Proof of the Density Threshold Conjecture for Pinwheel Scheduling

Abstract: In the pinwheel scheduling problem, each task $i$ is associated with a positive integer $a_i$ called its period, and we want to (perpetually) schedule one task per day so that each task $i$ is performed at least once every $a_i$ days. An obvious necessary condition for schedulability is that the density, defined as the sum of execution rates $1/a_i$, does not exceed $1$. We prove that all instances with density not exceeding $5/6$ are schedulable, as was conjectured by Chan and Chin in 1993. Like some of the known partial progress towards the conjecture, our proof involves computer search for schedules for a large but finite set of instances. A key idea in our reduction to these finite cases is to generalize the problem to fractional (non-integer) periods in an appropriate way. As byproducts of our ideas, we obtain a simple proof that every instance with two distinct periods and density at most $1$ is schedulable, as well as a fast algorithm for the bamboo garden trimming problem with approximation ratio $4/3$.