Difference between revisions of "CATS-Sep-20-2013"

From Theory
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== Speaker ==
 
== Speaker ==
Yingyu Liang, Georgia Institue of Technology
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Yingyu Liang, Georgia Institue of Technology
  
 
== Abstract ==
 
== Abstract ==

Revision as of 02:25, 25 August 2013

Title[edit]

Clustering under Perturbation Resilience

Speaker[edit]

Yingyu Liang, Georgia Institue of Technology

Abstract[edit]

Recently, Bilu and Linial formalized an implicit assumption often made when choosing a clustering objective: that the optimum clustering to the objective should be preserved under small multiplicative perturbations to distances between points. They showed that for max-cut clustering it is possible to circumvent NP-hardness and obtain polynomial-time algorithms for instances resilient to large (factor O(\sqrt{n})) perturbations, and subsequently Awasthi et al. considered center-based objectives, giving algorithms for instances resilient to O(1) factor perturbations.

In this talk, for center-based objectives, we present an algorithm that can optimally cluster instances resilient to (1+\sqrt{2})-factor perturbations, solving an open problem of Awasthi et al. For k-median, a center-based objective of special interest, we additionally give algorithms for a more relaxed assumption in which we allow the optimal solution to change in a small fraction of the points after perturbation. We give the first bounds known for k-median under this more realistic and more general assumption. We also provide positive results for min-sum clustering which is a generally much harder objective than center-based objectives. Our algorithms are based on new linkage criteria that may be of independent interest.