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Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 185

12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021)

ITCS 2021, January 6-8, 2021, Virtual Conference

Editors: James R. Lee

Document

Research

DOI: 10.4230/TGDK.4.1.4

Native Provenance Computation for Federated and Non-Federated SPARQL Queries

Authors: Zubaria Asma, Daniel Hernández, Luis Galárraga, Giorgos Flouris, Irini Fundulaki, and Katja Hose

Published in: TGDK, Volume 4, Issue 1 (2026). Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 1

Abstract

The popularity of knowledge graphs (KGs) owes credit to their flexible data model, which is suitable for data integration from multiple sources. Several KG-based applications, such as trust assessment, view maintenance, or data valuation on dynamic data, rely on the ability to compute provenance explanations for query results. This need becomes more urgent in federated query processing systems, which allow the online consumption of heterogeneous and decentralized Web data. However, the problem of computing and interacting with provenance has received little attention, especially in the federated setting. On those grounds, this paper introduces the NPCS (Native Provenance Computation for SPARQL) approach, and its federated variant Fed-NPCS, that compute provenance for SPARQL query results. Both approaches build upon spm-semirings to annotate the results of monotonic and non-monotonic SPARQL queries with their provenance. Due to their reliance on query rewriting techniques, the approaches are directly applicable to already deployed SPARQL engines and federations using different reification schemes, including RDF-star. Our experimental evaluation shows that our novel query rewriting approach brings significant run-time improvements w.r.t. the state-of-the-art across both centralized and federated settings. In centralized settings, our tests on two popular SPARQL engines (GraphDB and Stardog) reveal substantial runtime gains over existing query rewriting solutions, enabling scalability to RDF graphs with billions of triples. In federated settings, our experiments on the FedShop benchmark with GraphDB show the viability of Fed-NPCS for federations with up to 200 sources.

Cite as

Zubaria Asma, Daniel Hernández, Luis Galárraga, Giorgos Flouris, Irini Fundulaki, and Katja Hose. Native Provenance Computation for Federated and Non-Federated SPARQL Queries. In Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge (TGDK), Volume 4, Issue 1, pp. 4:1-4:43, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@Article{asma_et_al:TGDK.4.1.4,
  author =	{Asma, Zubaria and Hern\'{a}ndez, Daniel and Gal\'{a}rraga, Luis and Flouris, Giorgos and Fundulaki, Irini and Hose, Katja},
  title =	{{Native Provenance Computation for Federated and Non-Federated SPARQL Queries}},
  journal =	{Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge},
  pages =	{4:1--4:43},
  ISSN =	{2942-7517},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{4},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/TGDK.4.1.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259642},
  doi =		{10.4230/TGDK.4.1.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: native provenance computation, federated SPARQL queries, data provenance, NPCS, Fed-NPCS}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LITES.11.1.1

A Survey of Real-Time Support, Analysis, and Advancements in ROS 2

Authors: Daniel Casini, Jian-Jia Chen, Jing Li, Federico Reghenzani, and Harun Teper

Published in: LITES, Volume 11, Issue 1 (2026). Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems, Volume 11, Issue 1

Abstract

The Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) has emerged as a relevant middleware framework for robotic applications, offering modularity, distributed execution, and communication. In the last six years, ROS 2 has drawn increasing attention from the real-time systems community and industry. This survey presents a comprehensive overview of research efforts that analyze, enhance, and extend ROS 2 to support real-time execution. We first provide a detailed description of the internal scheduling mechanisms of ROS 2 and its layered architecture, including the interaction with DDS-based communication and other communication middleware. We then review key contributions from the literature, covering timing analysis for both single- and multi-threaded executors, metrics such as response time, reaction time, and data age, and different communication modes. The survey also discusses community-driven enhancements to the ROS 2 runtime, including new executor algorithm designs, real-time GPU management, and microcontroller support via micro-ROS. Furthermore, we summarize techniques for bounding DDS communication delays, message filters, and profiling tools that have been developed to support analysis and experimentation. To help systematize this growing body of work, we introduce taxonomies that classify the surveyed contributions based on different criteria. This survey aims to guide both researchers and practitioners in understanding and improving the real-time capabilities of ROS 2.

