20 Search Results for "Skutella, Martin"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.34
On the Approximability of Train Routing and the Min-Max Disjoint Paths Problem

Authors: Umang Bhaskar, Katharina Eickhoff, Lennart Kauther, Jannik Matuschke, Britta Peis, and Laura Vargas Koch

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

Abstract
In train routing, the headway is the minimum distance that must be maintained between successive trains for safety and robustness. We introduce a model for train routing that requires a fixed headway to be maintained between trains, and study the problem of minimizing the makespan, i.e., the arrival time of the last train, in a single-source single-sink network. For this problem, we first show that there exists an optimal solution where trains move in convoys - that is, the optimal paths for any two trains are either the same or are arc-disjoint. Via this insight, we are able to reduce the approximability of our train routing problem to that of the min-max disjoint paths problem, which asks for a collection of disjoint paths where the maximum length of any path in the collection is as small as possible. While min-max disjoint paths inherits a strong inapproximability result on directed acyclic graphs from the multi-level bottleneck assignment problem, we show that a natural greedy composition approach yields a logarithmic approximation in the number of disjoint paths for series-parallel graphs. We also present an alternative analysis of this approach that yields a guarantee depending on how often the decomposition tree of the series-parallel graph alternates between series and parallel compositions on any root-leaf path.
Cite as

Umang Bhaskar, Katharina Eickhoff, Lennart Kauther, Jannik Matuschke, Britta Peis, and Laura Vargas Koch. On the Approximability of Train Routing and the Min-Max Disjoint Paths Problem. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 34:1-34:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bhaskar_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.34,
  author =	{Bhaskar, Umang and Eickhoff, Katharina and Kauther, Lennart and Matuschke, Jannik and Peis, Britta and Vargas Koch, Laura},
  title =	{{On the Approximability of Train Routing and the Min-Max Disjoint Paths Problem}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{34:1--34:15},
  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.2025.34},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245029},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.34},
  annote =	{Keywords: Train Routing, Scheduling, Approximation Algorithms, Flows over Time, Min-Max Disjoint Paths}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.27
Online Makespan Scheduling Under Scenarios

Authors: Ekin Ergen

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

Abstract
We consider a natural extension of online makespan scheduling on identical parallel machines by introducing scenarios. A scenario is a subset of jobs, and the task of our problem is to find a global assignment of the jobs to machines so that the maximum makespan under a scenario, i.e., the maximum makespan of any schedule restricted to a scenario, is minimized. For varying values of the number of scenarios and machines, we explore the competitiveness of online algorithms. We prove tight and near-tight bounds, several of which are achieved through novel constructions. In particular, we leverage the interplay between the unit processing time case of our problem and the hypergraph coloring problem both ways: We use hypergraph coloring techniques to steer an adversarial family of instances proving lower bounds for our problem, which in turn leads to lower bounds for several variants of online hypergraph coloring.
Cite as

Ekin Ergen. Online Makespan Scheduling Under Scenarios. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 27:1-27:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{ergen:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.27,
  author =	{Ergen, Ekin},
  title =	{{Online Makespan Scheduling Under Scenarios}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:16},
  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.2025.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244950},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: online scheduling, scenario-based model, online algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.111
Hardness of Median and Center in the Ulam Metric

Authors: Nick Fischer, Elazar Goldenberg, Mursalin Habib, and Karthik C. S.

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

Abstract
The classical rank aggregation problem seeks to combine a set X of n permutations into a single representative "consensus" permutation. In this paper, we investigate two fundamental rank aggregation tasks under the well-studied Ulam metric: computing a median permutation (which minimizes the sum of Ulam distances to X) and computing a center permutation (which minimizes the maximum Ulam distance to X) in two settings. - Continuous Setting: In the continuous setting, the median/center is allowed to be any permutation. It is known that computing a center in the Ulam metric is NP-hard and we add to this by showing that computing a median is NP-hard as well via a simple reduction from the Max-Cut problem. While this result may not be unexpected, it had remained elusive until now and confirms a speculation by Chakraborty, Das, and Krauthgamer [SODA '21]. - Discrete Setting: In the discrete setting, the median/center must be a permutation from the input set. We fully resolve the fine-grained complexity of the discrete median and discrete center problems under the Ulam metric, proving that the naive Õ(n² L)-time algorithm (where L is the length of the permutation) is conditionally optimal. This resolves an open problem raised by Abboud, Bateni, Cohen-Addad, Karthik C. S., and Seddighin [APPROX '23]. Our reductions are inspired by the known fine-grained lower bounds for similarity measures, but we face and overcome several new highly technical challenges.
Cite as

