmic Derivatives,Ratios, and Products of Spheroidal Harmonics and Modified Bessel Functions and Applications

Spheroidal harmonics and modified Bessel functions have wide applications in scientific and engineering computing. Recursive methods are developed to compute the logarithmic derivatives, ratios, and products of the prolate spheroidal harmonics (\(P_n^m(x)\), \(Q_n^m(x)\), \(n\ge m\ge 0\), \(x>1\)), the oblate spheroidal harmonics (\(P_n^m(ix)\), \(Q_n^m(ix)\), \(n\ge m\ge 0\), \(x>0\)), and the modified Bessel functions (\(I_n(x)\), \(K_n(x)\), \(n\ge 0\), \(x>0\)) in order to avoid direct evaluation of these functions that may easily cause overflow/underflow for high degree/order and for extreme argument. Stability analysis shows the proposed recursive methods are stable for realistic degree/order and argument values. Physical examples in electrostatics are given to validate the recursive methods.     

Throughput maximization for speed scaling with agreeable deadlines

We study the following energy-efficient scheduling problem. We are given a set of n jobs which have to be scheduled by a single processor whose speed can be varied dynamically. Each job \(J_j\) is characterized by a processing requirement (work) \(p_j\), a release date \(r_j\), and a deadline \(d_j\). We are also given a budget of energy E which must not be exceeded and our objective is to maximize the throughput (i.e., the number of jobs which are completed on time). We show that the problem can be solved optimally via dynamic programming in \(O(n^4 \log n \log P)\) time when all jobs have the same release date, where P is the sum of the processing requirements of the jobs. For the more general case with agreeable deadlines where the jobs can be ordered so that, for every \(i < j\), it holds that \(r_i \le r_j\) and \(d_i \le d_j\), we propose an optimal dynamic programming algorithm which runs in \(O(n^6 \log n \log P)\) time. In addition, we consider the weighted case where every job \(J_j\) is also associated with a weight \(w_j\) and we are interested in maximizing the weighted throughput (i.e., the total weight of the jobs which are completed on time). For this case, we show that the problem becomes \(\mathcal{NP}\)-hard in the ordinary sense even when all jobs have the same release date and we propose a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm for agreeable instances.     

Hybridized Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Elliptic Interface Problems: Error Estimates Under Low Regularity Assumptions of Solutions

New hybridized discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) methods for the interface problem for elliptic equations are proposed. Unknown functions of our schemes are \(u_h\) in elements and \(\hat{u}_h\) on inter-element edges. That is, we formulate our schemes without introducing the flux variable. We assume that subdomains \(\Omega _1\) and \(\Omega _2\) are polyhedral domains and that the interface \(\Gamma =\partial \Omega _1\cap \partial \Omega _2\) is polyhedral surface or polygon. Moreover, \(\Gamma \) is assumed to be expressed as the union of edges of some elements. We deal with the case where the interface is transversely connected with the boundary of the whole domain \(\overline{\Omega }=\overline{\Omega _1\cap \Omega _2}\). Consequently, the solution u of the interface problem may not have a sufficient regularity, say \(u\in H^2(\Omega )\) or \(u|_{\Omega _1}\in H^2(\Omega _1)\), \(u|_{\Omega _2}\in H^2(\Omega _2)\). We succeed in deriving optimal order error estimates in an HDG norm and the \(L^2\) norm under low regularity assumptions of solutions, say \(u|_{\Omega _1}\in H^{1+s}(\Omega _1)\) and \(u|_{\Omega _2}\in H^{1+s}(\Omega _2)\) for some \(s\in (1/2,1]\), where \(H^{1+s}\) denotes the fractional order Sobolev space. Numerical examples to validate our results are also presented.     