Cite as

Daniel Casini, Jian-Jia Chen, Jing Li, Federico Reghenzani, and Harun Teper. A Survey of Real-Time Support, Analysis, and Advancements in ROS 2. In LITES, Volume 11, Issue 1 (2026). Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 1:1-1:37, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@Article{casini_et_al:LITES.11.1.1,
  author =	{Casini, Daniel and Chen, Jian-Jia and Li, Jing and Reghenzani, Federico and Teper, Harun},
  title =	{{A Survey of Real-Time Support, Analysis, and Advancements in ROS 2}},
  journal =	{Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems},
  pages =	{1:1--1:37},
  ISSN =	{2199-2002},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{11},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LITES.11.1.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257914},
  doi =		{10.4230/LITES.11.1.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: ROS 2, middleware, real-time, timing predictability, publish-subscribe}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.38

Fully Dynamic Spectral Sparsification for Directed Hypergraphs

Authors: Sebastian Forster, Gramoz Goranci, and Ali Momeni

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

Abstract

There has been a surge of interest in spectral hypergraph sparsification, a natural generalization of spectral sparsification for graphs. In this paper, we present a simple fully dynamic algorithm for maintaining spectral hypergraph sparsifiers of directed hypergraphs. Our algorithm achieves a near-optimal size of O(n² / ε ² log ⁷ m) and amortized update time of O(r² log ³ m), where n is the number of vertices, and m and r respectively upper bound the number of hyperedges and the rank of the hypergraph at any time. We also extend our approach to the parallel batch-dynamic setting, where a batch of any k hyperedge insertions or deletions can be processed with O(kr² log ³ m) amortized work and O(log ² m) depth. This constitutes the first spectral-based sparsification algorithm in this setting.

Cite as

Sebastian Forster, Gramoz Goranci, and Ali Momeni. Fully Dynamic Spectral Sparsification for Directed Hypergraphs. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 38:1-38:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{forster_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.38,
  author =	{Forster, Sebastian and Goranci, Gramoz and Momeni, Ali},
  title =	{{Fully Dynamic Spectral Sparsification for Directed Hypergraphs}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:20},
  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.2026.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255272},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: Spectral sparsification, Dynamic algorithms, (Directed) hypergraphs, Data structures}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.69

Approximating q → p Norms of Non-Negative Matrices in Nearly-Linear Time

Authors: Etienne Objois and Adrian Vladu

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

Abstract

We provide the first nearly-linear time algorithm for approximating 𝓁_{q → p}-norms of non-negative matrices, for q ≥ p ≥ 1. Our algorithm returns a (1-ε)-approximation to the matrix norm in time Õ(1/(q ε) ⋅ nnz(A)), where A is the input matrix, and improves upon the previous state of the art, which either proved convergence only in the limit [Boyd '74], or had very high polynomial running times [Bhaskara-Vijayraghavan, SODA '11]. Our algorithm is extremely simple, and is largely inspired from the coordinate-scaling approach used for positive linear program solvers. Our algorithm can readily be used in the [Englert-Räcke, FOCS '09] to improve the running time of constructing O(log n)-competitive 𝓁_p-oblivious routings.

