432 research outputs found
Spanning Trees with Many Leaves in Graphs without Diamonds and Blossoms
It is known that graphs on n vertices with minimum degree at least 3 have
spanning trees with at least n/4+2 leaves and that this can be improved to
(n+4)/3 for cubic graphs without the diamond K_4-e as a subgraph. We generalize
the second result by proving that every graph with minimum degree at least 3,
without diamonds and certain subgraphs called blossoms, has a spanning tree
with at least (n+4)/3 leaves, and generalize this further by allowing vertices
of lower degree. We show that it is necessary to exclude blossoms in order to
obtain a bound of the form n/3+c.
We use the new bound to obtain a simple FPT algorithm, which decides in
O(m)+O^*(6.75^k) time whether a graph of size m has a spanning tree with at
least k leaves. This improves the best known time complexity for MAX LEAF
SPANNING TREE.Comment: 25 pages, 27 Figure
On the Complexity of Existential Positive Queries
We systematically investigate the complexity of model checking the
existential positive fragment of first-order logic. In particular, for a set of
existential positive sentences, we consider model checking where the sentence
is restricted to fall into the set; a natural question is then to classify
which sentence sets are tractable and which are intractable. With respect to
fixed-parameter tractability, we give a general theorem that reduces this
classification question to the corresponding question for primitive positive
logic, for a variety of representations of structures. This general theorem
allows us to deduce that an existential positive sentence set having bounded
arity is fixed-parameter tractable if and only if each sentence is equivalent
to one in bounded-variable logic. We then use the lens of classical complexity
to study these fixed-parameter tractable sentence sets. We show that such a set
can be NP-complete, and consider the length needed by a translation from
sentences in such a set to bounded-variable logic; we prove superpolynomial
lower bounds on this length using the theory of compilability, obtaining an
interesting type of formula size lower bound. Overall, the tools, concepts, and
results of this article set the stage for the future consideration of the
complexity of model checking on more expressive logics
Polynomial kernels for Proper Interval Completion and related problems
Given a graph G = (V,E) and a positive integer k, the Proper Interval
Completion problem asks whether there exists a set F of at most k pairs of (V
\times V)\E such that the graph H = (V,E \cup F) is a proper interval graph.
The Proper Interval Completion problem finds applications in molecular biology
and genomic research. First announced by Kaplan, Tarjan and Shamir in FOCS '94,
this problem is known to be FPT, but no polynomial kernel was known to exist.
We settle this question by proving that Proper Interval Completion admits a
kernel with at most O(k^5) vertices. Moreover, we prove that a related problem,
the so-called Bipartite Chain Deletion problem, admits a kernel with at most
O(k^2) vertices, completing a previous result of Guo
Data Reductions and Combinatorial Bounds for Improved Approximation Algorithms
Kernelization algorithms in the context of Parameterized Complexity are often
based on a combination of reduction rules and combinatorial insights. We will
expose in this paper a similar strategy for obtaining polynomial-time
approximation algorithms. Our method features the use of
approximation-preserving reductions, akin to the notion of parameterized
reductions. We exemplify this method to obtain the currently best approximation
algorithms for \textsc{Harmless Set}, \textsc{Differential} and
\textsc{Multiple Nonblocker}, all of them can be considered in the context of
securing networks or information propagation
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
Spanning trees with many leaves: new extremal results and an improved FPT algorithm
We present two lower bounds for the maximum number of leaves in a spanning tree of a graph. For connected graphs without triangles, with minimum degree at least three, we show that a spanning tree with at least (n+4)/3 leaves exists, where n is the number of vertices of the graph. For connected graphs with minimum degree at least three, that contain D diamonds induced by vertices of degree three (a diamond is a K4 minus one edge), we show that a spanning tree exists with at least (2n-D+12)/7 leaves. The proofs use the fact that spanning trees with many leaves correspond to small connected dominating sets. Both of these bounds are best possible for their respective graph classes. For both bounds simple polynomial time algorithms are given that find spanning trees satisfying the bounds. \ud
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The second bound is used to find a new fastest FPT algorithm for the Max-Leaf Spanning Tree problem. This problem asks whether a graph G on n vertices has a spanning tree with at least k leaves. The time complexity of our algorithm is f(k)g(n), where g(n) is a polynomial, and f(k) Î O(8.12k).\ud
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