Locally Explicit Construction of R6dl's

Asymptotically Good Packings

Nikolai N. Kuzjurin
Institute for System Programming, Russian Academy of Sciences
B. Kommunisticheskaya 25, Moscow, 109004
nnkuz~ispras, ru

A b s t r a c t . We present a family of asymptotically good packings of lsubsets of an n-set by k-subsets and an algorithm that given a natural i
finds the ith k-subset of this family. The bit complexity of this algorithm
is almost linear in encoding length of i that is close to best possible
complexity. A parallel NC-algorithm for this problem is presented as
well.

1 Introduction
Research of the last decade has demonstrated the significance of probabilistic
methods and algorithms (see [4,14]). By this reason, explicit constructions and
derandomization techniques for objects whose existence had been proved by
probabilistic arguments have been the focus of much research [2,14,15,19,22].
W h a t we mean by explicit constructions? Say we wish to construct a family
F of subsets of a finite set. By a globally explicit construction we mean an algorithm that lists all members of F in time polynomial in IFI. Locally explicit
constructions would just ask for ith member of F to be evaluated in time polynomial in encoding length of i which is O(log IF]). Clearly, local is stronger than
global, in analogy to the distinction between log-space and polynomial time.
One of the most significant achievements of the probabilistic method has been
R6dl's probabilistic proof of the long-standing Erd6s-Hanani conjecture, i.e. the
proof of the existence of asymptotically good packings and coverings [4,17,24].
Our purpose here is to accomplish this result deterministically by means of the
construction that is locally explicit.
We need to introduce some terminology and notation. Let l < k < n be
natural numbers and [n] = {0, 1 , . . . , n - 1} (the n-set). By a k-subset of In] we
mean any subset g of In] such that Igl = k.
An (n, k,/)-packing is defined as a family P of k-subsets of In] such that every
/-subset of In] is contained in at most one g E P. The density of a packing P is
defined as

JPJ( )
(?)
Lubo~ Prim et hi. (Eds.): MFCS'98, LNCS 1450, pp. 194-202, 1998.
(~) Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1998

Locally Explicit Construction of R5dl's Asymptotically Good Packings

195

It is easy to see that the density of any packing is at most 1. The sequences of
packings of density tending to 1 as n tends to infinity are called asymptotically

good.
P.ErdSs and H.Hanani [6] conjectured that for all fixed 1 and k with 1 < k
the sequences of asymptotically good packings exist. In 1985 V.RSdl [17] using probabilistic methods proved this conjecture in full. Futher strenthenings
and extensions were given in [3,7,8,11,13,16,18,23]. Recently D. Grable [9] found
globally explicit construction of asymptotically good packings.
In this paper we present locally explicit construction of asymptotically good
packings which has almost linear (in the input size) bit complexity. Our main
contribution may be formulated as follows. We write f -- O(g) if there exists a
constant c > 0 such that f = O(g(logg)C).
T h e o r e m 1. For any natural numbers l and k with l < k there is a sequence
Pn (k, l) of asymptotically good (n, k, 1)-packings and enumeration of k-subsets in
each Pn(k, l) such that there is an algorithm of ()(log n) bit complexity which
given natural n, k, l and i finds the i th k-subset of Pn(k, 1).
Moreover, we present a parallel NC-algorithm for this problem (Section 6).
The proof of Theorem 1 will be given in the next 4 sections. Our result is not
independent on RSdt's result. We use reccurrencies and algebraic construction
to decrease exponentially the dimension and then apply RSdl's result along with
exhaustive search for very small set.
2

Explicit

Construction

We begin this section with a simple observation concerning the complexity of

finding asymptotically good packings. If we compare all collections of k-subsets
of an n-element set and choose one that is an (n, k,/)-packing of maximal size
we will have found a maximal packing that is asymptotically good in view of
[17]. The number of such collections is
O(2('~))
This value characterizes the complexity of exhaustive search of finding a maximal
packing as described above. In addition to form a basis of comparison for our
final results, we shall use these facts in a modified situation in the sequel.
We begin with an outline of the construction. The deterministic construction consists of two parts. First of all, we choose some parameter t which will
tend to infinity very slowly (as n ~ co). This function will be defined more
precisely later but certainly we shall always assume that t < (1/2)v~. The first
part of construction is an explicit algebraic construction of asymptotically good
(n, t,/)-packings. The second part comprises finding a maximal (t, k,/)-packing
which is asymptotically good (as t --~ co) because of R6dl's result [17]. The desired (n, k,/)-packing is the composition of the (n, t,/)-packing and the (t, k, l)packing. This means that at the place of each t-subset of the (n, t,/)-packing we

196

Nikolai N. Kuzjurin

substitute a (t, k,/)-packing which is equivalent to the maximal packing R(t, k, l).
Clearly, the size of such a composed packing is the product of the sizes of the
corresponding packings.
We describe now the first part of our construction in detail. Let p be the
maximum prime such that

p < (log log,~)'/~.

