DROPS

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.6

Estimating the Persistent Homology of ℝⁿ-Valued Functions Using Function-Geometric Multifiltrations

Authors: Ethan André, Jingyi Li, David Loiseaux, and Steve Oudot

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 367, 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)

Abstract

Given an unknown ℝⁿ-valued function f on a metric space X, can we approximate the persistent homology of f from a finite sampling of X with known pairwise distances and function values? This question has been answered in the case n = 1, assuming f is Lipschitz continuous and X is a sufficiently regular geodesic metric space, and using filtered geometric complexes with fixed scale parameter for the approximation. In this paper we answer the question for arbitrary n, under similar assumptions and using function-geometric multifiltrations. Our analysis offers a different view on these multifiltrations by focusing on their approximation properties rather than on their stability properties. We also leverage the multiparameter setting to provide insight into the influence of the scale parameter, whose choice is central to this type of approach. From a practical standpoint, we show that our approximation results are robust to input noise, and that function-geometric multifiltrations have good statistical convergence properties. We also provide an algorithm to compute our estimators, and we use its implementation to conduct extensive experiments, on both synthetic and real biological data, in order to validate our theoretical results.

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Ethan André, Jingyi Li, David Loiseaux, and Steve Oudot. Estimating the Persistent Homology of ℝⁿ-Valued Functions Using Function-Geometric Multifiltrations. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 6:1-6:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{andre_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.6,
  author =	{Andr\'{e}, Ethan and Li, Jingyi and Loiseaux, David and Oudot, Steve},
  title =	{{Estimating the Persistent Homology of \mathbb{R}ⁿ-Valued Functions Using Function-Geometric Multifiltrations}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-418-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{367},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Hoffmann, Michael and Nayyeri, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258120},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Topological data analysis, multi-parameter persistent homology, function-Rips multifiltration}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.14

The Careless Coupon Collector’s Problem

Authors: Emilio Cruciani and Aditi Dudeja

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract

We initiate the study of the Careless Coupon Collector’s Problem (CCCP), a novel variation of the classical coupon collector, that we envision as a model for information systems such as web crawlers, dynamic caches, and fault-resilient networks. In CCCP, a collector attempts to gather n distinct coupon types by obtaining one coupon type uniformly at random in each discrete round, however the collector is careless: at the end of each round, each collected coupon type is independently lost with probability p. We analyze the number of rounds required to complete the collection as a function of n and p. In particular, we show that it transitions from Θ(n ln n) when p = o((ln n)/n²) up to Θ(((np)/(1-p))ⁿ) when p = ω(1/n) in multiple distinct phases. Interestingly, when p = c/n, the process remains in a metastable phase, where the fraction of collected coupon types is concentrated around 1/(1+c) with probability 1-o(1), for a time window of length e^{Θ(n)}. Finally, we give an algorithm that computes the expected completion time of CCCP in O(n²) time.

Cite as

Emilio Cruciani and Aditi Dudeja. The Careless Coupon Collector’s Problem. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 14:1-14:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{cruciani_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.14,
  author =	{Cruciani, Emilio and Dudeja, Aditi},
  title =	{{The Careless Coupon Collector’s Problem}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257333},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Coupon Collector, Markov Chains, Metastability}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.30

New Bounds for Circular Trace Reconstruction

Authors: Arnav Burudgunte, Paul Valiant, and Hongao Wang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

The "trace reconstruction" problem asks, given an unknown binary string x and a channel that repeatedly returns "traces" of x with each bit randomly deleted with some probability p, how many traces are needed to recover x? There is an exponential gap between the best known upper and lower bounds for this problem. Many variants of the model have been introduced in hopes of motivating or revealing new approaches to narrow this gap. We study the variant of circular trace reconstruction introduced by Narayanan and Ren (ITCS 2021), in which traces undergo a random cyclic shift in addition to random deletions. We show an improved lower bound of Ω̃(n⁵) for circular trace reconstruction. This contrasts with the (previously) best known lower bounds of Ω̃(n³) in the circular case and Ω̃(n^{3/2}) in the linear case. Our bound shows the indistinguishability of traces from two sparse strings x,y that each have a constant number of nonzeros. Can this technique be extended significantly? How hard is it to reconstruct a sparse string x under a cyclic deletion channel? We resolve these questions by showing, using Fourier techniques, that Õ(n⁶) traces suffice for reconstructing any constant-sparse string in a circular deletion channel, in contrast to the best known upper bound of exp(Õ(n^{1/3})) for general strings in the circular deletion channel. This shows that new algorithms or new lower bounds must focus on non-constant-sparse strings.

