Explicit Optimal Hardness via Gaussian stability results

TL;DR

This paper derives explicit optimal approximation algorithms for certain constraint satisfaction problems using Gaussian stability results, confirming conjectured approximation factors and establishing new hardness bounds under the Unique Games Conjecture.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach leveraging Gaussian partition results to explicitly determine optimal approximation algorithms and hardness factors for MAX-3-EQUAL and MAX-k-CSP problems.

Findings

Achieved the first explicit optimal approximation algorithm for MAX-3-EQUAL.

Confirmed the conjectured approximation factor of approximately 0.796 for Zwick's algorithm.

Established a new UGC-based hardness factor for MAX-k-CSP as loor((k+1)/2)rac{1}{2^{k-1}}.

Abstract

The results of Raghavendra (2008) show that assuming Khot's Unique Games Conjecture (2002), for every constraint satisfaction problem there exists a generic semi-definite program that achieves the optimal approximation factor. This result is existential as it does not provide an explicit optimal rounding procedure nor does it allow to calculate exactly the Unique Games hardness of the problem. Obtaining an explicit optimal approximation scheme and the corresponding approximation factor is a difficult challenge for each specific approximation problem. An approach for determining the exact approximation factor and the corresponding optimal rounding was established in the analysis of MAX-CUT (KKMO 2004) and the use of the Invariance Principle (MOO 2005). However, this approach crucially relies on results explicitly proving optimal partitions in Gaussian space. Until recently, Borell's result (Borell 1985) was the only non-trivial Gaussian partition result known. In this paper we derive the first explicit optimal approximation algorithm and the corresponding approximation factor using a new result on Gaussian partitions due to Isaksson and Mossel (2012). This Gaussian result allows us to determine exactly the Unique Games Hardness of MAX-3-EQUAL. In particular, our results show that Zwick algorithm for this problem achieves the optimal approximation factor and prove that the approximation achieved by the algorithm is $\approx 0.796$ as conjectured by Zwick. We further use the previously known optimal Gaussian partitions results to obtain a new Unique Games Hardness factor for MAX-k-CSP : Using the well known fact that jointly normal pairwise independent random variables are fully independent, we show that the the UGC hardness of Max-k-CSP is $\frac{\lceil (k+1)/2 \rceil}{2^{k-1}}$, improving on results of Austrin and Mossel (2009).