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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.51

Near-Optimal Sparsifiers for Stochastic Knapsack and Assignment Problems

Authors: Shaddin Dughmi, Yusuf Hakan Kalayci, and Xinyu Liu

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

Abstract

When uncertainty meets costly information gathering, a fundamental question emerges: which data points should we probe to unlock near-optimal solutions? Sparsification of stochastic packing problems addresses this trade-off. The existing notions of sparsification measure the level of sparsity, called degree, as the ratio of queried items to the optimal solution size. While effective for matching and matroid-type problems with uniform structures, this cardinality-based approach fails for knapsack-type constraints where feasible sets exhibit dramatic structural variation. We introduce a polyhedral sparsification framework that measures the degree as the smallest scalar needed to embed the query set within a scaled feasibility polytope, naturally capturing redundancy without relying on cardinality. Our main contribution establishes that knapsack, multiple knapsack, and generalized assignment problems admit (1-ε)-approximate sparsifiers with degree polynomial in 1/p and 1/ε - where p denotes the independent activation probability of each element - remarkably independent of problem dimensions. The key insight involves grouping items with similar weights and deploying a charging argument: when our query set misses an optimal item, we either substitute it directly with a queried item from the same group or leverage that group’s excess contribution to compensate for the loss. This reveals an intriguing complexity-theoretic separation - while the multiple knapsack problem lacks an FPTAS and generalized assignment is APX-hard, their sparsification counterparts admit efficient (1-ε)-approximation algorithms that identify polynomial degree query sets. Finally, we raise an open question: can such sparsification extend to general integer linear programs with degree independent of problem dimensions?

Cite as

Shaddin Dughmi, Yusuf Hakan Kalayci, and Xinyu Liu. Near-Optimal Sparsifiers for Stochastic Knapsack and Assignment Problems. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 51:1-51:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{dughmi_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.51,
  author =	{Dughmi, Shaddin and Kalayci, Yusuf Hakan and Liu, Xinyu},
  title =	{{Near-Optimal Sparsifiers for Stochastic Knapsack and Assignment Problems}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{51:1--51:22},
  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.2026.51},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253386},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.51},
  annote =	{Keywords: Packing Problems, Assignment Problems, Stochastic Selection, Sparsification}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.102

Smoothed Analysis of Dynamic Graph Algorithms

Authors: Uri Meir and Ami Paz

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

Abstract

Recent years have seen significant progress in the study of dynamic graph algorithms, and most notably, the introduction of strong lower bound techniques for them (e.g., Henzinger, Krinninger, Nanongkai and Saranurak, STOC 2015; Larsen and Yu, FOCS 2023). As worst-case analysis (adversarial inputs) may lead to the necessity of high running times, a natural question arises: in which cases are high running times really necessary, and in which cases these inputs merely manifest unique pathological cases? Early attempts to tackle this question were made by Nikoletseas, Reif, Spirakis and Yung (ICALP 1995) and by Alberts and Henzinger (Algorithmica 1998), who considered models with very little adversarial control over the inputs, and showed fast algorithms exist for them. The question was then overlooked for decades, until Henzinger, Lincoln and Saha (SODA 2022) recently addressed uniformly random inputs, and presented algorithms and impossibility results for several subgraph counting problems. To tackle the above question more thoroughly, we employ smoothed analysis, a celebrated framework introduced by Spielman and Teng (J. ACM, 2004). An input is proposed by an adversary but then a noisy version of it is processed by the algorithm instead. This model of inputs is parameterized by the amount of adversarial control, and fully interpolates between worst-case inputs and a uniformly random input. Doing so, we extend impossibility results for some problems to the smoothed model with only a minor quantitative loss. That is, we show that partially-adversarial inputs suffice to impose high running times for certain problems. In contrast, we show that other problems become easy even with the slightest amount of noise. In addition, we study the interplay between the adversary and the noise, leading to three natural models of smoothed inputs, for which we show a hierarchy of increasing difficulty stretching between the average-case and the worst-case complexities.

