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Documents authored by Sauerwald, Thomas

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.86
Rumors with Changing Credibility

Authors: Charlotte Out, Nicolás Rivera, Thomas Sauerwald, and John Sylvester

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

Abstract
Randomized rumor spreading processes diffuse information on an undirected graph and have been widely studied. In this work, we present a generic framework for analyzing a broad class of such processes on regular graphs. Our analysis is protocol-agnostic, as it only requires the expected proportion of newly informed vertices in each round to be bounded, and a natural negative correlation property. This framework allows us to analyze various protocols, including PUSH, PULL, and PUSH-PULL, thereby extending prior research. Unlike previous work, our framework accommodates message failures at any time t ≥ 0 with a probability of 1-q(t), where the credibility q(t) is any function of time. This enables us to model real-world scenarios in which the transmissibility of rumors may fluctuate, as seen in the spread of "fake news" and viruses. Additionally, our framework is sufficiently broad to cover dynamic graphs.
Cite as

Charlotte Out, Nicolás Rivera, Thomas Sauerwald, and John Sylvester. Rumors with Changing Credibility. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 86:1-86:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{out_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.86,
  author =	{Out, Charlotte and Rivera, Nicol\'{a}s and Sauerwald, Thomas and Sylvester, John},
  title =	{{Rumors with Changing Credibility}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{86:1--86:23},
  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.2024.86},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-196149},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.86},
  annote =	{Keywords: Rumor spreading, epidemic algorithms, "fake news"}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.103
The Support of Open Versus Closed Random Walks

Authors: Thomas Sauerwald, He Sun, and Danny Vagnozzi

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

Abstract
A closed random walk of length 𝓁 on an undirected and connected graph G = (V,E) is a random walk that returns to the start vertex at step 𝓁, and its properties have been recently related to problems in different mathematical fields, e.g., geometry and combinatorics (Jiang et al., Annals of Mathematics '21) and spectral graph theory (McKenzie et al., STOC '21). For instance, in the context of analyzing the eigenvalue multiplicity of graph matrices, McKenzie et al. show that, with high probability, the support of a closed random walk of length 𝓁 ⩾ 1 is Ω(𝓁^{1/5}) on any bounded-degree graph, and leaves as an open problem whether a stronger bound of Ω(𝓁^{1/2}) holds for any regular graph. First, we show that the support of a closed random walk of length 𝓁 is at least Ω(𝓁^{1/2} / √{log n}) for any regular or bounded-degree graph on n vertices. Secondly, we prove for every 𝓁 ⩾ 1 the existence of a family of bounded-degree graphs, together with a start vertex such that the support is bounded by O(𝓁^{1/2}/√{log n}). Besides addressing the open problem of McKenzie et al., these two results also establish a subtle separation between closed random walks and open random walks, for which the support on any regular (or bounded-degree) graph is well-known to be Ω(𝓁^{1/2}) for all 𝓁 ⩾ 1. For irregular graphs, we prove that even if the start vertex is chosen uniformly, the support of a closed random walk may still be O(log 𝓁). This rules out a general polynomial lower bound in 𝓁 for all graphs. Finally, we apply our results on random walks to obtain new bounds on the multiplicity of the second largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrices of graphs.
Cite as

Thomas Sauerwald, He Sun, and Danny Vagnozzi. The Support of Open Versus Closed Random Walks. In 50th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 261, pp. 103:1-103:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{sauerwald_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.103,
  author =	{Sauerwald, Thomas and Sun, He and Vagnozzi, Danny},
  title =	{{The Support of Open Versus Closed Random Walks}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2023)},
  pages =	{103:1--103:21},
  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.2023.103},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-181556},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.103},
  annote =	{Keywords: support of random walks, eigenvalue multiplicity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2023.45
Tight Bounds for Repeated Balls-Into-Bins

Authors: Dimitrios Los and Thomas Sauerwald

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 254, 40th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2023)

