On Approximate Reconfigurability of Label Cover

Given a two-prover game $G$ and its two satisfying labelings $\psi_\mathsf{s}$ and $\psi_\mathsf{t}$, the Label Cover Reconfiguration problem asks whether $\psi_\mathsf{s}$ can be transformed into $\psi_\mathsf{t}$ by repeatedly changing the value of a vertex while preserving any intermediate labeling satisfying $G$. We consider an optimization variant of Label Cover Reconfiguration by relaxing the feasibility of labelings, referred to as Maxmin Label Cover Reconfiguration: we are allowed to transform by passing through any non-satisfying labelings, but required to maximize the minimum fraction of satisfied edges during transformation from $\psi_\mathsf{s}$ to $\psi_\mathsf{t}$. Since the parallel repetition theorem of Raz (SIAM J. Comput., 1998), which implies NP-hardness of Label Cover within any constant factor, produces strong inapproximability results for many NP-hard problems, one may think of using Maxmin Label Cover Reconfiguration to derive inapproximability results for reconfiguration problems. We prove the following results on Maxmin Label Cover Reconfiguration, which display different trends from those of Label Cover and the parallel repetition theorem: (1) Maxmin Label Cover Reconfiguration can be approximated within a factor of nearly $\frac{1}{4}$ for restricted graph classes, including slightly dense graphs and balanced bipartite graphs. (2) A naive parallel repetition of Maxmin Label Cover Reconfiguration does not decrease the optimal objective value. (3) Label Cover Reconfiguration on projection games can be decided in polynomial time. The above results suggest that a reconfiguration analogue of the parallel repetition theorem is unlikely.