License: 
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2019.81
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-106573
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2019/10657/
Lin, Bingkai
A Simple Gap-Producing Reduction for the Parameterized Set Cover Problem
Abstract
Given an n-vertex bipartite graph I=(S,U,E), the goal of set cover problem is to find a minimum sized subset of S such that every vertex in U is adjacent to some vertex of this subset. It is NP-hard to approximate set cover to within a (1-o(1))ln n factor [I. Dinur and D. Steurer, 2014]. If we use the size of the optimum solution k as the parameter, then it can be solved in n^{k+o(1)} time [Eisenbrand and Grandoni, 2004]. A natural question is: can we approximate set cover to within an o(ln n) factor in n^{k-epsilon} time?
In a recent breakthrough result[Karthik et al., 2018], Karthik, Laekhanukit and Manurangsi showed that assuming the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH), for any computable function f, no f(k)* n^{k-epsilon}-time algorithm can approximate set cover to a factor below (log n)^{1/poly(k,e(epsilon))} for some function e.
This paper presents a simple gap-producing reduction which, given a set cover instance I=(S,U,E) and two integers k<h <=(1-o(1))sqrt[k]{log |S|/log log |S|}, outputs a new set cover instance I'=(S,U',E') with |U'|=|U|^{h^k}|S|^{O(1)} in |U|^{h^k}* |S|^{O(1)} time such that
- if I has a k-sized solution, then so does I';
- if I has no k-sized solution, then every solution of I' must contain at least h vertices.
Setting h=(1-o(1))sqrt[k]{log |S|/log log |S|}, we show that assuming SETH, for any computable function f, no f(k)* n^{k-epsilon}-time algorithm can distinguish between a set cover instance with k-sized solution and one whose minimum solution size is at least (1-o(1))* sqrt[k]((log n)/(log log n)). This improves the result in [Karthik et al., 2018].
BibTeX - Entry
@InProceedings{lin:LIPIcs:2019:10657,
author = {Bingkai Lin},
title = {{A Simple Gap-Producing Reduction for the Parameterized Set Cover Problem}},
booktitle = {46th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2019)},
pages = {81:1--81:15},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-109-2},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2019},
volume = {132},
editor = {Christel Baier and Ioannis Chatzigiannakis and Paola Flocchini and Stefano Leonardi},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2019/10657},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-106573},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2019.81},
annote = {Keywords: set cover, FPT inapproximability, gap-producing reduction, (n, k)-universal set}
}
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Keywords: |
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set cover, FPT inapproximability, gap-producing reduction, (n, k)-universal set |
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Collection: |
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46th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2019) |
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Issue Date: |
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2019 |
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Date of publication: |
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04.07.2019 |
