22 Search Results for "Bartal, Yair"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.16
To Buy or Not to Buy: Online Rent-Or-Buy on Node-Weighted Graphs

Authors: Sander Borst and Moritz Venzin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)

Abstract
We study the rent-or-buy variant of the online Steiner forest problem on node- and edge-weighted graphs. For n-node graphs with at most ̄{n} nodes of non-zero weight, and at most k̃ different arriving terminal pairs, we obtain the following: - A deterministic, O(log n log ̄{n})-competitive algorithm against adaptive adversaries. This improves on the previous best, O(log⁴ n)-competitive algorithm obtained by the black-box reduction from [Yair Bartal et al., 2001] combined with the previously best deterministic algorithms for the simpler "buy-only" setting. - A deterministic, O(̄{n}log k̃)-competitive algorithm against adaptive adversaries. This generalizes the O(log k̃)-competitive algorithm for the purely edge-weighted setting from [Seeun Umboh, 2015]. - A randomized, O(log k̃ log ̄{n})-competitive algorithm against oblivious adversaries. All previous approaches were based on the randomized, black-box reduction from [Awerbuch et al., 2004] that achieves a O(log k̃ log n)-competitive ratio when combined with an algorithm for the "buy-only" setting. Our key technical ingredient is a novel charging scheme to an instance of online prize-collecting set cover. This allows us to extend the witness-technique of [Seeun Umboh, 2015] to the node-weighted setting and obtain refined guarantees with respect to ̄{n}, already in the much simpler "buy-only" setting.
Cite as

Sander Borst and Moritz Venzin. To Buy or Not to Buy: Online Rent-Or-Buy on Node-Weighted Graphs. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 16:1-16:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{borst_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.16,
  author =	{Borst, Sander and Venzin, Moritz},
  title =	{{To Buy or Not to Buy: Online Rent-Or-Buy on Node-Weighted Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255054},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: online network design, node-weighted Steiner forest, derandomization}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45
Fairness in the k-Server Problem

Authors: Mohammadreza Daneshvaramoli, Mohammad Hajiesmaili, Shahin Kamali, Helia Karisani, and Cameron Musco

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

Abstract
We initiate a formal study of fairness for the k-server problem, where the objective is not only to minimize the total movement cost, but also to distribute the cost equitably among servers. We first define a general notion of (α,β)-fairness, where, for parameters α ≥ 1 and β ≥ 0, no server incurs more than an α/k-fraction of the total cost plus an additive term β. We then show that fairness can be achieved without a loss in competitiveness in both the offline and online settings. In the offline setting, we give a deterministic algorithm that, for any ε > 0, transforms any optimal solution into an (α,β)-fair solution for α = 1 + ε and β = O(diam ⋅ log k / ε), while increasing the cost of the solution by just an additive O(diam ⋅ k log k / ε) term. Here diam is the diameter of the underlying metric space. We give a similar result in the online setting, showing that any competitive algorithm can be transformed into a randomized online algorithm that is fair with high probability against an oblivious adversary and still competitive up to a small loss. The above results leave open a significant question: can fairness be achieved in the online setting, either with a deterministic algorithm or a randomized algorithm, against a fully adaptive adversary? We make progress towards answering this question, showing that the classic deterministic Double Coverage Algorithm (DCA) is fair on line metrics and on tree metrics when k = 2. However, we also show a negative result: DCA fails to be fair for any non-vacuous parameters on general tree metrics. We further show that on uniform metrics (i.e., the paging problem), the deterministic First-In First-Out (FIFO) algorithm is fair. We show that any "marking algorithm", including the Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm, also satisfies a weaker, but still meaningful notion of fairness.
Cite as

Mohammadreza Daneshvaramoli, Mohammad Hajiesmaili, Shahin Kamali, Helia Karisani, and Cameron Musco. Fairness in the k-Server Problem. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 45:1-45:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{daneshvaramoli_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45,
  author =	{Daneshvaramoli, Mohammadreza and Hajiesmaili, Mohammad and Kamali, Shahin and Karisani, Helia and Musco, Cameron},
  title =	{{Fairness in the k-Server Problem}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{45:1--45:21},
  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.2026.45},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253328},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45},
  annote =	{Keywords: k-server problem, online algorithms, fairness, competitive analysis}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82
Dimension Reduction for Clustering: The Curious Case of Discrete Centers

