Hard Capacitated Set Cover and Uncapacitated Geometric Set Cover

Abstract: The first part of this report describes the following result that, logarithmic approximation factor for hard capacitated set cover can be achieved from Wolsey's work [9], using a simpler and more intuitive analysis. We further show in our work, that O(log n) approximation factor can be achieved for the same problem by applying analysis of general set cover to analyze Wolsey's algorithm [5]. This work is based on the key observation that we make in Lemma 3 of this report. The second part of the report describes the geometric hitting set problem, where X is a ground set of points in a plane and S is a set of axis parallel rectangles. It is shown that epsilon-nets of size O(1/epsilon log log 1/epsilon) can be computed in polynomial time. Applying Bronnimann and Goodrich result [3] gives the hitting set of size O(log log OPT) for this problem.