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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.

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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}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.15

Is This Correct? Let’s Check!

Authors: Omri Ben-Eliezer, Dan Mikulincer, Elchanan Mossel, and Madhu Sudan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 251, 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)

Abstract

Societal accumulation of knowledge is a complex process. The correctness of new units of knowledge depends not only on the correctness of new reasoning, but also on the correctness of old units that the new one builds on. The errors in such accumulation processes are often remedied by error correction and detection heuristics. Motivating examples include the scientific process based on scientific publications, and software development based on libraries of code. Natural processes that aim to keep errors under control, such as peer review in scientific publications, and testing and debugging in software development, would typically check existing pieces of knowledge - both for the reasoning that generated them and the previous facts they rely on. In this work, we present a simple process that models such accumulation of knowledge and study the persistence (or lack thereof) of errors. We consider a simple probabilistic model for the generation of new units of knowledge based on the preferential attachment growth model, which additionally allows for errors. Furthermore, the process includes checks aimed at catching these errors. We investigate when effects of errors persist forever in the system (with positive probability) and when they get rooted out completely by the checking process. The two basic parameters associated with the checking process are the probability of conducting a check and the depth of the check. We show that errors are rooted out if checks are sufficiently frequent and sufficiently deep. In contrast, shallow or infrequent checks are insufficient to root out errors.

Cite as

Omri Ben-Eliezer, Dan Mikulincer, Elchanan Mossel, and Madhu Sudan. Is This Correct? Let’s Check!. In 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 251, pp. 15:1-15:11, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{beneliezer_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.15,
  author =	{Ben-Eliezer, Omri and Mikulincer, Dan and Mossel, Elchanan and Sudan, Madhu},
  title =	{{Is This Correct? Let’s Check!}},
  booktitle =	{14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:11},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-263-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{251},
  editor =	{Tauman Kalai, Yael},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-175180},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: Error Propagation, Preferential Attachment}
}

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Time Lower Bounds for the Metropolis Process and Simulated Annealing

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Is This Correct? Let’s Check!

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