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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.50

On the PTAS Complexity of Multidimensional Knapsack

Authors: Ilan Doron-Arad, Ariel Kulik, and Pasin Manurangsi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

We study the d-dimensional knapsack problem. We are given a set of items, each with a d-dimensional cost vector and a profit, along with a d-dimensional budget vector. The goal is to select a set of items that do not exceed the budget in all dimensions and maximize the total profit. A polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) with running time n^{Θ(d/{ε})} has long been known for this problem, where {ε} is the error parameter and n is the encoding size. Despite decades of active research, the best running time of a PTAS has remained O(n^{⌈ d/{ε} ⌉ - d}). Unfortunately, existing lower bounds only cover the special case with two dimensions d = 2, and do not answer whether there is a n^{o(d/({ε)})}-time PTAS for larger values of d. In this work, we show that the running times of the best-known PTAS cannot be improved up to a polylogarithmic factor assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH). Our techniques are based on a robust reduction from 2-CSP, which embeds 2-CSP constraints into a desired number of dimensions. Then, using a recent result of [Bafna Karthik and Minzer, STOC'25], we succeed in exhibiting tight trade-off between d and {ε} for all regimes of the parameters assuming d is sufficiently large. Informally, our result also shows that under ETH, for any function f there is no f(d/({ε)}) ⋅ n^{õ(d/({ε)})}-time (1-{ε})-approximation for d-dimensional knapsack, where n is the number of items and õ hides polylogarithmic factors in d/({ε)}.

Cite as

Ilan Doron-Arad, Ariel Kulik, and Pasin Manurangsi. On the PTAS Complexity of Multidimensional Knapsack. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 50:1-50:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{doronarad_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.50,
  author =	{Doron-Arad, Ilan and Kulik, Ariel and Manurangsi, Pasin},
  title =	{{On the PTAS Complexity of Multidimensional Knapsack}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{50:1--50:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.50},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253377},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.50},
  annote =	{Keywords: d-dimensional Knapsack, Multidimensional Knapsack, PTAS, CSP}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.80

FPT Approximations for Connected Maximum Coverage

Authors: Tanmay Inamdar, Satyabrata Jana, Madhumita Kundu, Daniel Lokshtanov, Saket Saurabh, and Meirav Zehavi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

We revisit connectivity-constrained coverage through a unifying model, Partial Connected Red-Blue Dominating Set (PartialConRBDS). Given a bipartite graph G = (R∪ B,E) with red vertices R and blue vertices B, an auxiliary connectivity graph G_{conn} on R, and integers k,t, the task is to find a set S ⊆ R with |S| ≤ k such that G_{conn}[S] is connected and S dominates at least t blue vertices. This formulation captures connected variants of Maximum Coverage [Hochbaum-Rao, Inf. Proc. Lett., 2020; D'Angelo-Delfaraz, AAMAS 2025], Partial Vertex Cover, and Partial Dominating Set [Khuller et al., SODA 2014; Lamprou et al., TCS 2021] via standard encodings. Limits to parameterized tractability. PartialConRBDS is W[1]-hard parameterized by k even under strong restrictions: it remains hard when G_{conn} is a clique or a star and the incidence graph G is 3-degenerate, or when G is K_{2,2}-free. Inapproximability. For every ε > 0, there is no polynomial-time (1, 1-1/e+ε)-approximation unless 𝖯 = NP. Moreover, under ETH, no algorithm running in f(k)⋅ n^{o(k)} time achieves an g(k)-approximation for k for any computable function g(⋅), or for any ε > 0, a (1-1/e+ε)-approximation for t. Graphical special cases. Partial Connected Dominating Set is W[2]-hard parameterized by k and inherits the same ETH-based f(k)⋅ n^{o(k)} inapproximability bound as above; Partial Connected Vertex Cover is W[1]-hard parameterized by k. These hardness boundaries delineate a natural "sweet spot" for study: within appropriate structural restrictions on the incidence graph, one can still aim for fine-grained (FPT) approximations. Our algorithms. We solve PartialConRBDS exactly by reducing it to Relaxed Directed Steiner Out-Tree in time (2e)^t ⋅ n^{𝒪(1)}. For biclique-free incidences (i.e., when G excludes K_{d,d} as an induced subgraph), we obtain two complementary parameterized schemes: - An Efficient Parameterized Approximation Scheme (EPAS) running in time 2^{𝒪(k² d/ε)}⋅ n^{𝒪(1)} that either returns a connected solution of size at most k covering at least (1-ε)t blue vertices, or correctly reports that no connected size-k solution covers t; and - A Parameterized Approximation Scheme (PAS) running in time 2^{𝒪(kd(k²+log d))}⋅ n^{𝒪(1/ε)} that either returns a connected solution of size at most (1+ε)k covering at least t blue vertices, or correctly reports that no connected size-k solution covers t. Together, these results chart the boundary between hardness and FPT-approximability for connectivity-constrained coverage.

