PTAS reduction

In computational complexity theory, a PTAS reduction is an approximation-preserving reduction that is often used to perform reductions between solutions to optimization problems. It preserves the property that a problem has a polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) and is used to define completeness for certain classes of optimization problems such as APX. Notationally, if there is a PTAS reduction from a problem A to a problem B, we write ${\text{A}}\leq _{\text{PTAS}}{\text{B}}$ .

With ordinary polynomial-time many-one reductions, if we can describe a reduction from a problem A to a problem B, then any polynomial-time solution for B can be composed with that reduction to obtain a polynomial-time solution for the problem A. Similarly, our goal in defining PTAS reductions is so that given a PTAS reduction from an optimization problem A to a problem B, a PTAS for B can be composed with the reduction to obtain a PTAS for the problem A.^[1]

Definition

Formally, we define a PTAS reduction from A to B using three polynomial-time computable functions, f, g, and α, with the following properties:

f maps instances of problem A to instances of problem B.
g takes an instance x of problem A, an approximate solution to the corresponding problem $f(x)$ in B, and an error parameter ε and produces an approximate solution to x.
α maps error parameters for solutions to instances of problem A to error parameters for solutions to problem B.
If the solution y to $f(x)$ (an instance of problem B) is at most $1+\alpha (\epsilon )$ times worse than the optimal solution, then the corresponding solution $g(x,y,\epsilon )$ to x (an instance of problem A) is at most $1+\epsilon$ times worse than the optimal solution.

Properties

From the definition it is straightforward to show that:

${\text{A}}\leq _{\text{PTAS}}{\text{B}}$ and ${\text{B}}\in {\text{PTAS}}\implies {\text{A}}\in {\text{PTAS}}$
${\text{A}}\leq _{\text{PTAS}}{\text{B}}$ and ${\text{A}}\not \in {\text{PTAS}}\implies {\text{B}}\not \in {\text{PTAS}}$

L-reductions imply PTAS reductions. As a result, one may show the existence of a PTAS reduction via a L-reduction instead.^[1]

PTAS reductions are used to define completeness in APX, the class of optimization problems with constant-factor approximation algorithms.

References

^ ^a ^b Crescenzi, Pierluigi (1997). "A short guide to approximation preserving reductions". Proceedings of Computational Complexity. Twelfth Annual IEEE Conference. Washington, D.C.: IEEE Computer Society. pp. 262–273. doi:10.1109/CCC.1997.612321. ISBN 0-8186-7907-7. S2CID 18911241.

Ingo Wegener. Complexity Theory: Exploring the Limits of Efficient Algorithms. ISBN 3-540-21045-8. Chapter 8, pp. 110–111. Google Books preview

[crescenzi-1] Crescenzi, Pierluigi (1997). "A short guide to approximation preserving reductions". Proceedings of Computational Complexity. Twelfth Annual IEEE Conference. Washington, D.C.: IEEE Computer Society. pp. 262–273. doi:10.1109/CCC.1997.612321. ISBN 0-8186-7907-7. S2CID 18911241.

[1]

Definition

Properties

See also

References