2-Vertex Connectivity in Directed Graphs

We complement our study of 2-connectivity in directed graphs, by considering the computation of the following 2-vertex-connectivity relations: We say that two vertices v and w are 2-vertex-connected if there are two internally vertex-disjoint paths from v to w and two internally vertex-disjoint paths from w to v. We also say that v and w are vertex-resilient if the removal of any vertex different from v and w leaves v and w in the same strongly connected component. We show how to compute the above relations in linear time so that we can report in constant time if two vertices are 2-vertex-connected or if they are vertex-resilient. We also show how to compute in linear time a sparse certificate for these relations, i.e., a subgraph of the input graph that has O(n) edges and maintains the same 2-vertex-connectivity and vertex-resilience relations as the input graph, where n is the number of vertices.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1407.304

Incremental 22-Edge-Connectivity in Directed Graphs

In this paper, we initiate the study of the dynamic maintenance of $2$-edge-connectivity relationships in directed graphs. We present an algorithm that can update the $2$-edge-connected blocks of a directed graph with $n$ vertices through a sequence of $m$ edge insertions in a total of $O(mn)$ time. After each insertion, we can answer the following queries in asymptotically optimal time: (i) Test in constant time if two query vertices $v$ and $w$ are $2$-edge-connected. Moreover, if $v$ and $w$ are not $2$-edge-connected, we can produce in constant time a "witness" of this property, by exhibiting an edge that is contained in all paths from $v$ to $w$ or in all paths from $w$ to $v$. (ii) Report in $O(n)$ time all the $2$-edge-connected blocks of $G$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dynamic algorithm for $2$-connectivity problems on directed graphs, and it matches the best known bounds for simpler problems, such as incremental transitive closure.Comment: Full version of paper presented at ICALP 201

Strong Connectivity in Directed Graphs under Failures, with Application

In this paper, we investigate some basic connectivity problems in directed graphs (digraphs). Let $G$ be a digraph with $m$ edges and $n$ vertices, and let $G\setminus e$ be the digraph obtained after deleting edge $e$ from $G$. As a first result, we show how to compute in $O(m+n)$ worst-case time: $(i)$ The total number of strongly connected components in $G\setminus e$, for all edges $e$ in $G$. $(ii)$ The size of the largest and of the smallest strongly connected components in $G\setminus e$, for all edges $e$ in $G$. Let $G$ be strongly connected. We say that edge $e$ separates two vertices $x$ and $y$, if $x$ and $y$ are no longer strongly connected in $G\setminus e$. As a second set of results, we show how to build in $O(m+n)$ time $O(n)$-space data structures that can answer in optimal time the following basic connectivity queries on digraphs: $(i)$ Report in $O(n)$ worst-case time all the strongly connected components of $G\setminus e$, for a query edge $e$. $(ii)$ Test whether an edge separates two query vertices in $O(1)$ worst-case time. $(iii)$ Report all edges that separate two query vertices in optimal worst-case time, i.e., in time $O(k)$, where $k$ is the number of separating edges. (For $k=0$, the time is $O(1)$). All of the above results extend to vertex failures. All our bounds are tight and are obtained with a common algorithmic framework, based on a novel compact representation of the decompositions induced by the $1$-connectivity (i.e., $1$-edge and $1$-vertex) cuts in digraphs, which might be of independent interest. With the help of our data structures we can design efficient algorithms for several other connectivity problems on digraphs and we can also obtain in linear time a strongly connected spanning subgraph of $G$ with $O(n)$ edges that maintains the $1$-connectivity cuts of $G$ and the decompositions induced by those cuts.Comment: An extended abstract of this work appeared in the SODA 201