Deterministic Rounding of Dynamic Fractional Matchings

TL;DR

This paper introduces a deterministic framework for rounding fractional matchings in dynamic graphs, leading to the first deterministic algorithms with small update times for approximate maximum matchings in various graph settings.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel deterministic rounding framework that enables the first efficient deterministic algorithms for approximate maximum matchings in dynamic bipartite and general graphs.

Findings

First deterministic $(2- ext{delta})$-approximate matching in fully dynamic bipartite graphs.

First deterministic $(1+ ext{delta})$-approximate matching in decremental bipartite graphs.

First deterministic $(2+ ext{delta})$-approximate matching in fully dynamic general graphs.

Abstract

We present a framework for deterministically rounding a dynamic fractional matching. Applying our framework in a black-box manner on top of existing fractional matching algorithms, we derive the following new results: (1) The first deterministic algorithm for maintaining a $(2-\delta)$-approximate maximum matching in a fully dynamic bipartite graph, in arbitrarily small polynomial update time. (2) The first deterministic algorithm for maintaining a $(1+\delta)$-approximate maximum matching in a decremental bipartite graph, in polylogarithmic update time. (3) The first deterministic algorithm for maintaining a $(2+\delta)$-approximate maximum matching in a fully dynamic general graph, in small polylogarithmic (specifically, $O(\log^4 n)$) update time. These results are respectively obtained by applying our framework on top of the fractional matching algorithms of Bhattacharya et al. [STOC'16], Bernstein et al. [FOCS'20], and Bhattacharya and Kulkarni [SODA'19]. Prior to our work, there were two known general-purpose rounding schemes for dynamic fractional matchings. Both these schemes, by Arar et al. [ICALP'18] and Wajc [STOC'20], were randomized. Our rounding scheme works by maintaining a good {\em matching-sparsifier} with bounded arboricity, and then applying the algorithm of Peleg and Solomon [SODA'16] to maintain a near-optimal matching in this low arboricity graph. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dynamic matching algorithm that works on general graphs by using an algorithm for low-arboricity graphs as a black-box subroutine. This feature of our rounding scheme might be of independent interest.