21 Search Results for "Kuszmaul, William"


Document
A Polylogarithmic Competitive Algorithm for Stochastic Online Sorting and TSP

Authors: Andreas Kalavas, Charalampos Platanos, and Thanos Tolias

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


Abstract
In Online Sorting, an array of n initially empty cells is given. At each time step t, an element x_t ∈ [0,1] arrives and must be irrevocably placed in an empty cell without knowledge of future arrivals. We aim to minimize the sum of absolute differences between pairs of elements placed in consecutive array cells, seeking an online placement strategy that results in a final array close to a sorted one. An interesting multidimensional generalization, referred to as the Online Traveling Salesperson Problem, arises when the request sequence consists of points in the d-dimensional unit cube and the objective is to minimize the sum of Euclidean distances between points in consecutive cells. Motivated by the recent work of (Abrahamsen, Bercea, Beretta, Klausen and Kozma; ESA 2024), we consider the stochastic version of Online Sorting (resp. Online TSP), where each element (resp. point) x_t is an i.i.d. sample from the uniform distribution on [0, 1] (resp. [0,1]^d). By carefully decomposing the request sequence into a hierarchy of balls-into-bins instances, where the balls to bins ratio is large enough so that bin occupancy is sharply concentrated around its mean and small enough so that we can efficiently deal with the elements placed in the same bin, we obtain an online algorithm that approximates the optimal cost within a factor of O(log² n) with high probability. Our result comprises an exponential improvement over the previously best known competitive ratio of Õ(n^{1/4}) for Stochastic Online Sorting due to (Abrahamsen et al.; ESA 2024) and O(√n) for (adversarial) Online TSP due to (Bertram, ESA 2025).

Cite as

Andreas Kalavas, Charalampos Platanos, and Thanos Tolias. A Polylogarithmic Competitive Algorithm for Stochastic Online Sorting and TSP. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 58:1-58:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{kalavas_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.58,
  author =	{Kalavas, Andreas and Platanos, Charalampos and Tolias, Thanos},
  title =	{{A Polylogarithmic Competitive Algorithm for Stochastic Online Sorting and TSP}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{58:1--58:17},
  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.2026.58},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255473},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.58},
  annote =	{Keywords: sorting, online algorithm, balls-into-bins, TSP}
}
Document
Byzantine-Tolerant Phase Clock

Authors: Costas Busch, Paweł Garncarek, and Dariusz R. Kowalski

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 361, 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025)


Abstract
A phase clock is a basic synchronization mechanism that keeps distributed nodes closely synchronized to execute the same phase of a distributed algorithm. A phase clock is typically implemented with a local logical counter that keeps track of the current phase count. Phase clocks are particularly useful in population protocols for implementing leader election and majority selection. We study phase clocks that tolerate Byzantine faults. We show that there is a phase clock that tolerates up to f < n/3 faulty nodes, where n is the number of nodes, such that the gap of the local counter values is O(n²log n). The gap can be further lowered to O(log n) when f ≤ n/8. We also show that if f > n/3, then the gap grows to infinity as time increases. While analyzing phase clock we introduce novel techniques and bounds for balls into bins processes, which might be of independent interest. Using the phase clock, we obtain a majority selection population protocol that tolerates up to f faults and decides on the majority value in O(log² n) parallel time using poly-log states per node.

Cite as

Costas Busch, Paweł Garncarek, and Dariusz R. Kowalski. Byzantine-Tolerant Phase Clock. In 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 361, pp. 30:1-30:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{busch_et_al:LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30,
  author =	{Busch, Costas and Garncarek, Pawe{\l} and Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  title =	{{Byzantine-Tolerant Phase Clock}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-409-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{361},
  editor =	{Arusoaie, Andrei and Onica, Emanuel and Spear, Michael and Tucci-Piergiovanni, Sara},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252036},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: phase clock, Byzantine nodes, population protocols, balls into bins}
}
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}
}
Document
Buffered Partially-Persistent External-Memory Search Trees

