Improved Approximation Algorithms by Generalizing the Primal-Dual Method Beyond Uncrossable Functions
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We address long-standing open questions raised by Williamson, Goemans, Vazirani and Mihail pertaining to the design of approximation algorithms for problems in network design via the primal-dual method (Combinatorica 15(3):435-454, 1995). Williamson et al. prove an approximation ratio of two for connectivity augmentation problems where the connectivity requirements can be specified by uncrossable functions. They state: "Extending our algorithm to handle non-uncrossable functions remains a challenging open problem. The key feature of uncrossable functions is that there exists an optimal dual solution which is laminar... A larger open issue is to explore further the power of the primal-dual approach for obtaining approximation algorithms for other combinatorial optimization problems." Our main result proves a 16-approximation ratio via the primal-dual method for a class of functions that generalizes the notion of an uncrossable function. There exist instances that can be handled by our methods where none of the optimal dual solutions have a laminar support. We present applications of our main result to three network-design problems. 1) A 16-approximation algorithm for augmenting the family of small cuts of a graph G. The previous best approximation ratio was O(log |V(G)|). 2) A 16⋅⌈k/u_min⌉-approximation algorithm for the Cap-k-ECSS problem which is as follows: Given an undirected graph G = (V,E) with edge costs c ∈ ℚ_{≥0}^E and edge capacities u ∈ ℤ_{≥0}^E, find a minimum cost subset of the edges F ⊆ E such that the capacity across any cut in (V,F) is at least k; u_min (respectively, u_max) denote the minimum (respectively, maximum) capacity of an edge in E, and w.l.o.g. u_max ≤ k. The previous best approximation ratio was min(O(log|V|), k, 2u_max). 3) A 20-approximation algorithm for the model of (p,2)-Flexible Graph Connectivity. The previous best approximation ratio was O(log|V(G)|), where G denotes the input graph.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".