Authors: Shaofeng H.-C. Jiang, Robert Krauthgamer, Shay Sapir, Sandeep Silwal, and Di Yue

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

Abstract
The Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform is a fundamental method for dimension reduction in Euclidean spaces, that can map any dataset of n points into dimension O(log n) with low distortion of their distances. This dimension bound is tight in general, but one can bypass it for specific problems. Indeed, tremendous progress has been made for clustering problems, especially in the continuous setting where centers can be picked from the ambient space ℝ^d. Most notably, for k-median and k-means, the dimension bound was improved to O(log k) [Makarychev, Makarychev and Razenshteyn, STOC 2019]. We explore dimension reduction for clustering in the discrete setting, where centers can only be picked from the dataset, and present two results that are both parameterized by the doubling dimension of the dataset, denoted as ddim. The first result shows that dimension O_{ε}(ddim + log k + log log n) suffices, and is moreover tight, to guarantee that the cost is preserved within factor 1±ε for every set of centers. Our second result eliminates the log log n term in the dimension through a relaxation of the guarantee (namely, preserving the cost only for all approximately-optimal sets of centers), which maintains its usefulness for downstream applications. Overall, we achieve strong dimension reduction in the discrete setting, and find that it differs from the continuous setting not only in the dimension bound, which depends on the doubling dimension, but also in the guarantees beyond preserving the optimal value, such as which clusterings are preserved.
Cite as

Shaofeng H.-C. Jiang, Robert Krauthgamer, Shay Sapir, Sandeep Silwal, and Di Yue. Dimension Reduction for Clustering: The Curious Case of Discrete Centers. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 82:1-82:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{jiang_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82,
  author =	{Jiang, Shaofeng H.-C. and Krauthgamer, Robert and Sapir, Shay and Silwal, Sandeep and Yue, Di},
  title =	{{Dimension Reduction for Clustering: The Curious Case of Discrete Centers}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{82:1--82:23},
  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.2026.82},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253698},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82},
  annote =	{Keywords: dimension reduction, clustering, k-median, k-means, doubling dimension}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38
Lower Bounds on Tree Covers

Authors: Yu Chen, Zihan Tan, and Hangyu Xu

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

Abstract
Given an n-point metric space (X,d_X), a tree cover 𝒯 is a set of |𝒯| = k trees on X such that every pair of vertices in X has a low-distortion path in one of the trees in 𝒯. Tree covers have been playing a crucial role in graph algorithms for decades, and the research focus is the construction of tree covers with small size k and distortion. When k = 1, the best distortion is known to be Θ(n). For a constant k ≥ 2, the best distortion upper bound is Õ(n^{1/k}) and the strongest lower bound is Ω(log_k n), leaving a gap to be closed. In this paper, we improve the lower bound to Ω(n^{1/(2^{k-1)}}). Our proof is a novel analysis on a structurally simple grid-like graph, which utilizes some combinatorial fixed-point theorems. We believe that they will prove useful for analyzing other tree-like data structures as well.
Cite as

Yu Chen, Zihan Tan, and Hangyu Xu. Lower Bounds on Tree Covers. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 38:1-38:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38,
  author =	{Chen, Yu and Tan, Zihan and Xu, Hangyu},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds on Tree Covers}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:16},
  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.2026.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253254},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: Tree Covers, Combinatorial Fixed-Point Theorems}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.46
Realizing Metric Spaces with Convex Obstacles

