Bypassing the XOR Trick: Stronger Certificates for Hypergraph Clique Number

Venkatesan Guruswami, Pravesh K. Kothari, Peter Manohar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Let H(k, n, p) be the distribution on k-uniform hypergraphs where every subset of [n] of size k is included as an hyperedge with probability p independently. In this work, we design and analyze a simple spectral algorithm that certifies a bound on the size of the largest clique, ω(H), in hypergraphs H ∼ H(k, n, p). For example, for any constant p, with high probability over the choice of the hypergraph, our spectral algorithm certifies a bound of Õ(√n) on the clique number in polynomial time. This matches, up to polylog(n) factors, the best known certificate for the clique number in random graphs, which is the special case of k = 2. Prior to our work, the best known refutation algorithms [4, 1] rely on a reduction to the problem of refuting random k-XOR via Feige's XOR trick [6], and yield a polynomially worse bound of Õ(n3/4) on the clique number when p = O(1). Our algorithm bypasses the XOR trick and relies instead on a natural generalization of the Lovász theta semidefinite programming relaxation for cliques in hypergraphs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationApproximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques, APPROX/RANDOM 2022
EditorsAmit Chakrabarti, Chaitanya Swamy
PublisherSchloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing
ISBN (Electronic)9783959772495
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event25th International Conference on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems and the 26th International Conference on Randomization and Computation, APPROX/RANDOM 2022 - Virtual, Urbana-Champaign, United States
Duration: Sep 19 2022Sep 21 2022

Publication series

NameLeibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Volume245
ISSN (Print)1868-8969

Conference

Conference25th International Conference on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems and the 26th International Conference on Randomization and Computation, APPROX/RANDOM 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Urbana-Champaign
Period9/19/229/21/22

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software

Keywords

  • Average-case complexity
  • Planted clique
  • Random matrix theory
  • Spectral refutation

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