7,227 research outputs found
Simple PTAS's for families of graphs excluding a minor
We show that very simple algorithms based on local search are polynomial-time
approximation schemes for Maximum Independent Set, Minimum Vertex Cover and
Minimum Dominating Set, when the input graphs have a fixed forbidden minor.Comment: To appear in Discrete Applied Mathematic
Distributed Dominating Set Approximations beyond Planar Graphs
The Minimum Dominating Set (MDS) problem is one of the most fundamental and
challenging problems in distributed computing. While it is well-known that
minimum dominating sets cannot be approximated locally on general graphs, over
the last years, there has been much progress on computing local approximations
on sparse graphs, and in particular planar graphs.
In this paper we study distributed and deterministic MDS approximation
algorithms for graph classes beyond planar graphs. In particular, we show that
existing approximation bounds for planar graphs can be lifted to bounded genus
graphs, and present (1) a local constant-time, constant-factor MDS
approximation algorithm and (2) a local -time
approximation scheme. Our main technical contribution is a new analysis of a
slightly modified variant of an existing algorithm by Lenzen et al.
Interestingly, unlike existing proofs for planar graphs, our analysis does not
rely on direct topological arguments.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1602.0299
Deciding first-order properties of nowhere dense graphs
Nowhere dense graph classes, introduced by Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez,
form a large variety of classes of "sparse graphs" including the class of
planar graphs, actually all classes with excluded minors, and also bounded
degree graphs and graph classes of bounded expansion.
We show that deciding properties of graphs definable in first-order logic is
fixed-parameter tractable on nowhere dense graph classes. At least for graph
classes closed under taking subgraphs, this result is optimal: it was known
before that for all classes C of graphs closed under taking subgraphs, if
deciding first-order properties of graphs in C is fixed-parameter tractable,
then C must be nowhere dense (under a reasonable complexity theoretic
assumption).
As a by-product, we give an algorithmic construction of sparse neighbourhood
covers for nowhere dense graphs. This extends and improves previous
constructions of neighbourhood covers for graph classes with excluded minors.
At the same time, our construction is considerably simpler than those. Our
proofs are based on a new game-theoretic characterisation of nowhere dense
graphs that allows for a recursive version of locality-based algorithms on
these classes. On the logical side, we prove a "rank-preserving" version of
Gaifman's locality theorem.Comment: 30 page
Computing with Tangles
Tangles of graphs have been introduced by Robertson and Seymour in the
context of their graph minor theory. Tangles may be viewed as describing
"k-connected components" of a graph (though in a twisted way). They play an
important role in graph minor theory. An interesting aspect of tangles is that
they cannot only be defined for graphs, but more generally for arbitrary
connectivity functions (that is, integer-valued submodular and symmetric set
functions).
However, tangles are difficult to deal with algorithmically. To start with,
it is unclear how to represent them, because they are families of separations
and as such may be exponentially large. Our first contribution is a data
structure for representing and accessing all tangles of a graph up to some
fixed order.
Using this data structure, we can prove an algorithmic version of a very
general structure theorem due to Carmesin, Diestel, Harman and Hundertmark (for
graphs) and Hundertmark (for arbitrary connectivity functions) that yields a
canonical tree decomposition whose parts correspond to the maximal tangles.
(This may be viewed as a generalisation of the decomposition of a graph into
its 3-connected components.
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