Authors: Sándor Kisfaludi-Bak and Leonidas Theocharous

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract
The presence of obstacles has a significant impact on distance computation, motion-planning, and visibility. These problems have been studied extensively in the planar setting, while our understanding of these problems in 3- and higher-dimensional spaces is still rudimentary. In this paper, we study the impact of different types of obstacles on the induced geodesic metric in 3-dimensional Euclidean space. We say that a finite metric space (X, dist_X) is approximately realizable by a collection 𝒯 of obstacles in ℝ³ if for any ε > 0 it can be embedded into (ℝ³⧵⋃_{T∈𝒯} T, dist_𝒯) with worst-case multiplicative distortion 1+ε, where dist_𝒯 denotes the geodesic distance in the free space induced by 𝒯. We focus on three key geometric properties of obstacles -convexity, disjointness, and fatness- and examine how dropping each one of them affects the existence of such embeddings. Our main result concerns dropping the fatness property: we demonstrate that any finite metric space is realizable with 1+ε worst-case multiplicative distortion using a collection of convex and pairwise disjoint obstacles in ℝ³, even if the obstacles are congruent and equilateral triangles. Based on the same construction, we can also show that if we require fatness but drop any of the other two properties instead, then we can still approximately realize any finite metric space. Our results have important implications on the approximability of tsp with obstacles, a natural variant of tsp introduced recently by Alkema et al. (ESA 2022). Specifically, we use the recent results of Banerjee et al. on tsp in doubling spaces (FOCS 2024) and of Chew et al. on distances among obstacles (Inf. Process. Lett. 2002) to show that tsp with obstacles admits a PTAS if the obstacles are convex, fat, and pairwise disjoint. If any of these three properties is dropped, then our results, combined with the APX-hardness of Metric tsp, demonstrate that tsp with obstacles is APX-hard.
Cite as

Sándor Kisfaludi-Bak and Leonidas Theocharous. Realizing Metric Spaces with Convex Obstacles. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 46:1-46:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kisfaludibak_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.46,
  author =	{Kisfaludi-Bak, S\'{a}ndor and Theocharous, Leonidas},
  title =	{{Realizing Metric Spaces with Convex Obstacles}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{46:1--46:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.46},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249545},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.46},
  annote =	{Keywords: traveling salesman, geodesic distance}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.32
Time-Optimal k-Server

Authors: Fabian Frei, Dennis Komm, Moritz Stocker, and Philip Whittington

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract
The time-optimal k-server problem minimizes the time spent instead of the distance traveled when serving n requests, appearing one after the other, with k servers in a metric space. The classical distance model was motivated by a hard disk with k heads. Instead of minimal head movements, the time model aims for optimal reading speeds. This paper provides a lower bound of 2k-1 on the competitive ratio of any deterministic online algorithm for the time-optimal k-server problem on a specifically designed metric space. This lower bound coincides with the best known upper bound on the competitive ratio for the classical k-server problem, achieved by the famous work function algorithm. We provide further lower bounds of k+1 for all Euclidean spaces and k for uniform metric spaces. Our most technical result, proven by applying Yao’s principle to a suitable instance distribution, is a lower bound of k+H_k-1 that holds even for randomized algorithms, which contrasts with the best known lower bound for the classical problem, which is polylogarithmic in k. We hope to initiate further intensive study of this natural problem.
Cite as

Fabian Frei, Dennis Komm, Moritz Stocker, and Philip Whittington. Time-Optimal k-Server. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 32:1-32:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{frei_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.32,
  author =	{Frei, Fabian and Komm, Dennis and Stocker, Moritz and Whittington, Philip},
  title =	{{Time-Optimal k-Server}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{32:1--32:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.32},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249407},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.32},
  annote =	{Keywords: k-server problem, optimizing time instead of distance, deterministic and randomized algorithms, Yao’s principle}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115
Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems

Authors: Christian Coester and Jack Umenberger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract
We study three classical online problems - k-server, k-taxi, and chasing size k sets - through a lens of smoothed analysis. Our setting allows request locations to be adversarial up to small perturbations, interpolating between worst-case and average-case models. Specifically, we show that if the metric space is contained in a ball in any normed space and requests are drawn from distributions whose density functions are upper bounded by 1/σ times the uniform density over the ball, then all three problems admit polylog(k/σ)-competitive algorithms. Our approach is simple: it reduces smoothed instances to fully adversarial instances on finite metrics and leverages existing algorithms in a black-box manner. We also provide a lower bound showing that no algorithm can achieve a competitive ratio sub-polylogarithmic in k/σ, matching our upper bounds up to the exponent of the polylogarithm. In contrast, the best known competitive ratios for these problems in the fully adversarial setting are 2k-1, ∞ and Θ(k²), respectively.
Cite as