Cite as

Tanmay Inamdar, Satyabrata Jana, Madhumita Kundu, Daniel Lokshtanov, Saket Saurabh, and Meirav Zehavi. FPT Approximations for Connected Maximum Coverage. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 80:1-80:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{inamdar_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.80,
  author =	{Inamdar, Tanmay and Jana, Satyabrata and Kundu, Madhumita and Lokshtanov, Daniel and Saurabh, Saket and Zehavi, Meirav},
  title =	{{FPT Approximations for Connected Maximum Coverage}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{80:1--80:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.80},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253674},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.80},
  annote =	{Keywords: Partial Dominating Set, Connectivity, Maximum Coverage, FPT Approximation, Fixed-parameter Tractability}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.17

Treedepth Inapproximability and Exponential ETH Lower Bound

Authors: Édouard Bonnet, Daniel Neuen, and Marek Sokołowski

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 358, 20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025)

Abstract

Treedepth is a central parameter to algorithmic graph theory. The current state-of-the-art in computing and approximating treedepth consists of a 2^{O(k²)} n-time exact algorithm and a polynomial-time O(OPT log^{3/2} OPT)-approximation algorithm, where the former algorithm returns an elimination forest of height k (witnessing that treedepth is at most k) for the n-vertex input graph G, or correctly reports that G has treedepth larger than k, and OPT is the actual value of the treedepth. On the complexity side, exactly computing treedepth is NP-complete, but the known reductions do not rule out a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS), and under the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH) only exclude a running time of 2^o(√n) for exact algorithms. We show that 1.0003-approximating Treedepth is NP-hard, and that exactly computing the treedepth of an n-vertex graph requires time 2^Ω(n), unless the ETH fails. We further derive that there exist absolute constants δ, c > 0 such that any (1+δ)-approximation algorithm requires time 2^Ω(n/log^c n). We do so via a simple direct reduction from Satisfiability to Treedepth, inspired by a reduction recently designed for Treewidth [STOC '25].

Cite as

Édouard Bonnet, Daniel Neuen, and Marek Sokołowski. Treedepth Inapproximability and Exponential ETH Lower Bound. In 20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 358, pp. 17:1-17:10, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bonnet_et_al:LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.17,
  author =	{Bonnet, \'{E}douard and Neuen, Daniel and Soko{\l}owski, Marek},
  title =	{{Treedepth Inapproximability and Exponential ETH Lower Bound}},
  booktitle =	{20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:10},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-407-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{358},
  editor =	{Agrawal, Akanksha and van Leeuwen, Erik Jan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251494},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: treedepth, lower bounds, approximation}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2025.9

Algebra Is Half the Battle: Verifying Presentations of Graded Unipotent Chevalley Groups

Authors: Eric Wang, Arohee Bhoja, Cayden Codel, and Noah G. Singer

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 352, 16th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2025)

Abstract

Graded unipotent Chevalley groups are an important family of groups on matrices with polynomial entries over a finite field. Using the Lean theorem prover, we verify that three such groups, namely, the A₃- and the two B₃-type groups, satisfy a useful group-theoretic condition. Specifically, these groups are defined by a set of equations called Steinberg relations, and we prove that a certain canonical "smaller" set of Steinberg relations suffices to derive the rest. Our work is motivated by an application for building topologically-interesting objects called higher-dimensional expanders (HDXs). In the past decade, HDXs have formed the basis for many new results in theoretical computer science, such as in quantum error correction and in property testing. Yet despite the increasing prevalence of HDXs, only two methods of constructing them are known. One such method builds an HDX from groups that satisfy the aforementioned property, and the Chevalley groups we use are (essentially) the only ones currently known to satisfy it.