Authors: Gerth Stølting Brodal, Casper Moldrup Rysgaard, and Rolf Svenning

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


Abstract
We present an optimal partially-persistent external-memory search tree with amortized I/O bounds matching those achieved by the non-persistent B^{ε}-tree by Brodal and Fagerberg [SODA 2003]. In a partially-persistent data structure, each update creates a new version. All past versions can be queried, but only the current version can be updated. Operations should be efficient with respect to the size N_v of the accessed version v. For any parameter 0 < ε < 1, our data structure supports insertions and deletions in amortized 𝒪(1/(ε B^{1 - ε}) log_B N_v) I/Os, where B is the external-memory block size. It also supports successor and range reporting queries in amortized 𝒪(1/ε log_B N_v + K/B) I/Os, where K is the number of keys reported. The space usage of the data structure is linear in the total number of updates. We make the standard and minimal assumption that the internal memory has size M ≥ 2B. The previous state-of-the-art external-memory partially-persistent search tree by Arge, Danner and Teh [JEA 2003] supports all operations in worst-case 𝒪(log_B N_v + K/B) I/Os, matching the bounds achieved by the classical B-tree by Bayer and McCreight [Acta Informatica 1972]. Our data structure successfully combines buffering updates with partial persistence. The I/O bounds can also be achieved in the worst-case sense, by slightly modifying our data structure and under the requirement that the memory size M = Ω(B^{1-ε} log₂(max_v N_v)). For updates, where the I/O bound is o(1), we assume that the I/Os are performed evenly spread out among the updates (by performing buffer-overflows incrementally). The worst-case result slightly improves the memory requirement over the previous ephemeral external-memory dictionary by Das, Iacono, and Nekrich (ISAAC 2022), who achieved matching worst-case I/O bounds but required M = Ω(B log_B N), where N is the size of the current dictionary.

Cite as

Gerth Stølting Brodal, Casper Moldrup Rysgaard, and Rolf Svenning. Buffered Partially-Persistent External-Memory Search Trees. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 82:1-82:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{brodal_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.82,
  author =	{Brodal, Gerth St{\o}lting and Rysgaard, Casper Moldrup and Svenning, Rolf},
  title =	{{Buffered Partially-Persistent External-Memory Search Trees}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{82:1--82:18},
  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.2025.82},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245507},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.82},
  annote =	{Keywords: B-tree, buffered updates, partial persistence, external memory}
}
Document
An Efficient Data Structure and Algorithm for Long-Match Query in Run-Length Compressed BWT

Authors: Ahsan Sanaullah, Degui Zhi, and Shaojie Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 344, 25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025)


Abstract
String matching problems in bioinformatics are typically for finding exact substring matches between a query and a reference text. Previous formulations often focus on maximum exact matches (MEMs). However, multiple occurrences of substrings of the query in the text that are long enough but not maximal may not be captured by MEMs. Such long matches can be informative, especially when the text is a collection of similar sequences such as genomes. In this paper, we describe a new type of match between a pattern and a text that aren't necessarily maximal in the query, but still contain useful matching information: locally maximal exact matches (LEMs). There are usually a large amount of LEMs, so we only consider those above some length threshold ℒ. These are referred to as long LEMs. The purpose of long LEMs is to capture substring matches between a query and a text that are not necessarily maximal in the pattern but still long enough to be important. Therefore efficient long LEMs finding algorithms are desired for these datasets. However, these datasets are too large to query on traditional string indexes. Fortunately, these datasets are very repetitive. Recently, compressed string indexes that take advantage of the redundancy in the data but retain efficient querying capability have been proposed as a solution. We therefore give an efficient algorithm for computing all the long LEMs of a query and a text in a BWT runs compressed string index. We describe an O(m+occ) expected time algorithm that relies on an O(r) words space string index for outputting all long LEMs of a pattern with respect to a text given the matching statistics of the pattern with respect to the text. Here m is the length of the query, occ is the number of long LEMs outputted, and r is the number of runs in the BWT of the text. The O(r) space string index we describe relies on an adaptation of the move data structure by Nishimoto and Tabei. We are able to support LCP[i] queries in constant time given SA[i]. In other words, we answer PLCP[i] queries in constant time. These PLCP queries enable the efficient long LEM query. Long LEMs may provide useful similarity information between a pattern and a text that MEMs may ignore. This information is particularly useful in pangenome and biobank scale haplotype panel contexts.