Nick Fischer, Elazar Goldenberg, Mursalin Habib, and Karthik C. S.. Hardness of Median and Center in the Ulam Metric. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 111:1-111:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{fischer_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.111,
  author =	{Fischer, Nick and Goldenberg, Elazar and Habib, Mursalin and Karthik C. S.},
  title =	{{Hardness of Median and Center in the Ulam Metric}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{111:1--111:17},
  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.2025.111},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245809},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.111},
  annote =	{Keywords: Ulam distance, median, center, rank aggregation, fine-grained complexity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.112
A Faster Parametric Search for the Integral Quickest Transshipment Problem

Authors: Mariia Anapolska, Dario van den Boom, Christina Büsing, and Timo Gersing

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

Abstract
Algorithms for computing fractional solutions to the quickest transshipment problem have been significantly improved since Hoppe and Tardos first solved the problem in strongly polynomial time. For integral solutions, however, no structural improvements on their algorithm itself have yet been proposed. Runtime improvements are limited to general progress on submodular function minimization (SFM), which is an integral part of Hoppe and Tardos' algorithm. In fact, SFM constitutes the main computational load of the algorithm, as the runtime is blown up by using it within Megiddo’s parametric search algorithm. We replace this part of Hoppe and Tardos' algorithm with a more efficient routine that solves only a linear number of SFM and, in contrast to previous techniques, exclusively uses minimum cost flow algorithms within Megiddo’s parametric search. Our approach improves the state-of-the-art runtime from 𝒪̃(m⁴ k^15) down to 𝒪̃(m²k⁵ + m⁴ k²), where k is the number of terminals and m is the number of arcs.
Cite as

Mariia Anapolska, Dario van den Boom, Christina Büsing, and Timo Gersing. A Faster Parametric Search for the Integral Quickest Transshipment Problem. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 112:1-112:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{anapolska_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.112,
  author =	{Anapolska, Mariia and van den Boom, Dario and B\"{u}sing, Christina and Gersing, Timo},
  title =	{{A Faster Parametric Search for the Integral Quickest Transshipment Problem}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{112:1--112:15},
  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.2025.112},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245817},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.112},
  annote =	{Keywords: Flow over time, dynamic transshipment, quickest transshipment, parametric submodular functions, efficient algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.25
An Efficient Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme for Minimizing the Total Weighted Completion Time on Uniformly Related Machines

Authors: Leah Epstein and Asaf Levin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 349, 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)

Abstract
We study a classic scheduling problem on uniformly related machines for which we show an efficient polynomial time approximation scheme (EPTAS), where an EPTAS is a fast and practical approximation scheme. For a desired approximation ratio of 1+ε for ε > 0, the running time of an EPTAS is a function of ε multiplied by a polynomial function of the input length. New methods and techniques are essential in developing such improved approximation schemes, and their design is a primary goal of this research agenda. We present an EPTAS for the scheduling problem of a set of jobs on uniformly related machines so as to minimize the total weighted completion time. The problem is NP-hard in the strong sense, and therefore an EPTAS is the best possible approximation scheme for the problem, unless P=NP. Prior to our work, only a PTAS was known for the problem, while an EPTAS was known only for the special case of identical machines.
Cite as

Leah Epstein and Asaf Levin. An Efficient Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme for Minimizing the Total Weighted Completion Time on Uniformly Related Machines. In 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 349, pp. 25:1-25:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{epstein_et_al:LIPIcs.WADS.2025.25,
  author =	{Epstein, Leah and Levin, Asaf},
  title =	{{An Efficient Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme for Minimizing the Total Weighted Completion Time on Uniformly Related Machines}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)},
  pages =	{25:1--25:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-398-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{349},
  editor =	{Morin, Pat and Oh, Eunjin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.25},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242564},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.25},
  annote =	{Keywords: Scheduling algorithms, Approximation schemes, Min-sum objective}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.31
Repairing Schedules by Removing Waiting Times: A Parameterized Complexity Analysis

Authors: Niels Grüttemeier and Klaus Heeger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 349, 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)

