In the $Activation$ $k$ $Disjoint$ $st$-$Paths$ ($Activation$ $k$-$DP$) problem we are given a graph $G=(V,E)$ with activation costs $\{c_{uv}^u,c_{uv}^v\}$ for every edge $uv \in E$, a source-sink pair $s,t \in V$, and an integer $k$. The goal is to compute an edge set $F \subseteq E$ of $k$ internally node disjoint $st$-paths of minimum activation cost $\displaystyle \sum_{v \in V}\max_{uv \in E}c_{uv}^v$. The problem admits an easy $2$-approximation algorithm. Alqahtani and Erlebach [CIAC, pages 1-12, 2013] claimed that Activation 2-DP admits a $1.5$-approximation algorithm. Their proof has an error, and we will show that the approximation ratio of their algorithm is at least $2$. We will then give a different algorithm with approximation ratio $1.5$.
In the Activation Edge-Multicover problem we are given a multigraph $G=(V,E)$ with activation costs $\{c_{e}^u,c_{e}^v\}$ for every edge $e=uv \in E$, and degree requirements $r=\{r_v:v \in V\}$. The goal is to find an edge subset $J \subseteq E$ of minimum activation cost $\sum_{v \in V}\max\{c_{uv}^v:uv \in J\}$,such that every $v \in V$ has at least $r_v$ neighbors in the graph $(V,J)$. Let $k= \max_{v \in V} r_v$ be the maximum requirement and let $\theta=\max_{e=uv \in E} \frac{\max\{c_e^u,c_e^v\}}{\min\{c_e^u,c_e^v\}}$ be the maximum quotient between the two costs of an edge. For $\theta=1$ the problem admits approximation ratio $O(\log k)$. For $k=1$ it generalizes the Set Cover problem (when $\theta=\infty$), and admits a tight approximation ratio $O(\log n)$. This implies approximation ratio $O(k \log n)$ for general $k$ and $\theta$, and no better approximation ratio was known. We obtain the first logarithmic approximation ratio $O(\log k +\log\min\{\theta,n\})$, that bridges between the two known ratios -- $O(\log k)$ for $\theta=1$ and $O(\log n)$ for $k=1$. This implies approximation ratio $O\left(\log k +\log\min\{\theta,n\}\right) +\beta \cdot (\theta+1)$ for the Activation $k$-Connected Subgraph problem, where $\beta$ is the best known approximation ratio for the ordinary min-cost version of the problem.
A $k$-uniform hypergraph is a hypergraph where each $k$-hyperedge has exactly $k$ vertices. A $k$-homogeneous access structure is represented by a $k$-uniform hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$, in which the participants correspond to the vertices of hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$. A set of vertices can reconstruct the secret value from their shares if they are connected by a $k$-hyperedge, while a set of non-adjacent vertices does not obtain any information about the secret. One parameter for measuring the efficiency of a secret sharing scheme is the information rate, defined as the ratio between the length of the secret and the maximum length of the shares given to the participants. Secret sharing schemes with an information rate equal to one are called ideal secret sharing schemes. An access structure is considered ideal if an ideal secret sharing scheme can realize it. Characterizing ideal access structures is one of the important problems in secret sharing schemes. The characterization of ideal access structures has been studied by many authors~\cite{BD, CT,JZB, FP1,FP2,DS1,TD}. In this paper, we characterize ideal $k$-homogeneous access structures using the independent sequence method. In particular, we prove that the reduced access structure of $\Gamma$ is an $(k, n)$-threshold access structure when the optimal information rate of $\Gamma$ is larger than $\frac{k-1}{k}$, where $\Gamma$ is a $k$-homogeneous access structure satisfying specific criteria.
We define a family of $C^1$ functions which we call "nowhere coexpanding functions" that is closed under composition and includes all $C^3$ functions with non-positive Schwarzian derivative. We establish results on the number and nature of the fixed points of these functions, including a generalisation of a classic result of Singer.
Given a graph $G$, a set $S$ of vertices in $G$ is a general position set if no triple of vertices from $S$ lie on a common shortest path in $G$. The general position achievement/avoidance game is played on a graph $G$ by players A and B who alternately select vertices of $G$. A selection of a vertex by a player is a legal move if it has not been selected before and the set of selected vertices so far forms a general position set of $G$. The player who picks the last vertex is the winner in the general position achievement game and is the loser in the avoidance game. In this paper, we prove that the general position achievement/avoidance games are PSPACE-complete even on graphs with diameter at most 4. For this, we prove that the \textit{mis\`ere} play of the classical Node Kayles game is also PSPACE-complete. As positive results, we obtain linear time algorithms to decide the winning player of the general position avoidance game in rook's graphs, grids, cylinders, and lexicographic products with complete second factors.