Cite as

Arnav Burudgunte, Paul Valiant, and Hongao Wang. New Bounds for Circular Trace Reconstruction. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 30:1-30:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{burudgunte_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.30,
  author =	{Burudgunte, Arnav and Valiant, Paul and Wang, Hongao},
  title =	{{New Bounds for Circular Trace Reconstruction}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253176},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Trace reconstruction, algorithmic statistics, Fourier analysis}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.89

On Solving Asymmetric Diagonally Dominant Linear Systems in Sublinear Time

Authors: Tsz Chiu Kwok, Zhewei Wei, and Mingji Yang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

We initiate a study of solving a row/column diagonally dominant (RDD/CDD) linear system 𝐌x = b in sublinear time, with the goal of estimating t^{⊤}x^{∗} for a given vector t ∈ ℝⁿ and a specific solution x^{∗}. This setting naturally generalizes the study of sublinear-time solvers for symmetric diagonally dominant (SDD) systems [Andoni-Krauthgamer-Pogrow, ITCS 2019] to the asymmetric case, which has remained underexplored despite extensive work on nearly-linear-time solvers for RDD/CDD systems. Our first contributions are characterizations of the problem’s mathematical structure. We express a solution x^{∗} via a Neumann series, prove its convergence, and upper bound the truncation error on this series through a novel quantity of 𝐌, termed the maximum p-norm gap. This quantity generalizes the spectral gap of symmetric matrices and captures how the structure of 𝐌 governs the problem’s computational difficulty. For systems with bounded maximum p-norm gap, we develop a collection of algorithmic results for locally approximating t^{⊤}x^{∗} under various scenarios and error measures. We derive these results by adapting the techniques of random-walk sampling, local push, and their bidirectional combination, which have proved powerful for special cases of solving RDD/CDD systems, particularly estimating PageRank and effective resistance on graphs. Our general framework yields deeper insights, extended results, and improved complexity bounds for these problems. Notably, our perspective provides a unified understanding of Forward Push and Backward Push, two fundamental approaches for estimating random-walk probabilities on graphs. Our framework also inherits the hardness results for sublinear-time SDD solvers and local PageRank computation, establishing lower bounds on the maximum p-norm gap or the accuracy parameter. We hope that our work opens the door for further study into sublinear solvers, local graph algorithms, and directed spectral graph theory.

Cite as

Tsz Chiu Kwok, Zhewei Wei, and Mingji Yang. On Solving Asymmetric Diagonally Dominant Linear Systems in Sublinear Time. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 89:1-89:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{kwok_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.89,
  author =	{Kwok, Tsz Chiu and Wei, Zhewei and Yang, Mingji},
  title =	{{On Solving Asymmetric Diagonally Dominant Linear Systems in Sublinear Time}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{89:1--89:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.89},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253768},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.89},
  annote =	{Keywords: Spectral Graph Theory, Linear Systems, Sublinear Algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.92

A Combinatorial Characterization of Constant Mixing Time

Authors: Lap Chi Lau and Raymond Liu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

Classical spectral graph theory characterizes graphs with logarithmic mixing time. In this work, we present a combinatorial characterization of graphs with constant mixing time. The combinatorial characterization is based on the small-set bipartite density condition, which is weaker than having near-optimal spectral radius and is stronger than having near-optimal small-set vertex expansion.