Abstract
We consider the problem of repairing production schedules in a job-shop setting by reducing pre-planned waiting times. Herein, a schedule of all jobs is given. To compensate unforeseen disturbances, this schedule contains waiting times between the execution of two consecutive tasks of a job. Further, we assume that the schedule temporarily overloads some machines, e.g. due to reduced machine capacities because of worker sickness or (partially) broken machines. We study the problem of removing as few waiting times as possible in order to eliminate the machine overloads. After formalizing this problem, we perform an extensive analysis of its parameterized complexity with respect to several natural parameters, resulting in a detailed picture of the problem’s complexity.
Cite as

Niels Grüttemeier and Klaus Heeger. Repairing Schedules by Removing Waiting Times: A Parameterized Complexity Analysis. In 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 349, pp. 31:1-31:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{gruttemeier_et_al:LIPIcs.WADS.2025.31,
  author =	{Gr\"{u}ttemeier, Niels and Heeger, Klaus},
  title =	{{Repairing Schedules by Removing Waiting Times: A Parameterized Complexity Analysis}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)},
  pages =	{31:1--31:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-398-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{349},
  editor =	{Morin, Pat and Oh, Eunjin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.31},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242624},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.31},
  annote =	{Keywords: Job shop, parallel machines, reactive scheduling}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.44
An EPTAS for Minimizing the Total Weighted Completion Time of Jobs with Release Dates on Uniformly Related Machines

Authors: Leah Epstein and Asaf Levin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)

Abstract
Scheduling of independent jobs with release dates so as to minimize the total weighted completion time is a well-known scheduling problem. Here, we study it for the classic machine environment of uniformly related machines. An efficient polynomial time approximation scheme (an EPTAS) is a family of (1+ε)-approximation algorithms where the running time is bounded by a polynomial in the input size times a function of ε > 0. For problems that are NP-hard in the strong sense, as it is the case for the problem studied here, an EPTAS is the best possible approximation scheme. We design an EPTAS for the problem by employing known techniques and introducing a large collection of new methods.
Cite as

Leah Epstein and Asaf Levin. An EPTAS for Minimizing the Total Weighted Completion Time of Jobs with Release Dates on Uniformly Related Machines. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 44:1-44:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{epstein_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.44,
  author =	{Epstein, Leah and Levin, Asaf},
  title =	{{An EPTAS for Minimizing the Total Weighted Completion Time of Jobs with Release Dates on Uniformly Related Machines}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{44:1--44:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.44},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-241515},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.44},
  annote =	{Keywords: Scheduling algorithms, Approximation schemes, Min-sum objectives}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.32
Light Edge Fault Tolerant Graph Spanners

Authors: Greg Bodwin, Michael Dinitz, Ama Koranteng, and Lily Wang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
There has recently been significant interest in fault tolerant spanners, which are spanners that still maintain their stretch guarantees after some nodes or edges fail. This work has culminated in an almost complete understanding of the three-way tradeoff between stretch, sparsity, and number of faults tolerated. However, despite some progress in metric settings, there have been no results to date on the tradeoff in general graphs between stretch, lightness, and number of faults tolerated. We initiate the study of light edge fault tolerant (EFT) graph spanners, obtaining the first such results. First, we observe that lightness can be unbounded if we use the traditional definition (normalizing by the MST). We then argue that a natural definition of fault-tolerant lightness is to instead normalize by a min-weight fault tolerant connectivity preserver; essentially, a fault-tolerant version of the MST. However, even with this, we show that it is still not generally possible to construct f-EFT spanners whose weight compares reasonably to the weight of a min-weight f-EFT connectivity preserver. In light of this lower bound, it is natural to then consider bicriteria notions of lightness, where we compare the weight of an f-EFT spanner to a min-weight (f' > f)-EFT connectivity preserver. The most interesting question is to determine the minimum value of f' that allows for reasonable lightness upper bounds. Our main result is a precise answer to this question: f' = 2f. In particular, we show that the lightness can be untenably large (roughly n/k for a k-spanner) if one normalizes by the min-weight (2f-1)-EFT connectivity preserver. But if one normalizes by the min-weight 2f-EFT connectivity preserver, then we show that the lightness is bounded by just O(f^{1/2}) times the non-fault tolerant lightness (roughly n^{1/k} for a (1+ε)(2k-1)-spanner).
Cite as

