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Separation between Estimation and Approximation

Published: 11 January 2015 Publication History
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  • Abstract

    We show (under standard assumptions) that there are \textsf{NP} optimization problems for which estimation is easier than approximation. Namely, one can estimate the value of the optimal solution within a ratio of $\rho$, but it is difficult to find a solution whose value is within $\rho$ of optimal. As an important special case, we show that there are linear programming relaxations for which no polynomial time rounding technique matches the integrality gap of the linear program.

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    Cited By

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    • (2022)Almost-Smooth Histograms and Sliding-Window Graph AlgorithmsAlgorithmica10.1007/s00453-022-00988-y84:10(2926-2953)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2022
    • (2017)On the configuration-LP of the restricted assignment problemProceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms10.5555/3039686.3039862(2670-2678)Online publication date: 16-Jan-2017

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    ITCS '15: Proceedings of the 2015 Conference on Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science
    January 2015
    404 pages
    ISBN:9781450333337
    DOI:10.1145/2688073
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    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 11 January 2015

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    Author Tags

    1. integrality gap
    2. linear programming
    3. rounding
    4. tfnp

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    • Research-article

    Funding Sources

    • Israel Science Foundation

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    ITCS'15
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    ITCS'15: Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science
    January 11 - 13, 2015
    Rehovot, Israel

    Acceptance Rates

    ITCS '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 45 of 159 submissions, 28%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 513 submissions, 34%

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    View all
    • (2022)Almost-Smooth Histograms and Sliding-Window Graph AlgorithmsAlgorithmica10.1007/s00453-022-00988-y84:10(2926-2953)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2022
    • (2017)On the configuration-LP of the restricted assignment problemProceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms10.5555/3039686.3039862(2670-2678)Online publication date: 16-Jan-2017

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