Cite as

Eric Wang, Arohee Bhoja, Cayden Codel, and Noah G. Singer. Algebra Is Half the Battle: Verifying Presentations of Graded Unipotent Chevalley Groups. In 16th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 352, pp. 9:1-9:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{wang_et_al:LIPIcs.ITP.2025.9,
  author =	{Wang, Eric and Bhoja, Arohee and Codel, Cayden and Singer, Noah G.},
  title =	{{Algebra Is Half the Battle: Verifying Presentations of Graded Unipotent Chevalley Groups}},
  booktitle =	{16th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2025)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-396-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{352},
  editor =	{Forster, Yannick and Keller, Chantal},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2025.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-246071},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2025.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Group presentations, term rewriting, metaprogramming, proof automation, the Lean theorem prover}
}

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APPROX

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.5

Min-CSPs on Complete Instances II: Polylogarithmic Approximation for Min-NAE-3-SAT

Authors: Aditya Anand, Euiwoong Lee, Davide Mazzali, and Amatya Sharma

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract

This paper studies complete k-Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs), where an n-variable instance has exactly one nontrivial constraint for each subset of k variables, i.e., it has binom(n,k) constraints. A recent work started a systematic study of complete k-CSPs [Anand, Lee, Sharma, SODA'25], and showed a quasi-polynomial time algorithm that decides if there is an assignment satisfying all the constraints of any complete Boolean-alphabet k-CSP, algorithmically separating complete instances from dense instances. The tractability of this decision problem is necessary for any nontrivial (multiplicative) approximation for the minimization version, whose goal is to minimize the number of violated constraints. The same paper raised the question of whether it is possible to obtain nontrivial approximation algorithms for complete Min-k-CSPs with k ≥ 3. In this work, we make progress in this direction and show a quasi-polynomial time polylog(n)-approximation to Min-NAE-3-SAT on complete instances, which asks to minimize the number of 3-clauses where all the three literals equal the same bit. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first known example of a CSP whose decision version is NP-Hard in general (and dense) instances while admitting a polylog(n)-approximation in complete instances. Our algorithm presents a new iterative framework for rounding a solution from the Sherali-Adams hierarchy, where each iteration interleaves the two well-known rounding tools: the conditioning procedure, in order to "almost fix" many variables, and the thresholding procedure, in order to "completely fix" them. Finally, we improve the running time of the decision algorithms of Anand, Lee, and Sharma and show a simple algorithm that decides any complete Boolean-alphabet k-CSP in polynomial time.

Cite as

Aditya Anand, Euiwoong Lee, Davide Mazzali, and Amatya Sharma. Min-CSPs on Complete Instances II: Polylogarithmic Approximation for Min-NAE-3-SAT. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 5:1-5:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{anand_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.5,
  author =	{Anand, Aditya and Lee, Euiwoong and Mazzali, Davide and Sharma, Amatya},
  title =	{{Min-CSPs on Complete Instances II: Polylogarithmic Approximation for Min-NAE-3-SAT}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:23},
  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.2025.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243712},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Constraint Satisfiability Problems, Approximation Algorithms, Sherali Adams}
}

Document

APPROX

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.11

On Finding Randomly Planted Cliques in Arbitrary Graphs

Authors: Francesco Agrimonti, Marco Bressan, and Tommaso d'Orsi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract

We study a planted clique model introduced by Feige [Uriel Feige, 2021] where a complete graph of size c⋅ n is planted uniformly at random in an arbitrary n-vertex graph. We give a simple deterministic algorithm that, in almost linear time, recovers a clique of size (c/3)^O(1/c) ⋅ n as long as the original graph has maximum degree at most (1-p)n for some fixed p > 0. The proof hinges on showing that the degrees of the final graph are correlated with the planted clique, in a way similar to (but more intricate than) the classical G(n,1/2)+K_√n planted clique model. Our algorithm suggests a separation from the worst-case model, where, assuming the Unique Games Conjecture, no polynomial algorithm can find cliques of size Ω(n) for every fixed c > 0, even if the input graph has maximum degree (1-p)n. Our techniques extend beyond the planted clique model. For example, when the planted graph is a balanced biclique, we recover a balanced biclique of size larger than the best guarantees known for the worst case.