Cite as

Lap Chi Lau and Raymond Liu. A Combinatorial Characterization of Constant Mixing Time. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 92:1-92:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{lau_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.92,
  author =	{Lau, Lap Chi and Liu, Raymond},
  title =	{{A Combinatorial Characterization of Constant Mixing Time}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{92:1--92:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.92},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253792},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.92},
  annote =	{Keywords: Random walks, mixing time, bipartite density, spectral graph theory}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.55

Universally Optimal Streaming Algorithm for Random Walks in Dense Graphs

Authors: Klim Efremenko, Gillat Kol, Raghuvansh R. Saxena, and Zhijun Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

Sampling a random walk is a fundamental primitive in many graph applications. In the streaming model, it is known that sampling an L-step random walk on an n-vertex directed graph requires Ω(n L) space, implying that no sublinear-space streaming algorithm exists for general graphs. We show that sublinear algorithms are possible for the case of dense graphs, where every vertex has out-degree at least Ω(n). In particular, we give a one-pass turnstile streaming algorithm that uses only 𝒪̃(L) memory for such graphs. More broadly, for graphs with minimum out-degree at least d, our streaming algorithm samples a random walk using 𝒪̃(n/d ⋅ L) memory. We show that our algorithm is optimal in a strong "beyond worst-case" sense. To formalize this, we introduce the notion of universal optimality for graph streaming algorithms. Informally, a streaming algorithm is universally optimal if it performs (almost) as well as possible on every graph, assuming a worst-case choice of the streaming order. This notion of universal optimality is a key conceptual contribution of our work.

Cite as

Klim Efremenko, Gillat Kol, Raghuvansh R. Saxena, and Zhijun Zhang. Universally Optimal Streaming Algorithm for Random Walks in Dense Graphs. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 55:1-55:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{efremenko_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.55,
  author =	{Efremenko, Klim and Kol, Gillat and Saxena, Raghuvansh R. and Zhang, Zhijun},
  title =	{{Universally Optimal Streaming Algorithm for Random Walks in Dense Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{55:1--55:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.55},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253423},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.55},
  annote =	{Keywords: Random Walk, streaming Algorithm, universal Optimality}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.59

On Approximating the f-Divergence Between Two Ising Models

Authors: Weiming Feng and Yucheng Fu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

The f-divergence is a fundamental notion that measures the difference between two distributions. In this paper, we study the problem of approximating the f-divergence between two Ising models, which is a generalization of recent work on approximating the TV-distance. Given two Ising models ν and μ, which are specified by their interaction matrices and external fields, the problem is to approximate the f-divergence D_f (ν ‖ μ) within an arbitrary relative error e^{±ε}. For χ^α-divergence with a constant integer α, we establish both algorithmic and hardness results. The algorithm works in a parameter regime that matches the hardness result. Our algorithm can be extended to other f-divergences such as α-divergence, Kullback-Leibler divergence, Rényi divergence, Jensen-Shannon divergence, and squared Hellinger distance.

Cite as

Weiming Feng and Yucheng Fu. On Approximating the f-Divergence Between Two Ising Models. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 59:1-59:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{feng_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.59,
  author =	{Feng, Weiming and Fu, Yucheng},
  title =	{{On Approximating the f-Divergence Between Two Ising Models}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{59:1--59:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.59},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253469},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.59},
  annote =	{Keywords: Ising model, f-divergence, approximation algorithms, randomized algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.85

Recovering Communities in Structured Random Graphs

Authors: Michael Kapralov, Luca Trevisan, and Weronika Wrzos-Kaminska

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

The problem of recovering planted community structure in random graphs has received a lot of attention in the literature on the stochastic block model, where the input is a random graph in which edges crossing between different communities appear with smaller probability than edges induced by communities. The communities themselves form a collection of vertex-disjoint sparse cuts in the expected graph, and can be recovered, often exactly, from a sample as long as a separation condition on the intra- and inter-community edge probabilities is satisfied. In this paper, we ask whether the presence of a large number of overlapping sparsest cuts in the expected graph still allows recovery. For example, the d-dimensional hypercube graph admits d distinct (balanced) sparsest cuts, one for every coordinate. Can these cuts be identified given a random sample of the edges of the hypercube where each edge is present independently with some probability p ∈ (0, 1)? We show that this is the case, in a very strong sense: the sparsest balanced cut in a sample of the hypercube at rate p = Clog d/d for a sufficiently large constant C is 1/poly(d)-close to a coordinate cut with high probability. This is asymptotically optimal and allows approximate recovery of all d cuts simultaneously. Furthermore, for an appropriate sample of hypercube-like graphs recovery can be made exact. The proof is essentially a strong hypercube cut sparsification bound that combines a theorem of Friedgut, Kalai and Naor on boolean functions whose Fourier transform concentrates on the first level of the Fourier spectrum with Karger’s cut counting argument.

