Independence and port oracles for matroids,with an application to computational learning theory

Given a matroidM with distinguished elemente, aport oracie with respect toe reports whether or not a given subset contains a circuit that containse. The first main result of this paper is an algorithm for computing ane-based ear decomposition (that is, an ear decomposition every circuit of which contains elemente) of a matroid using only a polynomial number of elementary operations and port oracle calls. In the case thatM is binary, the incidence vectors of the circuits in the ear decomposition form a matrix representation forM. Thus, this algorithm solves a problem in computational learning theory; it learns the class ofbinary matroid port (BMP) functions with membership queries in polynomial time. In this context, the algorithm generalizes results of Angluin, Hellerstein, and Karpinski [1], and Raghavan and Schach [17], who showed that certain subclasses of the BMP functions are learnable in polynomial time using membership queries. The second main result of this paper is an algorithm for testing independence of a given input set of the matroidM. This algorithm, which uses the ear decomposition algorithm as a subroutine, uses only a polynomial number of elementary operations and port oracle calls. The algorithm proves a constructive version of an early theorem of Lehman [13], which states that the port of a connected matroid uniquely determines the matroid.Research partially funded by NSF PYI Grant No. DDM-91-96083.Research partially funded by NSF Grant No CCR-92-10957.     

Branchings in rooted graphs and the diameter of greedoids

LetG be a 2-connected rooted graph of rankr andA, B two (rooted) spanning trees ofG We show that the maximum number of exchanges of leaves that can be required to transformA intoB isr ²–r+1 (r>0). This answers a question by L. Lovász.There is a natural reformulation of this problem in the theory ofgreedoids, which asks for the maximum diameter of the basis graph of a 2-connected branching greedcid of rankr.Greedoids are finite accessible set systems satisfying the matroid exchange axiom. Their theory provides both language and conceptual framework for the proof. However, it is shown that for general 2-connected greedoids (not necessarily constructed from branchings in rooted graphs) the maximum diameter is 2^r–1.     

Categories with sums and right distributive tensor product

Models for parallel and concurrent processes lead quite naturally to the study of monoidal categories (Inform. Comput. 88 (2) (1990) 105). In particular a category Tree of trees, equipped with a non-symmetric tensor product, interpreted as a concatenation, seems to be very useful to represent (local) behavior of non-deterministic agents able to communicate (Enriched Categories for Local and Interaction Calculi, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 283, Springer, Berlin, 1987, pp. 57-70). The category Tree is also provided with a coproduct (corresponding to choice between behaviors) and the tensor product is only partially distributive w.r.t. it, in order to preserve non-determinism. Such a category can be properly defined as the category of the (finite) symmetric categories on a free monoid, when this free monoid is considered as a 2-category. The monoidal structure is inherited from the concatenation in the monoid. In this paper we prove that for every alphabet A, Tree(A), the category of finite A-labeled trees is equivalent to the free category which is generated by A and enjoys the afore-mentioned properties. The related category Beh(A), corresponding to global behaviors is also proven to be equivalent to the free category which is generated by A and enjoys a smaller set of properties.     

Embedding theorems for HNN extensions of inverse semigroups

A variant of an HNN extension of an inverse semigroup introduced by Gilbert [N.D. Gilbert, HNN extensions of inverse semigroups and groupoids, J. Algebra 272 (2004) 27-45] is defined provided that associated subsemigroups are order ideals. We show this presentation still makes sense without the assumption on associated subsemigroups in the sense that it gives a semigroup deserving to be an HNN extension, and it is embedded into another variant using the automata theoretical technique based on combinatorial and geometrical properties of Schützenberger graphs.     

Matrices with prescribed row,column and block sums

The main result of the paper is Theorem 1. It concerns the sets of integral symmetric matrices with given block partition and prescribed row, column and block sums. It is shown that by interchanges preserving these sums we can pass from any two matrices, one from each set, to the other two ones falling close together as much as possible. One of the direct corollaries of Theorem 1 is substantiating the fact that any realization ofr-graphical integer-pair sequence can be obtained from any other one byr-switchings preserving edge degrees. This result is also of interest in connection with the problem of determinings-complete properties. In the special cases Theorem 1 includes a number of well-known results, some of which are presented.     

