$O(\log n)$-Approximation Algorithms for Bipartiteness Ratio

Abstract

We propose an $O(\log n)$-approximation algorithm for the bipartiteness ratio of undirected graphs introduced by Trevisan (SIAM Journal on Computing, vol. 41, no. 6, 2012), where $n$ is the number of vertices. Our approach extends the cut-matching game framework for sparsest cut to the bipartiteness ratio, and requires only $\mathop{\mathrm{polylog}} n$ many single-commodity undirected maximum flow computations. Therefore, with the current fastest undirected max-flow algorithms, it runs in almost linear time. Along the way, we introduce the concept of well-linkedness for skew-symmetric graphs and prove a novel characterization of bipartiteness ratio in terms of well-linkedness in an auxiliary skew-symmetric graph, which may be of independent interest. As an application, we devise an $\tilde{O}(mn)$-time algorithm for the minimum uncut problem: given a graph whose optimal cut leaves an $\eta$ fraction of edges uncut, we find a cut that leaves only an $O(\log n \log(1/\eta)) \cdot \eta$ fraction of edges uncut, where $m$ is the number of edges. Finally, we propose a directed analogue of the bipartiteness ratio, and we give a polynomial-time algorithm that achieves an $O(\log n)$ approximation for this measure via a directed Leighton--Rao-style embedding. We also propose an algorithm for the minimum directed uncut problem with a guarantee similar to that for the minimum uncut problem.