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Documents authored by Barman, Siddharth

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.8
Sublinear Approximation Algorithm for Nash Social Welfare with XOS Valuations

Authors: Siddharth Barman, Anand Krishna, Pooja Kulkarni, and Shivika Narang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 287, 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)

Abstract
We study the problem of allocating indivisible goods among n agents with the objective of maximizing Nash social welfare (NSW). This welfare function is defined as the geometric mean of the agents' valuations and, hence, it strikes a balance between the extremes of social welfare (arithmetic mean) and egalitarian welfare (max-min value). Nash social welfare has been extensively studied in recent years for various valuation classes. In particular, a notable negative result is known when the agents' valuations are complement-free and are specified via value queries: for XOS valuations, one necessarily requires exponentially many value queries to find any sublinear (in n) approximation for NSW. Indeed, this lower bound implies that stronger query models are needed for finding better approximations. Towards this, we utilize demand oracles and XOS oracles; both of these query models are standard and have been used in prior work on social welfare maximization with XOS valuations. We develop the first sublinear approximation algorithm for maximizing Nash social welfare under XOS valuations, specified via demand and XOS oracles. Hence, this work breaks the O(n)-approximation barrier for NSW maximization under XOS valuations. We obtain this result by developing a novel connection between NSW and social welfare under a capped version of the agents' valuations. In addition to this insight, which might be of independent interest, this work relies on an intricate combination of multiple technical ideas, including the use of repeated matchings and the discrete moving knife method. In addition, we partially complement the algorithmic result by showing that, under XOS valuations, an exponential number of demand and XOS queries are necessarily required to approximate NSW within a factor of (1 - 1/e).
Cite as

Siddharth Barman, Anand Krishna, Pooja Kulkarni, and Shivika Narang. Sublinear Approximation Algorithm for Nash Social Welfare with XOS Valuations. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 8:1-8:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{barman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.8,
  author =	{Barman, Siddharth and Krishna, Anand and Kulkarni, Pooja and Narang, Shivika},
  title =	{{Sublinear Approximation Algorithm for Nash Social Welfare with XOS Valuations}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-195366},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Discrete Fair Division, Nash Social Welfare, XOS Valuations}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.16
Approximation Algorithms for Envy-Free Cake Division with Connected Pieces

Authors: Siddharth Barman and Pooja Kulkarni

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 261, 50th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2023)

Abstract
Cake cutting is a classic model for studying fair division of a heterogeneous, divisible resource among agents with individual preferences. Addressing cake division under a typical requirement that each agent must receive a connected piece of the cake, we develop approximation algorithms for finding envy-free (fair) cake divisions. In particular, this work improves the state-of-the-art additive approximation bound for this fundamental problem. Our results hold for general cake division instances in which the agents' valuations satisfy basic assumptions and are normalized (to have value 1 for the cake). Furthermore, the developed algorithms execute in polynomial time under the standard Robertson-Webb query model. Prior work has shown that one can efficiently compute a cake division (with connected pieces) in which the additive envy of any agent is at most 1/3. An efficient algorithm is also known for finding connected cake divisions that are (almost) 1/2-multiplicatively envy-free. Improving the additive approximation guarantee and maintaining the multiplicative one, we develop a polynomial-time algorithm that computes a connected cake division that is both (1/4 +o(1))-additively envy-free and (1/2 - o(1))-multiplicatively envy-free. Our algorithm is based on the ideas of interval growing and envy-cycle elimination. In addition, we study cake division instances in which the number of distinct valuations across the agents is parametrically bounded. We show that such cake division instances admit a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme for connected envy-free cake division.
Cite as

Siddharth Barman and Pooja Kulkarni. Approximation Algorithms for Envy-Free Cake Division with Connected Pieces. In 50th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 261, pp. 16:1-16:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{barman_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.16,
  author =	{Barman, Siddharth and Kulkarni, Pooja},
  title =	{{Approximation Algorithms for Envy-Free Cake Division with Connected Pieces}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2023)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-278-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{261},
  editor =	{Etessami, Kousha and Feige, Uriel 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.2023.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-180685},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fair Division, Envy-Freeness, Envy-Cycle Elimination}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9
Tight Approximation Guarantees for Concave Coverage Problems

