Given an $n$-vertex planar embedded digraph $G$ with non-negative edge weights and a face $f$ of $G$, Klein presented a data structure with $O(n\log n)$ space and preprocessing time which can answer any query $(u,v)$ for the shortest path distance in $G$ from $u$ to $v$ or from $v$ to $u$ in $O(\log n)$ time, provided $u$ is on $f$. This data structure is a key tool in a number of state-of-the-art algorithms and data structures for planar graphs. Klein's data structure relies on dynamic trees and the persistence technique as well as a highly non-trivial interaction between primal shortest path trees and their duals. The construction of our data structure follows a completely different and in our opinion very simple divide-and-conquer approach that solely relies on Single-Source Shortest Path computations and contractions in the primal graph. Our space and preprocessing time bound is $O(n\log |f|)$ and query time is $O(\log |f|)$ which is an improvement over Klein's data structure when $f$ has small size.
In numerical linear algebra, a well-established practice is to choose a norm that exploits the structure of the problem at hand in order to optimize accuracy or computational complexity. In numerical polynomial algebra, a single norm (attributed to Weyl) dominates the literature. This article initiates the use of $L_p$ norms for numerical algebraic geometry, with an emphasis on $L_{\infty}$. This classical idea yields strong improvements in the analysis of the number of steps performed by numerous iterative algorithms. In particular, we exhibit three algorithms where, despite the complexity of computing $L_{\infty}$-norm, the use of $L_p$-norms substantially reduces computational complexity: a subdivision-based algorithm in real algebraic geometry for computing the homology of semialgebraic sets, a well-known meshing algorithm in computational geometry, and the computation of zeros of systems of complex quadratic polynomials (a particular case of Smale's 17th problem).
Graph analytics attract much attention from both research and industry communities. Due to the linear time complexity, the $k$-core decomposition is widely used in many real-world applications such as biology, social networks, community detection, ecology, and information spreading. In many such applications, the data graphs continuously change over time. The changes correspond to edge insertion and removal. Instead of recomputing the $k$-core, which is time-consuming, we study how to maintain the $k$-core efficiently. That is, when inserting or deleting an edge, we need to identify the affected vertices by searching for more vertices. The state-of-the-art order-based method maintains an order, the so-called $k$-order, among all vertices, which can significantly reduce the searching space. However, this order-based method is complicated for understanding and implementation, and its correctness is not formally discussed. In this work, we propose a simplified order-based approach by introducing the classical Order Data Structure to maintain the $k$-order, which significantly improves the worst-case time complexity for both edge insertion and removal algorithms. Also, our simplified method is intuitive to understand and implement; it is easy to argue the correctness formally. Additionally, we discuss a simplified batch insertion approach. The experiments evaluate our simplified method over 12 real and synthetic graphs with billions of vertices. Compared with the existing method, our simplified approach achieves high speedups up to 7.7x and 9.7x for edge insertion and removal, respectively.
The non-parametric estimation of covariance lies at the heart of functional data analysis, whether for curve or surface-valued data. The case of a two-dimensional domain poses both statistical and computational challenges, which are typically alleviated by assuming separability. However, separability is often questionable, sometimes even demonstrably inadequate. We propose a framework for the analysis of covariance operators of random surfaces that generalises separability, while retaining its major advantages. Our approach is based on the expansion of the covariance into a series of separable terms. The expansion is valid for any covariance over a two-dimensional domain. Leveraging the key notion of the partial inner product, we extend the power iteration method to general Hilbert spaces and show how the aforementioned expansion can be efficiently constructed in practice. Truncation of the expansion and retention of the leading terms automatically induces a non-parametric estimator of the covariance, whose parsimony is dictated by the truncation level. The resulting estimator can be calculated, stored and manipulated with little computational overhead relative to separability. Consistency and rates of convergence are derived under mild regularity assumptions, illustrating the trade-off between bias and variance regulated by the truncation level. The merits and practical performance of the proposed methodology are demonstrated in a comprehensive simulation study and on classification of EEG signals.