Fast arithmetic in algorithmic self-assembly

In this paper we consider the time complexity of adding two n-bit numbers together within the tile self-assembly model. The (abstract) tile assembly model is a mathematical model of self-assembly in which system components are square tiles with different glue types assigned to tile edges. Assembly is driven by the attachment of singleton tiles to a growing seed assembly when the net force of glue attraction for a tile exceeds some fixed threshold. Within this frame work, we examine the time complexity of computing the sum of two n-bit numbers, where the input numbers are encoded in an initial seed assembly, and the output sum is encoded in the final, terminal assembly of the system. We show that this problem, along with multiplication, has a worst case lower bound of \(\varOmega ( \sqrt{n} )\) in 2D assembly, and \(\varOmega (\root 3 \of {n})\) in 3D assembly. We further design algorithms for both 2D and 3D that meet this bound with worst case run times of \(O(\sqrt{n})\) and \(O(\root 3 \of {n})\) respectively, which beats the previous best known upper bound of O(n). Finally, we consider average case complexity of addition over uniformly distributed n-bit strings and show how we can achieve \(O(\log n)\) average case time with a simultaneous \(O(\sqrt{n})\) worst case run time in 2D. As additional evidence for the speed of our algorithms, we implement our algorithms, along with the simpler O(n) time algorithm, into a probabilistic run-time simulator and compare the timing results.     

Numerical Methods and Comparison for the Dirac Equation in the Nonrelativistic Limit Regime

We analyze rigorously error estimates and compare numerically spatial/temporal resolution of various numerical methods for the discretization of the Dirac equation in the nonrelativistic limit regime, involving a small dimensionless parameter \(0<\varepsilon \ll 1\) which is inversely proportional to the speed of light. In this limit regime, the solution is highly oscillatory in time, i.e. there are propagating waves with wavelength \(O(\varepsilon ^2)\) and O(1) in time and space, respectively. We begin with several frequently used finite difference time domain (FDTD) methods and obtain rigorously their error estimates in the nonrelativistic limit regime by paying particular attention to how error bounds depend explicitly on mesh size h and time step \(\tau \) as well as the small parameter \(\varepsilon \). Based on the error bounds, in order to obtain ‘correct’ numerical solutions in the nonrelativistic limit regime, i.e. \(0<\varepsilon \ll 1\), the FDTD methods share the same \(\varepsilon \)-scalability on time step and mesh size as: \(\tau =O(\varepsilon ^3)\) and \(h=O(\sqrt{\varepsilon })\). Then we propose and analyze two numerical methods for the discretization of the Dirac equation by using the Fourier spectral discretization for spatial derivatives combined with the symmetric exponential wave integrator and time-splitting technique for temporal derivatives, respectively. Rigorous error bounds for the two numerical methods show that their \(\varepsilon \)-scalability is improved to \(\tau =O(\varepsilon ^2)\) and \(h=O(1)\) when \(0<\varepsilon \ll 1\). Extensive numerical results are reported to support our error estimates.     

Cost-efficient design of a quantum multiplier–accumulator unit

This paper proposes a cost-efficient quantum multiplier–accumulator unit. The paper also presents a fast multiplication algorithm and designs a novel quantum multiplier device based on the proposed algorithm with the optimum time complexity as multiplier is the major device of a multiplier–accumulator unit. We show that the proposed multiplication technique has time complexity \(O((3 {\hbox {log}}_{2}n)+1)\), whereas the best known existing technique has \(O(n{\hbox {log}}_{2} n)\), where n is the number of qubits. In addition, our design proposes three new quantum circuits: a circuit representing a quantum full-adder, a circuit known as quantum ANDing circuit, which performs the ANDing operation and a circuit presenting quantum accumulator. Moreover, the proposed quantum multiplier–accumulator unit is the first ever quantum multiplier–accumulator circuit in the literature till now, which has reduced garbage outputs and ancillary inputs to a great extent. The comparative study shows that the proposed quantum multiplier performs better than the existing multipliers in terms of depth, quantum gates, delays, area and power with the increasing number of qubits. Moreover, we design the proposed quantum multiplier–accumulator unit, which performs better than the existing ones in terms of hardware and delay complexities, e.g., the proposed (\(n\times n\))—qubit quantum multiplier–accumulator unit requires \(O(n^{2})\) hardware and \(O({\hbox {log}}_{2}n)\) delay complexities, whereas the best known existing quantum multiplier–accumulator unit requires \(O(n^{3})\) hardware and \(O((n-1)^{2} +1+n)\) delay complexities. In addition, the proposed design achieves an improvement of 13.04, 60.08 and 27.2% for \(4\times 4\), 7.87, 51.8 and 27.1% for \(8\times 8\), 4.24, 52.14 and 27% for \(16\times 16\), 2.19, 52.15 and 27.26% for \(32 \times 32\) and 0.78, 52.18 and 27.28% for \(128 \times 128\)-qubit multiplications over the best known existing approach in terms of number of quantum gates, ancillary inputs and garbage outputs, respectively. Moreover, on average, the proposed design gains an improvement of 5.62% in terms of area and power consumptions over the best known existing approach.     

