Multiple knapsack-constrained monotone DR-submodular maximization on distributive lattice

Takanori Maehara, So Nakashima, Yutaro Yamaguchi

Abstract: We consider a problem of maximizing a monotone DR-submodular function under multiple order-consistent knapsack constraints on a distributive lattice. Because a distributive lattice is used to represent a dependency constraint, the problem can represent a dependency constrained version of a submodular maximization problem on a set. We propose a (\(1 - 1/e\))-approximation algorithm for this problem. To achieve this result, we generalize the continuous greedy algorithm to distributive lattices: We choose a median complex as a continuous relaxation of the distributive lattice and define the multilinear extension on it. We show that the median complex admits special curves, named uniform linear motions. The multilinear extension of a DR-submodular function is concave along a positive uniform linear motion, which is a key property used in the continuous greedy algorithm.