Large independent sets in random regular graphs

We present algorithmic lower bounds on the size _sd$s_d$ of the largest independent sets of vertices in random d$d$-regular graphs, for each fixed d≥3$d\ge 3$. For instance, for d=3$d=3$ we prove that, for graphs on n$n$ vertices, _sd≥0.43475n$s_d\ge 0.43475n$ with probability approaching one as n$n$ tends to infinity.     

An approximation algorithm to the k-Steiner Forest problem

Given a graph G$G$, an integer k$k$, and a demand set D={(_s1,_t1),…,(_sl,_tl)}$D=\{(s_1,t_1),\dots ,(s_l,t_l)\}$, the k$k$-Steiner Forest problem finds a forest in graph G$G$ to connect at least k$k$ demands in D$D$ such that the cost of the forest is minimized. This problem was proposed by Hajiaghayi and Jain in SODA’06. Thereafter, using a Lagrangian relaxation technique, Segev et al. gave the first approximation algorithm to this problem in ESA’06, with performance ratio O(n^2/3logl)$O(n^{2/3}logl)$. We give a simpler and faster approximation algorithm to this problem with performance ratio O(n^2/3logk)$O(n^{2/3}logk)$ via greedy approach, improving the previously best known ratio in the literature.     

A palindromization map for the free group

We define a self-map Pal:_F2→_F2$Pal:F_2\to F_2$ of the free group on two generators a,b$a,b$, using automorphisms of _F2$F_2$ that form a group isomorphic to the braid group _B3$B_3$. The map Pal$Pal$ restricts to de Luca’s right iterated palindromic closure on the submonoid generated by a,b$a,b$. We show that Pal$Pal$ is continuous for the profinite topology on _F2$F_2$; it is the unique continuous extension of de Luca’s right iterated palindromic closure to _F2$F_2$. The values of Pal$Pal$ are palindromes and coincide with the elements g∈_F2$g\in F_2$ such that abg$abg$ and bag$bag$ are conjugate.     

Divergence bounded computable real numbers

A real x$x$ is called h$h$-bounded computable  , for some function h:N→N$h:\mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N}$, if there is a computable sequence (_xs)$(x_s)$ of rational numbers which converges to x$x$ such that, for any n∈N$n\in \mathbb{N}$, at most h(n)$h(n)$ non-overlapping pairs of its members are separated by a distance larger than 2^-n$2^{-n}$. In this paper we discuss properties of h$h$-bounded computable reals for various functions h$h$. We will show a simple sufficient condition for a class of functions h$h$ such that the corresponding h$h$-bounded computable reals form an algebraic field. A hierarchy theorem for h$h$-bounded computable reals is also shown. Besides we compare semi-computability and weak computability with the h$h$-bounded computability for special functions h$h$.     

On some special solutions to periodic Benjamin-Ono equation with discrete Laplacian

We investigate a periodic version of the Benjamin-Ono (BO) equation associated with a discrete Laplacian. We find some special solutions to this equation, and calculate the values of the first two integrals of motion _I1$I_1$ and _I2$I_2$ corresponding to these solutions. It is found that there exists a strong resemblance between them and the spectra for the Macdonald q$q$-difference operators. To better understand the connection between these classical and quantum integrable systems, we consider the special degenerate case corresponding to q=0$q=0$ in more detail. Namely, we give general solutions to this degenerate periodic BO, obtain explicit formulas representing all the integrals of motions _In$I_n$ (n=1,2,…$n=1\text{,}2\text{,}\dots$), and successfully identify it with the eigenvalues of Macdonald operators in the limit q→0$q\to 0$, i.e. the limit where Macdonald polynomials tend to the Hall–Littlewood polynomials.     

