Approximating Minimum-Cost k-Node Connected Subgraphs via Independence-Free Graphs

We present a 6-approximation algorithm for the minimum-cost $k$-node connected spanning subgraph problem, assuming that the number of nodes is at least $k^3(k-1)+k$. We apply a combinatorial preprocessing, based on the Frank-Tardos algorithm for $k$-outconnectivity, to transform any input into an instance such that the iterative rounding method gives a 2-approximation guarantee. This is the first constant-factor approximation algorithm even in the asymptotic setting of the problem, that is, the restriction to instances where the number of nodes is lower bounded by a function of $k$.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, 28 reference

On the fixed-parameter tractability of the maximum connectivity improvement problem

In the Maximum Connectivity Improvement (MCI) problem, we are given a directed graph $G=(V,E)$ and an integer $B$ and we are asked to find $B$ new edges to be added to $G$ in order to maximize the number of connected pairs of vertices in the resulting graph. The MCI problem has been studied from the approximation point of view. In this paper, we approach it from the parameterized complexity perspective in the case of directed acyclic graphs. We show several hardness and algorithmic results with respect to different natural parameters. Our main result is that the problem is $W[2]$-hard for parameter $B$ and it is FPT for parameters $|V| - B$ and $\nu$, the matching number of $G$. We further characterize the MCI problem with respect to other complementary parameters.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

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

Quantum Hall Ground States, Binary Invariants, and Regular Graphs

Extracting meaningful physical information out of a many-body wavefunction is often impractical. The polynomial nature of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) wavefunctions, however, provides a rare opportunity for a study by virtue of ground states alone. In this article, we investigate the general properties of FQH ground state polynomials. It turns out that the data carried by an FQH ground state can be essentially that of a (small) directed graph/matrix. We establish a correspondence between FQH ground states, binary invariants and regular graphs and briefly introduce all the necessary concepts. Utilizing methods from invariant theory and graph theory, we will then take a fresh look on physical properties of interest, e.g. squeezing properties, clustering properties, etc. Our methodology allows us to `unify' almost all of the previously constructed FQH ground states in the literature as special cases of a graph-based class of model FQH ground states, which we call \emph{accordion} model FQH states

Large independent sets in triangle-free cubic graphs: beyond planarity

Every $n$-vertex planar triangle-free graph with maximum degree at most $3$ has an independent set of size at least $\frac{3}{8}n$. This was first conjectured by Albertson, Bollob\'as and Tucker, and was later proved by Heckman and Thomas. Fraughnaugh and Locke conjectured that the planarity requirement could be relaxed into just forbidding a few specific nonplanar subgraphs: They described a family $\mathcal{F}$ of six nonplanar graphs (each of order at most $22$) and conjectured that every $n$-vertex triangle-free graph with maximum degree at most $3$ having no subgraph isomorphic to a member of $\mathcal{F}$ has an independent set of size at least $\frac{3}{8}n$. In this paper, we prove this conjecture. As a corollary, we obtain that every $2$-connected $n$-vertex triangle-free graph with maximum degree at most $3$ has an independent set of size at least $\frac{3}{8}n$, with the exception of the six graphs in $\mathcal{F}$. This confirms a conjecture made independently by Bajnok and Brinkmann, and by Fraughnaugh and Locke.Comment: v2: Referees' comments incorporate

Structured Connectivity Augmentation

We initiate the algorithmic study of the following "structured augmentation" question: is it possible to increase the connectivity of a given graph G by superposing it with another given graph H? More precisely, graph F is the superposition of G and H with respect to injective mapping phi:V(H)->V(G) if every edge uv of F is either an edge of G, or phi^{-1}(u)phi^{-1}(v) is an edge of H. Thus F contains both G and H as subgraphs, and the edge set of F is the union of the edge sets of G and phi(H). We consider the following optimization problem. Given graphs G, H, and a weight function omega assigning non-negative weights to pairs of vertices of V(G), the task is to find phi of minimum weight omega(phi)=sum_{xyin E(H)}omega(phi(x)phi(y)) such that the edge connectivity of the superposition F of G and H with respect to phi is higher than the edge connectivity of G. Our main result is the following ``dichotomy\u27\u27 complexity classification. We say that a class of graphs C has bounded vertex-cover number, if there is a constant t depending on C only such that the vertex-cover number of every graph from C does not exceed t. We show that for every class of graphs C with bounded vertex-cover number, the problems of superposing into a connected graph F and to 2-edge connected graph F, are solvable in polynomial time when Hin C. On the other hand, for any hereditary class C with unbounded vertex-cover number, both problems are NP-hard when Hin C. For the unweighted variants of structured augmentation problems, i.e. the problems where the task is to identify whether there is a superposition of graphs of required connectivity, we provide necessary and sufficient combinatorial conditions on the existence of such superpositions. These conditions imply polynomial time algorithms solving the unweighted variants of the problems