Cite as

Uri Meir and Ami Paz. Smoothed Analysis of Dynamic Graph Algorithms. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 102:1-102:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{meir_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.102,
  author =	{Meir, Uri and Paz, Ami},
  title =	{{Smoothed Analysis of Dynamic Graph Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{102:1--102:20},
  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.2026.102},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253896},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.102},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic graph algorithms, Smoothed analysis, Shortest paths}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.22

Simplicial Covering Dimension of Extremal Concept Classes

Authors: Ari Blondal, Hamed Hatami, Pooya Hatami, Chavdar Lalov, and Sivan Tretiak

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

Abstract

Dimension theory is a branch of topology concerned with defining and analyzing dimensions of geometric and topological spaces in purely topological terms. In this work, we adapt the classical notion of topological dimension (Lebesgue covering) to binary concept classes. The topological space naturally associated with a concept class is its space of realizable distributions. The loss function and the class itself induce a simplicial structure on this space, with respect to which we define a simplicial covering dimension. We prove that for finite concept classes, this simplicial covering dimension exactly characterizes the list replicability number (equivalently, global stability) in PAC learning. This connection allows us to apply tools from classical dimension theory to compute the exact list replicability number of the broad family of extremal concept classes.

Cite as

Ari Blondal, Hamed Hatami, Pooya Hatami, Chavdar Lalov, and Sivan Tretiak. Simplicial Covering Dimension of Extremal Concept Classes. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 22:1-22:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{blondal_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.22,
  author =	{Blondal, Ari and Hatami, Hamed and Hatami, Pooya and Lalov, Chavdar and Tretiak, Sivan},
  title =	{{Simplicial Covering Dimension of Extremal Concept Classes}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:24},
  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.2026.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253094},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: PAC Learning, Extremal Concept Classes, Replicability, List Replicability, Topology, Geometry}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.94

Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Matching with a Single Sample: Beyond Metric Distortion

Authors: Yingxi Li, Ellen Vitercik, and Mingwei Yang

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

Abstract

In the online metric matching problem, n servers and n requests lie in a metric space. Servers are available upfront, and requests arrive sequentially. An arriving request must be matched immediately and irrevocably to an available server, incurring a cost equal to their distance. The goal is to minimize the total matching cost. We study this problem in [0, 1]^d with the Euclidean metric, when servers are adversarial and requests are independently drawn from distinct distributions that satisfy a mild smoothness condition. Our main result is an O(1)-competitive algorithm for d ≠ 2 that requires no distributional knowledge, relying only on a single sample from each request distribution. To our knowledge, this is the first algorithm to achieve an o(log n) competitive ratio for non-trivial metrics beyond the i.i.d. setting. Our approach bypasses the Ω(log n) barrier introduced by probabilistic metric embeddings: instead of analyzing the embedding distortion and the algorithm separately, we directly bound the cost of the algorithm on the target metric space of a simple deterministic embedding. We then combine this analysis with lower bounds on the offline optimum for Euclidean metrics, derived via majorization arguments, to obtain our guarantees.

Cite as

Yingxi Li, Ellen Vitercik, and Mingwei Yang. Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Matching with a Single Sample: Beyond Metric Distortion. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 94:1-94:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.94,
  author =	{Li, Yingxi and Vitercik, Ellen and Yang, Mingwei},
  title =	{{Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Matching with a Single Sample: Beyond Metric Distortion}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{94:1--94:23},
  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.2026.94},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253815},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.94},
  annote =	{Keywords: Online algorithm, Metric matching, Competitive analysis, Smoothed analysis}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.6

On the Complexity of Knapsack Under Explorable Uncertainty: Hardness and Algorithms

Authors: Jens Schlöter

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

Abstract

In the knapsack problem under explorable uncertainty, we are given a knapsack instance with uncertain item profits. Instead of having access to the precise profits, we are only given uncertainty intervals that are guaranteed to contain the corresponding profits. The actual item profit can be obtained via a query. The goal of the problem is to adaptively query item profits until the revealed information suffices to compute an optimal (or approximate) solution to the underlying knapsack instance. Since queries are costly, the objective is to minimize the number of queries. In the offline variant of this problem, we assume knowledge of the precise profits and the task is to compute a query set of minimum cardinality that a third party without access to the profits could use to identify an optimal (or approximate) knapsack solution. We show that this offline variant is complete for the second-level of the polynomial hierarchy, i.e., Σ₂^p-complete, and cannot be approximated within a non-trivial factor unless Σ₂^p = Δ₂^p. Motivated by these strong hardness results, we consider a "resource-augmented" variant of the problem where the requirements on the query set computed by an algorithm are less strict than the requirements on the optimal solution we compare against. More precisely, a query set computed by the algorithm must reveal sufficient information to identify an approximate knapsack solution, while the optimal query set we compare against has to reveal sufficient information to identify an optimal solution. We show that this resource-augmented setting allows interesting non-trivial algorithmic results.

