Probabilistic analysis of the generalised assignment problem

We analyse thegeneralised assignment problem under the assumption that all coefficients are drawn uniformly and independently from [0, 1]. We show that such problems can be solved exactly with high probability, in a well-defined sense. The results are closely related to earlier work of Lueker, Goldberg and Marchetti-Spaccamela and ourselves.Supported by NATO grant RG0088/89.Supported by NSF grant CCR-8900112 and NATO grant RG0088/89.     

Partial symmetry of least energy nodal solutions to some variational problems

We investigate the symmetry properties of several radially symmetric minimization problems. The minimizers which we obtain are nodal solutions of superlinear elliptic problems, or eigenfunctions of weighted asymmetric eigenvalue problems, or they lie on the first curve in the Fucik spectrum. In all instances, we prove that the minimizers are foliated Schwarz symmetric. We give examples showing that the minimizers are in general not radially symmetric. The basic tool which we use is polarization, a concept going back to Ahlfors. We develop this method of symmetrization for sign changing functions. Supported by NATO grant PST.CLG.978736. Supported by DFG grant WE 2821/2-1. Supported by NATO grant SPT.CLG.978736.     

Quantum Mechanical Algorithms for the Nonabelian Hidden Subgroup Problem

We provide positive and negative results concerning the standard method of identifying a hidden subgroup of a nonabelian group using a quantum computer.* Supported in part by NSF grants CCR-9820931 and CCR-0208929. Supported in part by NSF CAREER grant 0049092, the NSF Institute for Quantum Information, the Charles Lee Powell Foundation, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Supported in part by an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and NSF grant DMS-0301320.§ Supported in part by DARPA QUIST grant F30602-01-2-0524, ARO grant DAAD19-03-1-0082, and NSF ITR grant CCR-0121555.     

On the matrix completion problem for multivariate filter bank construction

We survey the main techniques for the construction of multivariate filter banks and present new results about special matrices of order four and eight suitable for their construction. Qiuhui Chen: Supported in part by NSFC under grant 10201034 and project-sponsored by SRF for ROCS, SEM. Charles A. Micchelli: Supported in part by the US National Science Foundation under grant CCR-0407476. Yuesheng Xu: All correspondence to this author. Supported in part by the US National Science Foundation under grant CCR-0407476, by the Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 10371122 and by the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the program “One Hundred Distinguished Chinese Young Scientists”.     

CP-rays in simplicial cones

An interior point of a triangle is calledCP-point if its orthogonal projection on the line containing each side lies in the relative interior of that side. In classical mathematics, interest in the concept of regularity of a triangle is mainly centered on the property of every interior point of the triangle being a CP-point. We generalize the concept of regularity using this property, and extend this work to simplicial cones in ⁿ , and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for this property to hold in them. These conditions highlight the geometric properties of Z-matrices. We show that these concepts have important ramifications in algorithmic studies of the linear complementarity problem. We relate our results to other well known properties of square matrices.This paper is dedicated to the memory of Paolo M. Camerini of Politecnico di Milano whose untimely passing is a great loss to his family and friends and to the optimization profession.Partially supported by NSF grants ECS-8521183 and ECS-8704052 and by NATO grant RG85-0240.Supported in part by Control Data Corporation grant 84V101 and AFOSR grant 85-0250.     

Lifting positive elements in C*-algebras

Supported by an NSERC grant, a NATO International Collaboration grant, and an E.W.R.Steacie Fellowship     

Complementarity and nondegeneracy in semidefinite programming

Primal and dual nondegeneracy conditions are defined for semidefinite programming. Given the existence of primal and dual solutions, it is shown that primal nondegeneracy implies a unique dual solution and that dual nondegeneracy implies a unique primal solution. The converses hold if strict complementarity is assumed. Primal and dual nondegeneracy assumptions do not imply strict complementarity, as they do in LP. The primal and dual nondegeneracy assumptions imply a range of possible ranks for primal and dual solutionsX andZ. This is in contrast with LP where nondegeneracy assumptions exactly determine the number of variables which are zero. It is shown that primal and dual nondegeneracy and strict complementarity all hold generically. Numerical experiments suggest probability distributions for the ranks ofX andZ which are consistent with the nondegeneracy conditions. Supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant CCR-9625955. Supported in part by U.S. National Science Foundation grant CCR-9501941 and the U.S. Office of Naval Research grant N00014-96-1-0704. Supported in part by U.S. National Science Foundation grant CCR-9401119.     

