A PTAS for Non-Adaptive Stochastic Top-$k$ Sum under General Combinatorial Constraints

Abstract

We study non-adaptive selection of a feasible set $S$ that maximizes the expected sum of the $k$ largest realized values among independent nonnegative discrete random variables. The same objective arises in team hiring and as VCG welfare in an $\ell$-unit auction. The main setting is a fixed-dimensional nonnegative packing family, whose natural LP has $d=O(1)$ packing inequalities with binary coefficients. We give a PTAS for every $k\ge 1$ on every such family, including binary one- and two-dimensional knapsack, by approximating the occupancy functional $p\mapsto\mathbb{E}[\min(k,N(p))]$ and realizing the resulting signatures in the packing LP. As a generic guarantee the scheme is essentially optimal: there is no FPTAS that works for every such $\mathcal{F}$ unless $P=NP$, and no EPTAS unless $W[1]=FPT$. An incomparable sufficient condition is a query-weight exact-sum oracle (DAG paths, matchings), which likewise yields a PTAS for every $k$. The same signatures give a PTAS for $\min_{S\in\mathcal{F}}\mathbb{E}[\mathrm{Top}_k(S)]$ on every fixed-$d$ covering family; two-dimensional covering knapsack rules out a generic FPTAS on that class.