Cite as

Francesco Agrimonti, Marco Bressan, and Tommaso d'Orsi. On Finding Randomly Planted Cliques in Arbitrary Graphs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 11:1-11:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{agrimonti_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.11,
  author =	{Agrimonti, Francesco and Bressan, Marco and d'Orsi, Tommaso},
  title =	{{On Finding Randomly Planted Cliques in Arbitrary Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{11:1--11:18},
  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.2025.11},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243774},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.11},
  annote =	{Keywords: Computational Complexity, Planted Clique, Semi-random, Unique Games Conjecture, Approximation Algorithms}
}

Document

APPROX

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.16

Sparsest Cut and Eigenvalue Multiplicities on Low Degree Abelian Cayley Graphs

Authors: Tommaso d'Orsi, Chris Jones, Jake Ruotolo, Salil Vadhan, and Jiyu Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract

Whether or not the Sparsest Cut problem admits an efficient O(1)-approximation algorithm is a fundamental algorithmic question with connections to geometry and the Unique Games Conjecture. Revisiting spectral algorithms for Sparsest Cut, we present a novel, simple algorithm that combines eigenspace enumeration with a new algorithm for the Cut Improvement problem. The runtime of our algorithm is parametrized by a quantity that we call the solution dimension SD_ε(G): the smallest k such that the subspace spanned by the first k Laplacian eigenvectors contains all but ε fraction of a sparsest cut. Our algorithm matches the guarantees of prior methods based on the threshold-rank paradigm, while also extending beyond them. To illustrate this, we study its performance on low degree Cayley graphs over Abelian groups - canonical examples of graphs with poor expansion properties. We prove that low degree Abelian Cayley graphs have small solution dimension, yielding an algorithm that computes a (1+ε)-approximation to the uniform Sparsest Cut of a degree-d Cayley graph over an Abelian group of size n in time n^O(1) ⋅ exp{(d/ε)^O(d)}. Along the way to bounding the solution dimension of Abelian Cayley graphs, we analyze their sparse cuts and spectra, proving that the collection of O(1)-approximate sparsest cuts has an ε-net of size exp{(d/ε)^O(d)} and that the multiplicity of λ₂ is bounded by 2^O(d). The latter bound is tight and improves on a previous bound of 2^O(d²) by Lee and Makarychev.

Cite as

Tommaso d'Orsi, Chris Jones, Jake Ruotolo, Salil Vadhan, and Jiyu Zhang. Sparsest Cut and Eigenvalue Multiplicities on Low Degree Abelian Cayley Graphs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 16:1-16:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{dorsi_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.16,
  author =	{d'Orsi, Tommaso and Jones, Chris and Ruotolo, Jake and Vadhan, Salil and Zhang, Jiyu},
  title =	{{Sparsest Cut and Eigenvalue Multiplicities on Low Degree Abelian Cayley Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:20},
  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.2025.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243827},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sparsest Cut, Spectral Graph Theory, Cayley Graphs, Approximation Algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.7

Sparser Abelian High Dimensional Expanders

Authors: Yotam Dikstein, Siqi Liu, and Avi Wigderson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 339, 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the development of new elementary techniques for the construction and analysis of high dimensional expanders. Specifically, we present two new explicit constructions of Cayley high dimensional expanders (HDXs) over the abelian group 𝔽₂ⁿ. Our expansion proofs use only linear algebra and combinatorial arguments. The first construction gives local spectral HDXs of any constant dimension and subpolynomial degree exp(n^ε) for every ε > 0, improving on a construction by Golowich [Golowich, 2023] which achieves ε = 1/2. [Golowich, 2023] derives these HDXs by sparsifying the complete Grassmann poset of subspaces. The novelty in our construction is the ability to sparsify any expanding Grassmann posets, leading to iterated sparsification and much smaller degrees. The sparse Grassmannian (which is of independent interest in the theory of HDXs) serves as the generating set of the Cayley graph. Our second construction gives a 2-dimensional HDX of any polynomial degree exp(ε n) for any constant ε > 0, which is simultaneously a spectral expander and a coboundary expander. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such non-trivial construction. We name it the Johnson complex, as it is derived from the classical Johnson scheme, whose vertices serve as the generating set of this Cayley graph. This construction may be viewed as a derandomization of the recent random geometric complexes of [Liu et al., 2023]. Establishing coboundary expansion through Gromov’s "cone method" and the associated isoperimetric inequalities is the most intricate aspect of this construction. While these two constructions are quite different, we show that they both share a common structure, resembling the intersection patterns of vectors in the Hadamard code. We propose a general framework of such "Hadamard-like" constructions in the hope that it will yield new HDXs.

