Half-Approximating Maximum Dicut in the Streaming Setting

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Azarmehr, Amir, Behnezhad, Soheil, Ferrante, Shane, Saneian, Mohammad
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866908922839826432
author Azarmehr, Amir
Behnezhad, Soheil
Ferrante, Shane
Saneian, Mohammad
author_facet Azarmehr, Amir
Behnezhad, Soheil
Ferrante, Shane
Saneian, Mohammad
contents We study streaming algorithms for the maximum directed cut problem. The edges of an $n$-vertex directed graph arrive one by one in an arbitrary order, and the goal is to estimate the value of the maximum directed cut using a single pass and small space. With $O(n)$ space, a $(1-\varepsilon)$-approximation can be trivially obtained for any fixed $\varepsilon > 0$ using additive cut sparsifiers. The question that has attracted significant attention in the literature is the best approximation achievable by algorithms that use truly sublinear (i.e., $n^{1-Ω(1)}$) space. A lower bound of Kapralov and Krachun (STOC'19) implies .5-approximation is the best one can hope for. The current best algorithm for general graphs obtains a .485-approximation due to the work of Saxena, Singer, Sudan, and Velusamy (FOCS'23). The same authors later obtained a $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-approximation, assuming that the graph is constant-degree (SODA'25). In this paper, we show that for any $\varepsilon > 0$, a $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-approximation of maximum dicut value can be obtained with $n^{1-Ω_\varepsilon(1)}$ space in *general graphs*. This shows that the lower bound of Kapralov and Krachun is generally tight, settling the approximation complexity of this fundamental problem. The key to our result is a careful analysis of how correlation propagates among high- and low-degree vertices, when simulating a suitable local algorithm.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_22729
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Half-Approximating Maximum Dicut in the Streaming Setting
Azarmehr, Amir
Behnezhad, Soheil
Ferrante, Shane
Saneian, Mohammad
Data Structures and Algorithms
We study streaming algorithms for the maximum directed cut problem. The edges of an $n$-vertex directed graph arrive one by one in an arbitrary order, and the goal is to estimate the value of the maximum directed cut using a single pass and small space. With $O(n)$ space, a $(1-\varepsilon)$-approximation can be trivially obtained for any fixed $\varepsilon > 0$ using additive cut sparsifiers. The question that has attracted significant attention in the literature is the best approximation achievable by algorithms that use truly sublinear (i.e., $n^{1-Ω(1)}$) space. A lower bound of Kapralov and Krachun (STOC'19) implies .5-approximation is the best one can hope for. The current best algorithm for general graphs obtains a .485-approximation due to the work of Saxena, Singer, Sudan, and Velusamy (FOCS'23). The same authors later obtained a $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-approximation, assuming that the graph is constant-degree (SODA'25). In this paper, we show that for any $\varepsilon > 0$, a $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-approximation of maximum dicut value can be obtained with $n^{1-Ω_\varepsilon(1)}$ space in *general graphs*. This shows that the lower bound of Kapralov and Krachun is generally tight, settling the approximation complexity of this fundamental problem. The key to our result is a careful analysis of how correlation propagates among high- and low-degree vertices, when simulating a suitable local algorithm.
title Half-Approximating Maximum Dicut in the Streaming Setting
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22729