Cite as

Michael Kapralov, Luca Trevisan, and Weronika Wrzos-Kaminska. Recovering Communities in Structured Random Graphs. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 85:1-85:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{kapralov_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.85,
  author =	{Kapralov, Michael and Trevisan, Luca and Wrzos-Kaminska, Weronika},
  title =	{{Recovering Communities in Structured Random Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{85:1--85:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.85},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253727},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.85},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hypercube graphs, Community detection, Fourier analysis of Boolean functions}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30

Byzantine-Tolerant Phase Clock

Authors: Costas Busch, Paweł Garncarek, and Dariusz R. Kowalski

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 361, 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025)

Abstract

A phase clock is a basic synchronization mechanism that keeps distributed nodes closely synchronized to execute the same phase of a distributed algorithm. A phase clock is typically implemented with a local logical counter that keeps track of the current phase count. Phase clocks are particularly useful in population protocols for implementing leader election and majority selection. We study phase clocks that tolerate Byzantine faults. We show that there is a phase clock that tolerates up to f < n/3 faulty nodes, where n is the number of nodes, such that the gap of the local counter values is O(n²log n). The gap can be further lowered to O(log n) when f ≤ n/8. We also show that if f > n/3, then the gap grows to infinity as time increases. While analyzing phase clock we introduce novel techniques and bounds for balls into bins processes, which might be of independent interest. Using the phase clock, we obtain a majority selection population protocol that tolerates up to f faults and decides on the majority value in O(log² n) parallel time using poly-log states per node.

Cite as

Costas Busch, Paweł Garncarek, and Dariusz R. Kowalski. Byzantine-Tolerant Phase Clock. In 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 361, pp. 30:1-30:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{busch_et_al:LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30,
  author =	{Busch, Costas and Garncarek, Pawe{\l} and Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  title =	{{Byzantine-Tolerant Phase Clock}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-409-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{361},
  editor =	{Arusoaie, Andrei and Onica, Emanuel and Spear, Michael and Tucci-Piergiovanni, Sara},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252036},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: phase clock, Byzantine nodes, population protocols, balls into bins}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.42

Degrees of Second and Higher-Order Polynomials

Authors: Donghyun Lim and Martin Ziegler

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)

Abstract

Second-order polynomials generalize classical (=first-order) ones in allowing for additional variables that range over functions rather than values. We are motivated by their applications in higher-order computational complexity theory, extending for instance discrete classes (like P/FP or PSPACE/FPSPACE) to operators in Analysis [http://doi.org/10.1137/S0097539794263452], [http://doi.org/10.1145/2189778.2189780]. The degree subclassifies ordinary polynomial growth into linear, quadratic, cubic, etc. To similarly classify second-order polynomials, we (well-)define their degree by structural induction as an "arctic" first-order polynomial: a term/expression over integer variable D and operations + and ⋅ and binary max(). This generalized degree turns out to transform nicely under (now two kinds of) polynomial composition. As examples, we collect and determine the degrees of previous and new asymptotic analyses of algorithms and operators receiving function/oracle arguments. Then we motivate and introduce third-order polynomials and their degrees as arctic second-order polynomials, along with their transformations under three kinds of composition. Proceeding to fourth order and beyond yields a hierarchy, with characterization in Simply Typed Lambda Calculus.

Cite as

Donghyun Lim and Martin Ziegler. Degrees of Second and Higher-Order Polynomials. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 42:1-42:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{lim_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.42,
  author =	{Lim, Donghyun and Ziegler, Martin},
  title =	{{Degrees of Second and Higher-Order Polynomials}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{42:1--42:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.42},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251225},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.42},
  annote =	{Keywords: Logic in Computer Science, Higher Order Program Analysis, Asymptotic Type Theory}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.17

Cutoff for the Swendsen–Wang Dynamics on the Complete Graph

Authors: Antonio Blanca and Zhezheng Song

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)