Pattern matching on graphs has been widely studied lately due to its importance in genomics applications. Unfortunately, even the simplest problem of deciding if a string appears as a subpath of a graph admits a quadratic lower bound under the Orthogonal Vectors Hypothesis (Equi et al. ICALP 2019, SOFSEM 2021). To avoid this bottleneck, the research has shifted towards more specific graph classes, e.g. those induced from multiple sequence alignments (MSAs). Consider segmenting $\mathsf{MSA}[1..m,1..n]$ into $b$ blocks $\mathsf{MSA}[1..m,1..j_1]$, $\mathsf{MSA}[1..m,j_1+1..j_2]$, $\ldots$, $\mathsf{MSA}[1..m,j_{b-1}+1..n]$. The distinct strings in the rows of the blocks, after the removal of gap symbols, form the nodes of an elastic founder graph (EFG) where the edges represent the original connections observed in the MSA. An EFG is called indexable if a node label occurs as a prefix of only those paths that start from a node of the same block. Equi et al. (ISAAC 2021) showed that such EFGs support fast pattern matching and gave an $O(mn \log m)$-time algorithm for preprocessing the MSA in a way that allows the construction of indexable EFGs maximizing the number of blocks and, alternatively, minimizing the maximum length of a block, in $O(n)$ and $O(n \log\log n)$ time respectively. Using the suffix tree and solving a novel ancestor problem on trees, we improve the preprocessing to $O(mn)$ time and the $O(n \log \log n)$-time EFG construction to $O(n)$ time, thus showing that both types of indexable EFGs can be constructed in time linear in the input size.
The two weighted graph problems Node Multiway Cut (NMC) and Subset Feedback Vertex Set (SFVS) both ask for a vertex set of minimum total weight, that for NMC disconnects a given set of terminals, and for SFVS intersects all cycles containing a vertex of a given set. We design a meta-algorithm that allows to solve both problems in time $2^{O(rw^3)}\cdot n^{4}$, $2^{O(q^2\log(q))}\cdot n^{4}$, and $n^{O(k^2)}$ where $rw$ is the rank-width, $q$ the $\mathbb{Q}$-rank-width, and $k$ the mim-width of a given decomposition. This answers in the affirmative an open question raised by Jaffke et al. (Algorithmica, 2019) concerning an XP algorithm for SFVS parameterized by mim-width. By a unified algorithm, this solves both problems in polynomial-time on the following graph classes: Interval, Permutation, and Bi-Interval graphs, Circular Arc and Circular Permutation graphs, Convex graphs, $k$-Polygon, Dilworth-$k$ and Co-$k$-Degenerate graphs for fixed $k$; and also on Leaf Power graphs if a leaf root is given as input, on $H$-Graphs for fixed $H$ if an $H$-representation is given as input, and on arbitrary powers of graphs in all the above classes. Prior to our results, only SFVS was known to be tractable restricted only on Interval and Permutation graphs, whereas all other results are new.
This study presents a policy optimisation framework for structured nonlinear control of continuous-time (deterministic) dynamic systems. The proposed approach prescribes a structure for the controller based on relevant scientific knowledge (such as Lyapunov stability theory or domain experiences) while considering the tunable elements inside the given structure as the point of parametrisation with neural networks. To optimise a cost represented as a function of the neural network weights, the proposed approach utilises the continuous-time policy gradient method based on adjoint sensitivity analysis as a means for correct and performant computation of cost gradient. This enables combining the stability, robustness, and physical interpretability of an analytically-derived structure for the feedback controller with the representational flexibility and optimised resulting performance provided by machine learning techniques. Such a hybrid paradigm for fixed-structure control synthesis is particularly useful for optimising adaptive nonlinear controllers to achieve improved performance in online operation, an area where the existing theory prevails the design of structure while lacking clear analytical understandings about tuning of the gains and the uncertainty model basis functions that govern the performance characteristics. Numerical experiments on aerospace applications illustrate the utility of the structured nonlinear controller optimisation framework.
