Approximability of Combinatorial Problems with Multi-agent Submodular Cost Functions

Abstract— Applications in complex systems such as the Internet have spawned recent interest in studying situations involving multiple agents with their individual cost or utility functions. In this paper, we introduce an algorithmic framework for studying combinatorial problems in the presence of multiple agents with submodular cost functions. We study several fundamental covering problems (Vertex Cover, Shortest Path, Perfect Matching, and Spanning Tree) in this setting and establish tight upper and lower bounds for the approximability of these problems.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: FOCS
• Authors: Gagan Goel, Chinmay Karande, Pushkar Tripathi, Lei Wang
• Keywords: FOCS 2009, Fundamental Covering Problems, Multiple Agents, Submodular Cost Functions, Theoretical Computer Science