Rounding Large Independent Sets on Expanders

We develop a new approach for approximating large independent sets when the input graph is a one-sided spectral expander -that is, the uniform random walk matrix of the graph has its second eigenvalue bounded away from 1. Consequently, we obtain a polynomial time algorithm to find linear-sized independent sets in one-sided expanders that are almost 3-colorable or are promised to contain an independent set of size (1/2ε)n. Our second result above can be refined to require only a weaker vertex expansion property with an efficient certificate. In a surprising contrast to our algorithmic result, we observe that the analogous task of finding a linear-sized independent set in almost 4-colorable one-sided expanders (even when the second eigenvalue is o n (1)) is NP-hard, assuming the Unique Games Conjecture. All prior algorithms that beat the worst-case guarantees for this problem rely on bottom eigenspace enumeration techniques (following the classical spectral methods of Alon and Kahale [AK97]) and require two-sided expansion, meaning a bounded number of negative eigenvalues of magnitude Ω(1). Such techniques naturally extend to almost k-colorable graphs for any constant k, in contrast to analogous guarantees on one-sided expanders, which are Unique Games-hard to achieve for k ⩾ 4. Our rounding scheme builds on the method of simulating multiple samples from a pseudodistribution introduced in [BBK + 21] for rounding Unique Games instances. The key to our analysis is a new clustering property of large independent sets in expanding graphs -every large independent set has a larger-than-expected intersection with some member of a small list -and its formalization in the low-degree sum-of-squares proof system.