Max-Sum Diversification, Monotone Submodular Functions and Semi-metric Spaces

In many applications such as web-based search, document summarization, facility location and other applications, the results are preferable to be both representative and diversified subsets of documents. The goal of this study is to select a good "quality", bounded-size subset of a given set of items, while maintaining their diversity relative to a semi-metric distance function. This problem was first studied by Borodin et alciteborodin, but a crucial property used throughout their proof is the triangle inequality. In this modified proof, we want to relax the triangle inequality and relate the approximation ratio of max-sum diversification problem to the parameter of the relaxed triangle inequality in the normal form of the problem (i.e., a uniform matroid) and also in an arbitrary matroid.