On point covers of multiple intervals and axis-parallel rectangles

In certain families of hypergraphs the transversal number is bounded by some function of the packing number. In this paper we study hypergraphs related to multiple intervals and axisparallel rectangles, respectively. Essential improvements of former established upper bounds are presented here. We explore the close connection between the two problems at issue.Supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the NSF grant No. STC-91-19999Supported by the NSF grant No. CCR-92-00788, the (Hungarian) National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) grant No. F014919. The author was visiting the Computation and Automation Institute, Budapest while part of this research was done.     

Diameter,width, closest line pair,and parametric searching

We apply Megiddo's parametric searching technique to several geometric optimization problems and derive significantly improved solutions for them. We obtain, for any fixed ε>0, anO(n ^1+ε) algorithm for computing the diameter of a point set in 3-space, anO(^8/5+ε) algorithm for computing the width of such a set, and onO(n ^8/5+ε) algorithm for computing the closest pair in a set ofn lines in space. All these algorithms are deterministic. Work by Bernard Chazelle was supported by NSF Grant CCR-90-02352. Work by Herbert Edelsbrunner was supported by NSF Grant CCR-89-21421. Work by Leonidas Guibas and Micha Sharir was supported by a grant from the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation. Work by Micha Sharir was also supported by ONR Grant N00014-90-J-1284, by NSF Grant CCR-89-01484, and by grants from the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israeli Academy of Sciences, and the G.I.F., the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.     

Vertex Covers by Edge Disjoint Cliques

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős Let H be a simple graph having no isolated vertices. An (H,k)-vertex-cover of a simple graph G = (V,E) is a collection of subgraphs of G satisfying 1.  , for all i = 1, ..., r, 2.  , 3.  , for all , and 4.  each is in at most k of the . We consider the existence of such vertex covers when H is a complete graph, , in the context of extremal and random graphs. Received October 31, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9627408. RID="†" ID="†" Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-9530974. RID="‡" ID="‡" Supported in part by OTKA Grants T 030059 and T 29074, FKFP 0607/1999 and by the Bolyai Foundation. RID="§" ID="§" Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9970622.     

Galerkin methods for a semilinear parabolic problem with nonlocal boundary conditions

We formulate and analyze a Crank-Nicolson finite element Galerkin method and an algebraically-linear extrapolated Crank-Nicolson method for the numerical solution of a semilinear parabolic problem with nonlocal boundary conditions. For each method, optimal error estimates are derived in the maximum norm.Dedicated to Professor J. Crank on the occasion of his 80th birthdaySupported in part by the National Science Foundation grant CCR-9403461.Supported in part by project DGICYT PB95-0711.     

Reducing The Seed Length In The Nisan-Wigderson Generator*

The Nisan–Wigderson pseudo-random generator [19] was constructed to derandomize probabilistic algorithms under the assumption that there exist explicit functions which are hard for small circuits. We give the first explicit construction of a pseudo-random generator with asymptotically optimal seed length even when given a function which is hard for relatively small circuits. Generators with optimal seed length were previously known only assuming hardness for exponential size circuits [13,26]. We also give the first explicit construction of an extractor which uses asymptotically optimal seed length for random sources of arbitrary min-entropy. Our construction is the first to use the optimal seed length for sub-polynomial entropy levels. It builds on the fundamental connection between extractors and pseudo-random generators discovered by Trevisan [29], combined with the construction above. The key is a new analysis of the NW-generator [19]. We show that it fails to be pseudorandom only if a much harder function can be efficiently constructed from the given hard function. By repeatedly using this idea we get a new recursive generator, which may be viewed as a reduction from the general case of arbitrary hardness to the solved case of exponential hardness. * This paper is based on two conference papers [11,12] by the same authors. † Research Supported by NSF Award CCR-9734911, NSF Award CCR-0098197, Sloan Research Fellowship BR-3311, grant #93025 of the joint US-Czechoslovak Science and Technology Program, and USA-Israel BSF Grant 97-00188. ‡ Part of this work was done while at the Hebrew University and the Institute for advanced study. § This research was supported by grant number 69/96 of the Israel Science Foundation, founded by the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities and USA-Israel BSF Grant 97-00188.     