Christian Coester and Jack Umenberger. Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 115:1-115:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{coester_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115,
  author =	{Coester, Christian and Umenberger, Jack},
  title =	{{Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{115:1--115:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245847},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115},
  annote =	{Keywords: Online Algorithms, Competitive Analysis, Smoothed Analysis, k-server, k-taxi, Metrical Service Systems}
}
Document
APPROX
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.1
Approximation Schemes for Orienteering and Deadline TSP in Doubling Metrics

Authors: Kinter Ren and Mohammad R. Salavatipour

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

Abstract
In this paper we look at various extensions of the classic Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) on graphs with bounded doubling dimension and bounded treewidth and present approximation schemes for them. Suppose we are given a weighted graph G = (V,E) with a start node s ∈ V, distances on the edges d:E → ℚ^+ and integer k. In k-stroll problem the goal is to find a path from s of minimum length that visits at least k vertices. In k-path we are given an additional end node t ∈ V and the path is supposed to go from s to t. The dual problem to k-stroll is the rooted orienteering in which instead of k we are given a budget B and the goal is to find a walk of length at most B starting at s that visits as many vertices as possible. In the point-to-point orienteering (P2P orienteering) we are given start and end nodes s,t and the walk is supposed to start at s and end at t. In the deadline TSP (which generalizes P2P orienteering) we are given a deadline D(v) for each v ∈ V and the goal is to find a walk starting at s that visits as many vertices as possible before their deadline (where the visit time of a node is the distance travelled from s to that node). The best approximation for rooted orienteering (or P2P orienteering) is (2+ε)-approximation [Chekuri et al., 2012] and O(log n)-approximation for deadline TSP [Nikhil Bansal et al., 2004]. For Euclidean metrics of fixed dimension, Chen and Har-Peled present [Chen and Har-Peled, 2008] a PTAS for rooted orienteering. There is no known approximation scheme for deadline TSP for any metric (not even trees). Our main result is the first approximation scheme for deadline TSP on metrics with bounded doubling dimension (which includes Euclidean metrics). To do so we first we present a quasi-polynomial time approximation scheme for k-path and P2P orienteering on such metrics. More specifically, if G is a metric with doubling dimension κ and aspect ratio Δ, we present a (1+ε)-approximation that runs in time n^{O((logΔ/ε) ^{2κ+1})}. Building upon these, we obtain an approximation scheme for deadline TSP when the distances and deadlines are integer which runs in time n^{O((log Δ/ε) ^{2κ+2})}. The same approach also implies a bicriteria (1+ε,1+ε)-approximation for deadline TSP for when distances and deadlines are in ℚ^+. For graphs with bounded treewidth ω we show how to solve k-path and P2P orienteering exactly in polynomial time and a (1+ε)-approximation for deadline TSP in time n^O((ωlogΔ/ε)²).
Cite as

Kinter Ren and Mohammad R. Salavatipour. Approximation Schemes for Orienteering and Deadline TSP in Doubling Metrics. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 1:1-1:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{ren_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.1,
  author =	{Ren, Kinter and Salavatipour, Mohammad R.},
  title =	{{Approximation Schemes for Orienteering and Deadline TSP in Doubling Metrics}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:22},
  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.2025.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243678},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Deadline Traveling Salesman Problem, Orienteering, Doubling Metrics, Approximation algorithm}
}
Document
APPROX
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.23
Improved FPT Approximation for Sum of Radii Clustering with Mergeable Constraints

Authors: Sayan Bandyapadhyay and Tianzhi Chen

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

Abstract
In this work, we study k-min-sum-of-radii (k-MSR) clustering under mergeable constraints. k-MSR seeks to group data points using a set of up to k balls, such that the sum of the radii of the balls is minimized. A clustering constraint is called mergeable if merging two clusters satisfying the constraint, results in a cluster that also satisfies the constraint. Many popularly studied constraints are mergeable, including fairness constraints and lower bound constraints. In our work, we design a (4+ε)-approximation for k-MSR under any given mergeable constraint with runtime 2^{O(k/(ε)⋅log²k/ε)} n⁴, i.e., fixed-parameter tractable in k for constant ε. Our result directly improves upon the FPT (6+ε)-approximation by Carta et al. [Carta et al., 2024]. We also provide a hardness result that excludes the exact solvability of k-MSR under any given mergeable constraint in time f(k)n^o(k), assuming ETH is true.
Cite as