Abstract
We study the repeated balls-into-bins process introduced by Becchetti, Clementi, Natale, Pasquale and Posta (2019). This process starts with m balls arbitrarily distributed across n bins. At each round t = 1,2,…, one ball is selected from each non-empty bin, and then placed it into a bin chosen independently and uniformly at random. We prove the following results: - For any n ⩽ m ⩽ poly(n), we prove a lower bound of Ω(m/n ⋅ log n) on the maximum load. For the special case m = n, this matches the upper bound of 𝒪(log n), as shown in [Luca Becchetti et al., 2019]. It also provides a positive answer to the conjecture in [Luca Becchetti et al., 2019] that for m = n the maximum load is ω(log n/ log log n) at least once in a polynomially large time interval. For m ∈ [ω(n), n log n], our new lower bound disproves the conjecture in [Luca Becchetti et al., 2019] that the maximum load remains 𝒪(log n). - For any n ⩽ m ⩽ poly(n), we prove an upper bound of 𝒪(m/n ⋅ log n) on the maximum load for all steps of a polynomially large time interval. This matches our lower bound up to multiplicative constants. - For any m ⩾ n, our analysis also implies an 𝒪(m²/n) waiting time to reach a configuration with a 𝒪(m/n ⋅ log m) maximum load, even for worst-case initial distributions. - For m ⩾ n, we show that every ball visits every bin in 𝒪(m log m) rounds. For m = n, this improves the previous upper bound of 𝒪(n log² n) in [Luca Becchetti et al., 2019]. We also prove that the upper bound is tight up to multiplicative constants for any n ⩽ m ⩽ poly(n).
Cite as

Dimitrios Los and Thomas Sauerwald. Tight Bounds for Repeated Balls-Into-Bins. In 40th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 254, pp. 45:1-45:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{los_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2023.45,
  author =	{Los, Dimitrios and Sauerwald, Thomas},
  title =	{{Tight Bounds for Repeated Balls-Into-Bins}},
  booktitle =	{40th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2023)},
  pages =	{45:1--45:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-266-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{254},
  editor =	{Berenbrink, Petra and Bouyer, Patricia and Dawar, Anuj and Kant\'{e}, Mamadou Moustapha},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2023.45},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-176975},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2023.45},
  annote =	{Keywords: Repeated balls-into-bins, self-stabilizing systems, balanced allocations, potential functions, random walks}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.103
Balanced Allocations with Incomplete Information: The Power of Two Queries

Authors: Dimitrios Los and Thomas Sauerwald

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 215, 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)

Abstract
We consider the allocation of m balls into n bins with incomplete information. In the classical Two-Choice process a ball first queries the load of two randomly chosen bins and is then placed in the least loaded bin. In our setting, each ball also samples two random bins but can only estimate a bin’s load by sending binary queries of the form "Is the load at least the median?" or "Is the load at least 100?". For the lightly loaded case m = 𝒪(n), Feldheim and Gurel-Gurevich (2021) showed that with one query it is possible to achieve a maximum load of 𝒪(√{log n/log log n}), and they also pose the question whether a maximum load of m/n+𝒪(√{log n/log log n}) is possible for any m = Ω(n). In this work, we resolve this open problem by proving a lower bound of m/n+Ω(√{log n}) for a fixed m = Θ(n √{log n}), and a lower bound of m/n+Ω(log n/log log n) for some m depending on the used strategy. We complement this negative result by proving a positive result for multiple queries. In particular, we show that with only two binary queries per chosen bin, there is an oblivious strategy which ensures a maximum load of m/n+𝒪(√{log n}) for any m ≥ 1. Further, for any number of k = 𝒪(log log n) binary queries, the upper bound on the maximum load improves to m/n + 𝒪(k(log n)^{1/k}) for any m ≥ 1. This result for k queries has several interesting consequences: (i) it implies new bounds for the (1+β)-process introduced by Peres, Talwar and Wieder (2015), (ii) it leads to new bounds for the graphical balanced allocation process on dense expander graphs, and (iii) it recovers and generalizes the bound of m/n+𝒪(log log n) on the maximum load achieved by the Two-Choice process, including the heavily loaded case m = Ω(n) which was derived in previous works by Berenbrink et al. (2006) as well as Talwar and Wieder (2014). One novel aspect of our proofs is the use of multiple super-exponential potential functions, which might be of use in future work.
Cite as

Dimitrios Los and Thomas Sauerwald. Balanced Allocations with Incomplete Information: The Power of Two Queries. In 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 215, pp. 103:1-103:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{los_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.103,
  author =	{Los, Dimitrios and Sauerwald, Thomas},
  title =	{{Balanced Allocations with Incomplete Information: The Power of Two Queries}},
  booktitle =	{13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
  pages =	{103:1--103:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-217-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{215},
  editor =	{Braverman, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.103},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-156994},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.103},
  annote =	{Keywords: power-of-two-choices, balanced allocations, potential functions, thinning}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.107
Multiple Random Walks on Graphs: Mixing Few to Cover Many