Cite as

Etienne Objois and Adrian Vladu. Approximating q → p Norms of Non-Negative Matrices in Nearly-Linear Time. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 69:1-69:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{objois_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.69,
  author =	{Objois, Etienne and Vladu, Adrian},
  title =	{{Approximating q → p Norms of Non-Negative Matrices in Nearly-Linear Time}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{69:1--69:19},
  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.2026.69},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255585},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.69},
  annote =	{Keywords: matrix norm, Perron-Frobenius theory, oblivious routings, input-sparsity time, lp norm}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.52

Upper and Lower Bounds for the Linear Ordering Principle

Authors: Edward A. Hirsch and Ilya Volkovich

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

Abstract

Korten and Pitassi (FOCS, 2024) defined a new complexity class L₂^P as the polynomial-time Turing closure of the Linear Ordering Principle (a total function extending finding the minimum of an order [M. Chiari and J. Krajíček, 1998] to the case where the order is not linear). They put it between MA (Merlin-Arthur protocols) and S₂^P (the second symmetric level of the polynomial hierarchy). In this paper we sandwich L₂^P between P^prMA and P^prSBP. (The oracles here are promise problems, and SBP is the only known class between MA and AM.) The containment in P^prSBP is proved via an iterative process that uses a prSBP oracle to estimate the average order rank of a subset and find the minimum of a linear order. Another containment result of this paper is P^prO₂^P ⊆ O₂^P (where O₂^P is the input-oblivious version of S₂^P). These containment results altogether have several byproducts: - We give an affirmative answer to an open question posed by Chakaravarthy and Roy (Computational Complexity, 2011) whether P^prMA ⊆ S₂^P, thereby settling the relative standing of the existing (non-oblivious) Karp–Lipton–style collapse results of [V. T. Chakaravarthy and S. Roy, 2011] and [J.-Y. Cai, 2007], - We give an affirmative answer to an open question of Korten and Pitassi whether a Karp-Lipton-style collapse can be proven for L₂^P, - We show that the Karp-Lipton-style collapse to P^prOMA is actually better than both known collapses to P^prMA due to Chakaravarthy and Roy (Computational Complexity, 2011) and to O₂^P also due to Chakaravarthy and Roy (STACS, 2006). Thus we resolve the controversy between previously incomparable Karp-Lipton collapses stemming from these two lines of research.

Cite as

Edward A. Hirsch and Ilya Volkovich. Upper and Lower Bounds for the Linear Ordering Principle. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 52:1-52:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{hirsch_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.52,
  author =	{Hirsch, Edward A. and Volkovich, Ilya},
  title =	{{Upper and Lower Bounds for the Linear Ordering Principle}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{52:1--52:19},
  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.2026.52},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255410},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.52},
  annote =	{Keywords: Complexity Classes, Structural Complexity Theory, Linear Ordering Principle, Symmetric Alternation, Merlin-Arthur Protocols, Karp-Lipton Collapse}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.51

Structural Parameterization of Steiner Tree Packing

Authors: Niko Hastrich and Kirill Simonov

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

Abstract

Steiner Tree Packing (STP) is a notoriously hard problem in classical complexity theory, which is of practical relevance to VLSI circuit design. Previous research has approached this problem by providing heuristic or approximate algorithms. In this paper, we show the first FPT algorithms for STP parameterized by structural parameters of the input graph. In particular, we show that STP is fixed-parameter tractable by the tree-cut width as well as the fracture number of the input graph. To achieve our results, we generalize techniques from Edge-Disjoint Paths (EDP) to Generalized Steiner Tree Packing (GSTP), which generalizes both STP and EDP. First, we derive the notion of the augmented graph for GSTP analogous to EDP. We then show that GSTP is FPT by - the tree-cut width of the augmented graph, - the fracture number of the augmented graph, - the slim tree-cut width of the input graph. The latter two results were previously known for EDP; our results generalize these to GSTP and improve the running time for the parameter fracture number. On the other hand, it was open whether EDP is FPT parameterized by the tree-cut width of the augmented graph, despite extensive research on the structural complexity of the problem. We settle this question affirmatively.

