New Bounds on Augmenting Steps of Block-structured Integer Programs

Abstract: We consider 4-block $n$-fold integer programs, whose constraint matrix consists of $n$ copies of small matrices $A$, $B$, and $D$, and one copy of $C$, in a specific block structure. All existing algorithms along this line of research follows an iterative augmentation framework, which relies on the so-called Graver basis of the constraint matrix that constitutes a set of fundamental augmenting steps. Bounding the $\ell_1$- or $\ell_\infty$-norm of elements of the Graver basis is the key to these algorithms. Hemmecke et al.~[Math. Prog. 2014] showed that 4-block $n$-fold IP has Graver elements of $\ell_\infty$-norm at most $O_{FPT}(n^{2^{s_{D}}})$, leading to an algorithm with a similar runtime; here, $s_{D}$ is the number of rows of matrix $D$ and $ O_{FPT}(1)$ hides a multiplicative factor that is only dependent on the small matrices $A,B,C,D$. We prove that the $\ell_{\infty}$-norm of the Graver elements of 4-block $n$-fold IP is upper bounded by $O_{FPT}(n^{s_{D}})$, improving significantly over the previous bound $O_{FPT} (n^{2^{s_{D}}})$. We also provide a matching lower bound of $\Omega(n^{s_{D}})$ which even holds for arbitrary non-zero lattice elements, ruling out augmenting algorithm relying on even more restricted notions of augmentation than the Graver basis. We then consider a special case of 4-block $n$-fold in which $C$ is a zero matrix, called 3-block $n$-fold IP. We show that while even there the $\ell_{\infty}$-norm of its Graver elements is $\Omega(n^{s_{D}})$, there exists a different decomposition into lattice elements whose $\ell_{\infty}$-norm is bounded by $ O_{FPT}(1)$, which allows us to provide improved upper bounds on the $\ell_{\infty}$-norm of Graver elements for 3-block $n$-fold IP.