Sayan Bandyapadhyay and Tianzhi Chen. Improved FPT Approximation for Sum of Radii Clustering with Mergeable Constraints. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 23:1-23:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bandyapadhyay_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.23,
  author =	{Bandyapadhyay, Sayan and Chen, Tianzhi},
  title =	{{Improved FPT Approximation for Sum of Radii Clustering with Mergeable Constraints}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:17},
  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.2025.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243894},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: sum-of-radii clustering, mergeable constraints, approximation algorithm}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.75
Temporal Graph Realization with Bounded Stretch

Authors: George B. Mertzios, Hendrik Molter, Nils Morawietz, and Paul G. Spirakis

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)

Abstract
A periodic temporal graph, in its simplest form, is a graph in which every edge appears exactly once in the first Δ time steps, and then it reappears recurrently every Δ time steps, where Δ is a given period length. This model offers a natural abstraction of transportation networks where each transportation link connects two destinations periodically. From a network design perspective, a crucial task is to assign the time-labels on the edges in a way that optimizes some criterion. In this paper we introduce a very natural optimality criterion that captures how the temporal distances of all vertex pairs are "stretched", compared to their physical distances, i.e. their distances in the underlying static (non-temporal) graph. Given a static graph G, the task is to assign to each edge one time-label between 1 and Δ such that, in the resulting periodic temporal graph with period Δ, the duration of the fastest temporal path from any vertex u to any other vertex v is at most α times the distance between u and v in G. Here, the value of α measures how much the shortest paths are allowed to be stretched once we assign the periodic time-labels. Our results span three different directions: First, we provide a series of approximation and NP-hardness results. Second, we provide approximation and fixed-parameter algorithms. Among them, we provide a simple polynomial-time algorithm (the radius-algorithm) which always guarantees an approximation strictly smaller than Δ, and which also computes the optimum stretch in some cases. Third, we consider a parameterized local search extension of the problem where we are given the temporal labeling of the graph, but we are allowed to change the time-labels of at most k edges; for this problem we prove that it is W[2]-hard but admits an XP algorithm with respect to k.
Cite as

George B. Mertzios, Hendrik Molter, Nils Morawietz, and Paul G. Spirakis. Temporal Graph Realization with Bounded Stretch. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 75:1-75:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{mertzios_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.75,
  author =	{Mertzios, George B. and Molter, Hendrik and Morawietz, Nils and Spirakis, Paul G.},
  title =	{{Temporal Graph Realization with Bounded Stretch}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{75:1--75:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.75},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-241829},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.75},
  annote =	{Keywords: Temporal graph, periodic temporal labeling, fastest temporal path, graph realization, temporal connectivity, stretch}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30
Light Spanners with Small Hop-Diameter

Authors: Sujoy Bhore and Lazar Milenković

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
Lightness, sparsity, and hop-diameter are the fundamental parameters of geometric spanners. Arya et al. [STOC'95] showed in their seminal work that there exists a construction of Euclidean (1+ε)-spanners with hop-diameter O(log n) and lightness O(log n). They also gave a general tradeoff of hop-diameter k and sparsity O(α_k(n)), where α_k is a very slowly growing inverse of an Ackermann-style function. The former combination of logarithmic hop-diameter and lightness is optimal due to the lower bound by Dinitz et al. [FOCS'08]. Later, Elkin and Solomon [STOC'13] generalized the light spanner construction to doubling metrics and extended the tradeoff for more values of hop-diameter k. In a recent line of work [SoCG'22, SoCG'23], Le et al. proved that the aforementioned tradeoff between the hop-diameter and sparsity is tight for every choice of hop-diameter k. A fundamental question remains: What is the optimal tradeoff between the hop-diameter and lightness for every value of k? In this paper, we present a general framework for constructing light spanners with small hop-diameter. Our framework is based on tree covers. In particular, we show that if a metric admits a tree cover with γ trees, stretch t, and lightness L, then it also admits a t-spanner with hop-diameter k and lightness O(kn^{2/k}⋅ γ L). Further, we note that the tradeoff for trees is tight due to a construction in uniform line metric, which is perhaps the simplest tree metric. As a direct consequence of this framework, we obtain new tradeoffs between lightness and hop-diameter for doubling metrics.
Cite as

