12,354 research outputs found
Distance and the pattern of intra-European trade
Given an undirected graph G = (V, E) and subset of terminals T ⊆ V, the element-connectivity κ ′ G (u, v) of two terminals u, v ∈ T is the maximum number of u-v paths that are pairwise disjoint in both edges and non-terminals V \ T (the paths need not be disjoint in terminals). Element-connectivity is more general than edge-connectivity and less general than vertex-connectivity. Hind and Oellermann [21] gave a graph reduction step that preserves the global element-connectivity of the graph. We show that this step also preserves local connectivity, that is, all the pairwise element-connectivities of the terminals. We give two applications of this reduction step to connectivity and network design problems. • Given a graph G and disjoint terminal sets T1, T2,..., Tm, we seek a maximum number of elementdisjoint Steiner forests where each forest connects each Ti. We prove that if each Ti is k element k connected then there exist Ω( log hlog m) element-disjoint Steiner forests, where h = | i Ti|. If G is planar (or more generally, has fixed genus), we show that there exist Ω(k) Steiner forests. Our proofs are constructive, giving poly-time algorithms to find these forests; these are the first non-trivial algorithms for packing element-disjoint Steiner Forests. • We give a very short and intuitive proof of a spider-decomposition theorem of Chuzhoy and Khanna [12] in the context of the single-sink k-vertex-connectivity problem; this yields a simple and alternative analysis of an O(k log n) approximation. Our results highlight the effectiveness of the element-connectivity reduction step; we believe it will find more applications in the future
Edge-Disjoint Paths in Planar Graphs
We study the maximum edge-disjoint paths problem (MEDP). We are given a graph G = (V,E) and a set Τ = {s1t1, s2t2, . . . , sktk} of pairs of vertices: the objective is to find the maximum number of pairs in Τ that can be connected via edge-disjoint paths. Our main result is a poly-logarithmic approximation for MEDP on undirected planar graphs if a congestion of 2 is allowed, that is, we allow up to 2 paths to share an edge. Prior to our work, for any constant congestion, only a polynomial-factor approximation was known for planar graphs although much stronger results are known for some special cases such as grids and grid-like graphs. We note that the natural multicommodity flow relaxation of the problem has an integrality gap of Ω(√|V|) even on planar graphs when no congestion is allowed. Our starting point is the same relaxation and our result implies that the integrality gap shrinks to a poly-logarithmic factor once 2 paths are allowed per edge. Our result also extends to the unsplittable flow problem and the maximum integer multicommodity flow problem.
A set X ⊆ V is well-linked if for each S ⊂ V , |δ(S)| ≥ min{|S ∩ X|, |(V - S) ∩ X|}. The heart of our approach is to show that in any undirected planar graph, given any matching M on a well-linked set X, we can route Ω(|M|) pairs in M with a congestion of 2. Moreover, all pairs in M can be routed with constant congestion for a sufficiently large constant. This results also yields a different proof of a theorem of Klein, Plotkin, and Rao that shows an O(1) maxflow-mincut gap for uniform multicommodity flow instances in planar graphs.