Cite as

Yotam Dikstein, Siqi Liu, and Avi Wigderson. Sparser Abelian High Dimensional Expanders. In 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 339, pp. 7:1-7:98, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{dikstein_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2025.7,
  author =	{Dikstein, Yotam and Liu, Siqi and Wigderson, Avi},
  title =	{{Sparser Abelian High Dimensional Expanders}},
  booktitle =	{40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:98},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-379-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{339},
  editor =	{Srinivasan, Srikanth},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-237013},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: Local spectral expander, coboundary expander, Grassmannian expander}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.1

List Decoding Quotient Reed-Muller Codes

Authors: Omri Gotlib, Tali Kaufman, and Shachar Lovett

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 339, 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)

Abstract

Reed-Muller codes consist of evaluations of n-variate polynomials over a finite field 𝔽 with degree at most d. Much like every linear code, Reed-Muller codes can be characterized by constraints, where a codeword is valid if and only if it satisfies all degree-d constraints. For a subset X̃ ⊆ 𝔽ⁿ, we introduce the notion of X̃-quotient Reed-Muller code. A function F:X̃ → 𝔽 is a valid codeword in the quotient code if it satisfies all the constraints of degree-d polynomials lying in X̃. This gives rise to a novel phenomenon: a quotient codeword may have many extensions to original codewords. This weakens the connection between original codewords and quotient codewords which introduces a richer range of behaviors along with substantial new challenges. Our goal is to answer the following question: what properties of X̃ will imply that the quotient code inherits its distance and list-decoding radius from the original code? We address this question using techniques developed by Bhowmick and Lovett [Abhishek Bhowmick and Shachar Lovett, 2014], identifying key properties of 𝔽ⁿ used in their proof and extending them to general subsets X̃ ⊆ 𝔽ⁿ. By introducing a new tool, we overcome the novel challenge in analyzing the quotient code that arises from the weak connection between original and quotient codewords. This enables us to apply known results from additive combinatorics and algebraic geometry [David Kazhdan and Tamar Ziegler, 2018; David Kazhdan and Tamar Ziegler, 2019; Amichai Lampert and Tamar Ziegler, 2021] to show that when X̃ is a high rank variety, X̃-quotient Reed-Muller codes inherit the distance and list-decoding parameters from the original Reed-Muller codes.

Cite as

Omri Gotlib, Tali Kaufman, and Shachar Lovett. List Decoding Quotient Reed-Muller Codes. In 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 339, pp. 1:1-1:44, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{gotlib_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2025.1,
  author =	{Gotlib, Omri and Kaufman, Tali and Lovett, Shachar},
  title =	{{List Decoding Quotient Reed-Muller Codes}},
  booktitle =	{40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:44},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-379-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{339},
  editor =	{Srinivasan, Srikanth},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-236957},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Reed-Muller Codes, Quotient Code, Quotient Reed-Muller Code, List Decoding, High Rank Variety, High-Order Fourier Analysis, Error-Correcting Codes}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.23

The Correlated Gaussian Sparse Histogram Mechanism

Authors: Christian Janos Lebeda and Lukas Retschmeier

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 329, 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)

Abstract

We consider the problem of releasing a sparse histogram under (ε, δ)-differential privacy. The stability histogram independently adds noise from a Laplace or Gaussian distribution to the non-zero entries and removes those noisy counts below a threshold. Thereby, the introduction of new non-zero values between neighboring histograms is only revealed with probability at most δ, and typically, the value of the threshold dominates the error of the mechanism. We consider the variant of the stability histogram with Gaussian noise. Recent works ([Joseph and Yu, COLT '24] and [Lebeda, SOSA '25]) reduced the error for private histograms using correlated Gaussian noise. However, these techniques can not be directly applied in the very sparse setting. Instead, we adopt Lebeda’s technique and show that adding correlated noise to the non-zero counts only allows us to reduce the magnitude of noise when we have a sparsity bound. This, in turn, allows us to use a lower threshold by up to a factor of 1/2 compared to the non-correlated noise mechanism. We then extend our mechanism to a setting without a known bound on sparsity. Additionally, we show that correlated noise can give a similar improvement for the more practical discrete Gaussian mechanism.