Sujoy Bhore and Lazar Milenković. Light Spanners with Small Hop-Diameter. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 30:1-30:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bhore_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30,
  author =	{Bhore, Sujoy and Milenkovi\'{c}, Lazar},
  title =	{{Light Spanners with Small Hop-Diameter}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l 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.2025.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234075},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geometric Spanners, Lightness, Hop-Diameter, Recurrences, Lower Bounds}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35
Near-Optimal Directed Low-Diameter Decompositions

Authors: Karl Bringmann, Nick Fischer, Bernhard Haeupler, and Rustam Latypov

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
Low Diameter Decompositions (LDDs) are invaluable tools in the design of combinatorial graph algorithms. While historically they have been applied mainly to undirected graphs, in the recent breakthrough for the negative-length Single Source Shortest Path problem, Bernstein, Nanongkai, and Wulff-Nilsen [FOCS '22] extended the use of LDDs to directed graphs for the first time. Specifically, their LDD deletes each edge with probability at most O(1/D ⋅ log²n), while ensuring that each strongly connected component in the remaining graph has a (weak) diameter of at most D. In this work, we make further advancements in the study of directed LDDs. We reveal a natural and intuitive (in hindsight) connection to Expander Decompositions, and leveraging this connection along with additional techniques, we establish the existence of an LDD with an edge-cutting probability of O(1/D ⋅ log n log log n). This improves the previous bound by nearly a logarithmic factor and closely approaches the lower bound of Ω(1/D ⋅ log n). With significantly more technical effort, we also develop two efficient algorithms for computing our LDDs: a deterministic algorithm that runs in time Õ(m poly(D)) and a randomized algorithm that runs in near-linear time Õ(m). We believe that our work provides a solid conceptual and technical foundation for future research relying on directed LDDs, which will undoubtedly follow soon.
Cite as

Karl Bringmann, Nick Fischer, Bernhard Haeupler, and Rustam Latypov. Near-Optimal Directed Low-Diameter Decompositions. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 35:1-35:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bringmann_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35,
  author =	{Bringmann, Karl and Fischer, Nick and Haeupler, Bernhard and Latypov, Rustam},
  title =	{{Near-Optimal Directed Low-Diameter Decompositions}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{35:1--35:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l 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.2025.35},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234125},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35},
  annote =	{Keywords: Low Diameter Decompositions, Expander Decompositions, Directed Graphs}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.62
On Approximability of 𝓁₂² Min-Sum Clustering

Authors: Karthik C. S., Euiwoong Lee, Yuval Rabani, Chris Schwiegelshohn, and Samson Zhou

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
The 𝓁₂² min-sum k-clustering problem is to partition an input set into clusters C_1,…,C_k to minimize ∑_{i=1}^k ∑_{p,q ∈ C_i} ‖p-q‖₂². Although 𝓁₂² min-sum k-clustering is NP-hard, it is not known whether it is NP-hard to approximate 𝓁₂² min-sum k-clustering beyond a certain factor. In this paper, we give the first hardness-of-approximation result for the 𝓁₂² min-sum k-clustering problem. We show that it is NP-hard to approximate the objective to a factor better than 1.056 and moreover, assuming a balanced variant of the Johnson Coverage Hypothesis, it is NP-hard to approximate the objective to a factor better than 1.327. We then complement our hardness result by giving a fast PTAS for 𝓁₂² min-sum k-clustering. Specifically, our algorithm runs in time O(n^{1+o(1)}d⋅ 2^{(k/ε)^O(1)}), which is the first nearly linear time algorithm for this problem. We also consider a learning-augmented setting, where the algorithm has access to an oracle that outputs a label i ∈ [k] for input point, thereby implicitly partitioning the input dataset into k clusters that induce an approximately optimal solution, up to some amount of adversarial error α ∈ [0,1/2). We give a polynomial-time algorithm that outputs a (1+γα)/(1-α)²-approximation to 𝓁₂² min-sum k-clustering, for a fixed constant γ > 0.
Cite as

