2020

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  Bilò, Davide; Bilò, Vittorio; Lenzner, Pascal; Molitor, LouiseTopological Influence and Locality in Swap Schelling Games. International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2020: 15:1--15:15
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  Residential segregation is a wide-spread phenomenon that can be observed in almost everymajor city. In these urban areas residents with different racial or socioeconomic backgroundtend to form homogeneous clusters. Schelling’s famous agent-based model for residentialsegregation explains how such clusters can form even if all agents are tolerant, i.e., if they agree to live in mixed neighborhoods. For segregation to occur, all it needs is a slightbias towards agents preferring similar neighbors. Very recently, Schelling’s model has beeninvestigated from a game-theoretic point of view with selfish agents that strategically select their residential location. In these games, agents can improve on their current location by performing a location swap with another agent who is willing to swap. We significantly deepen these investigations by studying the influence of the underlying topology modeling the residential area on the existence of equilibria, the Price of Anarchy and on the dynamic properties of the resulting strategic multi-agent system. Moreover, as a new conceptual contribution, we also consider the influence of locality, i.e., if the location swaps are restricted to swaps of neighboring agents. We give improved almost tight boundson the Price of Anarchy for arbitrary underlying graphs and we present (almost) tight bounds for regular graphs, paths and cycles. Moreover, we give almost tight bounds for grids, whichare commonly used in empirical studies. For grids we also show that locality has a severeimpact on the game dynamics.
  @inproceedings{bilo2020topological, abstract = {Residential segregation is a wide-spread phenomenon that can be observed in almost everymajor city. In these urban areas residents with different racial or socioeconomic backgroundtend to form homogeneous clusters. Schelling’s famous agent-based model for residentialsegregation explains how such clusters can form even if all agents are tolerant, i.e., if they agree to live in mixed neighborhoods. For segregation to occur, all it needs is a slightbias towards agents preferring similar neighbors. Very recently, Schelling’s model has beeninvestigated from a game-theoretic point of view with selfish agents that strategically select their residential location. In these games, agents can improve on their current location by performing a location swap with another agent who is willing to swap. We significantly deepen these investigations by studying the influence of the underlying topology modeling the residential area on the existence of equilibria, the Price of Anarchy and on the dynamic properties of the resulting strategic multi-agent system. Moreover, as a new conceptual contribution, we also consider the influence of locality, i.e., if the location swaps are restricted to swaps of neighboring agents. We give improved almost tight boundson the Price of Anarchy for arbitrary underlying graphs and we present (almost) tight bounds for regular graphs, paths and cycles. Moreover, we give almost tight bounds for grids, whichare commonly used in empirical studies. For grids we also show that locality has a severeimpact on the game dynamics.}, author = {Bilò, Davide and Bilò, Vittorio and Lenzner, Pascal and Molitor, Louise}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, editor = {Esparza, Javier and Kr{{á}}l', Daniel}, keywords = {louisemolitor mfcs pascallenzner year2020}, pages = {15:1--15:15}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum f{{ü}}r Informatik}, series = {LIPIcs}, title = {Topological Influence and Locality in Swap Schelling Games}, volume = 170, year = 2020 }