Cite as

Christian Janos Lebeda and Lukas Retschmeier. The Correlated Gaussian Sparse Histogram Mechanism. In 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 329, pp. 23:1-23:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{lebeda_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2025.23,
  author =	{Lebeda, Christian Janos and Retschmeier, Lukas},
  title =	{{The Correlated Gaussian Sparse Histogram Mechanism}},
  booktitle =	{6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-367-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{329},
  editor =	{Bun, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231503},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: differential privacy, correlated noise, sparse gaussian histograms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.20

Estimating Euclidean Distance to Linearity

Authors: Andrej Bogdanov and Lorenzo Taschin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

Given oracle access to a real-valued function on the n-dimensional Boolean cube, how many queries does it take to estimate the squared Euclidean distance to its closest linear function within ε? Our main result is that O(log³(1/ε) ⋅ 1/ε²) queries suffice. Not only is the query complexity independent of n but it is optimal up to the polylogarithmic factor. Our estimator evaluates f on pairs correlated by noise rates chosen to cancel out the low-degree contributions to f while leaving the linear part intact. The query complexity is optimized when the noise rates are multiples of Chebyshev nodes. In contrast, we show that the dependence on n is unavoidable in two closely related settings. For estimation from random samples, Θ(√n/ε + 1/ε²) samples are necessary and sufficient. For agnostically learning a linear approximation with ε mean-square regret under the uniform distribution, Ω(n/√ε) nonadaptively chosen queries are necessary, while O(n/ε) random samples are known to be sufficient (Linial, Mansour, and Nisan). Our upper bounds apply to functions with bounded 4-norm. Our lower bounds apply even to ± 1-valued functions.

Cite as

Andrej Bogdanov and Lorenzo Taschin. Estimating Euclidean Distance to Linearity. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 20:1-20:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bogdanov_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.20,
  author =	{Bogdanov, Andrej and Taschin, Lorenzo},
  title =	{{Estimating Euclidean Distance to Linearity}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-226481},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: sublinear-time algorithms, statistical estimation, analysis of boolean functions, property testing, regression}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.91

Simple Norm Bounds for Polynomial Random Matrices via Decoupling

Authors: Madhur Tulsiani and June Wu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

We present a new method for obtaining norm bounds for random matrices, where each entry is a low-degree polynomial in an underlying set of independent real-valued random variables. Such matrices arise in a variety of settings in the analysis of spectral and optimization algorithms, which require understanding the spectrum of a random matrix depending on data obtained as independent samples. Using ideas of decoupling and linearization from analysis, we show a simple way of expressing norm bounds for such matrices, in terms of matrices of lower-degree polynomials corresponding to derivatives. Iterating this method gives a simple bound with an elementary proof, which can recover many bounds previously required more involved techniques.

Cite as

Madhur Tulsiani and June Wu. Simple Norm Bounds for Polynomial Random Matrices via Decoupling. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 91:1-91:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{tulsiani_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.91,
  author =	{Tulsiani, Madhur and Wu, June},
  title =	{{Simple Norm Bounds for Polynomial Random Matrices via Decoupling}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{91:1--91:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.91},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227194},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.91},
  annote =	{Keywords: Matrix Concentration, Decoupling, Graph Matrices}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.94

New Direct Sum Tests

Authors: Alek Westover, Edward Yu, and Kai Zhe Zheng

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

A function f:[n]^{d} → 𝔽₂ is a direct sum if there are functions L_i:[n] → 𝔽₂ such that f(x) = ∑_i L_i(x_i). In this work we give multiple results related to the property testing of direct sums. Our first result concerns a test proposed by Dinur and Golubev in [Dinur and Golubev, 2019]. We call their test the Diamond test and show that it is indeed a direct sum tester. More specifically, we show that if a function f is ε-far from being a direct sum function, then the Diamond test rejects f with probability at least Ω_{n,ε}(1). Even in the case of n = 2, the Diamond test is, to the best of our knowledge, novel and yields a new tester for the classic property of affinity. Apart from the Diamond test, we also analyze a broad family of direct sum tests, which at a high level, run an arbitrary affinity test on the restriction of f to a random hypercube inside of [n]^d. This family of tests includes the direct sum test analyzed in [Dinur and Golubev, 2019], but does not include the Diamond test. As an application of our result, we obtain a direct sum test which works in the online adversary model of [Iden Kalemaj et al., 2022]. Finally, we also discuss a Fourier analytic interpretation of the diamond tester in the n = 2 case, as well as prove local correction results for direct sum as conjectured by [Dinur and Golubev, 2019].