(1)

We shall assume p > t. Let a natural r be such that

n

(log log n) 1/1~ < - -

< (log log n) 1/3.

prt

(2)

Let Pl (Pl > t) be the maximum prime such that

p, <

tp r .

(3)

It will be essential in the sequel that in view of [10] and (2-3) Pl ~ c~ and
Pt ~ nt p ~ as n -+ c~. It is easy to .see that choosing appropriate r we can satisfy
(2) because p is sufficiently small in view of (1).
Consider the system
t

i3x~=0m~

j=l,...,t-l.

(4)

~-~1

For arbitrarily fixed variables x i l , . . . , x~z in (4) we obtain a system with Vandermonde's determinant. For this reason the number of solutions is e x a c t l y / .
Denote by V(p, t, l) the set of solutions of the system (4). Note that the system
(4) was used in [13] to prove some extensions of the Erd6s-Hanani conjecture.
In coding theory it is well-known as RS-codes over large alphabets.
Let N = tplp r, IN] = {0, 1 , . . . , N - 1). Consider a partition of [N] in t parts
t
[N] = U Si,

N
IS~I = T =

PlPr'

where St = {(i - 1)plpr,. 9 9 iplp r - 1}. Define the function f which enumerates
the Cartesian product ~v]r [Pl] by natural numbers from [plp r] in such a way
that for any z = ( x t . . . , xr, y) from [p]r x [Pl]

f(z) = ~ x,p r-~ + y # .

(5)

Note that f is a bijection. Define the mapping F, by componentwise application

of f

r:

V(p, t, z)~ v(p~, ~, 0 -~ [N/~] ~,

Locally Explicit Construction of RSdl's Asymptotically Good Packings

197

where [N/t] t denotes t th Cartesian power of the set [N/t] = {0, 1 , . . . , Nit - 1}.
Note that F defines t-tuples with elements belonging to ~olpr]. For each such ttuple we may obtain in an obvious way a t-subset with elements in Si, i = 1 , . . . , t
(it is sufficient to modify x~ as follows xi = xi + (i - 1)plpr). Denote this family
of t-subsets by Sn(t, l).
For the second part of our construction consider all (t, k,/)-packings and select one that is maximal denoting it by R(t, k, l). Substitute (t, k,/)-packings
equivalent to R(t, k, l) in place of each t-tuple of Sn(t, l) and denote such composed packing by Qt (n, k, l). Let Pn (k, l) = Qt (n, k, l) with t = (log log log n) 1/3k.

W h y the Construction is Asymptotically Good?

It is easy to verify that all t-subsets of Sn(t, l) form (n, t,/)-packing. Indeed, fixing
values of arbitrarily chosen l variables (for example, Xl = il, x2 = i 2 , . . . , xz = iz)
for every is, j = 1 , . . . ,l the r + 1 numbers f-l(i3) are uniquely defined. Let
f - l ( i j ) = (z~J),... ,z(J),y(3)). For every/-tuple
, z J l ) ) , j = 1,... ,r and
( y l ) , . . . , y(t)) the solution of the system (4) with the values of l variables equal
to numbers of this/-tuple is uniquely defined as well. It can be found by solving
r systems of linear equations over Fp and one system of linear equations over
Fpl. These r + 1 solutions define unique t-subset by the mapping F.
Why the composition of (n, t,/)-packing P and (t, k,/)-packing Q is a (n, k, l)packing? It is, of course, a family of k-subsets of In]. Moreover, any two k-subsets
from the same t-subset of P have no common /-subset because Q is (t, k, l)packing. Any two k-subsets from different t-subsets have no common/-subset
because P is (n, t,/)-packing. Thus, the resulting composed family is (n, k, l)packing. Note, that such packings are the product of packings in the sence of
[25].
In view of [10] Pl "~ ___n
tp ~ as n ~ c~. The size of the packing Sn(t, l) is

(zJl),...

