Breaking Barriers for Distributed MIS by Faster Degree Reduction

We study the problem of finding a maximal independent set (MIS) in the standard LOCAL model of distributed computing. Classical algorithms by Luby [JACM’86] and Alon, Babai, and Itai [JALG’86] find an MIS in O(logn) rounds in n-node graphs with high probability. Despite decades of research, the existence of any o(logn)-round algorithm for general graphs remains one of the major open problems in the field.