Cite as

Jens Schlöter. On the Complexity of Knapsack Under Explorable Uncertainty: Hardness and Algorithms. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 6:1-6:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{schloter:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.6,
  author =	{Schl\"{o}ter, Jens},
  title =	{{On the Complexity of Knapsack Under Explorable Uncertainty: Hardness and Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:15},
  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.2025.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244740},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Explorable uncertainty, knapsack, queries, approximation algorithms}
}

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

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.66

One-Way Communication Complexity of Minimum Vertex Cover in General Graphs

Authors: Mahsa Derakhshan, Andisheh Ghasemi, and Rajmohan Rajaraman

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

Abstract

We study the communication complexity of the Minimum Vertex Cover (MVC) problem on general graphs within the k-party one-way communication model. Edges of an arbitrary n-vertex graph are distributed among k parties. The objective is for the parties to collectively find a small vertex cover of the graph while adhering to a communication protocol where each party sequentially sends a message to the next until the last party outputs a valid vertex cover of the whole graph. We are particularly interested in the trade-off between the size of the messages sent and the approximation ratio of the output solution. It is straightforward to see that any constant approximation protocol for MVC requires communicating Ω(n) bits. Additionally, there exists a trivial 2-approximation protocol where the parties collectively find a maximal matching of the graph greedily and return the subset of vertices matched. This raises a natural question: What is the best approximation ratio achievable using optimal communication of O(n)? We design a protocol with an approximation ratio of (2-2^{-k+1}+ε) and O(n) communication for any desirably small constant ε > 0, which is strictly better than 2 for any constant number of parties. Moreover, we show that achieving an approximation ratio smaller than 3/2 for the two-party case requires n^{1 + Ω(1/lg lg n)} communication, thereby establishing the tightness of our protocol for two parties. A notable aspect of our protocol is that no edges are communicated between the parties. Instead, for any 1 ≤ i < k, the i-th party only communicates a constant number of vertex covers for all edges assigned to the first i parties. An interesting consequence is that the communication cost of our protocol is O(n) bits, as opposed to the typical Ω(nlog n) bits required for many graph problems, such as maximum matching, where protocols commonly involve communicating edges.

Cite as

Mahsa Derakhshan, Andisheh Ghasemi, and Rajmohan Rajaraman. One-Way Communication Complexity of Minimum Vertex Cover in General Graphs. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 66:1-66:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{derakhshan_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.66,
  author =	{Derakhshan, Mahsa and Ghasemi, Andisheh and Rajaraman, Rajmohan},
  title =	{{One-Way Communication Complexity of Minimum Vertex Cover in General Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{66:1--66:19},
  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.2025.66},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234430},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.66},
  annote =	{Keywords: Communication Complexity, Minimum Vertex Cover}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.67

Query Efficient Weighted Stochastic Matching

Authors: Mahsa Derakhshan and Mohammad Saneian

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

Abstract

In this paper, we study the weighted stochastic matching problem. Let G = (V, E) be a given edge-weighted graph, and let its realization 𝒢 be a random subgraph of G that includes each edge e ∈ E independently with a known probability p_e. The goal in this problem is to pick a sparse subgraph Q of G without prior knowledge of 𝒢, such that the maximum weight matching among the realized edges of Q (i.e., the subgraph Q ∩ 𝒢) in expectation approximates the maximum weight matching of the entire realization 𝒢. It is established by previous work that attaining any constant approximation ratio for this problem requires selecting a subgraph of max-degree Ω(1/p), where p = min_{e ∈ E} p_e. On the positive side, there exists a (1-ε)-approximation algorithm by Behnezhad and Derakhshan [FOCS'20], albeit at the cost of a max-degree having exponential dependence on 1/p. Within the O(1/p) query regime, however, the best-known algorithm achieves a 0.536 approximation ratio due to Dughmi, Kalayci, and Patel [ICALP'23], improving over the 0.501 approximation algorithm by Behnezhad, Farhadi, Hajiaghayi, and Reyhani [SODA'19]. In this work, we present a 0.68-approximation algorithm with the asymptotically optimal O(1/p) queries per vertex. Our result not only substantially improves the approximation ratio for weighted graphs, but also breaks the well-known 2/3 barrier with the optimal number of queries - even for unweighted graphs. Our analysis involves reducing the problem to designing a randomized matching algorithm on a given stochastic graph with some variance-bounding properties. To achieve these properties, we leverage a randomized algorithm by MacRury and Ma [STOC'24] for a variant of online stochastic matching.