2019

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  Gao, Ziyuan; Jain, Sanjay; Khoussainov, Bakhadyr; Li, Wei; Melnikov, Alexander; Seidel, Karen; Stephan, FrankRandom Subgroups of Rationals. Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2019: 25:1-25:14
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  This paper introduces and studies a notion of algorithmic randomness for subgroups of rationals. Given a randomly generated additive subgroup \((G,+)\) of rationals, two main questions are addressed: first, what are the model-theoretic and recursion-theoretic properties of \((G,+)\); second, what learnability properties can one extract from \(G\) and its subclass of finitely generated subgroups? For the first question, it is shown that the theory of \((G,+)\) coincides with that of the additive group of integers and is therefore decidable; furthermore, while the word problem for \(G\) with respect to any generating sequence for \(G\) is not even semi-decidable, one can build a generating sequence \(\beta\) such that the word problem for \(G\) with respect to \(\beta\) is co-recursively enumerable (assuming that the set of generators of \(G\) is limit-recursive). In regard to the second question, it is proven that there is a generating sequence \(\beta\) for \(G\) such that every non-trivial finitely generated subgroup of \(G\) is recursively enumerable and the class of all such subgroups of \(G\) is behaviourally correctly learnable, that is, every non-trivial finitely generated subgroup can be semantically identified in the limit (again assuming that the set of generators of \(G\) is limit-recursive). On the other hand, the class of non-trivial finitely generated subgroups of \(G\) cannot be syntactically identified in the limit with respect to any generating sequence for \(G\). The present work thus contributes to a recent line of research studying algorithmically random infinite structures and uncovers an interesting connection between the arithmetical complexity of the set of generators of a randomly generated subgroup of rationals and the learnability of its finitely generated subgroups.
  @inproceedings{gao_et_al:LIPIcs:2019:10969, abstract = {This paper introduces and studies a notion of algorithmic randomness for subgroups of rationals. Given a randomly generated additive subgroup \((G,+)\) of rationals, two main questions are addressed: first, what are the model-theoretic and recursion-theoretic properties of \((G,+)\); second, what learnability properties can one extract from \(G\) and its subclass of finitely generated subgroups? For the first question, it is shown that the theory of \((G,+)\) coincides with that of the additive group of integers and is therefore decidable; furthermore, while the word problem for \(G\) with respect to any generating sequence for \(G\) is not even semi-decidable, one can build a generating sequence \(\beta\) such that the word problem for \(G\) with respect to \(\beta\) is co-recursively enumerable (assuming that the set of generators of \(G\) is limit-recursive). In regard to the second question, it is proven that there is a generating sequence \(\beta\) for \(G\) such that every non-trivial finitely generated subgroup of \(G\) is recursively enumerable and the class of all such subgroups of \(G\) is behaviourally correctly learnable, that is, every non-trivial finitely generated subgroup can be semantically identified in the limit (again assuming that the set of generators of \(G\) is limit-recursive). On the other hand, the class of non-trivial finitely generated subgroups of \(G\) cannot be syntactically identified in the limit with respect to any generating sequence for \(G\). The present work thus contributes to a recent line of research studying algorithmically random infinite structures and uncovers an interesting connection between the arithmetical complexity of the set of generators of a randomly generated subgroup of rationals and the learnability of its finitely generated subgroups.}, address = {Dagstuhl, Germany}, annote = {Keywords: Martin-L{ö}f randomness, subgroups of rationals, finitely generated subgroups of rationals, learning in the limit, behaviourally correct learning}, author = {Gao, Ziyuan and Jain, Sanjay and Khoussainov, Bakhadyr and Li, Wei and Melnikov, Alexander and Seidel, Karen and Stephan, Frank}, booktitle = {Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, editor = {Rossmanith, Peter and Heggernes, Pinar and Katoen, Joost-Pieter}, keywords = {karenseidel mfcs year2019}, pages = {25:1-25:14}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik}, series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, title = {Random Subgroups of Rationals}, volume = 138, year = 2019 }

