9,098 research outputs found
Cutwidth: obstructions and algorithmic aspects
Cutwidth is one of the classic layout parameters for graphs. It measures how
well one can order the vertices of a graph in a linear manner, so that the
maximum number of edges between any prefix and its complement suffix is
minimized. As graphs of cutwidth at most are closed under taking
immersions, the results of Robertson and Seymour imply that there is a finite
list of minimal immersion obstructions for admitting a cut layout of width at
most . We prove that every minimal immersion obstruction for cutwidth at
most has size at most .
As an interesting algorithmic byproduct, we design a new fixed-parameter
algorithm for computing the cutwidth of a graph that runs in time , where is the optimum width and is the number of vertices.
While being slower by a -factor in the exponent than the fastest known
algorithm, given by Thilikos, Bodlaender, and Serna in [Cutwidth I: A linear
time fixed parameter algorithm, J. Algorithms, 56(1):1--24, 2005] and [Cutwidth
II: Algorithms for partial -trees of bounded degree, J. Algorithms,
56(1):25--49, 2005], our algorithm has the advantage of being simpler and
self-contained; arguably, it explains better the combinatorics of optimum-width
layouts
Fixed-parameter tractability, definability, and model checking
In this article, we study parameterized complexity theory from the
perspective of logic, or more specifically, descriptive complexity theory.
We propose to consider parameterized model-checking problems for various
fragments of first-order logic as generic parameterized problems and show how
this approach can be useful in studying both fixed-parameter tractability and
intractability. For example, we establish the equivalence between the
model-checking for existential first-order logic, the homomorphism problem for
relational structures, and the substructure isomorphism problem. Our main
tractability result shows that model-checking for first-order formulas is
fixed-parameter tractable when restricted to a class of input structures with
an excluded minor. On the intractability side, for every t >= 0 we prove an
equivalence between model-checking for first-order formulas with t quantifier
alternations and the parameterized halting problem for alternating Turing
machines with t alternations. We discuss the close connection between this
alternation hierarchy and Downey and Fellows' W-hierarchy.
On a more abstract level, we consider two forms of definability, called Fagin
definability and slicewise definability, that are appropriate for describing
parameterized problems. We give a characterization of the class FPT of all
fixed-parameter tractable problems in terms of slicewise definability in finite
variable least fixed-point logic, which is reminiscent of the Immerman-Vardi
Theorem characterizing the class PTIME in terms of definability in least
fixed-point logic.Comment: To appear in SIAM Journal on Computin
Decomposition, approximation, and coloring of odd-minor-free graphs
We prove two structural decomposition theorems about graphs excluding
a fixed odd minor H, and show how these theorems can
be used to obtain approximation algorithms for several algorithmic
problems in such graphs. Our decomposition results provide new
structural insights into odd-H-minor-free graphs, on the one hand
generalizing the central structural result from Graph Minor Theory,
and on the other hand providing an algorithmic decomposition
into two bounded-treewidth graphs, generalizing a similar result for
minors. As one example of how these structural results conquer difficult
problems, we obtain a polynomial-time 2-approximation for
vertex coloring in odd-H-minor-free graphs, improving on the previous
O(jV (H)j)-approximation for such graphs and generalizing
the previous 2-approximation for H-minor-free graphs. The class
of odd-H-minor-free graphs is a vast generalization of the well-studied
H-minor-free graph families and includes, for example, all
bipartite graphs plus a bounded number of apices. Odd-H-minor-free
graphs are particularly interesting from a structural graph theory
perspective because they break away from the sparsity of H-
minor-free graphs, permitting a quadratic number of edges
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