Abstract

We study the speed of convergence of the Swendsen-Wang (SW) dynamics for the q-state ferromagnetic Potts model on the n-vertex complete graph, known as the mean-field model. The SW dynamics was introduced as an attractive alternative to the local Glauber dynamics, often offering faster convergence rates to stationarity in a variety of settings. A series of works have characterized the asymptotic behavior of the speed of convergence of the mean-field SW dynamics for all q ≥ 2 and all values of the inverse temperature parameter β > 0. In particular, it is known that when β > q the mixing time of the SW dynamics is Θ(log n). We strengthen this result by showing that for all β > q, there exists a constant c(β,q) > 0 such that the mixing time of the SW dynamics is c(β,q) log n + Θ(1). This implies that the mean-field SW dynamics exhibits the cutoff phenomenon in this temperature regime, demonstrating that this Markov chain undergoes a sharp transition from "far from stationarity" to "well-mixed" within a narrow Θ(1) time window. The presence of cutoff is algorithmically significant, as simulating the chain for fewer steps than its mixing time could lead to highly biased samples.

Cite as

Antonio Blanca and Zhezheng Song. Cutoff for the Swendsen–Wang Dynamics on the Complete Graph. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 17:1-17:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{blanca_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.17,
  author =	{Blanca, Antonio and Song, Zhezheng},
  title =	{{Cutoff for the Swendsen–Wang Dynamics on the Complete Graph}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-250987},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Markov chains, mixing times, cutoff phenomenon, Potts model, mean-field}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.103

On the Satisfiability of Random 3-SAT Formulas with k-Wise Independent Clauses

Authors: Ioannis Caragiannis, Nick Gravin, and Zhile Jiang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract

The problem of identifying the satisfiability threshold of random 3-SAT formulas has received a lot of attention during the last decades and has inspired the study of other threshold phenomena in random combinatorial structures. The classical assumption in this line of research is that, for a given set of n Boolean variables, each clause is drawn uniformly at random among all sets of three literals from these variables, independently from other clauses. Here, we keep the uniform distribution of each clause, but deviate significantly from the independence assumption and consider richer families of probability distributions. For integer parameters n, m, and k, we denote by ℱ_k(n,m) the family of probability distributions that produce formulas with m clauses, each selected uniformly at random from all sets of three literals from the n variables, so that the clauses are k-wise independent. Our aim is to make general statements about the satisfiability or unsatisfiability of formulas produced by distributions in ℱ_k(n,m) for different values of the parameters n, m, and k. Our technical results are as follows: First, all probability distributions in ℱ₂(n,m) with m ∈ Ω(n³) return unsatisfiable formulas with high probability. This result is tight. We show that there exists a probability distribution 𝒟 ∈ ℱ₃(n,m) with m ∈ O(n³) so that a random formula drawn from 𝒟 is almost always satisfiable. In contrast, for m ∈ Ω(n²), any probability distribution 𝒟 ∈ ℱ₄(n,m) returns an unsatisfiable formula with high probability. This is our most surprising and technically involved result. Finally, for any integer k ≥ 2, any probability distribution 𝒟 ∈ ℱ_k(n,m) with m ∈ O(n^{1-1/k}) returns a satisfiable formula with high probability.

Cite as

Ioannis Caragiannis, Nick Gravin, and Zhile Jiang. On the Satisfiability of Random 3-SAT Formulas with k-Wise Independent Clauses. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 103:1-103:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{caragiannis_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.103,
  author =	{Caragiannis, Ioannis and Gravin, Nick and Jiang, Zhile},
  title =	{{On the Satisfiability of Random 3-SAT Formulas with k-Wise Independent Clauses}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{103:1--103:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.103},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245721},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.103},
  annote =	{Keywords: Random 3-SAT, k-wise independence, Random bipartite graph}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115

Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems

Authors: Christian Coester and Jack Umenberger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract

We study three classical online problems - k-server, k-taxi, and chasing size k sets - through a lens of smoothed analysis. Our setting allows request locations to be adversarial up to small perturbations, interpolating between worst-case and average-case models. Specifically, we show that if the metric space is contained in a ball in any normed space and requests are drawn from distributions whose density functions are upper bounded by 1/σ times the uniform density over the ball, then all three problems admit polylog(k/σ)-competitive algorithms. Our approach is simple: it reduces smoothed instances to fully adversarial instances on finite metrics and leverages existing algorithms in a black-box manner. We also provide a lower bound showing that no algorithm can achieve a competitive ratio sub-polylogarithmic in k/σ, matching our upper bounds up to the exponent of the polylogarithm. In contrast, the best known competitive ratios for these problems in the fully adversarial setting are 2k-1, ∞ and Θ(k²), respectively.