Feedback from nature: simple randomised distributed algorithms for maximal independent set selection and greedy colouring

We propose distributed algorithms for two well-established problems that operate efficiently under extremely harsh conditions. Our algorithms achieve state-of-the-art performance in a simple and novel way. Our algorithm for maximal independent set selection operates on a network of identical anonymous processors. The processor at each node has no prior information about the network. At each time step, each node can only broadcast a single bit to all its neighbours, or remain silent. Each node can detect whether one or more neighbours have broadcast, but cannot tell how many of its neighbours have broadcast, or which ones. We build on recent work of Afek et al. (Science 331(6014):183–185, 2011) which was inspired by studying the development of a network of cells in the fruit fly. However we incorporate for the first time another important feature of the biological system: varying the probability value used at each node based on local feedback from neighbouring nodes. Given any n-node network, our algorithm achieves with high probability the optimal time complexity of \(O(\log n)\) rounds and the optimal expected message complexity of O(1) single-bit messages broadcast by each node. We also show that the previous approach, without feedback, cannot achieve better than \(\varOmega (\log ^2 n)\) time complexity with high probability, whatever global scheme is used to choose the probabilities. Our algorithm for distributed greedy colouring works under similar harsh conditions: each identical node has no prior information about the network, can only broadcast a single message to all neighbours at each time step representing a desired colour, and can only detect whether at least one neighbour has broadcast each colour value. We show that with high probability our algorithm has a time complexity of \(O(\Delta +\log n)\), where \(\Delta \) is the maximum degree of the network, and also has an expected message complexity of O(1) messages broadcast by each node.     

The hierarchical Petersen network: a new interconnection network with fixed degree

Network cost and fixed-degree characteristic for the graph are important factors to evaluate interconnection networks. In this paper, we propose hierarchical Petersen network (HPN) that is constructed in recursive and hierarchical structure based on a Petersen graph as a basic module. The degree of HPN(n) is 5, and HPN(n) has \(10^n\) nodes and \(2.5 \times 10^n\) edges. And we analyze its basic topological properties, routing algorithm, diameter, spanning tree, broadcasting algorithm and embedding. From the analysis, we prove that the diameter and network cost of HPN(n) are \(3\log _{10}N-1\) and \(15 \log _{10}N-1\), respectively, and it contains a spanning tree with the degree of 4. In addition, we propose link-disjoint one-to-all broadcasting algorithm and show that HPN(n) can be embedded into FP\(_k\) with expansion 1, dilation 2k and congestion 4. For most of the fixed-degree networks proposed, network cost and diameter require \(O(\sqrt{N})\) and the degree of the graph requires O(N). However, HPN(n) requires O(1) for the degree and \(O(\log _{10}N)\) for both diameter and network cost. As a result, the suggested interconnection network in this paper is superior to current fixed-degree and hierarchical networks in terms of network cost, diameter and the degree of the graph.     

