62 Search Results for "Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis"


Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Suffix Random Access via Function Inversion: A Key for Asymmetric Streaming String Algorithms

Authors: Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Taha El Ghazi, Jonas Ellert, Paweł Gawrychowski, and Tatiana Starikovskaya

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 374, 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)


Abstract
Many string processing problems can be phrased in the streaming setting, where the input arrives symbol by symbol and we have sublinear working space. The area of streaming algorithms for string processing has flourished since the seminal work of Porat and Porat [FOCS 2009]. Unfortunately, problems with efficient solutions in the classical setting often do not admit efficient solutions in the streaming setting. As a bridge between these two settings, Saks and Seshadhri [SODA 2013] introduced the asymmetric streaming model (see also [Andoni, Krauthgamer, and Onak; FOCS 2010]). Here, one is given read-only access to a (typically short) reference string R of length m, while a (typically long) text T arrives as a stream. We provide a generic technique to reduce fundamental string problems in the asymmetric streaming model to the online read-only model, lifting several existing algorithms and generally improving upon the state of the art. Most notably, we obtain asymmetric streaming algorithms for exact and approximate pattern matching (under both the Hamming and edit distances), and for relative Lempel-Ziv compression, a popular scheme for measuring and exploiting redundancy in repetitive text collections. At the heart of our approach lies a novel tool that facilitates efficient computation in the asymmetric streaming model: the suffix random access data structure. In its simplest variant, it maintains constant-time random access to the longest suffix of (the seen prefix of) T that occurs in R. Let τ be a parameter that denotes the size of the data structure. A straightforward approach maintains the data structure in {O}(m/τ) time per arriving symbol of T. We drastically improve this tradeoff and reveal fundamental barriers via a bidirectional reduction between suffix random access and function inversion, a central problem in cryptography: - By leveraging Fiat and Naor’s function inversion data structure [SIAM J. Comput. 2000], we achieve Õ(1+m³/τ⁶) update time. In particular, for τ = √m, we obtain Õ(1) update time, improving over the Ω(√m) bound of the straightforward solution. - We establish an unconditional Ω̃(m/τ³) lower bound on the update time. Additionally, we show that achieving update time o(m³/τ⁷) would imply a breakthrough in function inversion. On the way to our upper bound, we propose a variant of the string synchronizing sets ([Kempa and Kociumaka; STOC 2019]) with a local sparsity condition that, as we show, admits an efficient streaming construction algorithm. We believe that our framework and techniques will find broad applications in the development of small-space string algorithms.

Cite as

Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Taha El Ghazi, Jonas Ellert, Paweł Gawrychowski, and Tatiana Starikovskaya. Suffix Random Access via Function Inversion: A Key for Asymmetric Streaming String Algorithms. In 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 374, pp. 55:1-55:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{charalampopoulos_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.55,
  author =	{Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis and El Ghazi, Taha and Ellert, Jonas and Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Starikovskaya, Tatiana},
  title =	{{Suffix Random Access via Function Inversion: A Key for Asymmetric Streaming String Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)},
  pages =	{55:1--55:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-428-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{374},
  editor =	{Bhattacharya, Sayan and Nanongkai, Danupon and Benedikt, Michael 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.2026.55},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-264440},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.55},
  annote =	{Keywords: streaming algorithms, function inversion, string algorithms}
}
Document
Hamming Distance Oracles

Authors: Itai Boneh, Dvir Fried, Shay Golan, Matan Kraus, and Ely Porat

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
In this paper, we present and study the Hamming distance oracle problem. In this problem, the task is to preprocess two strings S and T of lengths n and m, respectively, to obtain a data structure that is able to return the Hamming distance between a substring of S and a substring of T. For strings over a constant-size alphabet, we show that for every x ≤ min{n,m} there is a data structure with Õ(nm/x) preprocessing time and O(x) query time. We also provide a conditional lower bound, showing that for every ε > 0 there is no combinatorial data structure with query time O(x) and preprocessing time O((nm/x)^{1-ε}) unless combinatorial fast matrix multiplication is possible. For strings over a general alphabet, we present a data structure with Õ(nm/√x) pre-processing time and O(x) query time for every x ≤ min {n,m}. Moreover, for every ε > 0 we provide a data structure with a preprocessing time of Õ((n+m)/ε³) that returns with high probability a (1±ε) approximation of the Hamming distance of two input substrings. The query time of the approximation data structure is Õ(1/ε²).