Cite as

Niko Hastrich and Kirill Simonov. Structural Parameterization of Steiner Tree Packing. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 51:1-51:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{hastrich_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.51,
  author =	{Hastrich, Niko and Simonov, Kirill},
  title =	{{Structural Parameterization of Steiner Tree Packing}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{51:1--51:18},
  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.2026.51},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255405},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.51},
  annote =	{Keywords: Steiner tree packing, structural parameters, fixed-parameter tractability}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.50

A Polynomial Kernel for Face Cover on Non-Embedded Planar Graphs

Authors: Thekla Hamm, Sukanya Pandey, and Krisztina Szilágyi

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

Abstract

Given a planar graph, a subset of its vertices called terminals, and k ∈ ℕ, the Face Cover Number problem asks whether the terminals lie on the boundaries of at most k faces of some embedding of the input graph. When a plane graph is given in the input, the problem is known to have a polynomial kernel [Valentin Garnero et al., 2017]. In this paper, we present the first polynomial kernel for Face Cover Number when the input is a planar graph (without a fixed embedding). Our approach overcomes the challenge of not having a predefined set of face boundaries by building a kernel bottom-up on an SPR-tree while preserving the essential properties of the face cover along the way.

Cite as

Thekla Hamm, Sukanya Pandey, and Krisztina Szilágyi. A Polynomial Kernel for Face Cover on Non-Embedded Planar Graphs. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 50:1-50:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{hamm_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.50,
  author =	{Hamm, Thekla and Pandey, Sukanya and Szil\'{a}gyi, Krisztina},
  title =	{{A Polynomial Kernel for Face Cover on Non-Embedded Planar Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{50:1--50:18},
  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.2026.50},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255392},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.50},
  annote =	{Keywords: Kernelization, Planar Graphs, SPQR-tree}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45

Fairness in the k-Server Problem

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

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

Abstract

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

Cite as

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

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@InProceedings{daneshvaramoli_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45,
  author =	{Daneshvaramoli, Mohammadreza and Hajiesmaili, Mohammad and Kamali, Shahin and Karisani, Helia and Musco, Cameron},
  title =	{{Fairness in the k-Server Problem}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{45:1--45:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253328},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.45},
  annote =	{Keywords: k-server problem, online algorithms, fairness, competitive analysis}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.50

On the PTAS Complexity of Multidimensional Knapsack

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

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

Abstract

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

Cite as

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

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

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9

On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs

Authors: Robert Andrews, Jules Armand, Prateek Dwivedi, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard Hansen, Nutan Limaye, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Sébastien Tavenas

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

Abstract

We investigate the closure properties of read-once oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs (roABPs) under various natural algebraic operations and prove the following. - Non-closure under factoring: There is a sequence of explicit polynomials (f_n(x₁,…, x_n))_n that have poly(n)-sized roABPs such that some irreducible factor of f_n requires roABPs of superpolynomial size in any order. - Non-closure under powering: There is a sequence of polynomials (f_n(x₁,…, x_n))_n with poly(n)-sized roABPs such that any super-constant power of f_n does not have roABPs of polynomial size in any order (and f_nⁿ requires exponential size in any order). - Non-closure under symmetric operations: There are symmetric polynomials (f_n(e₁,…, e_n))_n that have roABPs of polynomial size such that f_n(x₁,…, x_n) do not have roABPs of subexponential size. (Here, e₁,…, e_n denote the elementary symmetric polynomials in n variables.) These results should be viewed in light of known results on models such as algebraic circuits, (general) algebraic branching programs, formulas and constant-depth circuits, all of which are known to be closed under these operations. To prove non-closure under factoring, we construct hard polynomials based on expander graphs using gadgets that lift their hardness from sparse polynomials to roABPs. For symmetric compositions, we show that the circulant polynomial requires roABPs of exponential size in every variable order.