A new graph triconnectivity algorithm and its parallelization

We present a new algorithm for finding the triconnected components of an undirected graph. The algorithm is based on a method of searching graphs called open ear decomposition. A parallel implementation of the algorithm on a CRCW PRAM runs inO(log² n) parallel time usingO(n+m) processors, wheren is the number of vertices andm is the number of edges in the graph.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the19th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, New York, NY, May 1987.Supported by NSF Grant DCR 8514961.Supported by NSF Grant ECS 8404866 and the Semiconductor Research Corporation Grant 86-12-109.     

Banach's Fixed-Point Theorem as a base for data-type equations

For a categoryK of data types, solutions of recursive data-type equationsX T(X), whereT is an endofunctor ofK, can be constructed by iteratingT on the unique arrowT1 1. This is well-known forK enriched over complete posets and forT locally continuous (an application of the Kleene Fixed-Point Theorem). We prove this forK enriched over complete metric spaces and forT contracting (an application of the Banach Fixed-Point Theorem). Moreover, we prove that each such recursive equation has a unique solution. Our results generalize the approach of P. America and J. Rutten.Dedicated to Dieter Pumplün on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Multifraction reduction IV: Padding and Artin–Tits monoids of sufficiently large type

We investigate the padded version of reduction, an extension of multifraction reduction as defined in arXiv:1606.08991, and connect it both with ordinary reduction and with the so-called Property H. As an application, we show that all Artin–Tits groups of sufficiently large type satisfy some weakened version Conjecture A^padded of Conjecture A, thus showing that the reduction approach is relevant for these groups.     

Adding machines, kneading maps, and endpoints

Given a unimodal map f, let I=[c₂,c₁] denote the core and set E={(x₀,x₁,…)∈(I,f)|xi∈ω(c,f) for all i∈N}. It is known that there exist strange adding machines embedded in symmetric tent maps f such that the collection of endpoints of (I,f) is a proper subset of E and such that limk→∞Q(k)≠∞, where Q(k) is the kneading map.We use the partition structure of an adding machine to provide a sufficient condition for x to be an endpoint of (I,f) in the case of an embedded adding machine. We then show there exist strange adding machines embedded in symmetric tent maps for which the collection of endpoints of (I,f) is precisely E. Examples of this behavior are provided where limk→∞Q(k) does and does not equal infinity, and in the case where limk→∞Q(k)=∞, the collection of endpoints of (I,f) is always E.     

Monoid generalizations of the Richard Thompson groups

The groups G_k,1 of Richard Thompson and Graham Higman can be generalized in a natural way to monoids, that we call M_k,1, and to inverse monoids, called ; this is done by simply generalizing bijections to partial functions or partial injective functions. The monoids M_k,1 have connections with circuit complexity (studied in other papers). Here we prove that M_k,1 and are congruence-simple for all k. Their Green relations J and D are characterized: M_k,1 and are J-0-simple, and they have k−1 non-zero D-classes. They are submonoids of the multiplicative part of the Cuntz algebra O_k. They are finitely generated, and their word problem over any finite generating set is in P. Their word problem is coNP-complete over certain infinite generating sets.     

Quick Approximation to Matrices and Applications

m ×n matrix A with entries between say −1 and 1, and an error parameter ε between 0 and 1, we find a matrix D (implicitly) which is the sum of simple rank 1 matrices so that the sum of entries of any submatrix (among the ) of (A−D) is at most εmn in absolute value. Our algorithm takes time dependent only on ε and the allowed probability of failure (not on m, n). We draw on two lines of research to develop the algorithms: one is built around the fundamental Regularity Lemma of Szemerédi in Graph Theory and the constructive version of Alon, Duke, Leffman, R?dl and Yuster. The second one is from the papers of Arora, Karger and Karpinski, Fernandez de la Vega and most directly Goldwasser, Goldreich and Ron who develop approximation algorithms for a set of graph problems, typical of which is the maximum cut problem. From our matrix approximation, the above graph algorithms and the Regularity Lemma and several other results follow in a simple way. We generalize our approximations to multi-dimensional arrays and from that derive approximation algorithms for all dense Max-SNP problems. Received: July 25, 1997     

Some regularity properties of algorithms and additive functions with respect to them

Summary The paper deals with the behaviour of the so-called algorithms with respect to interval filling sequences A connection is established between the uniquely representable points and the continuity points of the algorithms; also strong continuity properties on monotonic algorithms are proved. Finally the results are applied to additive functions. The theorems extend some former results by the authors, by I. Kátai and by A. Járai.Dedicated to the memory of Alexander M. Ostrowski on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth     

A note on matrix rigidity

In this paper we give an explicit construction ofn×n matrices over finite fields which are somewhat rigid, in that if we change at mostk entries in each row, its rank remains at leastCn(log _q k)/k, whereq is the size of the field andC is an absolute constant. Our matrices satisfy a somewhat stronger property, we will explain and call strong rigidity. We introduce and briefly discuss strong rigidity, because it is in a sense a simpler property and may be easier to use in giving explicit construction.This paper was written while on leave from Princeton, at the Hebrew University. The author wishes to acknowledge the National Science Foundation for supporting this research in part under PYI grant CCR-8858788, and a grant from the program of Medium and Long Term Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence.     