The framework developed in this paper applies to general graphs as well. If a certain graph theoretic conjecture is true, it will yield poly-logarithmic integrality gap for MEDP with constant congestion
Irrelevant vertices for the planar Disjoint Paths Problem
The Disjoint Paths Problem asks, given a graph G and a set of pairs of terminals (s1,t1),…,(sk,tk)(s1,t1),…,(sk,tk), whether there is a collection of k pairwise vertex-disjoint paths linking sisi and titi, for i=1,…,ki=1,…,k. In their f(k)⋅n3f(k)⋅n3 algorithm for this problem, Robertson and Seymour introduced the irrelevant vertex technique according to which in every instance of treewidth greater than g(k)g(k) there is an “irrelevant” vertex whose removal creates an equivalent instance of the problem. This fact is based on the celebrated Unique Linkage Theorem , whose – very technical – proof gives a function g(k)g(k) that is responsible for an immense parameter dependence in the running time of the algorithm. In this paper we give a new and self-contained proof of this result that strongly exploits the combinatorial properties of planar graphs and achieves g(k)=O(k3/2⋅2k)g(k)=O(k3/2⋅2k). Our bound is radically better than the bounds known for general graphs
Vertex Disjoint Path in Upward Planar Graphs
The -vertex disjoint paths problem is one of the most studied problems in
algorithmic graph theory. In 1994, Schrijver proved that the problem can be
solved in polynomial time for every fixed when restricted to the class of
planar digraphs and it was a long standing open question whether it is
fixed-parameter tractable (with respect to parameter ) on this restricted
class. Only recently, \cite{CMPP}.\ achieved a major breakthrough and answered
the question positively. Despite the importance of this result (and the
brilliance of their proof), it is of rather theoretical importance. Their proof
technique is both technically extremely involved and also has at least double
exponential parameter dependence. Thus, it seems unrealistic that the algorithm
could actually be implemented. In this paper, therefore, we study a smaller
class of planar digraphs, the class of upward planar digraphs, a well studied
class of planar graphs which can be drawn in a plane such that all edges are
drawn upwards. We show that on the class of upward planar digraphs the problem
(i) remains NP-complete and (ii) the problem is fixed-parameter tractable.
While membership in FPT follows immediately from \cite{CMPP}'s general result,
our algorithm has only single exponential parameter dependency compared to the
double exponential parameter dependence for general planar digraphs.
Furthermore, our algorithm can easily be implemented, in contrast to the
algorithm in \cite{CMPP}.Comment: 14 page
Maximum Edge-Disjoint Paths in -sums of Graphs
We consider the approximability of the maximum edge-disjoint paths problem
(MEDP) in undirected graphs, and in particular, the integrality gap of the
natural multicommodity flow based relaxation for it. The integrality gap is
known to be even for planar graphs due to a simple
topological obstruction and a major focus, following earlier work, has been
understanding the gap if some constant congestion is allowed.
In this context, it is natural to ask for which classes of graphs does a
constant-factor constant-congestion property hold. It is easy to deduce that
for given constant bounds on the approximation and congestion, the class of
"nice" graphs is nor-closed. Is the converse true? Does every proper
minor-closed family of graphs exhibit a constant factor, constant congestion
bound relative to the LP relaxation? We conjecture that the answer is yes.
One stumbling block has been that such bounds were not known for bounded
treewidth graphs (or even treewidth 3). In this paper we give a polytime
algorithm which takes a fractional routing solution in a graph of bounded
treewidth and is able to integrally route a constant fraction of the LP
solution's value. Note that we do not incur any edge congestion. Previously
this was not known even for series parallel graphs which have treewidth 2. The
algorithm is based on a more general argument that applies to -sums of
graphs in some graph family, as long as the graph family has a constant factor,
constant congestion bound. We then use this to show that such bounds hold for
the class of -sums of bounded genus graphs
Counting Shortest Two Disjoint Paths in Cubic Planar Graphs with an NC Algorithm
Given an undirected graph and two disjoint vertex pairs and
, the Shortest two disjoint paths problem (S2DP) asks for the minimum
total length of two vertex disjoint paths connecting with , and
with , respectively.
We show that for cubic planar graphs there are NC algorithms, uniform
circuits of polynomial size and polylogarithmic depth, that compute the S2DP
and moreover also output the number of such minimum length path pairs.
Previously, to the best of our knowledge, no deterministic polynomial time
algorithm was known for S2DP in cubic planar graphs with arbitrary placement of
the terminals. In contrast, the randomized polynomial time algorithm by
Bj\"orklund and Husfeldt, ICALP 2014, for general graphs is much slower, is
serial in nature, and cannot count the solutions.
Our results are built on an approach by Hirai and Namba, Algorithmica 2017,
for a generalisation of S2DP, and fast algorithms for counting perfect
matchings in planar graphs
- …