This work considers the low-rank approximation of a matrix $A(t)$ depending on a parameter $t$ in a compact set $D \subset \mathbb{R}^d$. Application areas that give rise to such problems include computational statistics and dynamical systems. Randomized algorithms are an increasingly popular approach for performing low-rank approximation and they usually proceed by multiplying the matrix with random dimension reduction matrices (DRMs). Applying such algorithms directly to $A(t)$ would involve different, independent DRMs for every $t$, which is not only expensive but also leads to inherently non-smooth approximations. In this work, we propose to use constant DRMs, that is, $A(t)$ is multiplied with the same DRM for every $t$. The resulting parameter-dependent extensions of two popular randomized algorithms, the randomized singular value decomposition and the generalized Nystr\"{o}m method, are computationally attractive, especially when $A(t)$ admits an affine linear decomposition with respect to $t$. We perform a probabilistic analysis for both algorithms, deriving bounds on the expected value as well as failure probabilities for the approximation error when using Gaussian random DRMs. Both, the theoretical results and numerical experiments, show that the use of constant DRMs does not impair their effectiveness; our methods reliably return quasi-best low-rank approximations.
Given a positive integer $d$, the class $d$-DIR is defined as all those intersection graphs formed from a finite collection of line segments in ${\mathbb R}^2$ having at most $d$ slopes. Since each slope induces an interval graph, it easily follows for every $G$ in $d$-DIR with clique number at most $\omega$ that the chromatic number $\chi(G)$ of $G$ is at most $d\omega$. We show for every even value of $\omega$ how to construct a graph in $d$-DIR that meets this bound exactly. This partially confirms a conjecture of Bhattacharya, Dvo\v{r}\'ak and Noorizadeh. Furthermore, we show that the $\chi$-binding function of $d$-DIR is $\omega \mapsto d\omega$ for $\omega$ even and $\omega \mapsto d(\omega-1)+1$ for $\omega$ odd. This refutes said conjecture of Bhattacharya, Dvo\v{r}\'ak and Noorizadeh.
Given a boolean formula $\Phi$(X, Y, Z), the Max\#SAT problem asks for finding a partial model on the set of variables X, maximizing its number of projected models over the set of variables Y. We investigate a strict generalization of Max\#SAT allowing dependencies for variables in X, effectively turning it into a synthesis problem. We show that this new problem, called DQMax\#SAT, subsumes both the DQBF and DSSAT problems. We provide a general resolution method, based on a reduction to Max\#SAT, together with two improvements for dealing with its inherent complexity. We further discuss a concrete application of DQMax\#SAT for symbolic synthesis of adaptive attackers in the field of program security. Finally, we report preliminary results obtained on the resolution of benchmark problems using a prototype DQMax\#SAT solver implementation.
In this note, we give sufficient conditions for the almost sure and the convergence in $\mathbb{L}^p$ of a $U$-statistic of order $m$ built on a strictly stationary but not necessarily ergodic sequence.
We show that any Lotka--Volterra $T$-system associated with an $n$-vertex tree $T$ as introduced in Quispel et al., J. Phys. A 56 (2023) 315201, preserves a rational measure. We also prove that the Kahan discretisation of these $T$-systems factorises and preserves the same measure. As a consequence, for the Kahan maps of Lotka--Volterra systems related to the subclass of $T$-systems corresponding to graphs with more than one $n$-vertex subtree, we are able to construct rational integrals.
In this paper, we present an implicit Crank-Nicolson finite element (FE) scheme for solving a nonlinear Schr\"odinger-type system, which includes Schr\"odinger-Helmholz system and Schr\"odinger-Poisson system. In our numerical scheme, we employ an implicit Crank-Nicolson method for time discretization and a conforming FE method for spatial discretization. The proposed method is proved to be well-posedness and ensures mass and energy conservation at the discrete level. Furthermore, we prove optimal $L^2$ error estimates for the fully discrete solutions. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to verify the convergence rate and conservation properties.