Cite as

Itai Boneh, Dvir Fried, Shay Golan, Matan Kraus, and Ely Porat. Hamming Distance Oracles. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 1:1-1:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{boneh_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.1,
  author =	{Boneh, Itai and Fried, Dvir and Golan, Shay and Kraus, Matan and Porat, Ely},
  title =	{{Hamming Distance Oracles}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259278},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hamming distance, Fine-grained complexity, Data structure, Oracle}
}
Document
Compact Representation of Maximal Palindromes

Authors: Takuya Mieno

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
Palindromes are strings that read the same forward and backward. The computation of palindromic structures within strings is a fundamental problem in string algorithms, being motivated by potential applications in formal language theory and bioinformatics. Although the number of palindromic factors in a string of length n can be quadratic, they can be implicitly represented in O(n log n) bits of space by storing the lengths of all maximal palindromes in an integer array, which can be computed in O(n) time [Manacher, 1975]. In this paper, we propose a novel O(n)-bit representation of all maximal palindromes in a string, which enables O(1)-time retrieval of the length of the maximal palindrome centered at any given position. The data structure can be constructed in O(n) time from the input string of length n. Since Manacher’s algorithm and the notion of maximal palindromes are widely utilized for solving numerous problems involving palindromic structures, our compact representation will accelerate the development of more space-efficient solutions to such problems. Indeed, as the first application of our compact representation of maximal palindromes, we present a data structure of size O(n) bits that can compute the longest palindrome appearing in any given factor of a string of length n in O(log n) time.

Cite as

Takuya Mieno. Compact Representation of Maximal Palindromes. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 4:1-4:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{mieno:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.4,
  author =	{Mieno, Takuya},
  title =	{{Compact Representation of Maximal Palindromes}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{4:1--4:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259304},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: palindromes, succinct data structures, internal queries}
}
Document
Improved Bounds on the Maximum Number of Distinct Squares in Circular Words

Authors: Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Manal Mohamed, Jakub Radoszewski, Wojciech Rytter, Tomasz Waleń, and Wiktor Zuba

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
We investigate the asymptotic growth of function CS(n), which maps n to the maximum number of distinct squares in a circular word of length n (that is, the maximum number of distinct squares of length at most n in a word ww of length 2n). We improve upon the lower bound of 1.25n established by Amit and Gawrychowski [SPIRE 2017] and the straightforward upper bound of 2n, which follows from the recent result of Brlek and Li [Comb. Theory, 2025] stating that there are fewer than n squares in standard (i.e., non-circular) words of length n. (Previously, Amit and Gawrychowski gave an upper bound of 32/15n using a weaker upper bound on squares in standard words.) Specifically, we show that CS(n) ≤ ⌈1.8 n⌉ and that, for infinitely many n, CS(n) ≥ 1.5n-𝒪(√n). For the lower bound, we exploit the combinatorial structure of Fibonacci words to construct a family of square-rich circular words. For the upper bound, we exploit density properties of the starting positions of long squares, adapting an approach of Amit and Gawrychowski.

Cite as

Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Manal Mohamed, Jakub Radoszewski, Wojciech Rytter, Tomasz Waleń, and Wiktor Zuba. Improved Bounds on the Maximum Number of Distinct Squares in Circular Words. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 6:1-6:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{charalampopoulos_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.6,
  author =	{Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis and Mohamed, Manal and Radoszewski, Jakub and Rytter, Wojciech and Wale\'{n}, Tomasz and Zuba, Wiktor},
  title =	{{Improved Bounds on the Maximum Number of Distinct Squares in Circular Words}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259325},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: circular words, squares, repetitions}
}
Document
Improved Bounds on the Sum of Exponents of Runs in a String

Authors: Arkadiusz Czarkowski

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
A substring of a word is a run if it is at least twice as long as its minimum period and cannot be extended to either side with the same period. The exponent of a run is the quotient of its length and its minimum period. ρ(n) is the maximum number of runs in a string of length n, while σ(n) is the maximum sum of exponents of runs in a string of length n. While quite tight bounds on ρ(n) are known (0.944575712n ≤ ρ(n) ≤ n), the best upper bound on σ(n) is 3n whereas the best lower bound on σ(n) is 2.035n. In this paper, we improve the upper bound on σ(n) to 2.3n and the lower bound on σ(n) to 2.04448n. We also provide an improved upper bound on σ(n) of 2.2n in the case of a binary alphabet. Our results are achieved using a combination of theoretical and computer-based approaches.

