Approximating MIN 2-SAT and MIN 3-SAT

We obtain substantially improved approximation algorithms for the MIN k-SAT problem, for k = 2,3. More specifically, we obtain a 1.1037-approximation algorithm for the MIN 2-SAT problem, improving a previous 1.5-approximation algorithm, and a 1.2136-approximation algorithm for the MIN 3-SAT problem, improving a previous 1.75-approximation algorithm for the problem. These results are obtained by adapting techniques that were previously used to obtain approximation algorithms for the MAX k-SAT problem. We also obtain some hardness of approximation results.