We study query-efficient Probabilistically Checkable
Proofs (PCPs) and linearity tests. We focus on the number
of amortized query bits. A testing algorithm uses $q$ amortized
query bits if, for some constant $k$, it reads $qk$ bits and has
error probability at most $2^{-k}$. The best known ... more >>>

In the Densest $k$-Subgraph problem, given an undirected graph $G$ and an integer $k$, the goal is to find a subgraph of $G$ on $k$ vertices that contains maximum number of edges. Even though the state-of-the-art algorithm for the problem achieves only $O(n^{1/4 + \varepsilon})$ approximation ratio (Bhaskara et al., ... more >>>

We study the parameterized complexity of approximating the $k$-Dominating Set (domset) problem where an integer $k$ and a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices are given as input, and the goal is to find a dominating set of size at most $F(k) \cdot k$ whenever the graph $G$ has a dominating ... more >>>

We study the problem of computing the $p\rightarrow q$ norm of a matrix $A \in R^{m \times n}$, defined as \[ \|A\|_{p\rightarrow q} ~:=~ \max_{x \,\in\, R^n \setminus \{0\}} \frac{\|Ax\|_q}{\|x\|_p} \] This problem generalizes the spectral norm of a matrix ($p=q=2$) and the Grothendieck problem ($p=\infty$, $q=1$), and has been ... more >>>

The k-Even Set problem is a parameterized variant of the Minimum Distance Problem of linear codes over $\mathbb{F}_2$, which can be stated as follows: given a generator matrix A and an integer k, determine whether the code generated by A has distance at most k, or in other words, whether ... more >>>

A systematic study of simultaneous optimization of constraint satisfaction problems was initiated in [BKS15]. The simplest such problem is the simultaneous Max-Cut. [BKKST18] gave a $.878$-minimum approximation algorithm for simultaneous Max-Cut which is {\em almost optimal} assuming the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). For a single instance Max-Cut, [GW95] gave an ... more >>>

Parameterization and approximation are two popular ways of coping with NP-hard problems. More recently, the two have also been combined to derive many interesting results. We survey developments in the area both from the algorithmic and hardness perspectives, with emphasis on new techniques and potential future research directions.

A seminal result of H\r{a}stad [J. ACM, 48(4):798–859, 2001] shows that it is NP-hard to find an assignment that satisfies $\frac{1}{|G|}+\varepsilon$ fraction of the constraints of a given $k$-LIN instance over an abelian group, even if there is an assignment that satisfies $(1-\varepsilon)$ fraction of the constraints, for any constant ... more >>>

In this paper, we show how one may (efficiently) construct two types of extremal combinatorial objects whose existence was previously conjectural.

(*) Panchromatic Graphs: For fixed integer k, a k-panchromatic graph is, roughly speaking, a balanced bipartite graph with one partition class equipartitioned into k colour classes in ... more >>>

k-median and k-means are the two most popular objectives for clustering algorithms. Despite intensive effort, a good understanding of the approximability of these objectives, particularly in $\ell_p$-metrics, remains a major open problem. In this paper, we significantly improve upon the hardness of approximation factors known in literature for these objectives ... more >>>

We consider the $P$-CSP problem for $3$-ary predicates $P$ on satisfiable instances. We show that under certain conditions on $P$ and a $(1,s)$ integrality gap instance of the $P$-CSP problem, it can be translated into a dictatorship vs. quasirandomness test with perfect completeness and soundness $s+\varepsilon$, for every constant $\varepsilon>0$. ... more >>>

Let $\Sigma$ be an alphabet and $\mu$ be a distribution on $\Sigma^k$ for some $k \geq 2$. Let $\alpha > 0$ be the minimum probability of a tuple in the support of $\mu$ (denoted by $supp(\mu)$). Here, the support of $\mu$ is the set of all tuples in $\Sigma^k$ that ... more >>>

The Parameterized Inapproximability Hypothesis (PIH) is the analog of the PCP theorem in the world of parameterized complexity. It asserts that no FPT algorithm can distinguish a satisfiable 2CSP instance from one which is only $(1-\varepsilon)$-satisfiable (where the parameter is the number of variables) for some constant $0<\varepsilon<1$.

We ... more >>>

We show that for all $\varepsilon>0$, for sufficiently large prime power $q\in\mathbb{N}$, for all $\delta>0$, it is NP-hard to distinguish whether a $2$-Prover-$1$-Round projection game with alphabet size $q$ has value at least $1-\delta$, or value at most $1/q^{1-\varepsilon}$. This establishes a nearly optimal alphabet-to-soundness tradeoff for $2$-query PCPs ... more >>>