Paths and trails in edge-colored graphs

This paper deals with the existence and search for properly edge-colored paths/trails between two, not necessarily distinct, vertices s$s$ and t$t$ in an edge-colored graph from an algorithmic perspective. First we show that several versions of the s−t$s-t$ path/trail problem have polynomial solutions including the shortest path/trail case. We give polynomial algorithms for finding a longest properly edge-colored path/trail between s$s$ and t$t$ for a particular class of graphs and characterize edge-colored graphs without properly edge-colored closed trails. Next, we prove that deciding whether there exist k$k$ pairwise vertex/edge disjoint properly edge-colored s−t$s-t$ paths/trails in a c$c$-edge-colored graph G^c$G^c$ is NP-complete even for k=2$k=2$ and c=Ω(n²)$c=\Omega \left(n^2\right)$, where n$n$ denotes the number of vertices in G^c$G^c$. Moreover, we prove that these problems remain NP-complete for c$c$-edge-colored graphs containing no properly edge-colored cycles and c=Ω(n)$c=\Omega \left(n\right)$. We obtain some approximation results for those maximization problems together with polynomial results for some particular classes of edge-colored graphs.     

Adaptive timeliness of consensus in presence of crash and timing faults

The Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus is a stronger variant of the traditional consensus and it satisfies the following additional property: every correct process terminates its execution within a constant time Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$ (Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timeliness), and no two processes decide differently (uniformity). In this paper, we consider the Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus problem in presence of _fc$f_{\mathrm{c}}$ crash processes and _ft$f_{\mathrm{t}}$ timing-faulty processes, and propose a Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus algorithm. The proposed algorithm is adaptive in the following sense: it solves the Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus when at least _ft+1$f_{\mathrm{t}}+1$ correct processes exist in the system. If the system has less than _ft+1$f_{\mathrm{t}}+1$ correct processes, the algorithm cannot solve the Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus. However, as long as _ft+1$f_{\mathrm{t}}+1$ processes are non-crashed, the algorithm solves (non-timed) uniform consensus. We also investigate the maximum number of faulty processes that can be tolerated. We show that any Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus algorithm tolerating up to _ft$f_{\mathrm{t}}$ timing-faulty processes requires that the system has at least _ft+1$f_{\mathrm{t}}+1$ correct processes. This impossibility result implies that the proposed algorithm attains the maximum resilience about the number of faulty processes. We also show that any Δ$\mathrm{\Delta }$-timed uniform consensus algorithm tolerating up to _ft$f_{\mathrm{t}}$ timing-faulty processes cannot solve the (non-timed) uniform consensus when the system has less than _ft+1$f_{\mathrm{t}}+1$ non-crashed processes. This impossibility result implies that our algorithm attains the maximum adaptiveness.     

Choosing starting values for certain Newton–Raphson iterations

We aim at finding the best possible seed values when computing a^1/p$a^{1/p}$ using the Newton–Raphson iteration in a given interval. A natural choice of the seed value would be the one that best approximates the expected result. It turns out that in most cases, the best seed value can be quite far from this natural choice. When we evaluate a monotone function f(a)$f(a)$ in the interval [_amin,_amax]$[a_{\min },a_{\max }]$, by building the sequence _xn$x_n$ defined by the Newton–Raphson iteration, the natural choice consists in choosing _x0$x_0$ equal to the arithmetic mean of the endpoint values. This minimizes the maximum possible distance between _x0$x_0$ and f(a)$f(a)$. And yet, if we perform n$n$ iterations, what matters is to minimize the maximum possible distance between _xn$x_n$ and f(a)$f(a)$. In several examples, the value of the best starting point varies rather significantly with the number of iterations.     

Spanners for bounded tree-length graphs

This paper concerns construction of additive stretched spanners with few edges for n$n$-vertex graphs having a tree-decomposition into bags of diameter at most δ$\delta$, i.e., the tree-length δ$\delta$ graphs. For such graphs we construct additive 2δ$2\delta$-spanners with O(δn+nlogn)$O(\delta n+nlogn)$ edges, and additive 4δ$4\delta$-spanners with O(δn)$O\left(\delta n\right)$ edges. This provides new upper bounds for chordal graphs for which δ=1$\delta =1$. We also show a lower bound, and prove that there are graphs of tree-length δ$\delta$ for which every multiplicative δ$\delta$-spanner (and thus every additive (δ−1)$(\delta -1)$-spanner) requires Ω(n^1+1/Θ(δ))$\Omega \left(n^{1+1/\Theta \left(\delta \right)}\right)$ edges.     