Cite as

Arkadiusz Czarkowski. Improved Bounds on the Sum of Exponents of Runs in a String. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 23:1-23:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{czarkowski:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.23,
  author =	{Czarkowski, Arkadiusz},
  title =	{{Improved Bounds on the Sum of Exponents of Runs in a String}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259494},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: strings, runs, sum of exponents of runs, Lyndon words, L-roots, maximal repetitions, combinatorics on words}
}
Document
Longest Common Extension of a Dynamic String in Parallel Constant Time

Authors: Daniel Alexander Albert

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
A longest common extension (LCE) query on a string computes the length of the longest common suffix or prefix at two given positions. A dynamic LCE algorithm maintains a data structure that allows efficient LCE queries on a string that can change via character insertions and deletions. A dynamic parallel constant-time algorithm is presented that can maintain LCE queries on a common CRCW PRAM with 𝒪(n^ε) work, for any ε > 0. The algorithm maintains a string synchronizing sets hierarchy, which it uses to answer substring equality queries, which it in turn uses to answer LCE queries. To achieve constant runtime, the algorithm allows parts of its information to become outdated by up to log n log^* n updates. It answers queries by combining this slightly outdated information with a list of the recent changes. Two applications of this dynamic LCE algorithm are shown. Firstly, a dynamic parallel constant-time algorithm can maintain membership in a Dyck language D_k, k > 0 with 𝒪(n^ε) work for any ε > 0. Secondly, a dynamic parallel constant-time algorithm can maintain squares with 𝒪(n^ε) work for any ε > 0.

Cite as

Daniel Alexander Albert. Longest Common Extension of a Dynamic String in Parallel Constant Time. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 20:1-20:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{albert:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.20,
  author =	{Albert, Daniel Alexander},
  title =	{{Longest Common Extension of a Dynamic String in Parallel Constant Time}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259467},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic Strings, Work, Parallel Constant Time, Longest Common Extension, Longest Common Prefix}
}
Document
Faster Algorithms for Shortest Unique or Absent Substrings

Authors: Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Manal Mohamed, Solon P. Pissis, Hilde Verbeek, and Wiktor Zuba

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 370, 20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026)


Abstract
We revisit two well-known algorithmic problems on strings: computing a shortest unique substring (SUS) and a shortest absent substring (SAS) in a string S of length n. Both problems admit folklore 𝒪(n)-time solutions using the suffix tree of S. However, for small alphabets, this complexity is not necessarily optimal in the word RAM model, where a string of length n over alphabet [0,σ) can be stored in 𝒪(n log σ/log n) space and read in 𝒪(n log σ/log n) time. We present an 𝒪(n log σ/√{log n})-time algorithm for computing a SUS in S. This algorithm decomposes the problem according to the length and the period of the sought substring and uses several tools and techniques, such as synchronizing sets, the analysis of runs, and wavelet trees, to reduce the computation of a SUS to a simple geometric problem. Further, we adapt this algorithm and combine it with an efficient construction of de Bruijn sequences in order to obtain an 𝒪(n log σ/√{log n})-time algorithm for computing a SAS in S.

Cite as

Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Manal Mohamed, Solon P. Pissis, Hilde Verbeek, and Wiktor Zuba. Faster Algorithms for Shortest Unique or Absent Substrings. In 20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 370, pp. 13:1-13:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{charalampopoulos_et_al:LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.13,
  author =	{Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis and Mohamed, Manal and Pissis, Solon P. and Verbeek, Hilde and Zuba, Wiktor},
  title =	{{Faster Algorithms for Shortest Unique or Absent Substrings}},
  booktitle =	{20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-421-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{370},
  editor =	{Fraigniaud, Pierre},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-260493},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: string algorithms, unique substrings, absent substrings, absent words}
}
Document
The Communication Complexity of Pattern Matching with Edits Revisited