Cite as

Mahsa Derakhshan and Mohammad Saneian. Query Efficient Weighted Stochastic Matching. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 67:1-67:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{derakhshan_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.67,
  author =	{Derakhshan, Mahsa and Saneian, Mohammad},
  title =	{{Query Efficient Weighted Stochastic Matching}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{67:1--67:20},
  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.2025.67},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234445},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.67},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sublinear algorithms, Stochastic, Matching}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.7

Kernel Multiaccuracy

Authors: Carol Xuan Long, Wael Alghamdi, Alexander Glynn, Yixuan Wu, and Flavio P. Calmon

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

Abstract

Predefined demographic groups often overlook the subpopulations most impacted by model errors, leading to a growing emphasis on data-driven methods that pinpoint where models underperform. The emerging field of multi-group fairness addresses this by ensuring models perform well across a wide range of group-defining functions, rather than relying on fixed demographic categories. We demonstrate that recently introduced notions of multi-group fairness can be equivalently formulated as integral probability metrics (IPM). IPMs are the common information-theoretic tool that underlie definitions such as multiaccuracy, multicalibration, and outcome indistinguishably. For multiaccuracy, this connection leads to a simple, yet powerful procedure for achieving multiaccuracy with respect to an infinite-dimensional class of functions defined by a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS): first perform a kernel regression of a model’s errors, then subtract the resulting function from a model’s predictions. We combine these results to develop a post-processing method that improves multiaccuracy with respect to bounded-norm functions in an RKHS, enjoys provable performance guarantees, and, in binary classification benchmarks, achieves favorable multiaccuracy relative to competing methods.

Cite as

Carol Xuan Long, Wael Alghamdi, Alexander Glynn, Yixuan Wu, and Flavio P. Calmon. Kernel Multiaccuracy. In 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 329, pp. 7:1-7:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{long_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2025.7,
  author =	{Long, Carol Xuan and Alghamdi, Wael and Glynn, Alexander and Wu, Yixuan and Calmon, Flavio P.},
  title =	{{Kernel Multiaccuracy}},
  booktitle =	{6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:23},
  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.2025.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231341},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness, integral probability metrics, information theory}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.16

Smooth Calibration and Decision Making

Authors: Jason Hartline, Yifan Wu, and Yunran Yang

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

Abstract

Calibration requires predictor outputs to be consistent with their Bayesian posteriors. For machine learning predictors that do not distinguish between small perturbations, calibration errors are continuous in predictions, e.g. smooth calibration error [Foster and Hart, 2018], distance to calibration [Błasiok et al., 2023]. On the contrary, decision-makers who use predictions make optimal decisions discontinuously in probabilistic space, experiencing loss from miscalibration discontinuously. Calibration errors for decision-making are thus discontinuous, e.g., Expected Calibration Error [Foster and Vohra, 1997], and Calibration Decision Loss [Hu and Wu, 2024]. Thus, predictors with a low calibration error for machine learning may suffer a high calibration error for decision-making, i.e. they may not be trustworthy for decision-makers optimizing assuming their predictions are correct. It is natural to ask if post-processing a predictor with a low calibration error for machine learning is without loss to achieve a low calibration error for decision-making. In our paper, we show post-processing an online predictor with ε distance to calibration achieves O(√{ε}) ECE and CDL, which is asymptotically optimal. The post-processing algorithm adds noise to make predictions differentially private. The optimal bound from low distance to calibration predictors from post-processing is non-optimal compared with existing online calibration algorithms that directly optimize for ECE and CDL.