Authors: Nicolás Rivera, Thomas Sauerwald, and John Sylvester

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 198, 48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021)

Abstract
Random walks on graphs are an essential primitive for many randomised algorithms and stochastic processes. It is natural to ask how much can be gained by running k multiple random walks independently and in parallel. Although the cover time of multiple walks has been investigated for many natural networks, the problem of finding a general characterisation of multiple cover times for worst-case start vertices (posed by Alon, Avin, Koucký, Kozma, Lotker, and Tuttle in 2008) remains an open problem. First, we improve and tighten various bounds on the stationary cover time when k random walks start from vertices sampled from the stationary distribution. For example, we prove an unconditional lower bound of Ω((n/k) log n) on the stationary cover time, holding for any n-vertex graph G and any 1 ≤ k = o(nlog n). Secondly, we establish the stationary cover times of multiple walks on several fundamental networks up to constant factors. Thirdly, we present a framework characterising worst-case cover times in terms of stationary cover times and a novel, relaxed notion of mixing time for multiple walks called the partial mixing time. Roughly speaking, the partial mixing time only requires a specific portion of all random walks to be mixed. Using these new concepts, we can establish (or recover) the worst-case cover times for many networks including expanders, preferential attachment graphs, grids, binary trees and hypercubes.
Cite as

Nicolás Rivera, Thomas Sauerwald, and John Sylvester. Multiple Random Walks on Graphs: Mixing Few to Cover Many. In 48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 198, pp. 107:1-107:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{rivera_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.107,
  author =	{Rivera, Nicol\'{a}s and Sauerwald, Thomas and Sylvester, John},
  title =	{{Multiple Random Walks on Graphs: Mixing Few to Cover Many}},
  booktitle =	{48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021)},
  pages =	{107:1--107:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-195-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{198},
  editor =	{Bansal, Nikhil and Merelli, Emanuela and Worrell, James},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.107},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-141764},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.107},
  annote =	{Keywords: Multiple Random walks, Markov Chains, Random Walks, Cover Time}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2020.9
Spread of Information and Diseases via Random Walks in Sparse Graphs

Authors: George Giakkoupis, Hayk Saribekyan, and Thomas Sauerwald

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 179, 34th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2020)

Abstract
We consider a natural network diffusion process, modeling the spread of information or infectious diseases. Multiple mobile agents perform independent simple random walks on an n-vertex connected graph G. The number of agents is linear in n and the walks start from the stationary distribution. Initially, a single vertex has a piece of information (or a virus). An agent becomes informed (or infected) the first time it visits some vertex with the information (or virus); thereafter, the agent informs (infects) all vertices it visits. Giakkoupis et al. [George Giakkoupis et al., 2019] have shown that the spreading time, i.e., the time before all vertices are informed, is asymptotically and w.h.p. the same as in the well-studied randomized rumor spreading process, on any d-regular graph with d = Ω(log n). The case of sub-logarithmic degree was left open, and is the main focus of this paper. First, we observe that the equivalence shown in [George Giakkoupis et al., 2019] does not hold for small d: We give an example of a 3-regular graph with logarithmic diameter for which the expected spreading time is Ω(log² n/log log n), whereas randomized rumor spreading is completed in time Θ(log n), w.h.p. Next, we show a general upper bound of Õ(d ⋅ diam(G) + log³ n /d), w.h.p., for the spreading time on any d-regular graph. We also provide a version of the bound based on the average degree, for non-regular graphs. Next, we give tight analyses for specific graph families. We show that the spreading time is O(log n), w.h.p., for constant-degree regular expanders. For the binary tree, we show an upper bound of O(log n⋅ log log n), w.h.p., and prove that this is tight, by giving a matching lower bound for the cover time of the tree by n random walks. Finally, we show a bound of O(diam(G)), w.h.p., for k-dimensional grids (k ≥ 1 is constant), by adapting a technique by Kesten and Sidoravicius [Kesten and Sidoravicius, 2003; Kesten and Sidoravicius, 2005].
Cite as