[Sn(t,l)l = prtp~ = prt(( 1 _ o(1))t_~)t = (1 - o(1))(t)t.

The size of the packing Pn(k, l) is the product of the sizes of the corresponding
packings

[Pn(k,/)[ = [Sn(t, l)[IR(t, k,/)[,

where t = (log loglogn) 1/3k. With our choice of t the following relation holds:
t I ~ (t)z as n --* oo and
n1
(t)z
[Pn(k,l)[ = (1 - o(1))(n)l(l~ - o(1))(k)z'"
- - = (1 - o ( 1 ) ) (k)t '

i.e. Pn(k, l) is asymptotically good.

198
4

Nikolai N. Kuzjurin
Algorithm

To show that our construction is locally explicit we must demonstrate how to

number efficiently all k-subsets in Pn(k, l). Let P = pip r and x = ( x l , . . . , xt) e
Sn(t, l), xl < ... < xt. The lexicographic number L(x) of x is defined as follows.
Let y~ = x~ (mod P) and
l

L(x) = E

y~pl-~.

(6)

i-~l

We number t-subsets of Sn(t,1) in the lexicographic order, and k-subsets in

R(t, k, l) arbitrarily, thus, forming a list. At first, we number k-subsets in the
first t-subset followed by those in the second one and so on. There are P~ tsubsets in Sn(t, l) and there are L = JR(t, k, 1)l k-subsets in the list R(t, k, l).
RecM1 that we know natural n, k, l and i as the input and wish to find efficiently the ith k-subset in Pn(k, l). We describe now an algorithm and estimate
its complexity. By the complexity we mean the bit complexity (see [1] for details). Algorithms for fast multiplication of two n bit integers and division of 2n
bit integer by n bit integer of bit complexity O(n log n log log n) will be used [1].
Algorithm LocalSubset:
Input: n, k, l, i;
Output: the ith k-subset of Pn(k, l).
1) Find the primes p and Pl and natural r satisfying (1)-(3).
2) Find maximal (t, k,/)-packing R(t, k, l).
3) Given i, 1 < i < PIL represent it in the form

i=TL+d,

O<d<L.

Then T is the number of t-subset and d is the number of k-subset in the list
R(t, k, l) corresponding to the T t h t-subset.
4) Transform T from the binary representation to the P = pip r base representation of length l (denote it by (Yl,..., Yt)).
5) Given Yl, Y2,..., y~ f i n d / ( r + l ) - t u p l e s f - l ( y j ) , j _= 1,..., I. Let f - l ( y j ) =
6) For each l-tuple of numbers (z~l),..., z~0), j - 1 , . . . , r and ( y l ) , . . . , y ( 0 )
find the solution of system (4) with the first I variables equal to the values of
this/-tuple. Thus, we obtain r + 1 t-tuples.
7) Given this r + 1 t-tuples of coefficients in representation (5), find the
desired unique t-subset by the map F.
8) Given the list R(t, k, l) and the number d select the dth k-subset in the
t-subset that was found at the previous step.

Locally Explicit Construction of RSdl's Asymptotically Good Packings

199

Complexity

Now we estimate the complexity of each step.

1) It is known [10] that for any fixed a > 23/42 and sufficiently large m the
maximum prime p not greater than m is p > m - m a. Using this fact we estimate
the complexity of finding the maximum prime p < rn as maT(p), where T(p) is
the complexity of primality test for p. It is sufficient to use the estimate T(p) =
O(v/~). Taking into account that in our construction we used only "small" primes
p and Pl (say, less than m = (loglogn) 1/3) the bit complexity of finding the
primes p and Pl is o(log log n).
2) To find maximal packings R(t, k, l) and number its k-subsets in the list
we use exhaustive search. By the observation which began this section we have
that the complexity of this step is at most
O(2(~)) = o(log log n),
where we have taken into account that t = (log log log n) 1/3k.
3) It may be done using one division.
4) It may be done in O(l) arithmetic operations with O(log n) bit integers.
Indeed, we must divide T by P
T = T1P + yt,

O < yz < P,

then divide T1 by P
TI = T2 P + yl-1,

O < y t - l < P,

and so on until we define all yj, j = 1 , 2 , . . . , / . Thus, we do l divisions (e.g.

constant) of integers of O(log n) bit each. Using fast division algorithm we may
do it with bit complexity O(log n).
5) Given Y l , Y 2 , . . . , y l we may find r + 1 /-tuples f - l ( y 3 ) , j = 1 , . . . , / as
follows. Evaluate the powers of p: p~, p~, . . . , p ~ , ...Because r = o(logn)
there are O(loglogn) such powers and all such powers may be evaluated with
bit complexity O(log n) using the fast multiplication algorithm.
To do this use the representation (see (5))

/(z) = Pl(Z) +

p~p2(z),

(7)

where degPi < r/2, i = 1, 2.

