90 research outputs found
Vertex Cover Kernelization Revisited: Upper and Lower Bounds for a Refined Parameter
An important result in the study of polynomial-time preprocessing shows that
there is an algorithm which given an instance (G,k) of Vertex Cover outputs an
equivalent instance (G',k') in polynomial time with the guarantee that G' has
at most 2k' vertices (and thus O((k')^2) edges) with k' <= k. Using the
terminology of parameterized complexity we say that k-Vertex Cover has a kernel
with 2k vertices. There is complexity-theoretic evidence that both 2k vertices
and Theta(k^2) edges are optimal for the kernel size. In this paper we consider
the Vertex Cover problem with a different parameter, the size fvs(G) of a
minimum feedback vertex set for G. This refined parameter is structurally
smaller than the parameter k associated to the vertex covering number vc(G)
since fvs(G) <= vc(G) and the difference can be arbitrarily large. We give a
kernel for Vertex Cover with a number of vertices that is cubic in fvs(G): an
instance (G,X,k) of Vertex Cover, where X is a feedback vertex set for G, can
be transformed in polynomial time into an equivalent instance (G',X',k') such
that |V(G')| <= 2k and |V(G')| <= O(|X'|^3). A similar result holds when the
feedback vertex set X is not given along with the input. In sharp contrast we
show that the Weighted Vertex Cover problem does not have a polynomial kernel
when parameterized by the cardinality of a given vertex cover of the graph
unless NP is in coNP/poly and the polynomial hierarchy collapses to the third
level.Comment: Published in "Theory of Computing Systems" as an Open Access
publicatio
Linear kernels for outbranching problems in sparse digraphs
In the -Leaf Out-Branching and -Internal Out-Branching problems we are
given a directed graph with a designated root and a nonnegative integer
. The question is to determine the existence of an outbranching rooted at
that has at least leaves, or at least internal vertices,
respectively. Both these problems were intensively studied from the points of
view of parameterized complexity and kernelization, and in particular for both
of them kernels with vertices are known on general graphs. In this
work we show that -Leaf Out-Branching admits a kernel with vertices
on -minor-free graphs, for any fixed family of graphs
, whereas -Internal Out-Branching admits a kernel with
vertices on any graph class of bounded expansion.Comment: Extended abstract accepted for IPEC'15, 27 page
Exploiting -Closure in Kernelization Algorithms for Graph Problems
A graph is c-closed if every pair of vertices with at least c common
neighbors is adjacent. The c-closure of a graph G is the smallest number such
that G is c-closed. Fox et al. [ICALP '18] defined c-closure and investigated
it in the context of clique enumeration. We show that c-closure can be applied
in kernelization algorithms for several classic graph problems. We show that
Dominating Set admits a kernel of size k^O(c), that Induced Matching admits a
kernel with O(c^7*k^8) vertices, and that Irredundant Set admits a kernel with
O(c^(5/2)*k^3) vertices. Our kernelization exploits the fact that c-closed
graphs have polynomially-bounded Ramsey numbers, as we show
Crown Reductions and Decompositions: Theoretical Results and Practical Methods
Two kernelization schemes for the vertex cover problem, an NP-hard problem in graph theory, are compared. The first, crown reduction, is based on the identification of a graph structure called a crown and is relatively new while the second, LP-kernelization has been used for some time. A proof of the crown reduction algorithm is presented, the algorithm is implemented and theorems are proven concerning its performance. Experiments are conducted comparing the performance of crown reduction and LP- kernelization on real world biological graphs. Next, theorems are presented that provide a logical connection between the crown structure and LP-kernelization. Finally, an algorithm is developed for decomposing a graph into two subgraphs: one that is a crown and one that is crown free
Hitting forbidden minors: Approximation and Kernelization
We study a general class of problems called F-deletion problems. In an
F-deletion problem, we are asked whether a subset of at most vertices can
be deleted from a graph such that the resulting graph does not contain as a
minor any graph from the family F of forbidden minors.
We obtain a number of algorithmic results on the F-deletion problem when F
contains a planar graph. We give (1) a linear vertex kernel on graphs excluding
-claw , the star with leves, as an induced subgraph, where
is a fixed integer. (2) an approximation algorithm achieving an approximation
ratio of , where is the size of an optimal solution on
general undirected graphs. Finally, we obtain polynomial kernels for the case
when F contains graph as a minor for a fixed integer . The graph
consists of two vertices connected by parallel edges. Even
though this may appear to be a very restricted class of problems it already
encompasses well-studied problems such as {\sc Vertex Cover}, {\sc Feedback
Vertex Set} and Diamond Hitting Set. The generic kernelization algorithm is
based on a non-trivial application of protrusion techniques, previously used
only for problems on topological graph classes
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