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In this paper, we introduce the notion of a certified algorithm. Certified algorithms provide worst-case and beyond-worst-case performance guarantees. First, a γ-certified algorithm is also a γ-approximation algorithm - it finds a γ-approximation no matter what the input is. Second, it exactly solves γ-perturbation-resilient instances (γ-perturbation-resilient instances model real-life instances). Additionally, certified algorithms have a number of other desirable properties: they solve both maximization and minimization versions of a problem (e.g. Max Cut and Min Uncut), solve weakly perturbation-resilient instances, and solve optimization problems with hard constraints. In the paper, we define certified algorithms, describe their properties, present a framework for designing certified algorithms, provide examples of certified algorithms for Max Cut/Min Uncut, Minimum Multiway Cut, k-medians and k-means. We also present some negative results.
@InProceedings{makarychev_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.49,
author = {Makarychev, Konstantin and Makarychev, Yury},
title = {{Certified Algorithms: Worst-Case Analysis and Beyond}},
booktitle = {11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)},
pages = {49:1--49:14},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-134-4},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2020},
volume = {151},
editor = {Vidick, Thomas},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.49},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-117347},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.49},
annote = {Keywords: certified algorithm, perturbation resilience, Bilu, Linial stability, beyond-worst-case analysis, approximation algorithm, integrality}
}