Authors: Tomasz Kociumaka, Jakob Nogler, and Philip Wellnitz

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
The decades-old Pattern Matching with Edits problem, given a length-n string T (the text), a length-m string P (the pattern), and a positive integer k (the threshold), asks to list the k-error occurrences of P in T, that is, all fragments of T whose edit distance to P is at most k. The one-way communication complexity of this problem is the minimum number of bits that Alice, given an instance (P,T,k) of the problem, must send to Bob so that Bob can reconstruct the answer solely from that message. In recent work [STOC'24], we showed that, in the natural parameter regime 0 < k < m < n/2, Ω(n/m ⋅ k log(m/k)) bits are necessary and 𝒪(n/m ⋅ k log² m) bits are sufficient for this problem. More generally, for strings over an alphabet Σ, we gave an 𝒪(n/m ⋅ k log m log(m|Σ|))-bit encoding that allows one to recover a shortest sequence of edits for every k-error occurrence of P in T. In this paper, we revisit the original proof and improve the encoding size to 𝒪(n/m ⋅ k log (m|Σ|/k)), which matches the lower bound for constant-sized alphabets. We further establish a new tight lower bound of Ω(n/m ⋅ k log(m|Σ|/k)) for the edit sequence reporting variant we solve. Our encoding size also matches the communication complexity established for the simpler Pattern Matching with Mismatches problem in the context of streaming algorithms [Clifford, Kociumaka, Porat; SODA'19].

Cite as

Tomasz Kociumaka, Jakob Nogler, and Philip Wellnitz. The Communication Complexity of Pattern Matching with Edits Revisited. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 26:1-26:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{kociumaka_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.26,
  author =	{Kociumaka, Tomasz and Nogler, Jakob and Wellnitz, Philip},
  title =	{{The Communication Complexity of Pattern Matching with Edits Revisited}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259525},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Edit distance, Pattern matching, Communication complexity}
}
Document
Exploring the Gap Between LCS and LCStr

Authors: Shay Golan, Matan Kraus, Ely Porat, and B. Riva Shalom

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
The Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) problem and the Longest Common Substring (LCStr) problem are classical string problems with broad theoretical and practical significance. The former has a quadratic conditional lower bound [FOCS, 2015], while the latter admits a linear-time solution. In this paper, we study a natural variation of these problems, the Longest Common Subsequence-Substring (LCSS) problem. The LCSS problem seeks the longest string that is simultaneously a subsequence of one input string and a substring of the other. This variant bridges LCS and LCStr, raising intriguing algorithmic questions: Does the complexity of computing LCSS interpolate between the linear time of LCStr and the quadratic time of LCS? What about approximability? We also examine a natural extension of LCSS to multiple strings, parameterizing the balance between subsequence and substring requirements. Our results reveal several insights. First, under the SETH conjecture, the inherent complexity of LCSS is quadratic, similar to LCS. In contrast, we provide a linear-time approximation for LCSS. Finally, for the multi-string variant, unlike both problems, we design a quadratic-time algorithm, uncovering deeper structural properties of the problem. By studying the complexity of the LCSS problem, we aim to gain some understanding of what influences whether a variant of the LCS problem behaves more like the standard LCS or like LCStr. Our findings suggest that hybrid constraints can create computational "sweet spots," where problems become more tractable than their pure counterparts. This opens a broader research direction in constraint-mediated algorithm design. Beyond LCSS itself, our work highlights unexpected connections between subsequence and substring constraints, advancing the theoretical understanding of string problems and laying the foundation for new algorithmic techniques and complexity-theoretic insights in the rich space between classical string comparison paradigms.

Cite as

Shay Golan, Matan Kraus, Ely Porat, and B. Riva Shalom. Exploring the Gap Between LCS and LCStr. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 27:1-27:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{golan_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.27,
  author =	{Golan, Shay and Kraus, Matan and Porat, Ely and Shalom, B. Riva},
  title =	{{Exploring the Gap Between LCS and LCStr}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259535},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Longest Common Subsequence, Longest Common Substring, Conditional Lower Bound}
}
Document
Periodicity Property Testing on Strings with Wildcards

Authors: Carl Barton, Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Taha El Ghazi, Jonas Ellert, Oded Lachish, and Tatiana Starikovskaya

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)