2018

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  Göbel, Andreas; Lagodzinski, J. A. Gregor; Seidel, KarenCounting Homomorphisms to Trees Modulo a Prime. Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2018: 49:1-49:13
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  Many important graph theoretic notions can be encoded as counting graph homomorphism problems, such as partition functions in statistical physics, in particular independent sets and colourings. In this article we study the complexity of~\($\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$\), the problem of counting graph homomorphisms from an input graph to a graph \($H$\) modulo a prime number~\($p$\). Dyer and Greenhill proved a dichotomy stating that the tractability of non-modular counting graph homomorphisms depends on the structure of the target graph. Many intractable cases in non-modular counting become tractable in modular counting due to the common phenomenon of cancellation. In subsequent studies on counting modulo~\($2$\), however, the influence of the structure of~\($H$\) on the tractability was shown to persist, which yields similar dichotomies. Our main result states that for every tree~\($H$\) and every prime~\($p$\) the problem \($\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$\) is either polynomial time computable or \($\#_p\mathsf{P}$\)-complete. This relates to the conjecture of Faben and Jerrum stating that this dichotomy holds for every graph \($H$\) when counting modulo~2. In contrast to previous results on modular counting, the tractable cases of \($\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$\) are essentially the same for all values of the modulo when \($H$\) is a tree. To prove this result, we study the structural properties of a homomorphism. As an important interim result, our study yields a dichotomy for the problem of counting weighted independent sets in a bipartite graph modulo some prime~\($p$\). These results are the first suggesting that such dichotomies hold not only for the one-bit functions of the modulo~2 case but also for the modular counting functions of all primes~\($p$\).
  @inproceedings{gobel2018counting, abstract = {Many important graph theoretic notions can be encoded as counting graph homomorphism problems, such as partition functions in statistical physics, in particular independent sets and colourings. In this article we study the complexity of~$\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$, the problem of counting graph homomorphisms from an input graph to a graph $H$ modulo a prime number~$p$. Dyer and Greenhill proved a dichotomy stating that the tractability of non-modular counting graph homomorphisms depends on the structure of the target graph. Many intractable cases in non-modular counting become tractable in modular counting due to the common phenomenon of cancellation. In subsequent studies on counting modulo~$2$, however, the influence of the structure of~$H$ on the tractability was shown to persist, which yields similar dichotomies. Our main result states that for every tree~$H$ and every prime~$p$ the problem $\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$ is either polynomial time computable or $\#_p\mathsf{P}$-complete. This relates to the conjecture of Faben and Jerrum stating that this dichotomy holds for every graph $H$ when counting modulo~2. In contrast to previous results on modular counting, the tractable cases of $\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$ are essentially the same for all values of the modulo when $H$ is a tree. To prove this result, we study the structural properties of a homomorphism. As an important interim result, our study yields a dichotomy for the problem of counting weighted independent sets in a bipartite graph modulo some prime~$p$. These results are the first suggesting that such dichotomies hold not only for the one-bit functions of the modulo~2 case but also for the modular counting functions of all primes~$p$.}, author = {Göbel, Andreas and Lagodzinski, J. A. Gregor and Seidel, Karen}, booktitle = {Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, editor = {Potapov, Igor and Spirakis, Paul and Worrell, James}, keywords = {andreasgoebel gregorlagodzinski karenseidel mfcs year2018}, pages = {49:1-49:13}, publisher = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, title = {Counting Homomorphisms to Trees Modulo a Prime}, volume = 117, year = 2018 }
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  Issac, Davis; van Leeuwen, Erik Jan; Lauri, Juho; Lima, Paloma; Heggernes, PinarRainbow Vertex Coloring Bipartite Graphs and Chordal Graphs. Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2018: 1-13
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  Given a graph with colors on its vertices, a path is called a rainbow vertex path if all its internal vertices have distinct colors. We say that the graph is rainbow vertex-connected if there is a rainbow vertex path between every pair of its vertices. We study the problem of deciding whether the vertices of a given graph can be colored with at most k colors so that the graph becomes rainbow vertex-connected. Although edge-colorings have been studied extensively under similar constraints, there are significantly fewer results on the vertex variant that we consider. In particular, its complexity on structured graph classes was explicitly posed as an open question. We show that the problem remains NP-complete even on bipartite apex graphs and on split graphs. The former can be seen as a first step in the direction of studying the complexity of rainbow coloring on sparse graphs, an open problem which has attracted attention but limited progress. We also give hardness of approximation results for both bipartite and split graphs. To complement the negative results, we show that bipartite permutation graphs, interval graphs, and block graphs can be rainbow vertex-connected optimally in polynomial time.
  @inproceedings{illlh-rvcbgcg-2018, abstract = {Given a graph with colors on its vertices, a path is called a rainbow vertex path if all its internal vertices have distinct colors. We say that the graph is rainbow vertex-connected if there is a rainbow vertex path between every pair of its vertices. We study the problem of deciding whether the vertices of a given graph can be colored with at most k colors so that the graph becomes rainbow vertex-connected. Although edge-colorings have been studied extensively under similar constraints, there are significantly fewer results on the vertex variant that we consider. In particular, its complexity on structured graph classes was explicitly posed as an open question. We show that the problem remains NP-complete even on bipartite apex graphs and on split graphs. The former can be seen as a first step in the direction of studying the complexity of rainbow coloring on sparse graphs, an open problem which has attracted attention but limited progress. We also give hardness of approximation results for both bipartite and split graphs. To complement the negative results, we show that bipartite permutation graphs, interval graphs, and block graphs can be rainbow vertex-connected optimally in polynomial time.}, author = {Issac, Davis and van Leeuwen, Erik Jan and Lauri, Juho and Lima, Paloma and Heggernes, Pinar}, booktitle = {Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, keywords = {davisissac erikjanvanleeuwen juholauri mfcs palomalima pinarheggernes year2018}, pages = {1-13}, title = {Rainbow Vertex Coloring Bipartite Graphs and Chordal Graphs}, year = 2018 }