Cite as

Robert Andrews, Jules Armand, Prateek Dwivedi, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard Hansen, Nutan Limaye, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Sébastien Tavenas. On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 9:1-9:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{andrews_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9,
  author =	{Andrews, Robert and Armand, Jules and Dwivedi, Prateek and Hansen, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard and Limaye, Nutan and Srinivasan, Srikanth and Tavenas, S\'{e}bastien},
  title =	{{On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252964},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Factoring, Closure Properties, Sparsity Bounds, Symmetric Polynomials, roABP, Expander Graphs}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82

Dimension Reduction for Clustering: The Curious Case of Discrete Centers

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

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

Abstract

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

Cite as

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

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@InProceedings{jiang_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82,
  author =	{Jiang, Shaofeng H.-C. and Krauthgamer, Robert and Sapir, Shay and Silwal, Sandeep and Yue, Di},
  title =	{{Dimension Reduction for Clustering: The Curious Case of Discrete Centers}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{82:1--82:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253698},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.82},
  annote =	{Keywords: dimension reduction, clustering, k-median, k-means, doubling dimension}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79

Range Avoidance and Remote Point: New Algorithms and Hardness

Authors: Shengtang Huang, Xin Li, and Yan Zhong

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

Abstract

The Range Avoidance (Avoid) problem C-Avoid[n,m(n)] asks that, given a circuit in a class C with input length n and output length m(n) > n, find a string not in the range of the circuit. This problem has been a central piece in several recent frameworks for proving circuit lower bounds and constructing explicit combinatorial objects. Previous work by Korten (FOCS' 21) and by Ren, Santhanam, and Wang (FOCS' 22) showed that algorithms for Avoid are closely related to circuit lower bounds. In particular, Korten’s work reinterpreted an earlier result from bounded arithmetic, originally proved by Jeřábek (Ann. Pure Appl. Log. 2004), as an equivalence in computational complexity between the existence of FP^NP algorithms for the general Avoid problem and 2^{Ω(n)} lower bounds against general Boolean circuits for the class 𝐄^NP. In this work, we significantly complement these works by generalizing the equivalence result to restricted circuit classes and obtain the following: - For any constant depth unbounded fan-in circuit class C ⊇ AC⁰, there is an FP^NP algorithm for C-Avoid[n,n^{1+ε}] (for any constant ε > 0) if and only if 𝐄^NP cannot be computed by C circuits of size 2^{o(n)}. This addresses an open problem by Korten (Bulletin of EATCS' 25). - If 𝐄^NP cannot be computed by o(2ⁿ/n) size formulas, then there is an FP^NP algorithm for NC⁰-Avoid[n,2n]. Note that by an extension of Ren, Santhanam, and Wang (FOCS' 22), an FP^NP algorithm for NC⁰₄-Avoid[n,n+n^δ] for any constant δ ∈ (0,1) implies 𝐄^NP cannot be computed by o(2ⁿ/n) size formulas. These results yield the first characterizations of FP^NP C-Avoid algorithms for low-complexity circuit classes such as AC⁰. We also consider the average-case analog of Avoid, the Remote Point (Remote-Point) problem, and establish: - For some suitable function c(n) and constant γ > 0, there is an FP^NP algorithm for Remote-Point[n,n^{6+γ},c(O_{γ}(log n))] if and only if 𝐄^NP cannot be (1/2-c(n))-approximated by circuits of size 2^{o(n)}. Finally, we also present two improved algorithms for NC⁰-Avoid: - A family of 2^{n^{1 - ε/(k-1) +o(1)}} time algorithms for NC⁰_k-Avoid[n,n^{1+ε}] for any ε > 0, exhibiting the first subexponential-time algorithm for any super-linear stretch. - Faster local algorithms for NC⁰_k-Avoid[n,n+1] running in time O(n2^{(k-2)/(k-1) n}), improving the naive 2ⁿ⋅ poly(n) bound.