Speed scaling problems with memory/cache consideration

Speed scaling problems consider energy-efficient job scheduling in processors by adjusting the speed to reduce energy consumption, where power consumption is a convex function of speed (usually, \(P(s) =s^{\alpha }, \alpha =2,3\)). In this work, we study speed scaling problems considering memory/cache. Each job needs some time for memory operation when it is fetched from memory,, and needs less time if fetched from the cache. The objective is to minimize energy consumption while satisfying the time constraints of the jobs. Two models are investigated, the non-cache model and the with-cache model. The non-cache model is a variant of the ideal model, where each job i needs a fixed \(c_i\) time for its memory operation; the with-cache model further considers the cache, a memory device with much faster access time but limited space. The uniform with-cache model is a special case of the with-cache model in which all \(c_i\) values are the same. We provide an \(O(n^3)\) time algorithm and an improved \(O(n^2\log n)\) time algorithm to compute the optimal solution in the non-cache model. For the with-cache model, we prove that it is NP-complete to compute the optimal solution. For the uniform with-cache model with agreeable jobs (later-released jobs do not have earlier deadlines), we derive an \(O(n^4)\) time algorithm to compute the optimal schedule, while for the general case we propose a \((2\alpha \frac{g}{g-1})^{\alpha }/2\)-approximation algorithm in a resource augmentation setting in which the memory operation time can accelerate by at most g times.     

Close to linear space routing schemes

Let \(G=(V,E)\) be an unweighted undirected graph with n vertices and m edges, and let \(k>2\) be an integer. We present a routing scheme with a poly-logarithmic header size, that given a source s and a destination t at distance \(\varDelta \) from s, routes a message from s to t on a path whose length is \(O(k\varDelta +m^{1/k})\). The total space used by our routing scheme is \(mn^{O(1/\sqrt{\log n})}\), which is almost linear in the number of edges of the graph. We present also a routing scheme with \(n^{O(1/\sqrt{\log n})}\) header size, and the same stretch (up to constant factors). In this routing scheme, the routing table of every \(v\in V\) is at most \(kn^{O(1/\sqrt{\log n})}deg(v)\), where deg(v) is the degree of v in G. Our results are obtained by combining a general technique of Bernstein (2009), that was presented in the context of dynamic graph algorithms, with several new ideas and observations.     

QuickHeapsort: Modifications and Improved Analysis

QuickHeapsort is a combination of Quicksort and Heapsort. We show that the expected number of comparisons for QuickHeapsort is always better than for Quicksort if a usual median-of-constant strategy is used for choosing pivot elements. In order to obtain the result we present a new analysis for QuickHeapsort splitting it into the analysis of the partition-phases and the analysis of the heap-phases. This enables us to consider samples of non-constant size for the pivot selection and leads to better theoretical bounds for the algorithm. Furthermore, we introduce some modifications of QuickHeapsort. We show that for every input the expected number of comparisons is at most \(n\log _{2}n - 0.03n + o(n)\) for the in-place variant. If we allow n extra bits, then we can lower the bound to \( n\log _{2} n -0.997 n+ o (n)\). Thus, spending n extra bits we can save more that 0.96n comparisons if n is large enough. Both estimates improve the previously known results. Moreover, our non-in-place variant does essentially use the same number of comparisons as index based Heapsort variants and Relaxed-Weak-Heapsort which use \( n\log _{2}n -0.9 n+ o (n)\) comparisons in the worst case. However, index based Heapsort variants and Relaxed-Weak-Heapsort require \({\Theta }(n\log n)\) extra bits whereas we need n bits only. Our theoretical results are upper bounds and valid for every input. Our computer experiments show that the gap between our bounds and the actual values on random inputs is small. Moreover, the computer experiments establish QuickHeapsort as competitive with Quicksort in terms of running time.     