2017

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  Casel, Katrin; Fernau, Henning; Grigoriev, Alexander; Schmid, Markus L.; Whitesides, SueCombinatorial Properties and Recognition of Unit Square Visibility Graphs. International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2017: 30:1-30:15
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  Unit square (grid) visibility graphs (USV and USGV, resp.) are described by axis-parallel visibility between unit squares placed (on integer grid coordinates) in the plane. We investigate combinatorial properties of these graph classes and the hardness of variants of the recognition problem, i.e., the problem of representing USGV with fixed visibilities within small area and, for USV, the general recognition problem.
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/mfcs/CaselFGSW17, abstract = {Unit square (grid) visibility graphs (USV and USGV, resp.) are described by axis-parallel visibility between unit squares placed (on integer grid coordinates) in the plane. We investigate combinatorial properties of these graph classes and the hardness of variants of the recognition problem, i.e., the problem of representing USGV with fixed visibilities within small area and, for USV, the general recognition problem.}, author = {Casel, Katrin and Fernau, Henning and Grigoriev, Alexander and Schmid, Markus L. and Whitesides, Sue}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, editor = {Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean{-}Fran{\c{c}}ois}, keywords = {alexandergrigoriev henningfernau katrincasel markuslschmid mfcs suewhitesides year2017}, pages = {30:1-30:15}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik}, series = {LIPIcs}, title = {Combinatorial Properties and Recognition of Unit Square Visibility Graphs}, volume = 83, year = 2017 }

2016

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  Friedrich, TobiasScale-Free Networks, Hyperbolic Geometry, and Efficient Algorithms. Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2016: 4:1-4:3

  Invited Talk
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  The node degrees of large real-world networks often follow a power-law distribution. Such scale-free networks can be social networks, internet topologies, the web graph, power grids, or many other networks from literally hundreds of domains. The talk will introduce several mathematical models of scale-free networks (e.g. preferential attachment graphs, Chung-Lu graphs, hyperbolic random graphs) and analyze some of their properties (e.g. diameter, average distance, clustering). We then present several algorithms and distributed processes on and for these network models (e.g. rumor spreading, load balancing, de-anonymization, embedding) and discuss a number of open problems. The talk assumes no prior knowledge about scale-free networks, distributed computing or hyperbolic geometry.
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/mfcs/Friedrich16, abstract = {The node degrees of large real-world networks often follow a power-law distribution. Such scale-free networks can be social networks, internet topologies, the web graph, power grids, or many other networks from literally hundreds of domains. The talk will introduce several mathematical models of scale-free networks (e.g. preferential attachment graphs, Chung-Lu graphs, hyperbolic random graphs) and analyze some of their properties (e.g. diameter, average distance, clustering). We then present several algorithms and distributed processes on and for these network models (e.g. rumor spreading, load balancing, de-anonymization, embedding) and discuss a number of open problems. The talk assumes no prior knowledge about scale-free networks, distributed computing or hyperbolic geometry.}, author = {Friedrich, Tobias}, booktitle = {Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, keywords = {mfcs tobiasfriedrich year2016}, note = {Invited Talk}, pages = {4:1-4:3}, title = {Scale-Free Networks, Hyperbolic Geometry, and Efficient Algorithms}, year = 2016 }