Karthik C. S., Euiwoong Lee, Yuval Rabani, Chris Schwiegelshohn, and Samson Zhou. On Approximability of 𝓁₂² Min-Sum Clustering. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 62:1-62:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{karthikc.s._et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.62,
  author =	{Karthik C. S. and Lee, Euiwoong and Rabani, Yuval and Schwiegelshohn, Chris and Zhou, Samson},
  title =	{{On Approximability of 𝓁₂² Min-Sum Clustering}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{62:1--62:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-370-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{332},
  editor =	{Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.62},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232142},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.62},
  annote =	{Keywords: Clustering, hardness of approximation, polynomial-time approximation schemes, learning-augmented algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66
Lipschitz Decompositions of Finite 𝓁_{p} Metrics

Authors: Robert Krauthgamer and Nir Petruschka

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
Lipschitz decomposition is a useful tool in the design of efficient algorithms involving metric spaces. While many bounds are known for different families of finite metrics, the optimal parameters for n-point subsets of 𝓁_p, for p > 2, remained open, see e.g. [Naor, SODA 2017]. We make significant progress on this question and establish the bound β = O(log^{1-1/p} n). Building on prior work, we demonstrate applications of this result to two problems, high-dimensional geometric spanners and distance labeling schemes. In addition, we sharpen a related decomposition bound for 1 < p < 2, due to Filtser and Neiman [Algorithmica 2022].
Cite as

Robert Krauthgamer and Nir Petruschka. Lipschitz Decompositions of Finite 𝓁_{p} Metrics. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 66:1-66:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{krauthgamer_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66,
  author =	{Krauthgamer, Robert and Petruschka, Nir},
  title =	{{Lipschitz Decompositions of Finite 𝓁\underline\{p\} Metrics}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{66:1--66:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-370-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{332},
  editor =	{Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232182},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.66},
  annote =	{Keywords: Lipschitz decompositions, metric embeddings, geometric spanners}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49
On Sparse Covers of Minor Free Graphs, Low Dimensional Metric Embeddings, and Other Applications

Authors: Arnold Filtser

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
Given a metric space (X,d_X), a (β,s,Δ)-sparse cover is a collection of clusters 𝒞 ⊆ P(X) with diameter at most Δ, such that for every point x ∈ X, the ball B_X(x,Δ/β) is fully contained in some cluster C ∈ 𝒞, and x belongs to at most s clusters in 𝒞. Our main contribution is to show that the shortest path metric of every K_r-minor free graphs admits (O(r),O(r²),Δ)-sparse cover, and for every ε > 0, (4+ε,O(1/ε)^r,Δ)-sparse cover (for arbitrary Δ > 0). We then use this sparse cover to show that every K_r-minor free graph embeds into 𝓁_∞^{Õ(1/ε)^{r+1}⋅log n} with distortion 3+ε (resp. into 𝓁_∞^{Õ(r²)⋅log n} with distortion O(r)). Further, among other applications, this sparse cover immediately implies an algorithm for the oblivious buy-at-bulk problem in fixed minor free graphs with the tight approximation factor O(log n) (previously nothing beyond general graphs was known).
Cite as

Arnold Filtser. On Sparse Covers of Minor Free Graphs, Low Dimensional Metric Embeddings, and Other Applications. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 49:1-49:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{filtser:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49,
  author =	{Filtser, Arnold},
  title =	{{On Sparse Covers of Minor Free Graphs, Low Dimensional Metric Embeddings, and Other Applications}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{49:1--49:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-370-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{332},
  editor =	{Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232015},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sparse cover, minor free graphs, metric embeddings, 𝓁\underline∞, oblivious buy-at-bulk}
}
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