Onm-separated projection spaces

Closure operators in the category of projection spaces are investigated. It is shown that completeness, absolutes-closure ands-injectivity coincide in the subcategory of separated projection spaces and that there compactness with respect to projections implies completeness.Dedicated to Nico Pumplün on the occasion of his 60th birthdayPartial financial support by the Italian Ministry of Public Education is gratefully acknowledged.     

Information categories

Information systems have been introduced by Dana Scott as a convenient means of presenting a certain class of domains of computation, usually known as Scott domains. Essentially the same idea has been developed, if less systematically, by various authors in connection with other classes of domains. In previous work, the present authors introduced the notion of anI-category as an abstraction and enhancement of this idea, with emphasis on the solution ofdomain equations of the formD F(D), withF a functor. An important feature of the work is that we arenot confined to domains of computation as usually understood; other classes of spaces, more familiar to mathematicians in general, become also accessible. Here we present the idea in terms of what we callinformation categories, which are concrete I-categories in which the objects are structured sets of tokens and morphisms are relations between tokens. This is more in the spirit of information system work, and enables more specific results to be obtained. Following an account of the general theory, several examples are discussed in some detail: Stone spaces (as an ordinary mathematical example), Scott domains, SFP domains, and continuous bounded complete domains.     

Using a Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm to Minimize Variance in Response Time for Multimedia Object Requests

This research addresses the scheduling problem of multimedia object requests, which is an important problem in information systems, in particular, for World Wide Web applications. The performance measure considered is the variance of response time which is crucial as end users expect fair treatment to their service requests. This problem is known to be NP-hard. The literature survey indicates that two heuristics have been proposed to solve the problem. In this paper, we present a new heuristic, a hybrid evolutionary heuristic, which is shown to perform much better than the two existing ones, e.g., the overall average errors of the existing ones are 1.012 and 2.042 while the error of the proposed hybrid evolutionary heuristic is 0.154.     

Bounded width problems and algebras

Let be finite relational structure of finite type, and let CSP denote the following decision problem: if is a given structure of the same type as , is there a homomorphism from to ? To each relational structure is associated naturally an algebra whose structure determines the complexity of the associated decision problem. We investigate those finite algebras arising from CSP’s of so-called bounded width, i.e., for which local consistency algorithms effectively decide the problem. We show that if a CSP has bounded width then the variety generated by the associated algebra omits the Hobby-McKenzie types 1 and 2. This provides a method to prove that certain CSP’s do not have bounded width. We give several applications, answering a question of Nešetřil and Zhu [26], by showing that various graph homomorphism problems do not have bounded width. Feder and Vardi [17] have shown that every CSP is polynomial-time equivalent to the retraction problem for a poset we call the Feder − Vardi poset of the structure. We show that, in the case where the structure has a single relation, if the retraction problem for the Feder-Vardi poset has bounded width then the CSP for the structure also has bounded width. This is used to exhibit a finite order-primal algebra whose variety admits type 2 but omits type 1 (provided P ≠ NP). Presented by M. Valeriote. Received January 8, 2005; accepted in final form April 3, 2006. The first author’s research is supported by a grant from NSERC and the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques. The second author’s research is supported by OTKA no. 034175 and 48809 and T 037877. Part of this research was conducted while the second author was visiting Concordia University in Montréal and also when the first author was visiting the Bolyai Institute in Szeged. The support of NSERC, OTKA and the Bolyai Institute is gratefully acknowledged.     

Choosing a leader on a complex network

In many real life applications a group of people interact through a communication network, mathematically modelled as a connected graph linking each element of the group. These participants may have diverse objectives and play very different roles depending on their knowledge and privileges. We focus on a particular scenario, in which a certain node is absolutely essential for completing the intended task. Moreover, if a technical failure results in disconnection of a participant to this leader node, this participant can no longer take part in the group's performance.