Cite as

Shengtang Huang, Xin Li, and Yan Zhong. Range Avoidance and Remote Point: New Algorithms and Hardness. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 79:1-79:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{huang_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79,
  author =	{Huang, Shengtang and Li, Xin and Zhong, Yan},
  title =	{{Range Avoidance and Remote Point: New Algorithms and Hardness}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{79:1--79:19},
  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.2026.79},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253662},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79},
  annote =	{Keywords: Circuit Lower Bounds, Range Avoidance Problem, Remote Point Problem}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.62

Improved Rate for Non-Malleable Codes and Time-Lock Puzzles

Authors: Cody Freitag, Ilan Komargodski, Manu Kondapaneni, and Jad Silbak

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

Abstract

Non-malleable codes allow a sender to transmit a message to a receiver, while providing a "best-possible" integrity guarantee to ensure that no attacker - who cannot already decode the message - can meaningfully tamper the message in transit. If tampered, the received message should either be invalid or unrelated to the original message. Non-malleable time-lock puzzles (TLPs) are a special case of non-malleable codes for bounded polynomial-depth tampering with very efficient encoding. In this work, we give generic techniques for constructing non-malleable codes and non-malleable TLPs with improved rate, which captures the ratio of a message’s length to its encoding length. A key contribution of our work is identifying a security notion for non-malleability, which we term "CCA-hiding", sufficient for our compilers. CCA-hiding is a relaxation of CCA-security for encryption or commitments to the fine-grained setting of codes, and requires that the encoded message remains hidden, even given a decoding oracle for any other codeword. Intriguingly, CCA-hiding does not imply non-malleability in the fine-grained setting, as is the case for encryption and commitments. Using our new techniques, we give the following constructions: - Rate-1 CCA-hiding TLPs in the plain model. - Rate-1 non-malleable codes for bounded polynomial-depth tampering in the auxiliary-input random oracle model (AI-ROM). - Rate-(1/2) non-malleable TLPs in the AI-ROM.

Cite as

Cody Freitag, Ilan Komargodski, Manu Kondapaneni, and Jad Silbak. Improved Rate for Non-Malleable Codes and Time-Lock Puzzles. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 62:1-62:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{freitag_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.62,
  author =	{Freitag, Cody and Komargodski, Ilan and Kondapaneni, Manu and Silbak, Jad},
  title =	{{Improved Rate for Non-Malleable Codes and Time-Lock Puzzles}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{62:1--62:24},
  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.2026.62},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253490},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.62},
  annote =	{Keywords: Non-malleable codes, Time-lock puzzles}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.67

Query Lower Bounds for Correlation Clustering Under Memory Constraints

Authors: Sumegha Garg, Songhua He, and Periklis A. Papakonstantinou

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

Abstract

This work initiates the study of memory–query tradeoffs for graph problems, with a focus on correlation clustering. Correlation clustering asks for a partition of the vertices that minimizes disagreements: non‑edges inside clusters plus edges across clusters. Our first result is a tight query lower bound: to output a partition whose cost approximates the optimum up to an additive error of ε n², any algorithm requires Ω(n/ε²) adjacency-matrix queries. Under memory constraints, we show that even for the seemingly easier task of approximating the optimal clustering cost (without producing a partition), any algorithm in the random query model must make ≫ n/ε² adjacency-matrix queries. Finally, we prove the first general graph model query lower bound for correlation clustering, where algorithms are allowed adjacency-matrix, neighbor, and degree queries. The latter two bounds are not yet tight, leaving room for sharper results.

Cite as

Sumegha Garg, Songhua He, and Periklis A. Papakonstantinou. Query Lower Bounds for Correlation Clustering Under Memory Constraints. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 67:1-67:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{garg_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.67,
  author =	{Garg, Sumegha and He, Songhua and Papakonstantinou, Periklis A.},
  title =	{{Query Lower Bounds for Correlation Clustering Under Memory Constraints}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{67:1--67:24},
  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.2026.67},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253542},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.67},
  annote =	{Keywords: correlation clustering, query-space complexity, information theory}
}

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