Approximation algorithms for the Weighted t-Uniform Sparsest Cut and some other graph partitioning problems

We study the Weighted t-Uniform Sparsest Cut (Weighted t-USC) and other related problems. In an instance of the Weighted t-USC problem, a parameter t and an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ with edge-weights $w:E\to {\mathbb{R}}_{\ge 0}$ and vertex-weights $\eta :V\to {\mathbb{R}}_{+}$ are given. The goal is to find a vertex set $S\subseteq V$ with $|S|\le t$ while minimizing $w(S,V\backslash S)/\eta (S)$, where $w(S,V\backslash S)$ is the total weight of the edges with exactly one endpoint in S and $\eta (S)={\sum }_{v\in S}\eta (v)$. For this problem, we present a $(O(\log t),1+ϵ)$ factor bicriteria approximation algorithm. Our algorithm outperforms the current best algorithm when $t=n^{o(1)}$. We also present better approximation algorithms for Weighted ρ-Unbalanced Cut and Min–Max k-Partitioning problems.     

Proximity and average eccentricity of a graph

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected graph on n vertices. The proximity $\pi (G)$ of G is the minimum average distance from a vertex of G to all others. The eccentricity $e(v)$ of a vertex v in G is the largest distance from v to another vertex, and the average eccentricity $\mathit{ecc}(G)$ of the graph G is $\frac{1}{n}{\sum }_{v\in V(G)}e(v)$. Recently, it was conjectured by Aouchiche and Hansen (2011) [3] that for any connected graph G on $n?3$ vertices, $\mathit{ecc}(G)?\pi (G)?\mathit{ecc}(P_n)?\pi (P_n)$, with equality if and only if $G?P_n$. In this paper, we show that this conjecture is true.     

Efficient algorithms for the round-trip 1-center and 1-median problems

This paper presents improved algorithms for the round-trip single-facility location problem on a general graph, in which a set A of collection depots is given and the service distance of a customer is defined to be the distance from the server, to the customer, then to a depot, and back to the server. Each customer i is associated with a subset $A^i\subseteq A$ of depots that i can potentially select from and use. When $A^i=A$ for each customer i, the problem is unrestricted; otherwise it is restricted. For the restricted round-trip 1-center problem, we give an $O(mn\lg n)$-time algorithm. For the restricted 1-median problem, we give an $O(mn\lg (|A|/m)+n^2\lg n)$-time algorithm. For the unrestricted 1-median problem, we give an $O(mn+n^2\lg \lg n)$-time algorithm.     

A shortest cycle for each vertex of a graph

We present an algorithm that finds, for each vertex of an undirected graph, a shortest cycle containing it. While for directed graphs this problem reduces to the All-Pairs Shortest Paths problem, this is not known to be the case for undirected graphs.We present a truly sub-cubic randomized algorithm for the undirected case. Given an undirected graph with n vertices and integer weights in $1,\dots ,M$, it runs in $\stackrel{?}{O}(\sqrt{M}{n}^{(\omega +3)/2})$ time where $\omega <2.376$ is the exponent of matrix multiplication. As a by-product, our algorithm can be used to determine which vertices lie on cycles of length at most t in $\stackrel{?}{O}(M{n}^{\omega }t)$ time. For the case of bounded real edge weights, a variant of our algorithm solves the problem up to an additive error of ? in $\stackrel{?}{O}(n^{(\omega +6)/3})$ time.     

Deterministic extractors for small-space sources

We give polynomial-time, deterministic randomness extractors for sources generated in small space, where we model space s sources on ${\{0,1\}}^n$ as sources generated by width $2^s$ branching programs. Specifically, there is a constant $\eta >0$ such that for any $\zeta >n^{?\eta }$, our algorithm extracts $m=(\delta ?\zeta )n$ bits that are exponentially close to uniform (in variation distance) from space s sources with min-entropy δn, where $s=\Omega ({\zeta }^{3}n)$. Previously, nothing was known for $\delta ?1/2$, even for space 0. Our results are obtained by a reduction to the class of total-entropy independent sources. This model generalizes both the well-studied models of independent sources and symbol-fixing sources. These sources consist of a set of r independent smaller sources over ${\{0,1\}}^{?}$, where the total min-entropy over all the smaller sources is k. We give deterministic extractors for such sources when k is as small as $\mathsf{polylog}(r)$, for small enough ?.     

Representations of commutative asynchronous automata

Ito (1976, 1978) [14], [17] provided representations of strongly connected automata by group-matrix type automata. This shows the close connection between strongly connected automata with their automorphism groups. In this paper we deal with commutative asynchronous automata. In particular, we introduce and study normal commutative asynchronous automata and cyclic commutative asynchronous automata. Some properties on endomorphism monoids of these automata are given. Also, the representations of normal commutative asynchronous automata and cyclic commutative asynchronous automata are provided by S-automata and regular S-automata, respectively. The cartesian composition $\mathbf{A}°\mathbf{B}$ of a strongly connected automaton A and a cyclic commutative asynchronous automaton B is studied. It is shown that the endomorphism monoid $E(\mathbf{A}°\mathbf{B})$ of automaton $\mathbf{A}°\mathbf{B}$ is a Clifford monoid. Finally, a representation of $\mathbf{A}°\mathbf{B}$ is provided by regular Clifford monoid matrix-type automaton. This generalizes and extends the representations of strongly connected automata given by Ito (1976) [14].