Adaptivity Gaps for Stochastic Probing: Submodular and XOS Functions

Suppose we are given a submodular function f over a set of elements, and we want to maximize its value subject to certain constraints. Good approximation algorithms are known for such problems under both monotone and non-monotone submodular functions. We consider these problems in a stochastic setting, where elements are not all active and we can only get value from active elements. Each element e is active independently with some known probability pe, but we don't know the element's status a priori. We find it out only when we probe the element e---probing reveals whether it's active or not, whereafter we can use this information to decide which other elements to probe. Eventually, if we have a probed set S and a subset active(S) of active elements in S, we can pick any T subseteq active(S) and get value f(T). Moreover, the sequence of elements we probe must satisfy a given prefix-closed constraint---e.g., these may be given by a matroid, or an orienteering constraint, or deadline, or precedence constraint, or an arbitrary downward-closed constraint---if we can probe some sequence of elements we can probe any prefix of it. What is a good strategy to probe elements to maximize the expected value? In this paper we study the gap between adaptive and non-adaptive strategies for f being a submodular or a fractionally subadditive (XOS) function. If this gap is small, we can focus on finding good non-adaptive strategies instead, which are easier to find as well as to represent. We show that the adaptivity gap is a constant for monotone and non-monotone submodular functions, and logarithmic for XOS functions of small width. These bounds are nearly tight. Our techniques show new ways of arguing about the optimal adaptive decision tree for stochastic problems.