Temporalizing digraphs via linear-size balanced bi-trees

In a directed graph $D$ on vertex set $v_1,\dots ,v_n$, a \emph{forward arc} is an arc $v_iv_j$ where $i<j$. A pair $v_i,v_j$ is \emph{forward connected} if there is a directed path from $v_i$ to $v_j$ consisting of forward arcs. In the {\tt Forward Connected Pairs Problem} ({\tt FCPP}), the input is a strongly connected digraph $D$, and the output is the maximum number of forward connected pairs in some vertex enumeration of $D$. We show that {\tt FCPP} is in APX, as one can efficiently enumerate the vertices of $D$ in order to achieve a quadratic number of forward connected pairs. For this, we construct a linear size balanced bi-tree $T$ (an out-tree and an in-tree with same size which roots are identified). The existence of such a $T$ was left as an open problem motivated by the study of temporal paths in temporal networks. More precisely, $T$ can be constructed in quadratic time (in the number of vertices) and has size at least $n/3$. The algorithm involves a particular depth-first search tree (Left-DFS) of independent interest, and shows that every strongly connected directed graph has a balanced separator which is a circuit. Remarkably, in the request version {\tt RFCPP} of {\tt FCPP}, where the input is a strong digraph $D$ and a set of requests $R$ consisting of pairs $\{x_i,y_i\}$, there is no constant $c>0$ such that one can always find an enumeration realizing $c.|R|$ forward connected pairs $\{x_i,y_i\}$ (in either direction).Comment: 11 pages, 2 figur

On inefficiently connecting temporal networks

A temporal graph can be represented by a graph with an edge labelling, such that an edge is present in the network if and only if the edge is assigned the corresponding time label. A journey is a labelled path in a temporal graph such that labels on successive edges of the path are increasing, and if all vertices admit journeys to all other vertices, the temporal graph is temporally connected. A temporal spanner is a sublabelling of the temporal graph such that temporal connectivity is maintained. The study of temporal spanners has raised interest since the early 2000's. Essentially two types of studies have been conducted: the positive side where families of temporal graphs are shown to (deterministically or stochastically) admit sparse temporal spanners, and the negative side where constructions of temporal graphs with no sparse spanners are of importance. Often such studies considered temporal graphs with happy or simple labellings, which associate exactly one label per edge. In this paper, we focus on the negative side and consider proper labellings, where multiple labels per edge are allowed. More precisely, we aim to construct dense temporally connected graphs such that all labels are necessary for temporal connectivity. Our contributions are multiple: we present the first labellings maximizing a local density measure; exact or asymptotically tight results for basic graph families, which are then extended to larger graph families; an extension of an efficient temporal graph labelling generator; and overall denser labellings than previous work even when restricted to happy labellings

Efficient Algorithms for Moral Lineage Tracing

Lineage tracing, the joint segmentation and tracking of living cells as they move and divide in a sequence of light microscopy images, is a challenging task. Jug et al. have proposed a mathematical abstraction of this task, the moral lineage tracing problem (MLTP), whose feasible solutions define both a segmentation of every image and a lineage forest of cells. Their branch-and-cut algorithm, however, is prone to many cuts and slow convergence for large instances. To address this problem, we make three contributions: (i) we devise the first efficient primal feasible local search algorithms for the MLTP, (ii) we improve the branch-and-cut algorithm by separating tighter cutting planes and by incorporating our primal algorithms, (iii) we show in experiments that our algorithms find accurate solutions on the problem instances of Jug et al. and scale to larger instances, leveraging moral lineage tracing to practical significance.Comment: Accepted at ICCV 201

Reconfiguration of Time-Respecting Arborescences

An arborescence, which is a directed analogue of a spanning tree in an undirected graph, is one of the most fundamental combinatorial objects in a digraph. In this paper, we study arborescences in digraphs from the viewpoint of combinatorial reconfiguration, which is the field where we study reachability between two configurations of some combinatorial objects via some specified operations. Especially, we consider reconfiguration problems for time-respecting arborescences, which were introduced by Kempe, Kleinberg, and Kumar. We first prove that if the roots of the initial and target time-respecting arborescences are the same, then the target arborescence is always reachable from the initial one and we can find a shortest reconfiguration sequence in polynomial time. Furthermore, we show if the roots are not the same, then the target arborescence may not be reachable from the initial one. On the other hand, we show that we can determine whether the target arborescence is reachable form the initial one in polynomial time. Finally, we prove that it is NP-hard to find a shortest reconfiguration sequence in the case where the roots are not the same. Our results show an interesting contrast to the previous results for (ordinary) arborescences reconfiguration problems.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, WADS 202

As Time Goes By: Adding a Temporal Dimension Towards Resolving Delegations in Liquid Democracy

In recent years, the study of various models and questions related to Liquid Democracy has been of growing interest among the community of Computational Social Choice. A concern that has been raised, is that current academic literature focuses solely on static inputs, concealing a key characteristic of Liquid Democracy: the right for a voter to change her mind as time goes by, regarding her options of whether to vote herself or delegate her vote to other participants, till the final voting deadline. In real life, a period of extended deliberation preceding the election-day motivates voters to adapt their behaviour over time, either based on observations of the remaining electorate or on information acquired for the topic at hand. By adding a temporal dimension to Liquid Democracy, such adaptations can increase the number of possible delegation paths and reduce the loss of votes due to delegation cycles or delegating paths towards abstaining agents, ultimately enhancing participation. Our work takes a first step to integrate a time horizon into decision-making problems in Liquid Democracy systems. Our approach, via a computational complexity analysis, exploits concepts and tools from temporal graph theory which turn out to be convenient for our framework

Detection and Isolation of Link Failures under the Agreement Protocol

In this paper a property of the multi-agent consensus dynamics that relates the failure of links in the network to jump discontinuities in the derivatives of the output responses of the nodes is derived and verified analytically. At the next step, an algorithm for sensor placement is proposed, which would enable the designer to detect and isolate any link failures across the network based on the observed jump discontinuities in the derivatives of the responses of a subset of nodes. These results are explained through elaborative examples.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 201