Authors: Siddharth Barman, Omar Fawzi, and Paul Fermé

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 187, 38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2021)

Abstract
In the maximum coverage problem, we are given subsets T_1, …, T_m of a universe [n] along with an integer k and the objective is to find a subset S ⊆ [m] of size k that maximizes C(S) : = |⋃_{i ∈ S} T_i|. It is a classic result that the greedy algorithm for this problem achieves an optimal approximation ratio of 1-e^{-1}. In this work we consider a generalization of this problem wherein an element a can contribute by an amount that depends on the number of times it is covered. Given a concave, nondecreasing function φ, we define C^{φ}(S) := ∑_{a ∈ [n]}w_aφ(|S|_a), where |S|_a = |{i ∈ S : a ∈ T_i}|. The standard maximum coverage problem corresponds to taking φ(j) = min{j,1}. For any such φ, we provide an efficient algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio equal to the Poisson concavity ratio of φ, defined by α_{φ} : = min_{x ∈ ℕ^*} 𝔼[φ(Poi(x))] / φ(𝔼[Poi(x)]). Complementing this approximation guarantee, we establish a matching NP-hardness result when φ grows in a sublinear way. As special cases, we improve the result of [Siddharth Barman et al., 2020] about maximum multi-coverage, that was based on the unique games conjecture, and we recover the result of [Szymon Dudycz et al., 2020] on multi-winner approval-based voting for geometrically dominant rules. Our result goes beyond these special cases and we illustrate it with applications to distributed resource allocation problems, welfare maximization problems and approval-based voting for general rules.
Cite as

Siddharth Barman, Omar Fawzi, and Paul Fermé. Tight Approximation Guarantees for Concave Coverage Problems. In 38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 187, pp. 9:1-9:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{barman_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9,
  author =	{Barman, Siddharth and Fawzi, Omar and Ferm\'{e}, Paul},
  title =	{{Tight Approximation Guarantees for Concave Coverage Problems}},
  booktitle =	{38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2021)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-180-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{187},
  editor =	{Bl\"{a}ser, Markus and Monmege, Benjamin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-136543},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation Algorithms, Coverage Problems, Concave Function}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2020.11
Tight Approximation Algorithms for p-Mean Welfare Under Subadditive Valuations

Authors: Siddharth Barman, Umang Bhaskar, Anand Krishna, and Ranjani G. Sundaram

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 173, 28th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2020)

Abstract
We develop polynomial-time algorithms for the fair and efficient allocation of indivisible goods among n agents that have subadditive valuations over the goods. We first consider the Nash social welfare as our objective and design a polynomial-time algorithm that, in the value oracle model, finds an 8n-approximation to the Nash optimal allocation. Subadditive valuations include XOS (fractionally subadditive) and submodular valuations as special cases. Our result, even for the special case of submodular valuations, improves upon the previously best known O(n log n)-approximation ratio of Garg et al. (2020). More generally, we study maximization of p-mean welfare. The p-mean welfare is parameterized by an exponent term p ∈ (-∞, 1] and encompasses a range of welfare functions, such as social welfare (p = 1), Nash social welfare (p → 0), and egalitarian welfare (p → -∞). We give an algorithm that, for subadditive valuations and any given p ∈ (-∞, 1], computes (in the value oracle model and in polynomial time) an allocation with p-mean welfare at least 1/(8n) times the optimal. Further, we show that our approximation guarantees are essentially tight for XOS and, hence, subadditive valuations. We adapt a result of Dobzinski et al. (2010) to show that, under XOS valuations, an O (n^{1-ε}) approximation for the p-mean welfare for any p ∈ (-∞,1] (including the Nash social welfare) requires exponentially many value queries; here, ε > 0 is any fixed constant.
Cite as

