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Documents authored by Gergatsouli, Evangelia

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APPROX
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.26
Approximating Pandora’s Box with Correlations

Authors: Shuchi Chawla, Evangelia Gergatsouli, Jeremy McMahan, and Christos Tzamos

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 275, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)

Abstract
We revisit the classic Pandora’s Box (PB) problem under correlated distributions on the box values. Recent work of [Shuchi Chawla et al., 2020] obtained constant approximate algorithms for a restricted class of policies for the problem that visit boxes in a fixed order. In this work, we study the complexity of approximating the optimal policy which may adaptively choose which box to visit next based on the values seen so far. Our main result establishes an approximation-preserving equivalence of PB to the well studied Uniform Decision Tree (UDT) problem from stochastic optimization and a variant of the Min-Sum Set Cover (MSSC_f) problem. For distributions of support m, UDT admits a log m approximation, and while a constant factor approximation in polynomial time is a long-standing open problem, constant factor approximations are achievable in subexponential time [Ray Li et al., 2020]. Our main result implies that the same properties hold for PB and MSSC_f. We also study the case where the distribution over values is given more succinctly as a mixture of m product distributions. This problem is again related to a noisy variant of the Optimal Decision Tree which is significantly more challenging. We give a constant-factor approximation that runs in time n^Õ(m²/ε²) when the mixture components on every box are either identical or separated in TV distance by ε.
Cite as

Shuchi Chawla, Evangelia Gergatsouli, Jeremy McMahan, and Christos Tzamos. Approximating Pandora’s Box with Correlations. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 275, pp. 26:1-26:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{chawla_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.26,
  author =	{Chawla, Shuchi and Gergatsouli, Evangelia and McMahan, Jeremy and Tzamos, Christos},
  title =	{{Approximating Pandora’s Box with Correlations}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-296-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{275},
  editor =	{Megow, Nicole and Smith, Adam},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-188519},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pandora’s Box, Min Sum Set Cover, stochastic optimization, approximation preserving reduction}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2023.47
Graph Connectivity with Noisy Queries

Authors: Dimitris Fotakis, Evangelia Gergatsouli, Charilaos Pipis, Miltiadis Stouras, and Christos Tzamos

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 272, 48th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2023)

Abstract
Graph connectivity is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem that arises in many practical applications, where usually a spanning subgraph of a network is used for its operation. However, in the real world, links may fail unexpectedly deeming the networks non-operational, while checking whether a link is damaged is costly and possibly erroneous. After an event that has damaged an arbitrary subset of the edges, the network operator must find a spanning tree of the network using non-damaged edges by making as few checks as possible. Motivated by such questions, we study the problem of finding a spanning tree in a network, when we only have access to noisy queries of the form "Does edge e exist?". We design efficient algorithms, even when edges fail adversarially, for all possible error regimes; 2-sided error (where any answer might be erroneous), false positives (where "no" answers are always correct) and false negatives (where "yes" answers are always correct). In the first two regimes we provide efficient algorithms and give matching lower bounds for general graphs. In the False Negative case we design efficient algorithms for large interesting families of graphs (e.g. bounded treewidth, sparse). Using the previous results, we provide tight algorithms for the practically useful family of planar graphs in all error regimes.
Cite as

Dimitris Fotakis, Evangelia Gergatsouli, Charilaos Pipis, Miltiadis Stouras, and Christos Tzamos. Graph Connectivity with Noisy Queries. In 48th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 272, pp. 47:1-47:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{fotakis_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2023.47,
  author =	{Fotakis, Dimitris and Gergatsouli, Evangelia and Pipis, Charilaos and Stouras, Miltiadis and Tzamos, Christos},
  title =	{{Graph Connectivity with Noisy Queries}},
  booktitle =	{48th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2023)},
  pages =	{47:1--47:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-292-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{272},
  editor =	{Leroux, J\'{e}r\^{o}me and Lombardy, Sylvain and Peleg, David},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2023.47},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-185810},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2023.47},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithms under uncertainty, graph connectivity, spanning tree, noisy queries, online algorithms, stochastic optimization}
}
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