The problem of $d$-Path Vertex Cover, $d$-PVC lies in determining a subset $F$ of vertices of a given graph $G=(V,E)$ such that $G \setminus F$ does not contain a path on $d$ vertices. The paths we aim to cover need not to be induced. It is known that the $d$-PVC problem is NP-complete for any $d \ge 2$. When parameterized by the size of the solution $k$, 5-PVC has direct trivial algorithm with $\mathcal{O}(5^kn^{\mathcal{O}(1)})$ running time and, since $d$-PVC is a special case of $d$-Hitting Set, an algorithm running in $\mathcal{O}(4.0755^kn^{\mathcal{O}(1)})$ time is known. In this paper we present an iterative compression algorithm that solves the 5-PVC problem in $\mathcal{O}(4^kn^{\mathcal{O}(1)})$ time.
The solution of the shortest path problem on a surface is not only a theoretical problem to be solved in the field of mathematics, but also problems that need to be solved in very different fields such as medicine, defense and construction technologies. When it comes to the land specific, solution algorithms for these problems are also of great importance in terms of determination of the shortest path in an open area where the road will pass in the field of civil engineering, or route determination of manned or unmanned vehicles for various logistic needs, especially in raw terrains. In addition, path finding problems in the raw terrains are also important for manned and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) used in the defense industry. Within the scope of this study, a method that can be used for instant route determinations within sight range or for route determinations covering wider areas is proposed. Although the examples presented within the scope of the study are land-based, the method can be applied to almost all problem types of similar nature. The approach used in the study can be briefly described as the mechanical analysis of a surface transformed into a structural load bearing system based on mechanical analogies. In this approach, the determination of the shortest path connecting two points can be realized by following the stress-strain values that will occur by moving the points away from each other or by following a linear line that will be formed between two points during the mechanical analysis. If the proposed approach is to be carried out with multiple rigid body dynamics approaches instead of flexible bodies mechanics, it can be carried out easily and very quickly by determining the shortest path between two points or by tracking the forces. However, the proposed approach in this study is presented by simulating examples of flexible bodies using FEM.
We study the problem of learning in the stochastic shortest path (SSP) setting, where an agent seeks to minimize the expected cost accumulated before reaching a goal state. We design a novel model-based algorithm EB-SSP that carefully skews the empirical transitions and perturbs the empirical costs with an exploration bonus to guarantee both optimism and convergence of the associated value iteration scheme. We prove that EB-SSP achieves the minimax regret rate $\widetilde{O}(B_{\star} \sqrt{S A K})$, where $K$ is the number of episodes, $S$ is the number of states, $A$ is the number of actions and $B_{\star}$ bounds the expected cumulative cost of the optimal policy from any state, thus closing the gap with the lower bound. Interestingly, EB-SSP obtains this result while being parameter-free, i.e., it does not require any prior knowledge of $B_{\star}$, nor of $T_{\star}$ which bounds the expected time-to-goal of the optimal policy from any state. Furthermore, we illustrate various cases (e.g., positive costs, or general costs when an order-accurate estimate of $T_{\star}$ is available) where the regret only contains a logarithmic dependence on $T_{\star}$, thus yielding the first horizon-free regret bound beyond the finite-horizon MDP setting.
The Normalized Cut (NCut) objective function, widely used in data clustering and image segmentation, quantifies the cost of graph partitioning in a way that biases clusters or segments that are balanced towards having lower values than unbalanced partitionings. However, this bias is so strong that it avoids any singleton partitions, even when vertices are very weakly connected to the rest of the graph. Motivated by the B\"uhler-Hein family of balanced cut costs, we propose the family of Compassionately Conservative Balanced (CCB) Cut costs, which are indexed by a parameter that can be used to strike a compromise between the desire to avoid too many singleton partitions and the notion that all partitions should be balanced. We show that CCB-Cut minimization can be relaxed into an orthogonally constrained $\ell_{\tau}$-minimization problem that coincides with the problem of computing Piecewise Flat Embeddings (PFE) for one particular index value, and we present an algorithm for solving the relaxed problem by iteratively minimizing a sequence of reweighted Rayleigh quotients (IRRQ). Using images from the BSDS500 database, we show that image segmentation based on CCB-Cut minimization provides better accuracy with respect to ground truth and greater variability in region size than NCut-based image segmentation.