George Giakkoupis, Hayk Saribekyan, and Thomas Sauerwald. Spread of Information and Diseases via Random Walks in Sparse Graphs. In 34th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 179, pp. 9:1-9:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{giakkoupis_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2020.9,
  author =	{Giakkoupis, George and Saribekyan, Hayk and Sauerwald, Thomas},
  title =	{{Spread of Information and Diseases via Random Walks in Sparse Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{34th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2020)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-168-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{179},
  editor =	{Attiya, Hagit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2020.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-130873},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2020.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: parallel random walks, information dissemination, infectious diseases}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.76
Choice and Bias in Random Walks

Authors: Agelos Georgakopoulos, John Haslegrave, Thomas Sauerwald, and John Sylvester

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 151, 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)

Abstract
We analyse the following random walk process inspired by the power-of-two-choice paradigm: starting from a given vertex, at each step, unlike the simple random walk (SRW) that always moves to a randomly chosen neighbour, we have the choice between two uniformly and independently chosen neighbours. We call this process the choice random walk (CRW). We first prove that for any graph, there is a strategy for the CRW that visits any given vertex in expected time ?(|E|). Then we introduce a general tool that quantifies by how much the probability of a rare event in the simple random walk can be boosted under a suitable CRW strategy. We believe this result to be of independent interest, and apply it here to derive an almost optimal ?(n log log n) bound for the cover time of bounded-degree expanders. This tool also applies to so-called biased walks, and allows us to make progress towards a conjecture of Azar et al. [STOC 1992]. Finally, we prove the following dichotomy: computing an optimal strategy to minimise the hitting time of a vertex takes polynomial time, whereas computing one to minimise the cover time is NP-hard.
Cite as

Agelos Georgakopoulos, John Haslegrave, Thomas Sauerwald, and John Sylvester. Choice and Bias in Random Walks. In 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 151, pp. 76:1-76:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{georgakopoulos_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.76,
  author =	{Georgakopoulos, Agelos and Haslegrave, John and Sauerwald, Thomas and Sylvester, John},
  title =	{{Choice and Bias in Random Walks}},
  booktitle =	{11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)},
  pages =	{76:1--76:19},
  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.2020.76},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-117612},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.76},
  annote =	{Keywords: Power of Two Choices, Markov Chains, Random Walks, Cover Time, Markov Decision Processes}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2019.93
Random Walks on Dynamic Graphs: Mixing Times, Hitting Times, and Return Probabilities

Authors: Thomas Sauerwald and Luca Zanetti

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 132, 46th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2019)

Abstract
We establish and generalise several bounds for various random walk quantities including the mixing time and the maximum hitting time. Unlike previous analyses, our derivations are based on rather intuitive notions of local expansion properties which allow us to capture the progress the random walk makes through t-step probabilities. We apply our framework to dynamically changing graphs, where the set of vertices is fixed while the set of edges changes in each round. For random walks on dynamic connected graphs for which the stationary distribution does not change over time, we show that their behaviour is in a certain sense similar to static graphs. For example, we show that the mixing and hitting times of any sequence of d-regular connected graphs is O(n^2), generalising a well-known result for static graphs. We also provide refined bounds depending on the isoperimetric dimension of the graph, matching again known results for static graphs. Finally, we investigate properties of random walks on dynamic graphs that are not always connected: we relate their convergence to stationarity to the spectral properties of an average of transition matrices and provide some examples that demonstrate strong discrepancies between static and dynamic graphs.
Cite as

Thomas Sauerwald and Luca Zanetti. Random Walks on Dynamic Graphs: Mixing Times, Hitting Times, and Return Probabilities. In 46th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 132, pp. 93:1-93:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{sauerwald_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2019.93,
  author =	{Sauerwald, Thomas and Zanetti, Luca},
  title =	{{Random Walks on Dynamic Graphs: Mixing Times, Hitting Times, and Return Probabilities}},
  booktitle =	{46th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2019)},
  pages =	{93:1--93:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-109-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{132},
  editor =	{Baier, Christel and Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Flocchini, Paola and Leonardi, Stefano},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2019.93},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-106696},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2019.93},
  annote =	{Keywords: random walks, dynamic graphs, hitting times}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2017.37
Bounds on the Satisfiability Threshold for Power Law Distributed Random SAT

Authors: Tobias Friedrich, Anton Krohmer, Ralf Rothenberger, Thomas Sauerwald, and Andrew M. Sutton

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 87, 25th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2017)