Cite as

Jason Hartline, Yifan Wu, and Yunran Yang. Smooth Calibration and Decision Making. In 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 329, pp. 16:1-16:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{hartline_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2025.16,
  author =	{Hartline, Jason and Wu, Yifan and Yang, Yunran},
  title =	{{Smooth Calibration and Decision Making}},
  booktitle =	{6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:26},
  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.2025.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231438},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Calibration, calibration errors, decision making, differential privacy}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.41

Query Complexity of Stochastic Minimum Vertex Cover

Authors: Mahsa Derakhshan, Mohammad Saneian, and Zhiyang Xun

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

Abstract

We study the stochastic minimum vertex cover problem for general graphs. In this problem, we are given a graph G = (V, E) and an existence probability p_e for each edge e ∈ E. Edges of G are realized (or exist) independently with these probabilities, forming the realized subgraph 𝒢. The existence of an edge in 𝒢 can only be verified using edge queries. The goal of this problem is to find a near-optimal vertex cover of 𝒢 using a small number of queries. Previous work by Derakhshan, Durvasula, and Haghtalab [STOC 2023] established the existence of 1.5 + ε approximation algorithms for this problem with O(n/ε) queries. They also show that, under mild correlation among edge realizations, beating this approximation ratio requires querying a subgraph of size Ω(n ⋅ RS(n)). Here, RS(n) refers to Ruzsa-Szemerédi Graphs and represents the largest number of induced edge-disjoint matchings of size Θ(n) in an n-vertex graph. In this work, we design a simple algorithm for finding a (1 + ε) approximate vertex cover by querying a subgraph of size O(n ⋅ RS(n)) for any absolute constant ε > 0. Our algorithm can tolerate up to O(n ⋅ RS(n)) correlated edges, hence effectively completing our understanding of the problem under mild correlation.

Cite as

Mahsa Derakhshan, Mohammad Saneian, and Zhiyang Xun. Query Complexity of Stochastic Minimum Vertex Cover. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 41:1-41:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{derakhshan_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.41,
  author =	{Derakhshan, Mahsa and Saneian, Mohammad and Xun, Zhiyang},
  title =	{{Query Complexity of Stochastic Minimum Vertex Cover}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{41:1--41:12},
  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.2025.41},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-226691},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.41},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sublinear algorithms, Vertex cover, Query complexity}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.37

Smooth Nash Equilibria: Algorithms and Complexity

Authors: Constantinos Daskalakis, Noah Golowich, Nika Haghtalab, and Abhishek Shetty

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

Abstract

A fundamental shortcoming of the concept of Nash equilibrium is its computational intractability: approximating Nash equilibria in normal-form games is PPAD-hard. In this paper, inspired by the ideas of smoothed analysis, we introduce a relaxed variant of Nash equilibrium called σ-smooth Nash equilibrium, for a {smoothness parameter} σ. In a σ-smooth Nash equilibrium, players only need to achieve utility at least as high as their best deviation to a σ-smooth strategy, which is a distribution that does not put too much mass (as parametrized by σ) on any fixed action. We distinguish two variants of σ-smooth Nash equilibria: strong σ-smooth Nash equilibria, in which players are required to play σ-smooth strategies under equilibrium play, and weak σ-smooth Nash equilibria, where there is no such requirement. We show that both weak and strong σ-smooth Nash equilibria have superior computational properties to Nash equilibria: when σ as well as an approximation parameter ϵ and the number of players are all constants, there is a {constant-time} randomized algorithm to find a weak ϵ-approximate σ-smooth Nash equilibrium in normal-form games. In the same parameter regime, there is a polynomial-time deterministic algorithm to find a strong ϵ-approximate σ-smooth Nash equilibrium in a normal-form game. These results stand in contrast to the optimal algorithm for computing ϵ-approximate Nash equilibria, which cannot run in faster than quasipolynomial-time, subject to complexity-theoretic assumptions. We complement our upper bounds by showing that when either σ or ϵ is an inverse polynomial, finding a weak ϵ-approximate σ-smooth Nash equilibria becomes computationally intractable. Our results are the first to propose a variant of Nash equilibrium which is computationally tractable, allows players to act independently, and which, as we discuss, is justified by an extensive line of work on individual choice behavior in the economics literature.

