Spencer's theorem in nearly input-sparsity time

Abstract

A celebrated theorem of Spencer states that for every set system $S_1,\dots ,S_m\subseteq [n]$, there is a coloring of the ground set with $\{\pm 1\}$ with discrepancy $O(\sqrt{n\log (m/n+2)})$. We provide an algorithm to find such a coloring in near input-sparsity time $\tilde{O}(n+{\sum }_{i=1}^m|S_i|)$. A key ingredient in our work, which may be of independent interest, is a novel width reduction technique for solving linear programs, not of covering/packing type, in near input-sparsity time using the multiplicative weights update method.

18 pages; comments welcome