Fixed-Parameter Tractability of Token Jumping on Planar Graphs

Suppose that we are given two independent sets $I_0$ and $I_r$ of a graph such that $|I_0| = |I_r|$, and imagine that a token is placed on each vertex in $I_0$. The token jumping problem is to determine whether there exists a sequence of independent sets which transforms $I_0$ into $I_r$ so that each independent set in the sequence results from the previous one by moving exactly one token to another vertex. This problem is known to be PSPACE-complete even for planar graphs of maximum degree three, and W[1]-hard for general graphs when parameterized by the number of tokens. In this paper, we present a fixed-parameter algorithm for the token jumping problem on planar graphs, where the parameter is only the number of tokens. Furthermore, the algorithm can be modified so that it finds a shortest sequence for a yes-instance. The same scheme of the algorithms can be applied to a wider class of graphs, $K_{3,t}$-free graphs for any fixed integer $t \ge 3$, and it yields fixed-parameter algorithms

Galactic Token Sliding

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Reconfiguration on sparse graphs

A vertex-subset graph problem Q defines which subsets of the vertices of an input graph are feasible solutions. A reconfiguration variant of a vertex-subset problem asks, given two feasible solutions S and T of size k, whether it is possible to transform S into T by a sequence of vertex additions and deletions such that each intermediate set is also a feasible solution of size bounded by k. We study reconfiguration variants of two classical vertex-subset problems, namely Independent Set and Dominating Set. We denote the former by ISR and the latter by DSR. Both ISR and DSR are PSPACE-complete on graphs of bounded bandwidth and W[1]-hard parameterized by k on general graphs. We show that ISR is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by k when the input graph is of bounded degeneracy or nowhere-dense. As a corollary, we answer positively an open question concerning the parameterized complexity of the problem on graphs of bounded treewidth. Moreover, our techniques generalize recent results showing that ISR is fixed-parameter tractable on planar graphs and graphs of bounded degree. For DSR, we show the problem fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by k when the input graph does not contain large bicliques, a class of graphs which includes graphs of bounded degeneracy and nowhere-dense graphs

Token Jumping in minor-closed classes

Given two $k$-independent sets $I$ and $J$ of a graph $G$, one can ask if it is possible to transform the one into the other in such a way that, at any step, we replace one vertex of the current independent set by another while keeping the property of being independent. Deciding this problem, known as the Token Jumping (TJ) reconfiguration problem, is PSPACE-complete even on planar graphs. Ito et al. proved in 2014 that the problem is FPT parameterized by $k$ if the input graph is $K_{3,\ell}$-free. We prove that the result of Ito et al. can be extended to any $K_{\ell,\ell}$-free graphs. In other words, if $G$ is a $K_{\ell,\ell}$-free graph, then it is possible to decide in FPT-time if $I$ can be transformed into $J$. As a by product, the TJ-reconfiguration problem is FPT in many well-known classes of graphs such as any minor-free class

Refuting FPT Algorithms for Some Parameterized Problems Under Gap-ETH

In this article we study a well-known problem, called Bipartite Token Jumping and not-so-well known problem(s), which we call, Half (Induced-) Subgraph, and show that under Gap-ETH, these problems do not admit FPT algorithms. The problem Bipartite Token Jumping takes as input a bipartite graph G and two independent sets S,T in G, where |S| = |T| = k, and the objective is to test if there is a sequence of exactly k-sized independent sets ? I?, I?,?, I_? ? in G, such that: i) I? = S and I_? = T, and ii) for every j ? [?], I_{j} is obtained from I_{j-1} by replacing a vertex in I_{j-1} by a vertex in V(G) ? I_{j-1}. We show that, assuming Gap-ETH, Bipartite Token Jumping does not admit an FPT algorithm. We note that this result resolves one of the (two) open problems posed by Bartier et al. (ISAAC 2020), under Gap-ETH. Most of the known reductions related to Token Jumping exploit the property given by triangles (i.e., C?s), to obtain the correctness, and our results refutes FPT algorithm for Bipartite Token Jumping, where the input graph cannot have any triangles. For an integer k ? ?, the half graph S_{k,k} is the graph with vertex set V(S_{k,k}) = A_k ? B_k, where A_k = {a?,a?,?, a_k} and B_k = {b?,b?,?, b_k}, and for i,j ? [k], {a_i,b_j} ? E(T_{k,k}) if and only if j ? i. We also study the Half (Induced-)Subgraph problem where we are given a graph G and an integer k, and the goal is to check if G contains S_{k,k} as an (induced-)subgraph. Again under Gap-ETH, we show that Half (Induced-)Subgraph does not admit an FPT algorithm, even when the input is a bipartite graph. We believe that the above problem (and its negative) result maybe of independent interest and could be useful obtaining new fixed parameter intractability results. There are very few reductions known in the literature which refute FPT algorithms for a parameterized problem based on assumptions like Gap-ETH. Thus our technique (and simple reductions) exhibits the potential of such conjectures in obtaining new (and possibly easier) proofs for refuting FPT algorithms for parameterized problems

Parameterized Complexity of Graph Constraint Logic

Graph constraint logic is a framework introduced by Hearn and Demaine, which provides several problems that are often a convenient starting point for reductions. We study the parameterized complexity of Constraint Graph Satisfiability and both bounded and unbounded versions of Nondeterministic Constraint Logic (NCL) with respect to solution length, treewidth and maximum degree of the underlying constraint graph as parameters. As a main result we show that restricted NCL remains PSPACE-complete on graphs of bounded bandwidth, strengthening Hearn and Demaine's framework. This allows us to improve upon existing results obtained by reduction from NCL. We show that reconfiguration versions of several classical graph problems (including independent set, feedback vertex set and dominating set) are PSPACE-complete on planar graphs of bounded bandwidth and that Rush Hour, generalized to $k\times n$ boards, is PSPACE-complete even when $k$ is at most a constant