Greg Bodwin, Michael Dinitz, Ama Koranteng, and Lily Wang. Light Edge Fault Tolerant Graph Spanners. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 32:1-32:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bodwin_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.32,
  author =	{Bodwin, Greg and Dinitz, Michael and Koranteng, Ama and Wang, Lily},
  title =	{{Light Edge Fault Tolerant Graph Spanners}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{32:1--32:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.32},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234093},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.32},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fault Tolerant Spanners, Light Spanners}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.8
Identifying Approximate Minimizers Under Stochastic Uncertainity

Authors: Hessa Al-Thani and Viswanath Nagarajan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
We study a fundamental stochastic selection problem involving n independent random variables, each of which can be queried at some cost. Given a tolerance level δ, the goal is to find a δ-approximately minimum (or maximum) value over all the random variables, at minimum expected cost. A solution to this problem is an adaptive sequence of queries, where the choice of the next query may depend on previously-observed values. Two variants arise, depending on whether the goal is to find a δ-minimum value or a δ-minimizer. When all query costs are uniform, we provide a 4-approximation algorithm for both variants. When query costs are non-uniform, we provide a 5.83-approximation algorithm for the δ-minimum value and a 7.47-approximation for the δ-minimizer. All our algorithms rely on non-adaptive policies (that perform a fixed sequence of queries), so we also upper bound the corresponding "adaptivity" gaps. Our analysis relates the stopping probabilities in the algorithm and optimal policies, where a key step is in proving and using certain stochastic dominance properties.
Cite as

Hessa Al-Thani and Viswanath Nagarajan. Identifying Approximate Minimizers Under Stochastic Uncertainity. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 8:1-8:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{althani_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.8,
  author =	{Al-Thani, Hessa and Nagarajan, Viswanath},
  title =	{{Identifying Approximate Minimizers Under Stochastic Uncertainity}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233854},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation algorithms, stochastic optimization, selection problem}
}
Document
Track B: Automata, Logic, Semantics, and Theory of Programming
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.145
Reducing Stochastic Games to Semidefinite Programming

Authors: Manuel Bodirsky, Georg Loho, and Mateusz Skomra

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
We present a polynomial-time reduction from max-average constraints to the feasibility problem for semidefinite programs. This shows that Condon’s simple stochastic games, stochastic mean payoff games, and in particular mean payoff games and parity games can all be reduced to semidefinite programming.
Cite as

Manuel Bodirsky, Georg Loho, and Mateusz Skomra. Reducing Stochastic Games to Semidefinite Programming. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 145:1-145:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bodirsky_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.145,
  author =	{Bodirsky, Manuel and Loho, Georg and Skomra, Mateusz},
  title =	{{Reducing Stochastic Games to Semidefinite Programming}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{145:1--145:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.145},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-235224},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.145},
  annote =	{Keywords: Mean-payoff games, stochastic games, semidefinite programming, max-average constraints, max-atom problem}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.74
Sublinear Metric Steiner Tree via Improved Bounds for Set Cover

Authors: Sepideh Mahabadi, Mohammad Roghani, Jakub Tarnawski, and Ali Vakilian

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract
We study the metric Steiner tree problem in the sublinear query model. In this problem, for a set of n points V in a metric space given to us by means of query access to an n× n matrix w, and a set of terminals T ⊆ V, the goal is to find the minimum-weight subset of the edges that connects all the terminal vertices. Recently, Chen, Khanna and Tan [SODA'23] gave an algorithm that uses Õ(n^{13/7}) queries and outputs a (2-η)-estimate of the metric Steiner tree weight, where η > 0 is a universal constant. A key component in their algorithm is a sublinear algorithm for a particular set cover problem where, given a set system (𝒰, ℱ), the goal is to provide a multiplicative-additive estimate for |𝒰|-SC(𝒰, ℱ). Here 𝒰 is the set of elements, ℱ is the collection of sets, and SC(𝒰, ℱ) denotes the optimal set cover size of (𝒰, ℱ). In particular, their algorithm returns a (1/4, ε⋅|𝒰|)-multiplicative-additive estimate for this set cover problem using Õ(|ℱ|^{7/4}) membership oracle queries (querying whether a set S ∈ 𝒮 contains an element e ∈ 𝒰), where ε is a fixed constant. In this work, we improve the query complexity of (2-η)-estimating the metric Steiner tree weight to Õ(n^{5/3}) by showing a (1/2, ε⋅|𝒰|)-estimate for the above set cover problem using Õ(|ℱ|^{5/3}) membership queries. To design our set cover algorithm, we estimate the size of a random greedy maximal matching for an auxiliary multigraph that the algorithm constructs implicitly, without access to its adjacency list or matrix. Previous analyses of random greedy maximal matching have focused on simple graphs, assuming access to their adjacency list or matrix. To address this, we extend the analysis of Behnezhad [FOCS'21] of random greedy maximal matching on simple graphs to multigraphs, and prove additional properties that may be of independent interest.
Cite as

