19 research outputs found
An Algorithm for the Graph Crossing Number Problem
We study the Minimum Crossing Number problem: given an -vertex graph ,
the goal is to find a drawing of in the plane with minimum number of edge
crossings. This is one of the central problems in topological graph theory,
that has been studied extensively over the past three decades. The first
non-trivial efficient algorithm for the problem, due to Leighton and Rao,
achieved an -approximation for bounded degree graphs. This
algorithm has since been improved by poly-logarithmic factors, with the best
current approximation ratio standing on O(n \poly(d) \log^{3/2}n) for graphs
with maximum degree . In contrast, only APX-hardness is known on the
negative side.
In this paper we present an efficient randomized algorithm to find a drawing
of any -vertex graph in the plane with O(OPT^{10}\cdot \poly(d \log
n)) crossings, where is the number of crossings in the optimal solution,
and is the maximum vertex degree in . This result implies an
\tilde{O}(n^{9/10} \poly(d))-approximation for Minimum Crossing Number, thus
breaking the long-standing -approximation barrier for
bounded-degree graphs
Structural Rounding: Approximation Algorithms for Graphs Near an Algorithmically Tractable Class
We develop a framework for generalizing approximation algorithms from the structural graph algorithm literature so that they apply to graphs somewhat close to that class (a scenario we expect is common when working with real-world networks) while still guaranteeing approximation ratios. The idea is to edit a given graph via vertex- or edge-deletions to put the graph into an algorithmically tractable class, apply known approximation algorithms for that class, and then lift the solution to apply to the original graph. We give a general characterization of when an optimization problem is amenable to this approach, and show that it includes many well-studied graph problems, such as Independent Set, Vertex Cover, Feedback Vertex Set, Minimum Maximal Matching, Chromatic Number, (l-)Dominating Set, Edge (l-)Dominating Set, and Connected Dominating Set.
To enable this framework, we develop new editing algorithms that find the approximately-fewest edits required to bring a given graph into one of a few important graph classes (in some cases these are bicriteria algorithms which simultaneously approximate both the number of editing operations and the target parameter of the family). For bounded degeneracy, we obtain an O(r log{n})-approximation and a bicriteria (4,4)-approximation which also extends to a smoother bicriteria trade-off. For bounded treewidth, we obtain a bicriteria (O(log^{1.5} n), O(sqrt{log w}))-approximation, and for bounded pathwidth, we obtain a bicriteria (O(log^{1.5} n), O(sqrt{log w} * log n))-approximation. For treedepth 2 (related to bounded expansion), we obtain a 4-approximation. We also prove complementary hardness-of-approximation results assuming P != NP: in particular, these problems are all log-factor inapproximable, except the last which is not approximable below some constant factor 2 (assuming UGC)
Crossing Number for Graphs with Bounded~Pathwidth
The crossing number is the smallest number of pairwise edge crossings when drawing a graph into the plane. There are only very few graph classes for which the exact crossing number is known or for which there at least exist constant approximation ratios. Furthermore, up to now, general crossing number computations have never been successfully tackled using bounded width of graph decompositions, like treewidth or pathwidth.
In this paper, we for the first time show that crossing number is tractable (even in linear time) for maximal graphs of bounded pathwidth 3. The technique also shows that the crossing number and the rectilinear (a.k.a. straight-line) crossing number are identical for this graph class, and that we require only an O(n)xO(n)-grid to achieve such a drawing.
Our techniques can further be extended to devise a 2-approximation for general graphs with pathwidth 3, and a 4w^3-approximation for maximal graphs of pathwidth w. This is a constant approximation for bounded pathwidth graphs
Inserting Multiple Edges into a Planar Graph
Let G be a connected planar (but not yet embedded) graph and F a set of additional edges not in G. The multiple edge insertion problem (MEI) asks for a drawing of G+F with the minimum number of pairwise edge crossings, such that the subdrawing of G is plane. An optimal solution to this problem is known to approximate the crossing number of the graph G+F.
Finding an exact solution to MEI is NP-hard for general F, but linear time solvable for the special case of |F|=1 [Gutwenger et al, SODA 2001/Algorithmica] and polynomial time solvable when all of F are incident to a new vertex [Chimani et al, SODA 2009]. The complexity for general F but with constant k=|F| was open, but algorithms both with relative and absolute approximation guarantees have been presented [Chuzhoy et al, SODA 2011], [Chimani-Hlineny, ICALP 2011]. We show that the problem is fixed parameter tractable (FPT) in k for biconnected G, or if the cut vertices of G have bounded degrees. We give the first exact algorithm for this problem; it requires only O(|V(G)|) time for any constant k