Cite as

Ahsan Sanaullah, Degui Zhi, and Shaojie Zhang. An Efficient Data Structure and Algorithm for Long-Match Query in Run-Length Compressed BWT. In 25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 344, pp. 17:1-17:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{sanaullah_et_al:LIPIcs.WABI.2025.17,
  author =	{Sanaullah, Ahsan and Zhi, Degui and Zhang, Shaojie},
  title =	{{An Efficient Data Structure and Algorithm for Long-Match Query in Run-Length Compressed BWT}},
  booktitle =	{25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-386-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{344},
  editor =	{Brejov\'{a}, Bro\v{n}a and Patro, Rob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-239433},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: BWT, LEM, Long LEM, MEM, Run Length Compressed BWT, Move Data Structure, Pangenome}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Faster Dynamic (Δ+1)-Coloring Against Adaptive Adversaries

Authors: Maxime Flin and Magnús M. Halldórsson

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


Abstract
We consider the problem of maintaining a proper (Δ + 1)-vertex coloring in a graph on n-vertices and maximum degree Δ undergoing edge insertions and deletions. We give a randomized algorithm with amortized update time Õ(n^{2/3}) against adaptive adversaries, meaning that updates may depend on past decisions by the algorithm. This improves on the very recent Õ(n^{8/9})-update-time algorithm by Behnezhad, Rajaraman, and Wasim (SODA 2025) and matches a natural barrier for dynamic (Δ+1)-coloring algorithms. The main improvements are on the densest regions of the graph, where we use structural hints from the study of distributed graph algorithms.

Cite as

Maxime Flin and Magnús M. Halldórsson. Faster Dynamic (Δ+1)-Coloring Against Adaptive Adversaries. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 79:1-79:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{flin_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.79,
  author =	{Flin, Maxime and Halld\'{o}rsson, Magn\'{u}s M.},
  title =	{{Faster Dynamic (\Delta+1)-Coloring Against Adaptive Adversaries}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{79:1--79:21},
  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.2025.79},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234560},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.79},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic Graph Algorithms, Coloring}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Optimal Static Fully Indexable Dictionaries

Authors: Jingxun Liang and Renfei Zhou

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


Abstract
Fully indexable dictionaries (FID) store sets of integer keys while supporting rank/select queries. They serve as basic building blocks in many succinct data structures. Despite the great importance of FIDs, no known FID is succinct with efficient query time when the universe size U is a large polynomial in the number of keys n, which is the conventional parameter regime for dictionary problems. In this paper, we design an FID that uses log binom(U,n) + n/((log U/t)^{Ω(t)}) bits of space, and answers rank/select queries in O(t + log log n) time in the worst case, for any parameter 1 ≤ t ≤ log n / log log n, provided U = n^{1 + Θ(1)}. This time-space trade-off matches known lower bounds for FIDs [Pǎtraşcu and Thorup, 2006; Pǎtraşcu and Viola, 2010; Viola, 2023] when t ≤ log^{0.99} n. Our techniques also lead to efficient succinct data structures for the fundamental problem of maintaining n integers each of 𝓁 = Θ(log n) bits and supporting partial-sum queries, with a trade-off between O(t) query time and n𝓁 + n / (log n / t)^{Ω(t)} bits of space. Prior to this work, no known data structure for the partial-sum problem achieves constant query time with n 𝓁 + o(n) bits of space usage.