A Weak Galerkin Method with an Over-Relaxed Stabilization for Low Regularity Elliptic Problems

A new weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method is developed and analyzed for solving second order elliptic problems with low regularity solutions in the Sobolev space \(W^{2,p}(\Omega )\) with \(p\in (1,2)\). A WG stabilizer was introduced by Wang and Ye (Math Comput 83:2101–2126, 2014) for a simpler variational formulation, and it has been commonly used since then in the WG literature. In this work, for the purpose of dealing with low regularity solutions, we propose to generalize the stabilizer of Wang and Ye by introducing a positive relaxation index to the mesh size h. The relaxed stabilization gives rise to a considerable flexibility in treating weak continuity along the interior element edges. When the norm index \(p\in (1,2]\), we strictly derive that the WG error in energy norm has an optimal convergence order \(O(h^{l+1-\frac{1}{p}-\frac{p}{4}})\) by taking the relaxed factor \(\beta =1+\frac{2}{p}-\frac{p}{2}\), and it also has an optimal convergence order \(O(h^{l+2-\frac{2}{p}})\) in \(L^2\) norm when the solution \(u\in W^{l+1,p}\) with \(p\in [1,1+\frac{2}{p}-\frac{p}{2}]\) and \(l\ge 1\). It is recovered for \(p=2\) that with the choice of \(\beta =1\), error estimates in the energy and \(L^2\) norms are optimal for the source term in the sobolev space \(L^2\). Weak variational forms of the WG method give rise to desirable flexibility in enforcing boundary conditions and can be easily implemented without requiring a sufficiently large penalty factor as in the usual discontinuous Galerkin methods. In addition, numerical results illustrate that the proposed WG method with an over-relaxed factor \(\beta (\ge 1)\) converges at optimal algebraic rates for several low regularity elliptic problems.     

Parallel construction of wavelet trees on multicore architectures

The wavelet tree has become a very useful data structure to efficiently represent and query large volumes of data in many different domains, from bioinformatics to geographic information systems. One problem with wavelet trees is their construction time. In this paper, we introduce two algorithms that reduce the time complexity of a wavelet tree’s construction by taking advantage of nowadays ubiquitous multicore machines. Our first algorithm constructs all the levels of the wavelet in parallel with O(n) time and \(O(n\lg \sigma + \sigma \lg n)\) bits of working space, where n is the size of the input sequence and \(\sigma \) is the size of the alphabet. Our second algorithm constructs the wavelet tree in a domain decomposition fashion, using our first algorithm in each segment, reaching \(O(\lg n)\) time and \(O(n\lg \sigma + p\sigma \lg n/\lg \sigma )\) bits of extra space, where p is the number of available cores. Both algorithms are practical and report good speedup for large real datasets.     

A Two-Grid Block-Centered Finite Difference Method for the Nonlinear Time-Fractional Parabolic Equation

In this article, a two-grid block-centered finite difference scheme is introduced and analyzed to solve the nonlinear time-fractional parabolic equation. This method is considered where the nonlinear problem is solved only on a coarse grid of size H and a linear problem is solved on a fine grid of size h. Stability results are proven rigorously. Error estimates are established on non-uniform rectangular grid which show that the discrete \(L^{\infty }(L^2)\) and \(L^2(H^1)\) errors are \(O(\triangle t^{2-\alpha }+h^2+H^3)\). Finally, some numerical experiments are presented to show the efficiency of the two-grid method and verify that the convergence rates are in agreement with the theoretical analysis.     

Improved constructions for quantum maximum distance separable codes

In this work, we further improve the distance of the quantum maximum distance separable (MDS) codes of length \(n=\frac{q^2+1}{10}\). This yields new families of quantum MDS codes. We also construct a family of new quantum MDS codes with parameters \([[\frac{q^2-1}{3}, \frac{q^2-1}{3}-2d+2, d]]_{q}\), where \(q=2^m\), \(2\le d\le \frac{q-1}{3}\) if \(3\mid (q+2)\), and \(2\le d\le \frac{2q-1}{3}\) if \(3\mid (q+1)\). Compared with the known quantum MDS codes, these quantum MDS codes have much larger minimum distance.     

On the restricted connectivity of the arrangement graph

We derive a general upper bound of the \(R_h\) -restricted connectivity for the arrangement graph, namely the minimum cardinality of a vertex set, whose removal disconnects the graph, but every remaining vertex has at least \(h ({\ge }0)\) neighbors in the survival graph. We show that this upper bound is exact when \(h \in [0, 2]\) and provide an asymptotic lower bound for the cases where \(h\ge 3\).