Finding maximum square-free 2-matchings in bipartite graphs

AbstractA 2-matching in a simple graph is a subset of edges such that every node of the graph is incident with at most two edges of the subset. A maximum 2-matching is a 2-matching of maximum size. The problem of finding a maximum 2-matching is a relaxation of the problem of finding a Hamilton tour in a graph. In this paper we study, in bipartite graphs, a problem of intermediate difficulty: The problem of finding a maximum 2-matching that contains no 4-cycles. Our main result is a polynomial time algorithm for this problem. We also present a min–max theorem

A simple algorithm for finding a maximum triangle-free 2-matching in subcubic graphs

AbstractIn this paper, we consider the problem of finding a maximum weight 2-matching containing no cycle of a length of at most three in a weighted simple graph, which we call the weighted triangle-free 2-matching problem. Although the polynomial solvability of this problem is still open in general graphs, a polynomial-time algorithm is given by Hartvigsen and Li for the problem in subcubic graphs, i.e., graphs with a maximum degree of at most three. Our contribution is to provide another polynomial-time algorithm for the weighted triangle-free 2-matching problem in subcubic graphs. Our algorithm consists of two basic algorithms: a steepest ascent algorithm and a classical maximum weight2-matching algorithm, and is justified by fundamental results from the theory of discrete convex functions on jump systems

Finding a Maximum 2-Matching Excluding Prescribed Cycles in Bipartite Graphs

We introduce a new framework of restricted 2-matchings close to Hamilton cycles. For an undirected graph (V,E) and a family U of vertex subsets, a 2-matching F is called U-feasible if, for each setU in U, F contains at most |setU|-1 edges in the subgraph induced by U. Our framework includes C_{= 5. For instance, in bipartite graphs in which every cycle of length six has at least two chords, our algorithm solves the maximum C_{<=6}-free 2-matching problem in O(n^2 m) time, where n and m are the numbers of vertices and edges, respectively

Finding a Maximum Restricted tt-Matching via Boolean Edge-CSP

The problem of finding a maximum $2$-matching without short cycles has received significant attention due to its relevance to the Hamilton cycle problem. This problem is generalized to finding a maximum $t$-matching which excludes specified complete $t$-partite subgraphs, where $t$ is a fixed positive integer. The polynomial solvability of this generalized problem remains an open question. In this paper, we present polynomial-time algorithms for the following two cases of this problem: in the first case the forbidden complete $t$-partite subgraphs are edge-disjoint; and in the second case the maximum degree of the input graph is at most $2t-1$. Our result for the first case extends the previous work of Nam (1994) showing the polynomial solvability of the problem of finding a maximum $2$-matching without cycles of length four, where the cycles of length four are vertex-disjoint. The second result expands upon the works of B\'{e}rczi and V\'{e}gh (2010) and Kobayashi and Yin (2012), which focused on graphs with maximum degree at most $t+1$. Our algorithms are obtained from exploiting the discrete structure of restricted $t$-matchings and employing an algorithm for the Boolean edge-CSP.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

On Approximating Restricted Cycle Covers

A cycle cover of a graph is a set of cycles such that every vertex is part of exactly one cycle. An L-cycle cover is a cycle cover in which the length of every cycle is in the set L. The weight of a cycle cover of an edge-weighted graph is the sum of the weights of its edges. We come close to settling the complexity and approximability of computing L-cycle covers. On the one hand, we show that for almost all L, computing L-cycle covers of maximum weight in directed and undirected graphs is APX-hard and NP-hard. Most of our hardness results hold even if the edge weights are restricted to zero and one. On the other hand, we show that the problem of computing L-cycle covers of maximum weight can be approximated within a factor of 2 for undirected graphs and within a factor of 8/3 in the case of directed graphs. This holds for arbitrary sets L.Comment: To appear in SIAM Journal on Computing. Minor change

A PTAS for Triangle-Free 2-Matching

In the Triangle-Free (Simple) 2-Matching problem we are given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$. Our goal is to compute a maximum-cardinality $M\subseteq E$ satisfying the following properties: (1) at most two edges of $M$ are incident on each node (i.e., $M$ is a 2-matching) and (2) $M$ does not induce any triangle. In his Ph.D. thesis from 1984, Harvitgsen presents a complex polynomial-time algorithm for this problem, with a very complex analysis. This result was never published in a journal nor reproved in a different way, to the best of our knowledge. In this paper we have a fresh look at this problem and present a simple PTAS for it based on local search. Our PTAS exploits the fact that, as long as the current solution is far enough from the optimum, there exists a short augmenting trail (similar to the maximum matching case).Comment: 27 pages, 18 figure