Abstract
Propositional satisfiability (SAT) is one of the most fundamental problems in computer science. The worst-case hardness of SAT lies at the core of computational complexity theory. The average-case analysis of SAT has triggered the development of sophisticated rigorous and non-rigorous techniques for analyzing random structures. Despite a long line of research and substantial progress, nearly all theoretical work on random SAT assumes a uniform distribution on the variables. In contrast, real-world instances often exhibit large fluctuations in variable occurrence. This can be modeled by a scale-free distribution of the variables, which results in distributions closer to industrial SAT instances. We study random k-SAT on n variables, m = Theta(n) clauses, and a power law distribution on the variable occurrences with exponent beta. We observe a satisfiability threshold at beta = (2k-1)/(k-1). This threshold is tight in the sense that instances with beta <= (2k-1)/(k-1)-epsilon for any constant epsilon > 0 are unsatisfiable with high probability (w.h.p.). For beta >= (2k-1)/(k-1)+epsilon, the picture is reminiscent of the uniform case: instances are satisfiable w.h.p. for sufficiently small constant clause-variable ratios m/n; they are unsatisfiable above a ratio m/n that depends on beta.
Cite as

Tobias Friedrich, Anton Krohmer, Ralf Rothenberger, Thomas Sauerwald, and Andrew M. Sutton. Bounds on the Satisfiability Threshold for Power Law Distributed Random SAT. In 25th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 87, pp. 37:1-37:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{friedrich_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2017.37,
  author =	{Friedrich, Tobias and Krohmer, Anton and Rothenberger, Ralf and Sauerwald, Thomas and Sutton, Andrew M.},
  title =	{{Bounds on the Satisfiability Threshold for Power Law Distributed Random SAT}},
  booktitle =	{25th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2017)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-049-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{87},
  editor =	{Pruhs, Kirk and Sohler, Christian},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2017.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-78356},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2017.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: satisfiability, random structures, random SAT, power law distribution, scale-freeness, phase transitions}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.139
Randomized Load Balancing on Networks with Stochastic Inputs

Authors: Leran Cai and Thomas Sauerwald

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 80, 44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017)

Abstract
Iterative load balancing algorithms for indivisible tokens have been studied intensively in the past. Complementing previous worst-case analyses, we study an average-case scenario where the load inputs are drawn from a fixed probability distribution. For cycles, tori, hypercubes and expanders, we obtain almost matching upper and lower bounds on the discrepancy, the difference between the maximum and the minimum load. Our bounds hold for a variety of probability distributions including the uniform and binomial distribution but also distributions with unbounded range such as the Poisson and geometric distribution. For graphs with slow convergence like cycles and tori, our results demonstrate a substantial difference between the convergence in the worst- and average-case. An important ingredient in our analysis is a new upper bound on the t-step transition probability of a general Markov chain, which is derived by invoking the evolving set process.
Cite as

Leran Cai and Thomas Sauerwald. Randomized Load Balancing on Networks with Stochastic Inputs. In 44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 80, pp. 139:1-139:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{cai_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.139,
  author =	{Cai, Leran and Sauerwald, Thomas},
  title =	{{Randomized Load Balancing on Networks with Stochastic Inputs}},
  booktitle =	{44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017)},
  pages =	{139:1--139:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-041-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{80},
  editor =	{Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Indyk, Piotr and Kuhn, Fabian and Muscholl, Anca},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.139},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-74839},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.139},
  annote =	{Keywords: random walks, randomized algorithms, parallel computing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2017.44
Multiple Random Walks on Paths and Grids

Authors: Andrej Ivaskovic, Adrian Kosowski, Dominik Pajak, and Thomas Sauerwald

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 66, 34th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2017)

Abstract
We derive several new results on multiple random walks on "low dimensional" graphs. First, inspired by an example of a weighted random walk on a path of three vertices given by Efremenko and Reingold, we prove the following dichotomy: as the path length n tends to infinity, we have a super-linear speed-up w.r.t. the cover time if and only if the number of walks k is equal to 2. An important ingredient of our proofs is the use of a continuous-time analogue of multiple random walks, which might be of independent interest. Finally, we also present the first tight bounds on the speed-up of the cover time for any d-dimensional grid with d >= 2 being an arbitrary constant, and reveal a sharp transition between linear and logarithmic speed-up.
Cite as