Cite as

Jingxun Liang and Renfei Zhou. Optimal Static Fully Indexable Dictionaries. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 114:1-114:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{liang_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.114,
  author =	{Liang, Jingxun and Zhou, Renfei},
  title =	{{Optimal Static Fully Indexable Dictionaries}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{114:1--114:20},
  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.2025.114},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234918},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.114},
  annote =	{Keywords: data structures, dictionaries, space efficiency}
}
Document
Shortest Undirected Paths in de Bruijn Graphs

Authors: Wiktor Zuba, Oded Lachish, and Solon P. Pissis

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 331, 36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025)


Abstract
Computing shortest directed paths in de Bruijn graphs is well studied and well understood. This is not the case for computing undirected paths, which is much more challenging algorithmically. In this paper, we present a general framework for computing shortest undirected paths in arbitrary de Bruijn graphs, that is, arbitrary subgraphs of the complete de Bruijn graph. We then present an application of our techniques for making any arbitrary order-k de Bruijn graph G(V,E) weakly connected by adding a set of edges of minimum total cost. This improves the running time of the recent (2-2/d)-approximation algorithm by Bernardini et al. [CPM 2024] from 𝒪(k|V|²) to 𝒪(k|V|log d) time, where d is the number of weakly connected components of graph G.

Cite as

Wiktor Zuba, Oded Lachish, and Solon P. Pissis. Shortest Undirected Paths in de Bruijn Graphs. In 36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 331, pp. 12:1-12:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{zuba_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2025.12,
  author =	{Zuba, Wiktor and Lachish, Oded and Pissis, Solon P.},
  title =	{{Shortest Undirected Paths in de Bruijn Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-369-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{331},
  editor =	{Bonizzoni, Paola and M\"{a}kinen, Veli},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231060},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: string algorithm, graph algorithm, de Bruijn graph, Eulerian graph}
}
Document
When to Give up on a Parallel Implementation

Authors: Nathan S. Sheffield and Alek Westover

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


Abstract
In the Serial Parallel Decision Problem (SPDP), introduced by Kuszmaul and Westover [SPAA'24], an algorithm receives a series of tasks online, and must choose for each between a serial implementation and a parallelizable (but less efficient) implementation. Kuszmaul and Westover describe three decision models: (1) Instantly-committing schedulers must decide on arrival, irrevocably, which implementation of the task to run. (2) Eventually-committing schedulers can delay their decision beyond a task’s arrival time, but cannot revoke their decision once made. (3) Never-committing schedulers are always free to abandon their progress on the task and start over using a different implementation. Kuszmaul and Westover gave a simple instantly-committing scheduler whose total completion time is 3-competitive with the offline optimal schedule, and proved two lower bounds: no eventually-committing scheduler can have competitive ratio better than ϕ ≈ 1.618 in general, and no instantly-committing scheduler can have competitive ratio better than 2 in general. They conjectured that the three decision models should admit different competitive ratios, but left upper bounds below 3 in any model as an open problem. In this paper, we show that the powers of instantly, eventually, and never committing schedulers are distinct, at least in the "massively parallel regime". The massively parallel regime of the SPDP is the special case where the number of available processors is asymptotically larger than the number of tasks to process, meaning that the work associated with running a task in serial is negligible compared to its runtime. In this regime, we show (1) The optimal competitive ratio for instantly-committing schedulers is 2, (2) The optimal competitive ratio for eventually-committing schedulers lies in [1.618, 1.678], (3) The optimal competitive ratio for never-committing schedulers lies in [1.366, 1.500]. We additionally show that our instantly-committing scheduler is also 2-competitive outside of the massively parallel regime, giving proof-of-concept that results in the massively parallel regime can be translated to hold with fewer processors.