Abstract
In this work, we study periodicity in strings with wildcards. A string T with at most k wildcards is called strongly (p,k)-periodic if the wildcards in T can be replaced with alphabet symbols to obtain a string with period p, and weakly (p,k)-periodic if T[i] matches T[i+p] for all i. Intuitively, both generalize to (≤ g, k)-periodicity, which is the property of being (p,k)-periodic for some p ∈ [1..g]. An ε-tester for a property 𝒫 is an algorithm that distinguishes between strings that satisfy 𝒫 and strings where one needs to change at least an ε-fraction of the symbols to obtain a string that satisfies 𝒫. We study one-sided error testers, where strings satisfying 𝒫 must always be accepted, while strings that are ε-far must be rejected with probability at least 2/3. The complexity of a tester is the worst-case number of symbols of an input of length n it must read to make the decision. We design the following testers for p,g ≤ n/2: 1) An ε-tester for strong (p,k)-periodicity with complexity Õ_ε(1) . 2) An ε-tester for strong (≤ g,k)-periodicity with complexity Õ_ε(√g). 3) An ε-tester for weak (p,k)-periodicity with complexity Õ_ε(min(k, n /(k+p))). 4) An ε-tester for weak (≤ g,k)-periodicity with complexity Õ_ε(min(k+ √{gk}, n/√k)). Additionally, we show a lower bound on the complexity of ε-testers for weak (≤ g,k)-periodicity, implying that our tester for weak (≤ g,k)-periodicity is optimal up to a multiplicative (ε^{-1} ln(gk))^O(1) factor for a wide range of g and k. Finally, our tester for strong (≤ g,k)-periodicity generalizes the one of [Lachish and Newman; Algorithmica 2011] for strings without wildcards, matching (up to polylogarithmic factors) the unconditional lower bound of ̃Ω(√g) in said work for constant ε.

Cite as

Carl Barton, Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Taha El Ghazi, Jonas Ellert, Oded Lachish, and Tatiana Starikovskaya. Periodicity Property Testing on Strings with Wildcards. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 28:1-28:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{barton_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.28,
  author =	{Barton, Carl and Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis and Ghazi, Taha El and Ellert, Jonas and Lachish, Oded and Starikovskaya, Tatiana},
  title =	{{Periodicity Property Testing on Strings with Wildcards}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259543},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: periodicity, property testing, wildcards}
}
Document
On the Complexity of Language Membership for Probabilistic Words

Authors: Antoine Amarilli, Mikaël Monet, Paul Raphaël, and Sylvain Salvati

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


Abstract
We study the membership problem to context-free languages L (CFLs) on probabilistic words, that specify for each position a probability distribution on the letters (assuming independence across positions). Our task is to compute, given a probabilistic word, what is the probability that a word drawn according to the distribution belongs to L. This problem generalizes the problem of counting how many words of length n belong to L, or of counting how many completions of a partial word belong to L. We show that this problem is in polynomial time for unambiguous context-free languages (uCFLs), but can be #P-hard already for unions of two linear uCFLs. More generally, we show that the problem is in polynomial time for so-called poly-slicewise-unambiguous languages, where given a length n we can tractably compute an uCFL for the words of length n in the language. This class includes some inherently ambiguous languages, and implies the tractability of bounded CFLs and of languages recognized by unambiguous polynomial-time counter automata; but we show that the problem can be #P-hard for nondeterministic counter automata, even for Parikh automata with a single counter. We then introduce classes of circuits from knowledge compilation which we use for tractable counting, and show that this covers the tractability of poly-slicewise-unambiguous languages and of some CFLs that are not poly-slicewise-unambiguous. Extending these circuits with negation further allows us to show tractability for the language of primitive words, and for the language of concatenations of two palindromes. We finally show the conditional undecidability of the meta-problem that asks, given a CFG, whether the probabilistic membership problem for that CFG is tractable or #P-hard.