Sepideh Mahabadi, Mohammad Roghani, Jakub Tarnawski, and Ali Vakilian. Sublinear Metric Steiner Tree via Improved Bounds for Set Cover. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 74:1-74:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{mahabadi_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.74,
  author =	{Mahabadi, Sepideh and Roghani, Mohammad and Tarnawski, Jakub and Vakilian, Ali},
  title =	{{Sublinear Metric Steiner Tree via Improved Bounds for Set Cover}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{74:1--74:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.74},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227029},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.74},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sublinear Algorithms, Steiner Tree, Set Cover, Maximum Matching, Approximation Algorithm}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87
When to Give up on a Parallel Implementation

Authors: Nathan S. Sheffield and Alek Westover

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract
In the Serial Parallel Decision Problem (SPDP), introduced by Kuszmaul and Westover [SPAA'24], an algorithm receives a series of tasks online, and must choose for each between a serial implementation and a parallelizable (but less efficient) implementation. Kuszmaul and Westover describe three decision models: (1) Instantly-committing schedulers must decide on arrival, irrevocably, which implementation of the task to run. (2) Eventually-committing schedulers can delay their decision beyond a task’s arrival time, but cannot revoke their decision once made. (3) Never-committing schedulers are always free to abandon their progress on the task and start over using a different implementation. Kuszmaul and Westover gave a simple instantly-committing scheduler whose total completion time is 3-competitive with the offline optimal schedule, and proved two lower bounds: no eventually-committing scheduler can have competitive ratio better than ϕ ≈ 1.618 in general, and no instantly-committing scheduler can have competitive ratio better than 2 in general. They conjectured that the three decision models should admit different competitive ratios, but left upper bounds below 3 in any model as an open problem. In this paper, we show that the powers of instantly, eventually, and never committing schedulers are distinct, at least in the "massively parallel regime". The massively parallel regime of the SPDP is the special case where the number of available processors is asymptotically larger than the number of tasks to process, meaning that the work associated with running a task in serial is negligible compared to its runtime. In this regime, we show (1) The optimal competitive ratio for instantly-committing schedulers is 2, (2) The optimal competitive ratio for eventually-committing schedulers lies in [1.618, 1.678], (3) The optimal competitive ratio for never-committing schedulers lies in [1.366, 1.500]. We additionally show that our instantly-committing scheduler is also 2-competitive outside of the massively parallel regime, giving proof-of-concept that results in the massively parallel regime can be translated to hold with fewer processors.
Cite as

Nathan S. Sheffield and Alek Westover. When to Give up on a Parallel Implementation. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 87:1-87:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{sheffield_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87,
  author =	{Sheffield, Nathan S. and Westover, Alek},
  title =	{{When to Give up on a Parallel Implementation}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{87:1--87:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227154},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87},
  annote =	{Keywords: Scheduling, Multi-Processor, Online-Algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2018.12
Multi-Source Multi-Sink Nash Flows over Time

Authors: Leon Sering and Martin Skutella

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 65, 18th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2018)

Abstract
Nash flows over time describe the behavior of selfish users eager to reach their destination as early as possible while traveling along the arcs of a network with capacities and transit times. Throughout the past decade, they have been thoroughly studied in single-source single-sink networks for the deterministic queuing model, which is of particular relevance and frequently used in the context of traffic and transport networks. In this setting there exist Nash flows over time that can be described by a sequence of static flows featuring special properties, so-called `thin flows with resetting'. This insight can also be used algorithmically to compute Nash flows over time. We present an extension of these results to networks with multiple sources and sinks which are much more relevant in practical applications. In particular, we come up with a subtle generalization of thin flows with resetting, which yields a compact description as well as an algorithmic approach for computing multi-terminal Nash flows over time.
Cite as