Approximation schemes for NP-hard geometric optimization problems: a survey

 Traveling Salesman, Steiner Tree, and many other famous geometric optimization problems are NP-hard. Since we do not expect to design efficient algorithms that solve these problems optimally, researchers have tried to design approximation algorithms, which can compute a provably near-optimal solution in polynomial time. We survey such algorithms, in particular a new technique developed over the past few years that allows us to design approximation schemes for many of these problems. For any fixed constant c> 0, the algorithm can compute a solution whose cost is at most (1 + c) times the optimum. (The running time is polynomial for every fixed c> 0, and in many cases is even nearly linear.) We describe how these schemes are designed, and survey the status of a large number of problems. Received: December 2, 2002 / Accepted: April 28, 2003 Published online: May 28, 2003 Supported by a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, NSF grant CCR-0098180, NSF ITR grant CCR-0205594     

Perturbation results for nearly uncoupled Markov chains with applications to iterative methods

Summary The standard perturbation theory for linear equations states that nearly uncoupled Markov chains (NUMCs) are very sensitive to small changes in the elements. Indeed, some algorithms, such as standard Gaussian elimination, will obtain poor results for such problems. A structured perturbation theory is given that shows that NUMCs usually lead to well conditioned problems. It is shown that with appropriate stopping, criteria, iterative aggregation/disaggregation algorithms will achieve these structured error bounds. A variant of Gaussian elimination due to Grassman, Taksar and Heyman was recently shown by O'Cinneide to achieve such bounds.Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-9000526 and its renewal, grant CCR-9201692. This research was done in part, during the author's visit to the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, 514 Vincent Hall, 206 Church St. S.E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA     

Bounded query classes and the difference hierarchy

LetA be any nonrecursive set. We define a hierarchy of sets (and a corresponding hierarchy of degrees) that are reducible toA based on bounding the number of queries toA that an oracle machine can make. WhenA is the halting problemK our hierarchy of sets interleaves with the difference hierarchy on the r.e. sets in a logarithmic way; this follows from a tradeoff between the number of parallel queries and the number of serial queries needed to compute a function with oracleK.Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-8808949. Part of this work was completed while this author was a student at Stanford University supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation and from the Fannie and John Hertz FoundationSupported in part by NSF grant CCR-8803641Part of this work was completed while this author was on sabbatical leave at the University of California, Berkeley     

The facets of the polyhedral set determined by the Gale—Hoffman inequalities

The Gale—Hoffman inequalities characterize feasible external flow in a (capacitated) network. Among these inequalities, those that are redundant can be identified through a simple arc-connectedness criterion.This paper is dedicated to Phil Wolfe on the occasion of his 65th birthday.Research supported in part by NATO Collaborative Research Grant 0785/87.Supported in part by a grant of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.     

Transformations in functional iterated logarithm laws and regular variation

Summary It is shown that functional iterated logarithm (log log) laws for geometric subsequences imply the corresponding laws for full sequences, and that the converse is not true. The implication is proved by simple algebraic arguments of regular variation type.Supported in part by a NATO grant for international collaboration in research     

The combinatorial encoding of disjoint convex sets in the plane

We introduce a new combinatorial object, the double-permutation sequence, and use it to encode a family of mutually disjoint compact convex sets in the plane in a way that captures many of its combinatorial properties. We use this encoding to give a new proof of the Edelsbrunner-Sharir theorem that a collection of n compact convex sets in the plane cannot be met by straight lines in more than 2n-2 combinatorially distinct ways. The encoding generalizes the authors’ encoding of point configurations by “allowable sequences” of permutations. Since it applies as well to a collection of compact connected sets with a specified pseudoline arrangement of separators and double tangents, the result extends the Edelsbrunner-Sharir theorem to the case of geometric permutations induced by pseudoline transversals compatible with . Supported in part by NSA grant MDA904-03-I-0087 and PSC-CUNY grant 65440-0034. Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-9732101.     

Asymptotic convergence in a generalized predictor-corrector method

The asymptotic convergence properties of a generalized predictor-corrector method are analyzed. This method is based on making a sequence of corrections to the primal-dual affine scaling (predictor) direction. It is shown that a method makingr corrections to a predictor direction has theQ-order convergence of orderr+2. It is also shown that asymptotically the problem can be solved by only computing corrections to the predictor direction. Supported in part by a grant from the GTE Laboratories and by the grant CCR-9019469 from the National Science Foundation.     

Percolation on random Johnson–Mehl tessellations and related models

We make use of the recent proof that the critical probability for percolation on random Voronoi tessellations is 1/2 to prove the corresponding result for random Johnson–Mehl tessellations, as well as for two-dimensional slices of higher-dimensional Voronoi tessellations. Surprisingly, the proof is a little simpler for these more complicated models. B. Bollobás’s research was supported in part by NSF grants CCR-0225610 and DMS-0505550 and ARO grant W911NF-06-1-0076. O. Riordan’s research was supported by a Royal Society Research Fellowship.