License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-136543
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2021/13654/
Go to the corresponding LIPIcs Volume Portal


Barman, Siddharth ; Fawzi, Omar ; Fermé, Paul

Tight Approximation Guarantees for Concave Coverage Problems

pdf-format:
LIPIcs-STACS-2021-9.pdf (0.8 MB)


Abstract

In the maximum coverage problem, we are given subsets T_1, …, T_m of a universe [n] along with an integer k and the objective is to find a subset S ⊆ [m] of size k that maximizes C(S) : = |⋃_{i ∈ S} T_i|. It is a classic result that the greedy algorithm for this problem achieves an optimal approximation ratio of 1-e^{-1}.
In this work we consider a generalization of this problem wherein an element a can contribute by an amount that depends on the number of times it is covered. Given a concave, nondecreasing function φ, we define C^{φ}(S) := ∑_{a ∈ [n]}w_aφ(|S|_a), where |S|_a = |{i ∈ S : a ∈ T_i}|. The standard maximum coverage problem corresponds to taking φ(j) = min{j,1}. For any such φ, we provide an efficient algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio equal to the Poisson concavity ratio of φ, defined by α_{φ} : = min_{x ∈ ℕ^*} ?[φ(Poi(x))] / φ(?[Poi(x)]). Complementing this approximation guarantee, we establish a matching NP-hardness result when φ grows in a sublinear way.
As special cases, we improve the result of [Siddharth Barman et al., 2020] about maximum multi-coverage, that was based on the unique games conjecture, and we recover the result of [Szymon Dudycz et al., 2020] on multi-winner approval-based voting for geometrically dominant rules. Our result goes beyond these special cases and we illustrate it with applications to distributed resource allocation problems, welfare maximization problems and approval-based voting for general rules.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{barman_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9,
  author =	{Barman, Siddharth and Fawzi, Omar and Ferm\'{e}, Paul},
  title =	{{Tight Approximation Guarantees for Concave Coverage Problems}},
  booktitle =	{38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2021)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-180-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{187},
  editor =	{Bl\"{a}ser, Markus and Monmege, Benjamin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2021/13654},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-136543},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2021.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation Algorithms, Coverage Problems, Concave Function}
}

Keywords: Approximation Algorithms, Coverage Problems, Concave Function
Collection: 38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2021)
Issue Date: 2021
Date of publication: 10.03.2021


DROPS-Home | Fulltext Search | Imprint | Privacy Published by LZI