Cite as

Nathan S. Sheffield and Alek Westover. When to Give up on a Parallel Implementation. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 87:1-87:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{sheffield_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87,
  author =	{Sheffield, Nathan S. and Westover, Alek},
  title =	{{When to Give up on a Parallel Implementation}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{87:1--87:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227154},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.87},
  annote =	{Keywords: Scheduling, Multi-Processor, Online-Algorithms}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Towards an Analysis of Quadratic Probing

Authors: William Kuszmaul and Zoe Xi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)


Abstract
Since 1968, one of the simplest open questions in the theory of hash tables has been to prove anything nontrivial about the correctness of quadratic probing. We make the first tangible progress towards this goal, showing that there exists a positive-constant load factor at which quadratic probing is a constant-expected-time hash table. Our analysis applies more generally to any fixed-offset open-addressing hash table, and extends to higher load factors in the case where the hash table examines blocks of some size B = ω(1).

Cite as

William Kuszmaul and Zoe Xi. Towards an Analysis of Quadratic Probing. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 103:1-103:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@InProceedings{kuszmaul_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.103,
  author =	{Kuszmaul, William and Xi, Zoe},
  title =	{{Towards an Analysis of Quadratic Probing}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{103:1--103:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.103},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202463},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.103},
  annote =	{Keywords: quadratic probing, hashing, open addressing, witness trees}
}
Document
New Approximation Algorithms for Touring Regions

Authors: Benjamin Qi and Richard Qi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 258, 39th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2023)


Abstract
We analyze the touring regions problem: find a (1+ε)-approximate Euclidean shortest path in d-dimensional space that starts at a given starting point, ends at a given ending point, and visits given regions R₁, R₂, R₃, … , R_n in that order. Our main result is an O (n/√ε log{1/ε} + 1/ε)-time algorithm for touring disjoint disks. We also give an O(min(n/ε, n²/√ε))-time algorithm for touring disjoint two-dimensional convex fat bodies. Both of these results naturally generalize to larger dimensions; we obtain O(n/{ε^{d-1}} log²1/ε + 1/ε^{2d-2}) and O(n/ε^{2d-2})-time algorithms for touring disjoint d-dimensional balls and convex fat bodies, respectively.

Cite as

Benjamin Qi and Richard Qi. New Approximation Algorithms for Touring Regions. In 39th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 258, pp. 54:1-54:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@InProceedings{qi_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2023.54,
  author =	{Qi, Benjamin and Qi, Richard},
  title =	{{New Approximation Algorithms for Touring Regions}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2023)},
  pages =	{54:1--54:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-273-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{258},
  editor =	{Chambers, Erin W. and Gudmundsson, Joachim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2023.54},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-179047},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2023.54},
  annote =	{Keywords: shortest paths, convex bodies, fat objects, disks}
}
Document
Approximating Dynamic Time Warping Distance Between Run-Length Encoded Strings

Authors: Zoe Xi and William Kuszmaul

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 244, 30th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2022)


Abstract
Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) is a widely used similarity measure for comparing strings that encode time series data, with applications to areas including bioinformatics, signature verification, and speech recognition. The standard dynamic-programming algorithm for DTW takes O(n²) time, and there are conditional lower bounds showing that no algorithm can do substantially better. In many applications, however, the strings x and y may contain long runs of repeated letters, meaning that they can be compressed using run-length encoding. A natural question is whether the DTW-distance between these compressed strings can be computed efficiently in terms of the lengths k and 𝓁 of the compressed strings. Recent work has shown how to achieve O(k𝓁² + 𝓁 k²) time, leaving open the question of whether a near-quadratic Õ(k𝓁)-time algorithm might exist. We show that, if a small approximation loss is permitted, then a near-quadratic time algorithm is indeed possible: our algorithm computes a (1 + ε)-approximation for DTW(x, y) in Õ(k𝓁 / ε³) time, where k and 𝓁 are the number of runs in x and y. Our algorithm allows for DTW to be computed over any metric space (Σ, δ) in which distances are O(log n)-bit integers. Surprisingly, the algorithm also works even if δ does not induce a metric space on Σ (e.g., δ need not satisfy the triangle inequality).