Cite as

Antoine Amarilli, Mikaël Monet, Paul Raphaël, and Sylvain Salvati. On the Complexity of Language Membership for Probabilistic Words. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 5:1-5:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{amarilli_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.5,
  author =	{Amarilli, Antoine and Monet, Mika\"{e}l and Rapha\"{e}l, Paul and Salvati, Sylvain},
  title =	{{On the Complexity of Language Membership for Probabilistic Words}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:21},
  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.2026.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254943},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Automaton, probabilistic words, context-free grammar, membership problem}
}
Document
Approximate Cartesian Tree Matching with Substitutions

Authors: Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Jonas Ellert, and Manal Mohamed

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


Abstract
The Cartesian tree of a sequence captures the relative order of the sequence’s elements. In recent years, Cartesian tree matching has attracted considerable attention, particularly due to its applications in time series analysis. Consider a text T of length n and a pattern P of length m. In the exact Cartesian tree matching problem, the task is to find all length-m fragments of T whose Cartesian tree coincides with the Cartesian tree CT(P) of the pattern. Although the exact version of the problem can be solved in linear time [Park et al., TCS 2020], it remains rather restrictive; for example, it is not robust to outliers in the pattern. To overcome this limitation, we consider the approximate setting, where the goal is to identify all fragments of T that are close to some string whose Cartesian tree matches CT(P). In this work, we quantify closeness via the widely used Hamming distance metric. For a given integer parameter k > 0, we present an algorithm that computes all fragments of T that are at Hamming distance at most k from a string whose Cartesian tree matches CT(P). Our algorithm runs in time 𝒪(n √m ⋅ k^{2.5}) for k ≤ m^{1/5} and in time 𝒪(nk⁵) for k ≥ m^{1/5}, thereby improving upon the state-of-the-art 𝒪(nmk)-time algorithm of Kim and Han [TCS 2025] in the regime k = o(m^{1/4}). On the way to our solution, we develop a toolbox of independent interest. First, we introduce a new notion of periodicity in Cartesian trees. Then, we lift multiple well-known combinatorial and algorithmic results for string matching and periodicity in strings to Cartesian tree matching and periodicity in Cartesian trees.

Cite as

Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Jonas Ellert, and Manal Mohamed. Approximate Cartesian Tree Matching with Substitutions. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 26:1-26:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{charalampopoulos_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.26,
  author =	{Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis and Ellert, Jonas and Mohamed, Manal},
  title =	{{Approximate Cartesian Tree Matching with Substitutions}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:21},
  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.2026.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255151},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Cartesian tree, Hamming distance, approximate pattern matching}
}
Document
Time-Optimal Construction of String Synchronizing Sets

Authors: Jonas Ellert and Tomasz Kociumaka

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


Abstract
A powerful design principle behind many modern string algorithms is local consistency: breaking the symmetry between string positions based on their small contexts so that matching fragments are handled consistently. Among the most influential instantiations of this principle are string synchronizing sets [Kempa & Kociumaka; STOC 2019]. A τ-synchronizing set of a string of length n is a set of O(n/τ) string positions, chosen using their length-2τ contexts, such that (outside of highly periodic regions) every block of τ consecutive positions contains at least one element of the set. Synchronizing sets have found dozens of applications in diverse settings, from quantum and dynamic algorithms to fully compressed computation. In the classic word RAM model, particularly for strings over small alphabets, they enabled faster solutions to core problems in data compression, text indexing, and string similarity. In this work, we show that any string T ∈ [0 .. σ)ⁿ can be preprocessed in O(n log σ / log n) time so that, for any given integer τ ∈ [1 .. n], a τ-synchronizing set of T can be constructed in O((n log τ)/(τ log n)) time. Both bounds are optimal in the word RAM model with machine word size w = Θ(log n), matching the information-theoretic minimum for the input and output sizes, respectively. Previously, constructing a τ-synchronizing set required O(n/τ) time after an O(n)-time preprocessing [Kociumaka, Radoszewski, Rytter, and Waleń; SICOMP 2024], or, in the restricted regime of τ < 0.2 log_σ n, without any preprocessing needed [Kempa & Kociumaka; STOC 2019]. A simple instantiation of our method outputs the synchronizing set as a sorted list in O(n/τ) time, or as a bitmask in O(n/log n) time. Our optimal construction produces a compact fully indexable dictionary, supporting select queries in O(1) time and rank queries in O(log ((log τ)/(log log n))) time. The latter complexity matches known unconditional cell-probe lower bounds for τ ≤ n^{1-Ω(1)}. To achieve this, we introduce a general framework for efficiently processing sparse integer sequences via a custom variable-length encoding. We also augment the optimal variant of van Emde Boas trees [Pătraşcu & Thorup; STOC 2006] with a deterministic linear-time construction. When the set is represented as a bitmask under our sparse encoding, the same guarantees for select and rank queries hold after preprocessing in time proportional to the size of our encoding (in words).

