Tight analysis of the primal-dual method for edge-covering pliable set families
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866909621784936448 |
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| author | Nutov, Zeev |
| author_facet | Nutov, Zeev |
| contents | A classic result of Williamson, Goemans, Mihail, and Vazirani [STOC 1993: 708-717] states that the problem of covering an uncrossable set family by a min-cost edge set admits approximation ratio $2$, by a primal-dual algorithm with a reverse delete phase. Bansal, Cheriyan, Grout, and Ibrahimpur [ICALP 2023: 15:1-15:19] showed that this algorithm achieves approximation ratio $16$ for a larger class of so called $γ$-pliable set families, that have much weaker uncrossing properties. The approximation ratio $16$ was improved to $10$ by the author [WAOA 2025: 151-166]. Recently, Bansal [arXiv:2308.15714] stated approximation ratio $8$ for $γ$-pliable families and an improved approximation ratio $5$ for an important particular case of the family of cuts of size $<k$ of a graph $H$, but his proof has an error. We will improve the approximation ratio to $7$ for the former case and give a simple proof of approximation ratio $6$ for the latter case. Furthermore, if $H$ is $λ$-edge-connected then we will show a slightly better approximation ratio $6-\frac{1}{β+1}$, where $β=\left\lfloor\frac{k-1}{\lceil(λ+1)/2\rceil}\right\rfloor$. Our analysis is supplemented by examples showing that these approximation ratios are tight for the primal-dual algorithm. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_03910 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Tight analysis of the primal-dual method for edge-covering pliable set families Nutov, Zeev Data Structures and Algorithms A classic result of Williamson, Goemans, Mihail, and Vazirani [STOC 1993: 708-717] states that the problem of covering an uncrossable set family by a min-cost edge set admits approximation ratio $2$, by a primal-dual algorithm with a reverse delete phase. Bansal, Cheriyan, Grout, and Ibrahimpur [ICALP 2023: 15:1-15:19] showed that this algorithm achieves approximation ratio $16$ for a larger class of so called $γ$-pliable set families, that have much weaker uncrossing properties. The approximation ratio $16$ was improved to $10$ by the author [WAOA 2025: 151-166]. Recently, Bansal [arXiv:2308.15714] stated approximation ratio $8$ for $γ$-pliable families and an improved approximation ratio $5$ for an important particular case of the family of cuts of size $<k$ of a graph $H$, but his proof has an error. We will improve the approximation ratio to $7$ for the former case and give a simple proof of approximation ratio $6$ for the latter case. Furthermore, if $H$ is $λ$-edge-connected then we will show a slightly better approximation ratio $6-\frac{1}{β+1}$, where $β=\left\lfloor\frac{k-1}{\lceil(λ+1)/2\rceil}\right\rfloor$. Our analysis is supplemented by examples showing that these approximation ratios are tight for the primal-dual algorithm. |
| title | Tight analysis of the primal-dual method for edge-covering pliable set families |
| topic | Data Structures and Algorithms |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.03910 |