Fair Submodular Maximization over a Knapsack Constraint

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Lijun, Xu, Chenyang, Yang, Liuyi, Zhang, Ruilong
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Li, Lijun
Xu, Chenyang
Yang, Liuyi
Zhang, Ruilong
author_facet Li, Lijun
Xu, Chenyang
Yang, Liuyi
Zhang, Ruilong
contents We consider fairness in submodular maximization subject to a knapsack constraint, a fundamental problem with various applications in economics, machine learning, and data mining. In the model, we are given a set of ground elements, each associated with a weight and a color, and a monotone submodular function defined over them. The goal is to maximize the submodular function while guaranteeing that the total weight does not exceed a specified budget (the knapsack constraint) and that the number of elements selected for each color falls within a designated range (the fairness constraint). While there exists some recent literature on this topic, the existence of a non-trivial approximation for the problem -- without relaxing either the knapsack or fairness constraints -- remains a challenging open question. This paper makes progress in this direction. We demonstrate that when the number of colors is constant, there exists a polynomial-time algorithm that achieves a constant approximation with high probability. Additionally, we show that if either the knapsack or fairness constraint is relaxed only to require expected satisfaction, a tight approximation ratio of $(1-1/e-ε)$ can be obtained in expectation for any $ε>0$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_12126
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fair Submodular Maximization over a Knapsack Constraint
Li, Lijun
Xu, Chenyang
Yang, Liuyi
Zhang, Ruilong
Data Structures and Algorithms
We consider fairness in submodular maximization subject to a knapsack constraint, a fundamental problem with various applications in economics, machine learning, and data mining. In the model, we are given a set of ground elements, each associated with a weight and a color, and a monotone submodular function defined over them. The goal is to maximize the submodular function while guaranteeing that the total weight does not exceed a specified budget (the knapsack constraint) and that the number of elements selected for each color falls within a designated range (the fairness constraint). While there exists some recent literature on this topic, the existence of a non-trivial approximation for the problem -- without relaxing either the knapsack or fairness constraints -- remains a challenging open question. This paper makes progress in this direction. We demonstrate that when the number of colors is constant, there exists a polynomial-time algorithm that achieves a constant approximation with high probability. Additionally, we show that if either the knapsack or fairness constraint is relaxed only to require expected satisfaction, a tight approximation ratio of $(1-1/e-ε)$ can be obtained in expectation for any $ε>0$.
title Fair Submodular Maximization over a Knapsack Constraint
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12126