Approximability of the robust representatives selection problem

Abstract: In this paper new complexity and approximation results on the robust versions of the representatives selection problem, under the scenario uncertainty representation, are provided, which extend the results obtained in the papers by Dolgui and Kovalev (2012), and Deineko and Woeginger (2013). Namely, it is shown that if the number of scenarios is a part of input, then the min-max (regret) representatives selection problem is not approximable within a ratio of $O(\log^{1-\epsilon}K)$ for any $\epsilon>0$, where $K$ is the number of scenarios, unless the problems in NP have quasi-polynomial time algorithms. An approximation algorithm with an approximation ratio of $O(\log K/ \log \log K)$ for the min-max version of the problem is also provided.