Leon Sering and Martin Skutella. Multi-Source Multi-Sink Nash Flows over Time. In 18th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2018). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 65, pp. 12:1-12:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{sering_et_al:OASIcs.ATMOS.2018.12,
  author =	{Sering, Leon and Skutella, Martin},
  title =	{{Multi-Source Multi-Sink Nash Flows over Time}},
  booktitle =	{18th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2018)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:20},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-096-5},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{65},
  editor =	{Bornd\"{o}rfer, Ralf and Storandt, Sabine},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2018.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-97176},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2018.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Network congestion, Nash equilibrium, dynamic routing game, deterministic queuing model}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2018.43
Generalizing the Kawaguchi-Kyan Bound to Stochastic Parallel Machine Scheduling

Authors: Sven Jäger and Martin Skutella

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 96, 35th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2018)

Abstract
Minimizing the sum of weighted completion times on m identical parallel machines is one of the most important and classical scheduling problems. For the stochastic variant where processing times of jobs are random variables, Möhring, Schulz, and Uetz (1999) presented the first and still best known approximation result, achieving, for arbitrarily many machines, performance ratio 1+1/2(1+Delta), where Delta is an upper bound on the squared coefficient of variation of the processing times. We prove performance ratio 1+1/2(sqrt(2)-1)(1+Delta) for the same underlying algorithm---the Weighted Shortest Expected Processing Time (WSEPT) rule. For the special case of deterministic scheduling (i.e., Delta=0), our bound matches the tight performance ratio 1/2(1+sqrt(2)) of this algorithm (WSPT rule), derived by Kawaguchi and Kyan in a 1986 landmark paper. We present several further improvements for WSEPT's performance ratio, one of them relying on a carefully refined analysis of WSPT yielding, for every fixed number of machines m, WSPT's exact performance ratio of order 1/2(1+sqrt(2))-O(1/m^2).
Cite as

Sven Jäger and Martin Skutella. Generalizing the Kawaguchi-Kyan Bound to Stochastic Parallel Machine Scheduling. In 35th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 96, pp. 43:1-43:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{jager_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2018.43,
  author =	{J\"{a}ger, Sven and Skutella, Martin},
  title =	{{Generalizing the Kawaguchi-Kyan Bound to Stochastic Parallel Machine Scheduling}},
  booktitle =	{35th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2018)},
  pages =	{43:1--43:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-062-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{96},
  editor =	{Niedermeier, Rolf and Vall\'{e}e, Brigitte},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2018.43},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-85034},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2018.43},
  annote =	{Keywords: Stochastic Scheduling, Parallel Machines, Approximation Algorithm, List Scheduling, Weighted Shortest (Expected) Processing Time Rule}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagRep.5.10.19
Dynamic Traffic Models in Transportation Science (Dagstuhl Seminar 15412)

Authors: José R. Correa, Tobias Harks, Kai Nagel, Britta Peis, and Martin Skutella

Published in: Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 5, Issue 10 (2016)

Abstract
Traffic assignment models are crucial for traffic planners to be able to predict traffic distributions, especially, in light of possible changes of the infrastructure, e.g., road constructions, traffic light controls, etc. The starting point of the seminar was the observation that there is a trend in the transportation community (science as well as industry) to base such predictions on complex computer-based simulations that are capable of resolving many elements of a real transportation system. On the other hand, within the past few years, the theory of dynamic traffic assignments in terms of equilibrium existence and equilibrium computation has not matured to the point matching the model complexity inherent in simulations. In view of the above, this interdisciplinary seminar brought together leading scientists in the areas traffic simulations, algorithmic game theory and dynamic traffic assignment as well as people from industry with strong scientific background who identified possible ways to bridge the described gap.
Cite as

José R. Correa, Tobias Harks, Kai Nagel, Britta Peis, and Martin Skutella. Dynamic Traffic Models in Transportation Science (Dagstuhl Seminar 15412). In Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 5, Issue 10, pp. 19-34, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

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@Article{correa_et_al:DagRep.5.10.19,
  author =	{Correa, Jos\'{e} R. and Harks, Tobias and Nagel, Kai and Peis, Britta and Skutella, Martin},
  title =	{{Dynamic Traffic Models in Transportation Science (Dagstuhl Seminar 15412)}},
  pages =	{19--34},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Reports},
  ISSN =	{2192-5283},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{5},
  number =	{10},
  editor =	{Correa, Jos\'{e} R. and Harks, Tobias and Nagel, Kai and Peis, Britta and Skutella, Martin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagRep.5.10.19},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-56938},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagRep.5.10.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic traffic equilibria, Complexity of equilibrium computation, Simulation, Dynamic network flow theory, Network optimization}
}
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