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We study the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem on general graphs within the framework of learning-augmented algorithms. The MIS problem is known to be NP-hard and is also NP-hard to approximate to within a factor of n^(1-δ) for any δ > 0. We show that we can break this barrier in the presence of an oracle obtained through predictions from a machine learning model that answers vertex membership queries for a fixed MIS with probability 1/2+ε. In the first setting we consider, the oracle can be queried once per vertex to know if a vertex belongs to a fixed MIS, and the oracle returns the correct answer with probability 1/2 + ε. Under this setting, we show an algorithm that obtains an Õ((√Δ)/ε)-approximation in O(m) time where Δ is the maximum degree of the graph. In the second setting, we allow multiple queries to the oracle for a vertex, each of which is correct with probability 1/2 + ε. For this setting, we show an O(1)-approximation algorithm using O(n/ε²) total queries and Õ(m) runtime.
@InProceedings{braverman_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2024.24,
author = {Braverman, Vladimir and Dharangutte, Prathamesh and Shah, Vihan and Wang, Chen},
title = {{Learning-Augmented Maximum Independent Set}},
booktitle = {Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2024)},
pages = {24:1--24:18},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-348-5},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2024},
volume = {317},
editor = {Kumar, Amit and Ron-Zewi, Noga},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2024.24},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-210179},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2024.24},
annote = {Keywords: Learning-augmented algorithms, maximum independent set, graph algorithms}
}