Half-integrality of node-capacitated multiflows and tree-shaped facility locations on trees

In this paper, we establish a novel duality relationship between node-capacitated multiflows and tree-shaped facility locations. We prove that the maximum value of a tree-distance-weighted maximum node-capacitated multiflow problem is equal to the minimum value of the problem of locating subtrees in a tree, and the maximum is attained by a half-integral multiflow. Utilizing this duality, we show that a half-integral optimal multiflow and an optimal location can be found in strongly polynomial time. These extend previously known results in the maximum free multiflow problems. We also show that the set of tree-distance weights is the only class having bounded fractionality in maximum node-capacitated multiflow problems.     

On duality and fractionality of multicommodity flows in directed networks

In this paper we address a topological approach to multiflow (multicommodity flow) problems in directed networks. Given a terminal weight μ, we define a metrized polyhedral complex, called the directed tight span T_μ, and prove that the dual of the μ-weighted maximum multiflow problem reduces to a facility location problem on T_μ. Also, in case where the network is Eulerian, it further reduces to a facility location problem on the tropical polytope spanned by μ. By utilizing this duality, we establish the classifications of terminal weights admitting a combinatorial min–max relation (i) for every network and (ii) for every Eulerian network. Our result includes the Lomonosov–Frank theorem for directed free multiflows and Ibaraki–Karzanov–Nagamochi’s directed multiflow locking theorem as special cases.     

Metric packing for K 3+K 3

In this paper, we consider the metric packing problem for the commodity graph of disjoint two triangles K ₃+K ₃, which is dual to the multiflow feasibility problem for the commodity graph K ₃+K ₃. We prove a strengthening of Karzanov’s conjecture concerning quarterintegral packings by certain bipartite metrics.     

Disjoint paths in sparse graphs

We generalize all the results obtained for maximum integer multiflow and minimum multicut problems in trees by Garg, Vazirani and Yannakakis [N. Garg, V.V. Vazirani, M. Yannakakis, Primal-dual approximation algorithms for integral flow and multicut in trees, Algorithmica 18 (1997) 3–20] to graphs with a fixed cyclomatic number, while this cannot be achieved for other classical generalizations of trees. We also introduce thek-edge-outerplanar graphs, a class of planar graphs with arbitrary (but bounded) tree-width that generalizes the cacti, and show that the integrality gap of the maximum edge-disjoint paths problem is bounded in these graphs.     

On Dual Wavelet Tight Frames

A characterization of multivariate dual wavelet tight frames for any general dilation matrix is presented in this paper. As an application, Lawton's result on wavelet tight frames inL²( ) is generalized to then-dimensional case. Two ways of constructing certain dual wavelet tight frames inL²( ⁿ) are suggested. Finally, examples of smooth wavelet tight frames inL²( ) andH²( ) are provided. In particular, an example is given to demonstrate that there is a function ψ whose Fourier transform is positive, compactly supported, and infinitely differentiable which generates a non-MRA wavelet tight frame inH²( ).     

A Fast Algorithm For Finding A Maximum Free Multiflow In An Inner Eulerian Network And Some Generalizations

be a network, where is an undirected graph with nodes and edges, is a set of specified nodes of , called terminals, and each edge of has a nonnegative integer capacity . If the total capacity of edges with one end at is even for every non-terminal node , then is called inner Eulerian. A free multiflow is a collection of flows between arbitrary pairs of terminals such that the total flow through each edge does not exceed its capacity. In this paper we first generalize a method in Karzanov [11] to find a maximum integer free multiflow in an inner Eulerian network, in time, where is the complexity of finding a maximum flow between two terminals. Next we extend our algorithm to solve the so-called laminar locking problem on multiflows, also in time. We then consider analogs of the above problems in inner balanced directed networks, which means that for each non-terminal node , the sums of capacities of arcs entering and leaving are the same. We show that for such a network a maximum integer free multiflow can be constructed in time, and then extend this result to the corresponding locking problem. Received: March 24, 1997     

Hereditarily Optimal Realizations of Consistent Metrics

One of the main problems in phylogenetics is to find good approximations of metrics by weighted trees. As an aid to solving this problem, it could be tempting to consider optimal realizations of metrics—the guiding principle being that, the (necessarily unique) optimal realization of a tree metric is the weighted tree that realizes this metric. And, although optimal realizations of arbitrary metrics are, in general, not trees, but rather weighted networks, one could still hope to obtain a phylogenetically informative representation of a given metric, maybe even more informative than the best approximating tree. However, optimal realizations are not only difficult to compute, they may also be non-unique. Here we focus on one possible way out of this dilemma: hereditarily optimal realizations. These are essentially unique, and can be described in a rather explicit way. In this paper, we recall what a hereditarily optimal realization of a metric is and how it is related to the 1-skeleton of the tight span of that metric, and we investigate under what conditions it coincides with this 1-skeleton. As a consequence, we will show that hereditarily optimal realizations for consistent metrics, a large class of phylogentically relevant metrics, can be computed in a straight-forward fashion. Received August 26, 2004     