Dividing f ( z ) by pr/2 we find P1 and P2. Continuing this recursive process
we find all xi and y in representation (5). Let T(r) be the bit complexity of evaluating f ( z ) which is the number less than pip r. The bit complexity is 0(log n)
because we have the recurrence:
T(r) < 2T(r/2) + ()(logpr).

(8)

200

Nikolai N. Kuzjurin

This implies the estimate

T(r) = O(log r)0(logvr).

Taking into account that r = o(log n) we obtain the desired result.
6) We may find the solution of system (4) with the first I variables equal to
the values of this l-tuple in O(rt 3) operations in the field Fp. To do this it is
sufficient to solve r systems of linear equations over the finite field Fp and one
system over Fpl. Note that with our choice of parameters r and t the relation
O(rt 3) ---=o(log n) holds.
7) Given r + 1 t-tuples of coefficients in representation (5), we may find the
desired unique t-tuple by the map F with O(logn) bit complexity. This is a
consequence of the recurrences (7) and (8) which we use now for evaluations in
opposite direction: from a t-tuple of numbers z to the number f(z) by (5).
8) It may be done in time that is linear in the size of the list (i.e. in o(log log n)
operations). Finally, we must select this k-subset in the Tth E-subset in Sn(t, l)
that was found earlier.
What is the total complexity of the algorithm L o c a l S u b s e t ? All steps (as
it was shown above) have bit complexity O(log n). Hence, we proved Theorem 1
claimed in the Introduction.
6

Parallel

Complexity

The detailed analysis of the above algorithm shows that all operations may be
efficiently parallelized and we obtain parallel algorithm which terminates in time
O((log log n) c~
using O((log n) c~
parallel processors.
Note that fast multiplication and division algorithms were parallelized (see
[12]) and both parallel algorithms terminates in time O((logn) c~
when operate with O(n) bit numbers. In our case this parallel time is O((log log n) c~
because we operate with O(log n) bit numbers only.
Observe, briefly the main steps of the algorithm LocalSubset. Note that
the sequential complexity of steps 1), 2) and 8) is o(loglogn) and it is nothing to parallelize within these steps. Steps 3-4 may be easily done in parallel
time O((loglogn)C~
At step 5 we evaluate O(loglogn) powers of p using
fast parallel multiplication algorithm and recursively find all x~ and y in the
representation (5). The parallel complexity is O((log log n) c~
because there
are log r - o(log log n) recursive levels. Similar arguments show that this is true
for step 7. At step 6 we solve for r l-tuples of numbers (independently) system
(4) over the field Fp and for one l-tuple over the field Fm. This may be done in
parallel time O((log log n) c~
[12].
Thus, the total parallel time is O((log log n) c~
on O((log n) c~
parallel
processors. Noting that the class N C consists of problems solvable in deterministic time polynomial in the logarithm of the size of the input on polynomiallymany parallel RAM processors (for details, see [12]) we obtain the following
T h e o r e m 2. There is an NC-algorithm which given arbitrary natural n, k, l

and i finds the ith k-subset of Pn(k, l).

Locally Explicit Construction of R6dl's Asymptotically Good Packings

201

Discussion

There are three essential ideas to obtain our locally explicit construction:
1) the notion of composition of packings;
2) the algebraic construction of (n, t,/)-packings with slowly increasing t (as
n---+ (x));
3) the use of refinement and direct products of packings to avoid large primes.
The third part may be done in other manner using recent result of [20,21].
Instead of system (4) we may use its analogue over the field Fq, where q is a
prime power close to n. The efficient construction of such fields with q ~ n was
presented in [20,21].
This work was partially supported by the grant 98-01-00509 of the Russian
Foundation for Fundamental Research. Part of this work was done while the
author was visiting Bielefeld University.

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