On the Lovász Theta function for Independent Sets in Sparse Graphs

We consider the maximum independent set problem on graphs with maximum degree d. We show that the integrality gap of the Lovasz Theta function-based SDP has an integrality gap of O~(d/log3/2 d). This improves on the previous best result of O~(d/log d), and narrows the gap of this basic SDP to the integrality gap of O~(d/log2 d) recently shown for stronger SDPs, namely those obtained using poly log(d) levels of the SA+ semidefinite hierarchy. The improvement comes from an improved Ramsey-theoretic bound on the independence number of Kr-free graphs for large values of r. We also show how to obtain an algorithmic version of the above-mentioned SAplus-based integrality gap result, via a coloring algorithm of Johansson. The resulting approximation guarantee of O~(d/log2 d) matches the best unique-games-based hardness result up to lower-order poly (log log d) factors.