Cite as

Constantinos Daskalakis, Noah Golowich, Nika Haghtalab, and Abhishek Shetty. Smooth Nash Equilibria: Algorithms and Complexity. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 37:1-37:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{daskalakis_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.37,
  author =	{Daskalakis, Constantinos and Golowich, Noah and Haghtalab, Nika and Shetty, Abhishek},
  title =	{{Smooth Nash Equilibria: Algorithms and Complexity}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-195657},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: Nash equilibrium, smoothed analysis, PPAD}
}

Document

Extended Abstract

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.57

Communicating with Anecdotes (Extended Abstract)

Authors: Nika Haghtalab, Nicole Immorlica, Brendan Lucier, Markus Mobius, and Divyarthi Mohan

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

Abstract

We study a communication game between a sender and receiver. The sender chooses one of her signals about the state of the world (i.e., an anecdote) and communicates it to the receiver who takes an action affecting both players. The sender and receiver both care about the state of the world but are also influenced by personal preferences, so their ideal actions can differ. We characterize perfect Bayesian equilibria. The sender faces a temptation to persuade: she wants to select a biased anecdote to influence the receiver’s action. Anecdotes are still informative to the receiver (who will debias at equilibrium) but the attempt to persuade comes at the cost of precision. This gives rise to informational homophily where the receiver prefers to listen to like-minded senders because they provide higher-precision signals. Communication becomes polarized when the sender is an expert with access to many signals, with the sender choosing extreme outlier anecdotes at equilibrium (unless preferences are perfectly aligned). This polarization dissipates all the gains from communication with an increasingly well-informed sender when the anecdote distribution is heavy-tailed. Experts therefore face a curse of informedness: receivers will prefer to listen to less-informed senders who cannot pick biased signals as easily.

Cite as

Nika Haghtalab, Nicole Immorlica, Brendan Lucier, Markus Mobius, and Divyarthi Mohan. Communicating with Anecdotes (Extended Abstract). In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 57:1-57:2, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{haghtalab_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.57,
  author =	{Haghtalab, Nika and Immorlica, Nicole and Lucier, Brendan and Mobius, Markus and Mohan, Divyarthi},
  title =	{{Communicating with Anecdotes}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{57:1--57:2},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.57},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-195852},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.57},
  annote =	{Keywords: Communication game, Equilibrium, Polarization, Signalling}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.68

k-Center Clustering Under Perturbation Resilience

Authors: Maria-Florina Balcan, Nika Haghtalab, and Colin White

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 55, 43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016)

Abstract

The k-center problem is a canonical and long-studied facility location and clustering problem with many applications in both its symmetric and asymmetric forms. Both versions of the problem have tight approximation factors on worst case instances: a 2-approximation for symmetric kcenter and an O(log*(k))-approximation for the asymmetric version. Therefore to improve on these ratios, one must go beyond the worst case. In this work, we take this approach and provide strong positive results both for the asymmetric and symmetric k-center problems under a very natural input stability (promise) condition called alpha-perturbation resilience [Bilu Linial, 2012], which states that the optimal solution does not change under any alpha-factor perturbation to the input distances. We show that by assuming 2-perturbation resilience, the exact solution for the asymmetric k-center problem can be found in polynomial time. To our knowledge, this is the first problem that is hard to approximate to any constant factor in the worst case, yet can be optimally solved in polynomial time under perturbation resilience for a constant value of alpha. Furthermore, we prove our result is tight by showing symmetric k-center under (2-epsilon)-perturbation resilience is hard unless NP=RP. This is the first tight result for any problem under perturbation resilience, i.e., this is the first time the exact value of alpha for which the problem switches from being NP-hard to efficiently computable has been found. Our results illustrate a surprising relationship between symmetric and asymmetric k-center instances under perturbation resilience. Unlike approximation ratio, for which symmetric k-center is easily solved to a factor of 2 but asymmetric k-center cannot be approximated to any constant factor, both symmetric and asymmetric k-center can be solved optimally under resilience to 2-perturbations.

Cite as

Maria-Florina Balcan, Nika Haghtalab, and Colin White. k-Center Clustering Under Perturbation Resilience. In 43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 55, pp. 68:1-68:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

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@InProceedings{balcan_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.68,
  author =	{Balcan, Maria-Florina and Haghtalab, Nika and White, Colin},
  title =	{{k-Center Clustering Under Perturbation Resilience}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016)},
  pages =	{68:1--68:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-013-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{55},
  editor =	{Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Mitzenmacher, Michael and Rabani, Yuval and Sangiorgi, Davide},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.68},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-62160},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.68},
  annote =	{Keywords: k-center, clustering, perturbation resilience}
}

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