Title
Improved inapproximability results for counting independent sets in the hard-core model.
Abstract
We study the computational complexity of approximately counting the number of independent sets of a graph with maximum degree Δ. More generally, for an input graph G = (V,E) and an activity λ 0, we are interested in the quantity ZG(λ) defined as the sum over independent sets I weighted as w(I) = λ|I|. In statistical physics, ZG(λ) is the partition function for the hard-core model, which is an idealized model of a gas where the particles have non-negibile size. Recently, an interesting phase transition was shown to occur for the complexity of approximating the partition function. Weitz showed an FPAS for the partition function for any graph of maximum degree Δ when Δ is constant and λ c(TΔ) := (Δ - 1)Δ-1/(Δ - 2)Δ. The quantity λc(TΔ) is the critical point for the so-called uniqueness threshold on the infinite, regular tree of degree Δ. On the other side, Sly proved that there does not exist efficient (randomized) approximation algorithms for λc(TΔ) c(TΔ) + ε(Δ), unless NP=RP, for some function ε(Δ) 0. We remove the upper bound in the assumptions of Sly's result for Δ ≠ 4, 5, that is, we show that there does not exist efficient randomized approximation algorithms for all λ λc(TΔ) for Δ = 3 and Δ ≠ 6. Sly's inapproximability result uses a clever reduction, combined with a second-moment analysis of Mossel, Weitz and Wormald which prove torpid mixing of the Glauber dynamics for sampling from the associated Gibbs distribution on almost every regular graph of degree Δ for the same range of λ as in Sly's result. We extend Sly's result by improving upon the technical work of Mossel et al., via a more detailed analysis of independent sets in random regular graphs.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1007/978-3-642-22935-0_48
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research
Keywords
DocType
Volume
improved inapproximability result,input graph g,random regular graph,maximum degree,hard-core model,approximation algorithm,computational complexity,regular graph,partition function,regular tree,independent set,inapproximability result,phase transition
Journal
45
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
1
1042-9832
16
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.92
11
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
andreas galanis16815.13
Qi Ge2282.01
Daniel Štefankovič320116.34
Eric Vigoda474776.55
Linji Yang5585.17