Siddharth Barman, Umang Bhaskar, Anand Krishna, and Ranjani G. Sundaram. Tight Approximation Algorithms for p-Mean Welfare Under Subadditive Valuations. In 28th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 173, pp. 11:1-11:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{barman_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2020.11,
  author =	{Barman, Siddharth and Bhaskar, Umang and Krishna, Anand and Sundaram, Ranjani G.},
  title =	{{Tight Approximation Algorithms for p-Mean Welfare Under Subadditive Valuations}},
  booktitle =	{28th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2020)},
  pages =	{11:1--11:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-162-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{173},
  editor =	{Grandoni, Fabrizio and Herman, Grzegorz and Sanders, Peter},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2020.11},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-128775},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2020.11},
  annote =	{Keywords: Discrete Fair Division, Nash Social Welfare, Subadditive Valuations, Submodular Valuations}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.34
Algorithmic Aspects of Private Bayesian Persuasion

Authors: Yakov Babichenko and Siddharth Barman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 67, 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017)

Abstract
We consider a multi-receivers Bayesian persuasion model where an informed sender tries to persuade a group of receivers to take a certain action. The state of nature is known to the sender, but it is unknown to the receivers. The sender is allowed to commit to a signaling policy where she sends a private signal to every receiver. This work studies the computation aspects of finding a signaling policy that maximizes the sender's revenue. We show that if the sender's utility is a submodular function of the set of receivers that take the desired action, then we can efficiently find a signaling policy whose revenue is at least (1-1/e) times the optimal. We also prove that approximating the sender's optimal revenue by a factor better than (1-1/e) is NP-hard and, hence, the developed approximation guarantee is essentially tight. When the sender's utility is a function of the number of receivers that take the desired action (i.e., the utility function is anonymous), we show that an optimal signaling policy can be computed in polynomial time. Our results are based on an interesting connection between the Bayesian persuasion problem and the evaluation of the concave closure of a set function.
Cite as

Yakov Babichenko and Siddharth Barman. Algorithmic Aspects of Private Bayesian Persuasion. In 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 67, pp. 34:1-34:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{babichenko_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.34,
  author =	{Babichenko, Yakov and Barman, Siddharth},
  title =	{{Algorithmic Aspects of Private Bayesian Persuasion}},
  booktitle =	{8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017)},
  pages =	{34:1--34:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-029-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{67},
  editor =	{Papadimitriou, Christos H.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.34},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-81502},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.34},
  annote =	{Keywords: Economics of Information, Bayesian Persuasion, Signaling, Concave Closure}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2014.48
Network Design with Coverage Costs

Authors: Siddharth Barman, Shuchi Chawla, and Seeun Umboh

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 28, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2014)

Abstract
We study network design with a cost structure motivated by redundancy in data traffic. We are given a graph, g groups of terminals, and a universe of data packets. Each group of terminals desires a subset of the packets from its respective source. The cost of routing traffic on any edge in the network is proportional to the total size of the distinct packets that the edge carries. Our goal is to find a minimum cost routing. We focus on two settings. In the first, the collection of packet sets desired by source-sink pairs is laminar. For this setting, we present a primal-dual based 2-approximation, improving upon a logarithmic approximation due to Barman and Chawla (2012){BC12}. In the second setting, packet sets can have non-trivial intersection. We focus on the case where each packet is desired by either a single terminal group or by all of the groups. This setting does not admit an O(log^{{1}/{4} - gamma} g)-approximation for any constant gamma under a standard assumption; we present an O(log g)-approximation when the graph is unweighted. Our approximation for the second setting is based on a novel spanner-type construction in unweighted graphs that, given a collection of g vertex subsets, finds a subgraph of cost only a constant factor more than the minimum spanning tree of the graph, such that every subset in the collection has a Steiner tree in the subgraph of cost at most O(log g) that of its minimum Steiner tree in the original graph. We call such a subgraph a group spanner.
Cite as

Siddharth Barman, Shuchi Chawla, and Seeun Umboh. Network Design with Coverage Costs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2014). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 28, pp. 48-63, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2014)

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@InProceedings{barman_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2014.48,
  author =	{Barman, Siddharth and Chawla, Shuchi and Umboh, Seeun},
  title =	{{Network Design with Coverage Costs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2014)},
  pages =	{48--63},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-74-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2014},
  volume =	{28},
  editor =	{Jansen, Klaus and Rolim, Jos\'{e} and Devanur, Nikhil R. and Moore, Cristopher},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2014.48},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-46876},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2014.48},
  annote =	{Keywords: Network Design, Spanner, Primal Dual Method, Traffic Redundancy}
}
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