Graph Realizations Associated with Minimizing the Maximum Eigenvalue of the Laplacian

In analogy to the absolute algebraic connectivity of Fiedler, we study the problem of minimizing the maximum eigenvalue of the Laplacian of a graph by redistributing the edge weights. Via semidefinite duality this leads to a graph realization problem in which nodes should be placed as close as possible to the origin while adjacent nodes … Read more

Minimal Spanning Trees with Conflict Graphs

For the classical minimum spanning tree problem we introduce disjunctive constraints for pairs of edges which can not be both included in the spanning tree at the same time. These constraints are represented by a conflict graph whose vertices correspond to the edges of the original graph. Edges in the conflict graph connect conflicting edges … Read more

Efficient high-precision dense matrix algebra on parallel architectures for nonlinear discrete optimization

We provide a proof point for the idea that matrix-based algorithms for discrete optimization problems, mainly conceived for proving theoretical efficiency, can be easily and efficiently implemented on massively-parallel architectures by exploiting scalable and efficient parallel implementations of algorithms for ultra high-precision dense linear algebra. We have successfully implemented our algorithm on the Blue Gene/L … Read more

The Rotational Dimension of a Graph

Given a connected graph $G=(N,E)$ with node weights $s\in\R^N_+$ and nonnegative edge lengths, we study the following embedding problem related to an eigenvalue optimization problem over the second smallest eigenvalue of the (scaled) Laplacian of $G$: Find $v_i\in\R^{|N|}$, $i\in N$ so that distances between adjacent nodes do not exceed prescribed edge lengths, the weighted barycenter … Read more

The Knapsack Problem with Conflict Graphs

We extend the classical 0-1 knapsack problem by introducing disjunctive constraints for pairs of items which are not allowed to be packed together into the knapsack. These constraints are represented by edges of a conflict graph whose vertices correspond to the items of the knapsack problem. Similar conditions were treated in the literature for bin … Read more

Maximizing Non-monotone Submodular Functions under Matroid and Knapsack Constraints

Submodular function maximization is a central problem in combinatorial optimization, generalizing many important problems including Max Cut in directed/undirected graphs and in hypergraphs, certain constraint satisfaction problems, maximum entropy sampling, and maximum facility location problems. Unlike submodular minimization, submodular maximization is NP-hard. In this paper, we give the first constant-factor approximation algorithm for maximizing any … Read more

A Dynamic Programming Framework for Combinatorial Optimization Problems on Graphs with Bounded Pathwidth

In this paper we present an algorithmic framework for solving a class of combinatorial optimization problems on graphs with bounded pathwidth. The problems are NP-hard in general, but solvable in linear time on this type of graphs. The problems are relevant for assessing network reliability and improving the network’s performance and fault tolerance. The main … Read more

Copositive programming motivated bounds on the stability and the chromatic numbers

The Lovász theta number of a graph G can be viewed as a semidefinite programming relaxation of the stability number of G. It has recently been shown that a copositive strengthening of this semidefinite program in fact equals the stability number of G. We introduce a related strengthening of the Lovász theta number toward the … Read more