Cite as

Zoe Xi and William Kuszmaul. Approximating Dynamic Time Warping Distance Between Run-Length Encoded Strings. In 30th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 244, pp. 90:1-90:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{xi_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2022.90,
  author =	{Xi, Zoe and Kuszmaul, William},
  title =	{{Approximating Dynamic Time Warping Distance Between Run-Length Encoded Strings}},
  booktitle =	{30th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2022)},
  pages =	{90:1--90:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-247-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{244},
  editor =	{Chechik, Shiri and Navarro, Gonzalo and Rotenberg, Eva 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.2022.90},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-170281},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2022.90},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic time warping distance, approximation algorithms, run-length encodings, computational geometry}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Memoryless Worker-Task Assignment with Polylogarithmic Switching Cost

Authors: Aaron Berger, William Kuszmaul, Adam Polak, Jonathan Tidor, and Nicole Wein

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 229, 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)


Abstract
We study the basic problem of assigning memoryless workers to tasks with dynamically changing demands. Given a set of w workers and a multiset T ⊆ [t] of |T| = w tasks, a memoryless worker-task assignment function is any function ϕ that assigns the workers [w] to the tasks T based only on the current value of T. The assignment function ϕ is said to have switching cost at most k if, for every task multiset T, changing the contents of T by one task changes ϕ(T) by at most k worker assignments. The goal of memoryless worker task assignment is to construct an assignment function with the smallest possible switching cost. In past work, the problem of determining the optimal switching cost has been posed as an open question. There are no known sub-linear upper bounds, and after considerable effort, the best known lower bound remains 4 (ICALP 2020). We show that it is possible to achieve polylogarithmic switching cost. We give a construction via the probabilistic method that achieves switching cost O(log w log (wt)) and an explicit construction that achieves switching cost polylog (wt). We also prove a super-constant lower bound on switching cost: we show that for any value of w, there exists a value of t for which the optimal switching cost is w. Thus it is not possible to achieve a switching cost that is sublinear strictly as a function of w. Finally, we present an application of the worker-task assignment problem to a metric embeddings problem. In particular, we use our results to give the first low-distortion embedding from sparse binary vectors into low-dimensional Hamming space.

Cite as

Aaron Berger, William Kuszmaul, Adam Polak, Jonathan Tidor, and Nicole Wein. Memoryless Worker-Task Assignment with Polylogarithmic Switching Cost. In 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 229, pp. 19:1-19:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{berger_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.19,
  author =	{Berger, Aaron and Kuszmaul, William and Polak, Adam and Tidor, Jonathan and Wein, Nicole},
  title =	{{Memoryless Worker-Task Assignment with Polylogarithmic Switching Cost}},
  booktitle =	{49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)},
  pages =	{19:1--19:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-235-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{229},
  editor =	{Boja\'{n}czyk, Miko{\l}aj and Merelli, Emanuela and Woodruff, David P.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.19},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-163608},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distributed Task Allocation, Metric Embeddings, Probabilistic Method}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Optimal Time-Backlog Tradeoffs for the Variable-Processor Cup Game

Authors: William Kuszmaul and Shyam Narayanan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 229, 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)