Cite as

Alek Westover, Edward Yu, and Kai Zhe Zheng. New Direct Sum Tests. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 94:1-94:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{westover_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.94,
  author =	{Westover, Alek and Yu, Edward and Zheng, Kai Zhe},
  title =	{{New Direct Sum Tests}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{94:1--94:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.94},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227229},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.94},
  annote =	{Keywords: Linearity testing, Direct sum, Grids}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.3

Solving Unique Games over Globally Hypercontractive Graphs

Authors: Mitali Bafna and Dor Minzer

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

We study the complexity of affine Unique-Games (UG) over globally hypercontractive graphs, which are graphs that are not small set expanders but admit a useful and succinct characterization of all small sets that violate the small-set expansion property. This class of graphs includes the Johnson and Grassmann graphs, which have played a pivotal role in recent PCP constructions for UG, and their generalizations via high-dimensional expanders. We show new rounding techniques for higher degree sum-of-squares (SoS) relaxations for worst-case optimization. In particular, our algorithm shows how to round "low-entropy" pseudodistributions, broadly extending the algorithmic framework of [Mitali Bafna et al., 2021]. At a high level, [Mitali Bafna et al., 2021] showed how to round pseudodistributions for problems where there is a "unique" good solution. We extend their framework by exhibiting a rounding for problems where there might be "few good solutions". Our result suggests that UG is easy on globally hypercontractive graphs, and therefore highlights the importance of graphs that lack such a characterization in the context of PCP reductions for UG.

Cite as

Mitali Bafna and Dor Minzer. Solving Unique Games over Globally Hypercontractive Graphs. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 3:1-3:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{bafna_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.3,
  author =	{Bafna, Mitali and Minzer, Dor},
  title =	{{Solving Unique Games over Globally Hypercontractive Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-203996},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: unique games, approximation algorithms}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.20

Optimal Fine-Grained Hardness of Approximation of Linear Equations

Authors: Mitali Bafna and Nikhil Vyas

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

Abstract

The problem of solving linear systems is one of the most fundamental problems in computer science, where given a satisfiable linear system (A,b), for A ∈ ℝ^{n×n} and b ∈ ℝⁿ, we wish to find a vector x ∈ ℝⁿ such that Ax = b. The current best algorithms for solving dense linear systems reduce the problem to matrix multiplication, and run in time O(n^ω). We consider the problem of finding ε-approximate solutions to linear systems with respect to the L₂-norm, that is, given a satisfiable linear system (A ∈ ℝ^{n×n}, b ∈ ℝⁿ), find an x ∈ ℝⁿ such that ||Ax - b||₂ ≤ ε||b||₂. Our main result is a fine-grained reduction from computing the rank of a matrix to finding ε-approximate solutions to linear systems. In particular, if the best known Õ(n^ω) time algorithm for computing the rank of n × O(n) matrices is optimal (which we conjecture is true), then finding an ε-approximate solution to a dense linear system also requires Ω̃(n^ω) time, even for ε as large as (1 - 1/poly(n)). We also prove (under some modified conjectures for the rank-finding problem) optimal hardness of approximation for sparse linear systems, linear systems over positive semidefinite matrices and well-conditioned linear systems. At the heart of our results is a novel reduction from the rank problem to a decision version of the approximate linear systems problem. This reduction preserves properties such as matrix sparsity and bit complexity.

Cite as

Mitali Bafna and Nikhil Vyas. Optimal Fine-Grained Hardness of Approximation of Linear Equations. In 48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 198, pp. 20:1-20:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{bafna_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.20,
  author =	{Bafna, Mitali and Vyas, Nikhil},
  title =	{{Optimal Fine-Grained Hardness of Approximation of Linear Equations}},
  booktitle =	{48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2021)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:19},
  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.2021.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-140894},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2021.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Linear Equations, Fine-Grained Complexity, Hardness of Approximation}
}

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