# Local approximation of the Maximum Cut in regular graphs

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the limitations and possibilities of deterministic distributed algorithms for approximating the maximum cut in regular graphs, establishing bounds on approximation ratios achievable in constant rounds.

## Contribution

It proves that no constant-round deterministic algorithm can achieve a constant approximation ratio for MAXCUT in regular graphs and introduces a one-round algorithm with optimal ratio for certain cases.

## Key findings

- No constant-round deterministic algorithm achieves a constant approximation ratio in regular graphs.
- A one-round deterministic algorithm achieves a 1/d approximation ratio for odd degree regular graphs.
- Optimality of the 1/d approximation ratio in several scenarios.

## Abstract

This paper is devoted to the distributed complexity of finding an approximation of the maximum cut in graphs. A classical algorithm consists in letting each vertex choose its side of the cut uniformly at random. This does not require any communication and achieves an approximation ratio of at least $\tfrac12$ in average. When the graph is $d$-regular and triangle-free, a slightly better approximation ratio can be achieved with a randomized algorithm running in a single round. Here, we investigate the round complexity of deterministic distributed algorithms for MAXCUT in regular graphs. We first prove that if $G$ is $d$-regular, with $d$ even and fixed, no deterministic algorithm running in a constant number of rounds can achieve a constant approximation ratio. We then give a simple one-round deterministic algorithm achieving an approximation ratio of $\tfrac1{d}$ for $d$-regular graphs with $d$ odd. We show that this is best possible in several ways, and in particular no deterministic algorithm with approximation ratio $\tfrac1{d}+\epsilon$ (with $\epsilon>0$) can run in a constant number of rounds. We also prove results of a similar flavour for the MAXDICUT problem in regular oriented graphs, where we want to maximize the number of arcs oriented from the left part to the right part of the cut.