Sparsest cut and eigenvalue multiplicities on low degree Abelian Cayley graphs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectral algorithm for the Sparsest Cut problem that leverages eigenvalue multiplicities and solution dimension, with applications to low degree Abelian Cayley graphs, achieving near-optimal approximations efficiently.

Contribution

It presents a novel spectral algorithm based on eigenspace enumeration and introduces bounds on solution dimension for Abelian Cayley graphs, extending previous threshold-rank methods.

Findings

Algorithm computes (1+ε)-approximate sparsest cut in polynomial time for certain graphs.

Bound on eigenvalue multiplicity improves previous results, showing tightness.

Collection of approximate sparsest cuts has a small ε-net, aiding in efficient approximation.

Abstract

Whether or not the Sparsest Cut problem admits an efficient $O(1)$-approximation algorithm is a fundamental algorithmic question with connections to geometry and the Unique Games Conjecture. Revisiting spectral algorithms for Sparsest Cut, we present a novel, simple algorithm that combines eigenspace enumeration with a new algorithm for the Cut Improvement problem. The runtime of our algorithm is parametrized by a quantity that we call the solution dimension $\text{SD}_\varepsilon(G)$: the smallest $k$ such that the subspace spanned by the first $k$ Laplacian eigenvectors contains all but $\varepsilon$ fraction of a sparsest cut. Our algorithm matches the guarantees of prior methods based on the threshold-rank paradigm, while also extending beyond them. To illustrate this, we study its performance on low degree Cayley graphs over Abelian groups -- canonical examples of graphs with poor expansion properties. We prove that low degree Abelian Cayley graphs have small solution dimension, yielding an algorithm that computes a $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation to the uniform Sparsest Cut of a degree-$d$ Cayley graph over an Abelian group of size $n$ in time $n^{O(1)}\cdot\exp(d/\varepsilon)^{O(d)}$. Along the way to bounding the solution dimension of Abelian Cayley graphs, we analyze their sparse cuts and spectra, proving that the collection of $O(1)$-approximate sparsest cuts has an $\varepsilon$-net of size $\exp(d/\varepsilon)^{O(d)}$ and that the multiplicity of $\lambda_2$ is bounded by $2^{O(d)}$. The latter bound is tight and improves on a previous bound of $2^{O(d^2)}$ by Lee and Makarychev.