Abstract
The p-processor cup game is a classic and widely studied scheduling problem that captures the setting in which a p-processor machine must assign tasks to processors over time in order to ensure that no individual task ever falls too far behind. The problem is formalized as a multi-round game in which two players, a filler (who assigns work to tasks) and an emptier (who schedules tasks) compete. The emptier’s goal is to minimize backlog, which is the maximum amount of outstanding work for any task. Recently, Kuszmaul and Westover (ITCS, 2021) proposed the variable-processor cup game, which considers the same problem, except that the amount of resources available to the players (i.e., the number p of processors) fluctuates between rounds of the game. They showed that this seemingly small modification fundamentally changes the dynamics of the game: whereas the optimal backlog in the fixed p-processor game is Θ(log n), independent of p, the optimal backlog in the variable-processor game is Θ(n). The latter result was only known to apply to games with exponentially many rounds, however, and it has remained an open question what the optimal tradeoff between time and backlog is for shorter games. This paper establishes a tight trade-off curve between time and backlog in the variable-processor cup game. We show that, for a game consisting of t rounds, the optimal backlog is Θ (b (t)) where b(t) = t (if t ≤ log n) t^{1/3} log^{2/3} ({n^3}/t + 1) (if log n < t ≤ n^3) n (if n ^ 3 < t). An important consequence is that the optimal backlog is Θ(n) if and only if t ≥ Ω(n³). Our techniques also allow for us to resolve several other open questions concerning how the variable-processor cup game behaves in beyond-worst-case-analysis settings.

Cite as

William Kuszmaul and Shyam Narayanan. Optimal Time-Backlog Tradeoffs for the Variable-Processor Cup Game. In 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 229, pp. 85:1-85:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{kuszmaul_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.85,
  author =	{Kuszmaul, William and Narayanan, Shyam},
  title =	{{Optimal Time-Backlog Tradeoffs for the Variable-Processor Cup Game}},
  booktitle =	{49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)},
  pages =	{85:1--85:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-235-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{229},
  editor =	{Boja\'{n}czyk, Miko{\l}aj and Merelli, Emanuela and Woodruff, David P.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.85},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-164263},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.85},
  annote =	{Keywords: Cup Games, Potential Functions, Greedy}
}
Document
What Does Dynamic Optimality Mean in External Memory?

Authors: Michael A. Bender, Martín Farach-Colton, and William Kuszmaul

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


Abstract
A data structure A is said to be dynamically optimal over a class of data structures 𝒞 if A is constant-competitive with every data structure C ∈ 𝒞. Much of the research on binary search trees in the past forty years has focused on studying dynamic optimality over the class of binary search trees that are modified via rotations (and indeed, the question of whether splay trees are dynamically optimal has gained notoriety as the so-called dynamic-optimality conjecture). Recently, researchers have extended this to consider dynamic optimality over certain classes of external-memory search trees. In particular, Demaine, Iacono, Koumoutsos, and Langerman propose a class of external-memory trees that support a notion of tree rotations, and then give an elegant data structure, called the Belga B-tree, that is within an O(log log N)-factor of being dynamically optimal over this class. In this paper, we revisit the question of how dynamic optimality should be defined in external memory. A defining characteristic of external-memory data structures is that there is a stark asymmetry between queries and inserts/updates/deletes: by making the former slightly asymptotically slower, one can make the latter significantly asymptotically faster (even allowing for operations with sub-constant amortized I/Os). This asymmetry makes it so that rotation-based search trees are not optimal (or even close to optimal) in insert/update/delete-heavy external-memory workloads. To study dynamic optimality for such workloads, one must consider a different class of data structures. The natural class of data structures to consider are what we call buffered-propagation trees. Such trees can adapt dynamically to the locality properties of an input sequence in order to optimize the interactions between different inserts/updates/deletes and queries. We also present a new form of beyond-worst-case analysis that allows for us to formally study a continuum between static and dynamic optimality. Finally, we give a novel data structure, called the Jεllo Tree, that is statically optimal and that achieves dynamic optimality for a large natural class of inputs defined by our beyond-worst-case analysis.

Cite as

Michael A. Bender, Martín Farach-Colton, and William Kuszmaul. What Does Dynamic Optimality Mean in External Memory?. In 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 215, pp. 18:1-18:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{bender_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.18,
  author =	{Bender, Michael A. and Farach-Colton, Mart{\'\i}n and Kuszmaul, William},
  title =	{{What Does Dynamic Optimality Mean in External Memory?}},
  booktitle =	{13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-217-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{215},
  editor =	{Braverman, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-156145},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic optimality, external memory, buffer propagation, search trees}
}
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