Swapping a failing edge of a shortest paths tree by minimizing the average stretch factor

We consider a two-edge connected, undirected graph G=(V,E)$G=(V,E)$, with n$n$ nodes and m$m$ non-negatively real weighted edges, and a single source shortest paths tree (SPT) T$T$ of G$G$ rooted at an arbitrary node r$r$. If an edge in T$T$ is temporarily removed, it makes sense to reconnect the nodes disconnected from the root by adding a single non-tree edge, called a swap edge  , instead of rebuilding a new optimal SPT from scratch. In the past, several optimality criteria have been considered to select a best possible swap edge. In this paper we focus on the most prominent one, that is the minimization of the average distance between the root and the disconnected nodes. To this respect, we present an O(mlog²n)$O\left(m{log}^{2}n\right)$ time and O(m)$O\left(m\right)$ space algorithm to find a best swap edge for every edge of T$T$, thus improving for m=o(n²/log²n)$m=o(n^2/{log}^{2}n)$ the previously known O(n²)$O\left(n^2\right)$ time and space complexity algorithm.     

Minimum cost source location problem with local 3-vertex-connectivity requirements

Let G=(V,E)$G=(V,E)$ be a simple undirected graph with a set V$V$ of vertices and a set E$E$ of edges. Each vertex v∈V$v\in V$ has a demand d(v)∈_Z+$d\left(v\right)\in Z_{+}$ and a cost c(v)∈_R+$c\left(v\right)\in R_{+}$, where _Z+$Z_{+}$ and _R+$R_{+}$ denote the set of nonnegative integers and the set of nonnegative reals, respectively. The source location problem with vertex-connectivity requirements in a given graph G$G$ requires finding a set S$S$ of vertices minimizing _∑v∈Sc(v)${\sum }_{v\in S}c\left(v\right)$ such that there are at least d(v)$d\left(v\right)$ pairwise vertex-disjoint paths from S$S$ to v$v$ for each vertex v∈V−S$v\in V-S$. It is known that if there exists a vertex v∈V$v\in V$ with d(v)≥4$d\left(v\right)\ge 4$, then the problem is NP-hard even in the case where every vertex has a uniform cost. In this paper, we show that the problem can be solved in O(|V|⁴log²|V|)$O\left({\left|V\right|}^4{log}^2\left|V\right|\right)$ time if d(v)≤3$d\left(v\right)\le 3$ holds for each vertex v∈V$v\in V$.     

Compatibility of unrooted phylogenetic trees is FPT

A collection of _T1,_T2,…,_Tk$T_1,T_2,\dots ,T_k$ of unrooted, leaf labelled (phylogenetic) trees, all with different leaf sets, is said to be compatible   if there exists a tree T$T$ such that each tree _Ti$T_i$ can be obtained from T$T$ by deleting leaves and contracting edges. Determining compatibility is NP-hard, and the fastest algorithm to date has worst case complexity of around Ω(n^k)$\mathrm{\Omega }(n^k)$ time, n$n$ being the number of leaves. Here, we present an O(nf(k))$\mathrm{O}(\mathit{nf}(k))$ algorithm, proving that compatibility of unrooted phylogenetic trees is fixed parameter tractable   (FPT) with respect to the number k$k$ of trees.     

A bound for the Rosenfeld–Gröbner algorithm

We consider the Rosenfeld–Gröbner algorithm for computing a regular decomposition of a radical differential ideal generated by a set of ordinary differential polynomials in n$n$ indeterminates. For a set of ordinary differential polynomials F$F$, let M(F)$M\left(F\right)$ be the sum of maximal orders of differential indeterminates occurring in F$F$. We propose a modification of the Rosenfeld–Gröbner algorithm, in which for every intermediate polynomial system F$F$, the bound M(F)?(n−1)!M(_F0)$M\left(F\right)?(n-1)!M\left(F_0\right)$ holds, where _F0$F_0$ is the initial set of generators of the radical ideal. In particular, the resulting regular systems satisfy the bound. Since regular ideals can be decomposed into characterizable components algebraically, the bound also holds for the orders of derivatives occurring in a characteristic decomposition of a radical differential ideal.