skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Combinatorial approximation algorithms for MAXCUT using random walks.

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1030363

We give the first combinatorial approximation algorithm for MaxCut that beats the trivial 0.5 factor by a constant. The main partitioning procedure is very intuitive, natural, and easily described. It essentially performs a number of random walks and aggregates the information to provide the partition. We can control the running time to get an approximation factor-running time tradeoff. We show that for any constant b > 1.5, there is an {tilde O}(n{sup b}) algorithm that outputs a (0.5 + {delta})-approximation for MaxCut, where {delta} = {delta}(b) is some positive constant. One of the components of our algorithm is a weak local graph partitioning procedure that may be of independent interest. Given a starting vertex i and a conductance parameter {phi}, unless a random walk of length {ell} = O(log n) starting from i mixes rapidly (in terms of {phi} and {ell}), we can find a cut of conductance at most {phi} close to the vertex. The work done per vertex found in the cut is sublinear in n.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1030363
Report Number(s):
SAND2010-7915C; TRN: US201124%%148
Resource Relation:
Conference: Proposed for presentation at the ICS 2010 Conference held January 7-9, 2011 in Beijing, China.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Quantum speedup of classical mixing processes
Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review. A · OSTI ID:1030363

Parameter Transfer for Quantum Approximate Optimization of Weighted MaxCut
Journal Article · Fri Feb 17 00:00:00 EST 2023 · ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing · OSTI ID:1030363

Impact of graph structures for QAOA on MaxCut
Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Quantum Information Processing · OSTI ID:1030363