2015

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  Cord-Landwehr, Andreas; Lenzner, PascalNetwork Creation Games: Think Global - Act Local. Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2015: 248-260
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  We investigate a non-cooperative game-theoretic model for the formation of communication networks by selfish agents. Each agent aims for a central position at minimum cost for creating edges. In particular, the general model (Fabrikant et al., PODC'03) became popular for studying the structure of the Internet or social networks. Despite its significance, locality in this game was first studied only recently (Bilo et al., SPAA'14), where a worst case locality model was presented, which came with a high efficiency loss in terms of quality of equilibria. Our main contribution is a new and more optimistic view on locality: agents are limited in their knowledge and actions to their local view ranges, but can probe different strategies and finally choose the best. We study the influence of our locality notion on the hardness of computing best responses, convergence to equilibria, and quality of equilibria. Moreover, we compare the strength of local versus non-local strategy changes. Our results address the gap between the original model and the worst case locality variant. On the bright side, our efficiency results are in line with observations from the original model, yet we have a non-constant lower bound on the Price of Anarchy.
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/mfcs/Cord-LandwehrL15, abstract = {We investigate a non-cooperative game-theoretic model for the formation of communication networks by selfish agents. Each agent aims for a central position at minimum cost for creating edges. In particular, the general model (Fabrikant et al., PODC'03) became popular for studying the structure of the Internet or social networks. Despite its significance, locality in this game was first studied only recently (Bilo et al., SPAA'14), where a worst case locality model was presented, which came with a high efficiency loss in terms of quality of equilibria. Our main contribution is a new and more optimistic view on locality: agents are limited in their knowledge and actions to their local view ranges, but can probe different strategies and finally choose the best. We study the influence of our locality notion on the hardness of computing best responses, convergence to equilibria, and quality of equilibria. Moreover, we compare the strength of local versus non-local strategy changes. Our results address the gap between the original model and the worst case locality variant. On the bright side, our efficiency results are in line with observations from the original model, yet we have a non-constant lower bound on the Price of Anarchy.}, author = {Cord-Landwehr, Andreas and Lenzner, Pascal}, booktitle = {Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, keywords = {imported mfcs pascal pascallenzner year2015}, pages = {248-260}, publisher = {Springer}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, title = {Network Creation Games: Think Global - Act Local}, volume = 9235, year = 2015 }

2013

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  Cohen, Sarel; Fiat, Amos; Hershcovitch, Moshik; Kaplan, HaimMinimal Indices for Successor Search - (Extended Abstract).Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2013: 278-289
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  We give a new successor data structure which improves upon the index size of the Pǎtraşcu-Thorup data structures, reducing the index size from \( \mathcal{O(n w^4/5 \) bits to \( \mathcal{O(n \log w) \) bits, with optimal probe complexity. Alternatively, our new data structure can be viewed as matching the space complexity of the (probe-suboptimal) z-fast trie of Belazzougui et al. Thus, we get the best of both approaches with respect to both probe count and index size. The penalty we pay is an extra \( \mathcal{O(n \log w) \) inter-register operations. Our data structure can also be used to solve the weak prefix search problem, the index size of \( \mathcal{O(n \log w) \) bits is known to be optimal for any such data structure. The technical contributions include highly efficient single word indices, with out-degree \( w / \log w \) (compared to the \( w^1/5 \) out-degree of fusion tree based indices). To construct such high efficiency single word indices we device highly efficient bit selectors which, we believe, are of independent interest.
  @inproceedings{cohen2013minimal, abstract = {We give a new successor data structure which improves upon the index size of the Pǎtraşcu-Thorup data structures, reducing the index size from \( \mathcal{O}(n w^{4/5} \) bits to \( \mathcal{O}(n \log w) \) bits, with optimal probe complexity. Alternatively, our new data structure can be viewed as matching the space complexity of the (probe-suboptimal) z-fast trie of Belazzougui et al. Thus, we get the best of both approaches with respect to both probe count and index size. The penalty we pay is an extra \( \mathcal{O}(n \log w) \) inter-register operations. Our data structure can also be used to solve the weak prefix search problem, the index size of \( \mathcal{O}(n \log w) \) bits is known to be optimal for any such data structure. The technical contributions include highly efficient single word indices, with out-degree \( w / \log w \) (compared to the \( w^{1/5} \) out-degree of fusion tree based indices). To construct such high efficiency single word indices we device highly efficient bit selectors which, we believe, are of independent interest.}, author = {Cohen, Sarel and Fiat, Amos and Hershcovitch, Moshik and Kaplan, Haim}, booktitle = {Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, keywords = {sys:relevantfor:ae amosfiat haimkaplan mfcs moshikhershcovitch sarelcohen year2013}, pages = {278-289}, title = {Minimal Indices for Successor Search - (Extended Abstract).}, year = 2013 }