Divergence L 2-Coercivity Inequalities

This paper derives sharp L ²-coercivity inequalities for the divergence operator on bounded Lipschitz regions in ? ⁿ . They hold for fields in H(div,Ω) that are orthogonal to N(div). The optimal constants in the inequality are defined by a variational principle and are identified as the least eigenvalue of a nonstandard boundary value problem for a linear biharmonic type operator. The dependence of the optimal constant under dilations of the region is described and a generalization that involves weighted surface integrals is also proved. When n = 2, this also yields a similar coercivity result for the curl operator.     

On bounded treewidth duality of graphs

For a graph H, the H-coloring problem is to decide whether or not an instance graph G is homomorphic to H. The H-coloring problem is said to have bounded treewidth duality if there is an integer k such that for any graph G which is not homomorphic to H, there is a graph F of treewidth k which is homomorphic to G but not homomorphic to H. It is known that if the H-coloring problem has bounded treewidth duality then it is polynomial time decidable. We shall prove in this paper that for any integers m, k, there is an integer n₀ such that if G is a graph of girth ≥ n₀ then any graph F of treewidth k homomorphic to G is also homomorphic to C_2m+1. It follows from this result that for non-bipartite graphs H, the H-coloring problems do not have bounded treewidth duality. We also present some classes of directed graphs H for which the H-coloring problems do not have bounded treewidth duality. In particular, there are oriented cycles H for which the H-coloring problems do not have bounded treewidth duality. This answers a question of Hell and Zhu (Siam J. Discrete Math., 8 (1995), 208–222). © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A dual iterative substructuring method with a penalty term

An iterative substructuring method with Lagrange multipliers is considered for second order elliptic problems, which is a variant of the FETI-DP method. The standard FETI-DP formulation is associated with the saddle-point problem which is induced from the minimization problem with a constraint for imposing the continuity across the interface. Starting from the slightly changed saddle-point problem by addition of a penalty term with a positive penalization parameter η, we propose a dual substructuring method which is implemented iteratively by the conjugate gradient method. In spite of the absence of any preconditioners, it is shown that the proposed method is numerically scalable in the sense that for a large value of η, the condition number of the resultant dual problem is bounded by a constant independent of both the subdomain size H and the mesh size h. Computational issues and numerical results are presented. This work was partially supported by the SRC/ERC program of MOST/KOSEF(R11-2002-103).     

Exact and approximate resolution of integral multiflow and multicut problems: algorithms and complexity

This is a summary of the author’s PhD thesis supervised by Marie- Christine Costa and Frédéric Roupin and defended on 20 November 2006 at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris (France). The thesis is written in French and is available upon request from the author. This work deals with two well-known optimization problems from graph theory: the maximum integral multiflow and the minimum multicut problems. The main contributions of this thesis concern the polynomial-time solvability and the approximation of these two problems (and of some of their variants) in classical classes of graphs: bounded tree-width graphs, planar graphs and grids, digraphs, etc.      

The weak* similarity property on dual operator algebras

This paper is devoted to dual operator algebras, that isw ^*-closed algebras of bounded operators on Hilbert space. We investigate unital dual operator algebrasA with the following weak^* similarity property: for every Hilbert spaceH, anyw ^*-continuous unital homomorphism fromA intoB(H) is completely bounded and thus similar to a contractive one. We develop a notion of dual similarity degree for these algebras, in analogy with some recent work of Pisier on the similarity problem on operator algebras.     

A weighted independent even factor algorithm

An even factor in a digraph is a vertex-disjoint collection of directed cycles of even length and directed paths. An even factor is called independent if it satisfies a certain matroid constraint. The problem of finding an independent even factor of maximum size is a common generalization of the nonbipartite matching and matroid intersection problems. In this paper, we present a primal-dual algorithm for the weighted independent even factor problem in odd-cycle-symmetric weighted digraphs. Cunningham and Geelen have shown that this problem is solvable via valuated matroid intersection. Their method yields a combinatorial algorithm running in O(n ³ γ +? n ⁶ m) time, where n and m are the number of vertices and edges, respectively, and γ is the time for an independence test. In contrast, combining the weighted even factor and independent even factor algorithms, our algorithm works more directly and runs in O(n ⁴ γ?+?n ⁵) time. The algorithm is fully combinatorial, and thus provides a new dual integrality theorem which commonly extends the total dual integrality theorems for matching and matroid intersection.     