Andrej Ivaskovic, Adrian Kosowski, Dominik Pajak, and Thomas Sauerwald. Multiple Random Walks on Paths and Grids. In 34th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 66, pp. 44:1-44:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{ivaskovic_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2017.44,
  author =	{Ivaskovic, Andrej and Kosowski, Adrian and Pajak, Dominik and Sauerwald, Thomas},
  title =	{{Multiple Random Walks on Paths and Grids}},
  booktitle =	{34th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2017)},
  pages =	{44:1--44:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-028-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{66},
  editor =	{Vollmer, Heribert 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.2017.44},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-69897},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2017.44},
  annote =	{Keywords: random walks, randomized algorithms, parallel computing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2014.187
Balls into bins via local search: cover time and maximum load

Authors: Karl Bringmann, Thomas Sauerwald, Alexandre Stauffer, and He Sun

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 25, 31st International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2014)

Abstract
We study a natural process for allocating m balls into n bins that are organized as the vertices of an undirected graph G. Balls arrive one at a time. When a ball arrives, it first chooses a vertex u in G uniformly at random. Then the ball performs a local search in G starting from u until it reaches a vertex with local minimum load, where the ball is finally placed on. Then the next ball arrives and this procedure is repeated. For the case m=n, we give an upper bound for the maximum load on graphs with bounded degrees. We also propose the study of the cover time of this process, which is defined as the smallest m so that every bin has at least one ball allocated to it. We establish an upper bound for the cover time on graphs with bounded degrees. Our bounds for the maximum load and the cover time are tight when the graph is vertex transitive or sufficiently homogeneous. We also give upper bounds for the maximum load when m>=n.
Cite as

Karl Bringmann, Thomas Sauerwald, Alexandre Stauffer, and He Sun. Balls into bins via local search: cover time and maximum load. In 31st International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2014). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 25, pp. 187-198, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2014)

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@InProceedings{bringmann_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2014.187,
  author =	{Bringmann, Karl and Sauerwald, Thomas and Stauffer, Alexandre and Sun, He},
  title =	{{Balls into bins via local search: cover time and maximum load}},
  booktitle =	{31st International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2014)},
  pages =	{187--198},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-65-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2014},
  volume =	{25},
  editor =	{Mayr, Ernst W. and Portier, Natacha},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2014.187},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-44570},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2014.187},
  annote =	{Keywords: Balls and Bins, Stochastic Process, Randomized Algorithm}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2012.314
Low Randomness Rumor Spreading via Hashing

Authors: George Giakkoupis, Thomas Sauerwald, He Sun, and Philipp Woelfel

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 14, 29th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2012)

Abstract
We consider the classical rumor spreading problem, where a piece of information must be disseminated from a single node to all n nodes of a given network. We devise two simple push-based protocols, in which nodes choose the neighbor they send the information to in each round using pairwise independent hash functions, or a pseudo-random generator, respectively. For several well-studied topologies our algorithms use exponentially fewer random bits than previous protocols. For example, in complete graphs, expanders, and random graphs only a polylogarithmic number of random bits are needed in total to spread the rumor in O(log n) rounds with high probability. Previous explicit algorithms require Omega(n) random bits to achieve the same round complexity. For complete graphs, the amount of randomness used by our hashing-based algorithm is within an O(log n)-factor of the theoretical minimum determined by [Giakkoupis and Woelfel, 2011].
Cite as

George Giakkoupis, Thomas Sauerwald, He Sun, and Philipp Woelfel. Low Randomness Rumor Spreading via Hashing. In 29th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2012). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 14, pp. 314-325, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2012)

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@InProceedings{giakkoupis_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2012.314,
  author =	{Giakkoupis, George and Sauerwald, Thomas and Sun, He and Woelfel, Philipp},
  title =	{{Low Randomness Rumor Spreading via Hashing}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2012)},
  pages =	{314--325},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-35-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2012},
  volume =	{14},
  editor =	{D\"{u}rr, Christoph and Wilke, Thomas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2012.314},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-34417},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2012.314},
  annote =	{Keywords: Parallel and Distributed Computing, Randomness, Rumor Spreading}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.09371.6
Stabilizing Consensus with the Power of Two Choices

Authors: Benjamin Doerr, Leslie Ann Goldberg, Lorenz Minder, Thomas Sauerwald, and Christian Scheideler

Published in: Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 9371, Algorithmic Methods for Distributed Cooperative Systems (2010)