Cite as

Jonas Ellert and Tomasz Kociumaka. Time-Optimal Construction of String Synchronizing Sets. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 36:1-36:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{ellert_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.36,
  author =	{Ellert, Jonas and Kociumaka, Tomasz},
  title =	{{Time-Optimal Construction of String Synchronizing Sets}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:22},
  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.2026.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255258},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: synchronizing sets, local consistency, packed strings}
}
Document
Dynamic Pattern Matching with Wildcards

Authors: Arshia Ataee Naeini, Amir-Parsa Mobed, Masoud Seddighin, and Saeed Seddighin

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


Abstract
We study the fully dynamic pattern matching problem where the pattern may contain up to k wildcard symbols, each matching any symbol of the alphabet. Both the text and the pattern are subject to updates (insert, delete, change). We design an algorithm with 𝒪(n log² n) preprocessing and update/query time 𝒪̃(kn^{k/{k+1}} + k² log n). The bound is truly sublinear for a constant k, and sublinear when k = o(log n). We further complement our results with a conditional lower bound: assuming subquadratic preprocessing time, achieving truly sublinear update time for the case k = Ω(log n) would contradict the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH). Finally, we develop sublinear algorithms for two special cases: - If the pattern contains w non-wildcard symbols, we give an algorithm with preprocessing time 𝒪(nw) and update time 𝒪(w + log n), which is truly sublinear whenever w is truly sublinear. - Using FFT technique combined with block decomposition, we design a deterministic truly sublinear algorithm with preprocessing time 𝒪(n^{1.8}) and update time 𝒪(n^{0.8} log n) for the case that there are at most two non-wildcards.

Cite as

Arshia Ataee Naeini, Amir-Parsa Mobed, Masoud Seddighin, and Saeed Seddighin. Dynamic Pattern Matching with Wildcards. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 68:1-68:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{naeini_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.68,
  author =	{Naeini, Arshia Ataee and Mobed, Amir-Parsa and Seddighin, Masoud and Seddighin, Saeed},
  title =	{{Dynamic Pattern Matching with Wildcards}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{68:1--68:20},
  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.2026.68},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255579},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.68},
  annote =	{Keywords: pattern matching, wildcards, dynamic algorithms, string algorithms, data structures}
}
Document
Streaming Periodicity with Mismatches, Wildcards, and Edits

Authors: Taha El Ghazi and Tatiana Starikovskaya

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


Abstract
In this work, we study the problem of detecting periodic trends in strings. While detecting exact periodicity has been studied extensively, real-world data is often noisy, where small deviations or mismatches occur between repetitions. This work focuses on a generalized approach to period detection that efficiently handles noise. Given a string S of length n, the task is to identify integers p such that the prefix and the suffix of S, each of length n-p+1, are similar under a given distance measure. Ergün et al. [APPROX-RANDOM 2017] were the first to study this problem in the streaming model under the Hamming distance. In this work, we combine, in a non-trivial way, the Hamming distance sketch of Clifford et al. [SODA 2019] and the structural description of the k-mismatch occurrences of a pattern in a text by Charalampopoulos et al. [FOCS 2020] to present a more efficient streaming algorithm for period detection under the Hamming distance. As a corollary, we derive a streaming algorithm for detecting periods of strings which may contain wildcards, a special symbol that match any character of the alphabet. Our algorithm is not only more efficient than that of Ergün et al. [TCS 2020], but it also operates without their assumption that the string must be free of wildcards in its final characters. Additionally, we introduce the first two-pass streaming algorithm for computing periods under the edit distance by leveraging and extending the Bhattacharya-Koucký’s grammar decomposition technique [STOC 2023].

Cite as

Taha El Ghazi and Tatiana Starikovskaya. Streaming Periodicity with Mismatches, Wildcards, and Edits. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 36:1-36:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{elghazi_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.36,
  author =	{El Ghazi, Taha and Starikovskaya, Tatiana},
  title =	{{Streaming Periodicity with Mismatches, Wildcards, and Edits}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:20},
  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.2025.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249446},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: approximate periods, pattern matching, streaming algorithms}
}
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