Characterization of the Distance between Subtrees of a Tree by the Associated Tight Span

A characterization is given to the distance between subtrees of a tree defined as the shortest path length between subtrees. This is a generalization of the four-point condition for tree metrics. For this, we use the theory of the tight span and obtain an extension of the famous result by Dress that a metric is a tree metric if and only if its tight span is a tree. Received July 13, 2004     

Improved algorithms for the multicut and multiflow problems in rooted trees

Costa et al. (Oper. Res. Lett. 31:21–27, 2003) presented a quadratic O(min (Kn,n ²)) greedy algorithm to solve the integer multicut and multiflow problems in a rooted tree. (n is the number of nodes of the tree, and K is the number of commodities). Their algorithm is a special case of the greedy type algorithm of Kolen (Location problems on trees and in the rectilinear plane. Ph.D. dissertation, 1982) to solve weighted covering and packing problems defined by general totally balanced (greedy) matrices. In this communication we improve the complexity bound in Costa et al. (Oper. Res. Lett. 31:21–27, 2003) and show that in the case of the integer multicut and multiflow problems in a rooted tree the greedy algorithm of Kolen can be implemented in subquadratic O(K+n+min (K,n)log n) time. The improvement is obtained by identifying additional properties of this model which lead to a subquadratic transformation to greedy form and using more sophisticated data structures.      

Gaussian Bounds for Noise Correlation of Functions

In this paper we derive tight bounds on the expected value of products of low influence functions defined on correlated probability spaces. The proofs are based on extending Fourier theory to an arbitrary number of correlated probability spaces, on a generalization of an invariance principle recently obtained with O’Donnell and Oleszkiewicz for multilinear polynomials with low influences and bounded degree and on properties of multi-dimensional Gaussian distributions.     

Weighted Composition Operators from H ∞ to the Bloch Space of a Bounded Homogeneous Domain

Let D be a bounded homogeneous domain in ℂ ⁿ . In this paper, we study the bounded and the compact weighted composition operators mapping the Hardy space H ^∞(D) into the Bloch space of D. We characterize the bounded weighted composition operators, provide operator norm estimates, and give sufficient conditions for compactness. We prove that these conditions are necessary in the case of the unit ball and the polydisk. We then show that if D is a bounded symmetric domain, the bounded multiplication operators from H ^∞(D) to the Bloch space of D are the operators whose symbol is bounded.     

Minimal multicut and maximal integer multiflow: A survey

We present a survey about the maximum integral multiflow and minimum multicut problems and their subproblems, such as the multiterminal cut and the unsplittable flow problems. We consider neither continuous multiflow nor minimum cost multiflow. Most of the results are very recent and some are new. We recall the dual relationship between both problems, give complexity results and algorithms, firstly in unrestricted graphs and secondly in several special graphs: trees, bipartite or planar graphs. A table summarizes the most important results.     

General Linear Quadratic Optimal Stochastic Control Problem Driven by a Brownian Motion and a Poisson Random Martingale Measure with Random Coefficients

In this article, we consider a linear-quadratic optimal control problem (LQ problem) for a controlled linear stochastic differential equation driven by a multidimensional Browinan motion and a Poisson random martingale measure in the general case, where the coefficients are allowed to be predictable processes or random matrices. By the duality technique, the dual characterization of the optimal control is derived by the optimality system (so-called stochastic Hamilton system), which turns out to be a linear fully coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equation with jumps. Using a decoupling technique, the connection between the stochastic Hamilton system and the associated Riccati equation is established. As a result, the state feedback representation is obtained for the optimal control. As the coefficients for the LQ problem are random, here, the associated Riccati equation is a highly nonlinear backward stochastic differential equation (BSDE) with jumps, where the generator depends on the unknown variables K, L, and H in a quadratic way (see (5.9) herein). For the case where the generator is bounded and is linearly dependent on the unknown martingale terms L and H, the existence and uniqueness of the solution for the associated Riccati equation are established by Bellman's principle of quasi-linearization.     

On the complexity of some subgraph problems

We study the complexity of the problem of deciding the existence of a spanning subgraph of a given graph, and of that of finding a maximum (weight) such subgraph. We establish some general relations between these problems, and we use these relations to obtain new NP-completeness results for maximum (weight) spanning subgraph problems from analogous results for existence problems and from results in extremal graph theory. On the positive side, we provide a decomposition method for the maximum (weight) spanning chordal subgraph problem that can be used, e.g., to obtain a linear (or O(nlogn)) time algorithm for such problems in graphs with vertex degree bounded by 3.