Abstract
Consensus problems occur in many contexts and have therefore been intensively studied in the past. In the standard consensus problem there are n processes with possibly different input values and the goal is to eventually reach a point at which all processes commit to exactly one of these values. We are studying a slight variant of the consensus problem called the stabilizing consensus problem. In this problem, we do not require that each process commits to a final value at some point, but that eventually they arrive at a common value without necessarily being aware of that. This should work irrespective of the states in which the processes are starting. Coming up with a self-stabilizing rule is easy without adversarial involvement, but we allow some T-bounded adversary to manipulate any T processes at any time. In this situation, a perfect consensus is impossible to reach, so we only require that there is a time point t and value v so that at any point after t, all but up to O(T) processes agree on v, which we call an almost stable consensus. As we will demonstrate, there is a surprisingly simple rule for the standard message passing model that just needs O(log n loglog n) time for any sqrt{n}-bounded adversary and just O(log n) time without adversarial involvement, with high probability, to reach an (almost) stable consensus from any initial state. A stable consensus is reached, with high probability, in the absence of adversarial involvement.
Cite as

Benjamin Doerr, Leslie Ann Goldberg, Lorenz Minder, Thomas Sauerwald, and Christian Scheideler. Stabilizing Consensus with the Power of Two Choices. In Algorithmic Methods for Distributed Cooperative Systems. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 9371, pp. 1-21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2010)

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@InProceedings{doerr_et_al:DagSemProc.09371.6,
  author =	{Doerr, Benjamin and Goldberg, Leslie Ann and Minder, Lorenz and Sauerwald, Thomas and Scheideler, Christian},
  title =	{{Stabilizing Consensus with the Power of Two Choices}},
  booktitle =	{Algorithmic Methods for Distributed Cooperative Systems},
  pages =	{1--21},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2010},
  volume =	{9371},
  editor =	{S\'{a}ndor Fekete and Stefan Fischer and Martin Riedmiller and Suri Subhash},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.09371.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-24290},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.09371.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distributed consensus}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2009.1842
Cover Time and Broadcast Time

Authors: Robert Elsässer and Thomas Sauerwald

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 3, 26th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (2009)

Abstract
We introduce a new technique for bounding the cover time of random walks by relating it to the runtime of randomized broadcast. In particular, we strongly confirm for dense graphs the intuition of Chandra et al. (1997) that ``the cover time of the graph is an appropriate metric for the performance of certain kinds of randomized broadcast algorithms''. In more detail, our results are as follows: \begin{itemize} \item For any graph $G=(V,E)$ of size $n$ and minimum degree $\delta$, we have $\mathcal{R}(G)= \mathcal{O}(\frac{|E|}{\delta} \cdot \log n)$, where $\mathcal{R}(G)$ denotes the quotient of the cover time and broadcast time. This bound is tight for binary trees and tight up to logarithmic factors for many graphs including hypercubes, expanders and lollipop graphs. \item For any $\delta$-regular (or almost $\delta$-regular) graph $G$ it holds that $\mathcal{R}(G) = \Omega(\frac{\delta^2}{n} \cdot \frac{1}{\log n})$. Together with our upper bound on $\mathcal{R}(G)$, this lower bound strongly confirms the intuition of Chandra et al.~for graphs with minimum degree $\Theta(n)$, since then the cover time equals the broadcast time multiplied by $n$ (neglecting logarithmic factors). \item Conversely, for any $\delta$ we construct almost $\delta$-regular graphs that satisfy $\mathcal{R}(G) = \mathcal{O}(\max \{ \sqrt{n},\delta \} \cdot \log^2 n)$. Since any regular expander satisfies $\mathcal{R}(G) = \Theta(n)$, the strong relationship given above does not hold if $\delta$ is polynomially smaller than $n$. \end{itemize} Our bounds also demonstrate that the relationship between cover time and broadcast time is much stronger than the known relationships between any of them and the mixing time (or the closely related spectral gap).
Cite as

Robert Elsässer and Thomas Sauerwald. Cover Time and Broadcast Time. In 26th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 3, pp. 373-384, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2009)

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@InProceedings{elsasser_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2009.1842,
  author =	{Els\"{a}sser, Robert and Sauerwald, Thomas},
  title =	{{Cover Time and Broadcast Time}},
  booktitle =	{26th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science},
  pages =	{373--384},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-09-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2009},
  volume =	{3},
  editor =	{Albers, Susanne and Marion, Jean-Yves},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2009.1842},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-18421},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2009.1842},
  annote =	{Keywords: Random walk, Randomized algorithms, Parallel and distributed algorithms}
}
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