On the Monadic Second-Order Transduction Hierarchy

We compare classes of finite relational structures via monadic second-order transductions. More precisely, we study the preorder where we set C \subseteq K if, and only if, there exists a transduction {\tau} such that C\subseteq{\tau}(K). If we only consider classes of incidence structures we can completely describe the resulting hierarchy. It is linear of order type {\omega}+3. Each level can be characterised in terms of a suitable variant of tree-width. Canonical representatives of the various levels are: the class of all trees of height n, for each n \in N, of all paths, of all trees, and of all grids

Model-Checking on Ordered Structures

We study the model-checking problem for first- and monadic second-order logic on finite relational structures. The problem of verifying whether a formula of these logics is true on a given structure is considered intractable in general, but it does become tractable on interesting classes of structures, such as on classes whose Gaifman graphs have bounded treewidth. In this paper we continue this line of research and study model-checking for first- and monadic second-order logic in the presence of an ordering on the input structure. We do so in two settings: the general ordered case, where the input structures are equipped with a fixed order or successor relation, and the order invariant case, where the formulas may resort to an ordering, but their truth must be independent of the particular choice of order. In the first setting we show very strong intractability results for most interesting classes of structures. In contrast, in the order invariant case we obtain tractability results for order-invariant monadic second-order formulas on the same classes of graphs as in the unordered case. For first-order logic, we obtain tractability of successor-invariant formulas on classes whose Gaifman graphs have bounded expansion. Furthermore, we show that model-checking for order-invariant first-order formulas is tractable on coloured posets of bounded width.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1701.0851

A SAT Approach to Clique-Width

Clique-width is a graph invariant that has been widely studied in combinatorics and computer science. However, computing the clique-width of a graph is an intricate problem, the exact clique-width is not known even for very small graphs. We present a new method for computing the clique-width of graphs based on an encoding to propositional satisfiability (SAT) which is then evaluated by a SAT solver. Our encoding is based on a reformulation of clique-width in terms of partitions that utilizes an efficient encoding of cardinality constraints. Our SAT-based method is the first to discover the exact clique-width of various small graphs, including famous graphs from the literature as well as random graphs of various density. With our method we determined the smallest graphs that require a small pre-described clique-width.Comment: proofs in section 3 updated, results remain unchange

Treewidth versus clique number. II. Tree-independence number

In 2020, we initiated a systematic study of graph classes in which the treewidth can only be large due to the presence of a large clique, which we call $(\mathrm{tw},\omega)$-bounded. While $(\mathrm{tw},\omega)$-bounded graph classes are known to enjoy some good algorithmic properties related to clique and coloring problems, it is an interesting open problem whether $(\mathrm{tw},\omega)$-boundedness also has useful algorithmic implications for problems related to independent sets. We provide a partial answer to this question by means of a new min-max graph invariant related to tree decompositions. We define the independence number of a tree decomposition $\mathcal{T}$ of a graph as the maximum independence number over all subgraphs of $G$ induced by some bag of $\mathcal{T}$. The tree-independence number of a graph $G$ is then defined as the minimum independence number over all tree decompositions of $G$. Generalizing a result on chordal graphs due to Cameron and Hell from 2006, we show that if a graph is given together with a tree decomposition with bounded independence number, then the Maximum Weight Independent Packing problem can be solved in polynomial time. Applications of our general algorithmic result to specific graph classes will be given in the third paper of the series [Dallard, Milani\v{c}, and \v{S}torgel, Treewidth versus clique number. III. Tree-independence number of graphs with a forbidden structure].Comment: 33 pages; abstract has been shortened due to arXiv requirements. A previous version of this arXiv post has been reorganized into two parts; this is the first of the two parts (the second one is arXiv:2206.15092

Chromatic numbers of exact distance graphs

For any graph G = (V;E) and positive integer p, the exact distance-p graph G[\p] is the graph with vertex set V , which has an edge between vertices x and y if and only if x and y have distance p in G. For odd p, Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez proved that for any fixed graph class with bounded expansion, the chromatic number of G[\p] is bounded by an absolute constant. Using the notion of generalised colouring numbers, we give a much simpler proof for the result of Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez, which at the same time gives significantly better bounds. In particular, we show that for any graph G and odd positive integer p, the chromatic number of G[\p] is bounded by the weak (2

Graph Algorithms and Complexity Aspects on Special Graph Classes

Graphs are a very flexible tool within mathematics, as such, numerous problems can be solved by formulating them as an instance of a graph. As a result, however, some of the structures found in real world problems may be lost in a more general graph. An example of this is the 4-Colouring problem which, as a graph problem, is NP-complete. However, when a map is converted into a graph, we observe that this graph has structural properties, namely being (K_5, K_{3,3})-minor-free which can be exploited and as such there exist algorithms which can find 4-colourings of maps in polynomial time. This thesis looks at problems which are NP-complete in general and determines the complexity of the problem when various restrictions are placed on the input, both for the purpose of finding tractable solutions for inputs which have certain structures, and to increase our understanding of the point at which a problem becomes NP-complete. This thesis looks at four problems over four chapters, the first being Parallel Knock-Out. This chapter will show that Parallel Knock-Out can be solved in O(n+m) time on P_4-free graphs, also known as cographs, however, remains hard on split graphs, a subclass of P_5-free graphs. From this a dichotomy is shown on $P_k$-free graphs for any fixed integer $k$. The second chapter looks at Minimal Disconnected Cut. Along with some smaller results, the main result in this chapter is another dichotomy theorem which states that Minimal Disconnected Cut is polynomial time solvable for 3-connected planar graphs but NP-hard for 2-connected planar graphs. The third chapter looks at Square Root. Whilst a number of results were found, the work in this thesis focuses on the Square Root problem when restricted to some classes of graphs with low clique number. The final chapter looks at Surjective H-Colouring. This chapter shows that Surjective H-Colouring is NP-complete, for any fixed, non-loop connected graph H with two reflexive vertices and for any fixed graph H’ which can be obtained from H by replacing vertices with true twins. This result enabled us to determine the complexity of Surjective H-Colouring on all fixed graphs H of size at most 4