Cite as

Christian Coester and Jack Umenberger. Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 115:1-115:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{coester_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115,
  author =	{Coester, Christian and Umenberger, Jack},
  title =	{{Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{115:1--115:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245847},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115},
  annote =	{Keywords: Online Algorithms, Competitive Analysis, Smoothed Analysis, k-server, k-taxi, Metrical Service Systems}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.85

A Simple yet Exact Analysis of the MultiQueue

Authors: Stefan Walzer and Marvin Williams

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract

The MultiQueue is a relaxed concurrent priority queue consisting of n internal priority queues, where an insertion uses a random queue and a deletion considers two random queues and deletes the minimum from the one with the smaller minimum. The rank error of the deletion is the number of smaller elements in the MultiQueue. Alistarh et al. [Alistarh et al., 2017] have demonstrated in a sophisticated potential argument that the expected rank error remains bounded by 𝒪(n) over long sequences of deletions. In this paper we present a simpler analysis by identifying the stable distribution of an underlying Markov chain and with it the long-term distribution of the rank error exactly. Simple calculations then reveal the expected long-term rank error to be (5/6)n-1+1/(6n). Our arguments generalize to deletion schemes where the probability to delete from a given queue depends only on the rank of the queue. Specifically, this includes deleting from the best of c randomly selected queues for any c > 1.

Cite as

Stefan Walzer and Marvin Williams. A Simple yet Exact Analysis of the MultiQueue. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 85:1-85:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{walzer_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.85,
  author =	{Walzer, Stefan and Williams, Marvin},
  title =	{{A Simple yet Exact Analysis of the MultiQueue}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{85:1--85:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.85},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245533},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.85},
  annote =	{Keywords: MultiQueue, concurrent data structure, stochastic process, Markov chain}
}

Document

RANDOM

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.47

Time Lower Bounds for the Metropolis Process and Simulated Annealing

Authors: Zongchen Chen, Dan Mikulincer, Daniel Reichman, and Alexander S. Wein

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract

The Metropolis process (MP) and Simulated Annealing (SA) are stochastic local search heuristics that are often used in solving combinatorial optimization problems. Despite significant interest, there are very few theoretical results regarding the quality of approximation obtained by MP and SA (with polynomially many iterations) for NP-hard optimization problems. We provide rigorous lower bounds for MP and SA with respect to the classical maximum independent set problem when the algorithms are initialized from the empty set. We establish the existence of a family of graphs for which both MP and SA fail to find approximate solutions in polynomial time. More specifically, we show that for any ε ∈ (0,1) there are n-vertex graphs for which the probability SA (when limited to polynomially many iterations) will approximate the optimal solution within ratio Ω(1/n^{1-ε}) is exponentially small. Our lower bounds extend to graphs of constant average degree d, illustrating the failure of MP to achieve an approximation ratio of Ω(log(d)/d) in polynomial time. In some cases, our lower bounds apply even when the temperature is chosen adaptively. Finally, we prove exponential-time lower bounds when the inputs to these algorithms are bipartite graphs, and even trees, which are known to admit polynomial-time algorithms for the independent set problem.

Cite as

Zongchen Chen, Dan Mikulincer, Daniel Reichman, and Alexander S. Wein. Time Lower Bounds for the Metropolis Process and Simulated Annealing. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 47:1-47:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.47,
  author =	{Chen, Zongchen and Mikulincer, Dan and Reichman, Daniel and Wein, Alexander S.},
  title =	{{Time Lower Bounds for the Metropolis Process and Simulated Annealing}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{47:1--47:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.47},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244138},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.47},
  annote =	{Keywords: Metropolis Process, Simulated Annealing, Independent Set}
}

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