268 research outputs found
Compression via Matroids: A Randomized Polynomial Kernel for Odd Cycle Transversal
The Odd Cycle Transversal problem (OCT) asks whether a given graph can be
made bipartite by deleting at most of its vertices. In a breakthrough
result Reed, Smith, and Vetta (Operations Research Letters, 2004) gave a
\BigOh(4^kkmn) time algorithm for it, the first algorithm with polynomial
runtime of uniform degree for every fixed . It is known that this implies a
polynomial-time compression algorithm that turns OCT instances into equivalent
instances of size at most \BigOh(4^k), a so-called kernelization. Since then
the existence of a polynomial kernel for OCT, i.e., a kernelization with size
bounded polynomially in , has turned into one of the main open questions in
the study of kernelization.
This work provides the first (randomized) polynomial kernelization for OCT.
We introduce a novel kernelization approach based on matroid theory, where we
encode all relevant information about a problem instance into a matroid with a
representation of size polynomial in . For OCT, the matroid is built to
allow us to simulate the computation of the iterative compression step of the
algorithm of Reed, Smith, and Vetta, applied (for only one round) to an
approximate odd cycle transversal which it is aiming to shrink to size . The
process is randomized with one-sided error exponentially small in , where
the result can contain false positives but no false negatives, and the size
guarantee is cubic in the size of the approximate solution. Combined with an
\BigOh(\sqrt{\log n})-approximation (Agarwal et al., STOC 2005), we get a
reduction of the instance to size \BigOh(k^{4.5}), implying a randomized
polynomial kernelization.Comment: Minor changes to agree with SODA 2012 version of the pape
Hitting forbidden minors: Approximation and Kernelization
We study a general class of problems called F-deletion problems. In an
F-deletion problem, we are asked whether a subset of at most vertices can
be deleted from a graph such that the resulting graph does not contain as a
minor any graph from the family F of forbidden minors.
We obtain a number of algorithmic results on the F-deletion problem when F
contains a planar graph. We give (1) a linear vertex kernel on graphs excluding
-claw , the star with leves, as an induced subgraph, where
is a fixed integer. (2) an approximation algorithm achieving an approximation
ratio of , where is the size of an optimal solution on
general undirected graphs. Finally, we obtain polynomial kernels for the case
when F contains graph as a minor for a fixed integer . The graph
consists of two vertices connected by parallel edges. Even
though this may appear to be a very restricted class of problems it already
encompasses well-studied problems such as {\sc Vertex Cover}, {\sc Feedback
Vertex Set} and Diamond Hitting Set. The generic kernelization algorithm is
based on a non-trivial application of protrusion techniques, previously used
only for problems on topological graph classes
Parameterized Distributed Algorithms
In this work, we initiate a thorough study of graph optimization problems parameterized by the output size in the distributed setting. In such a problem, an algorithm decides whether a solution of size bounded by k exists and if so, it finds one. We study fundamental problems, including Minimum Vertex Cover (MVC), Maximum Independent Set (MaxIS), Maximum Matching (MaxM), and many others, in both the LOCAL and CONGEST distributed computation models. We present lower bounds for the round complexity of solving parameterized problems in both models, together with optimal and near-optimal upper bounds.
Our results extend beyond the scope of parameterized problems. We show that any LOCAL (1+epsilon)-approximation algorithm for the above problems must take Omega(epsilon^{-1}) rounds. Joined with the (epsilon^{-1}log n)^{O(1)} rounds algorithm of [Ghaffari et al., 2017] and the Omega (sqrt{(log n)/(log log n)}) lower bound of [Fabian Kuhn et al., 2016], the lower bounds match the upper bound up to polynomial factors in both parameters. We also show that our parameterized approach reduces the runtime of exact and approximate CONGEST algorithms for MVC and MaxM if the optimal solution is small, without knowing its size beforehand. Finally, we propose the first o(n^2) rounds CONGEST algorithms that approximate MVC within a factor strictly smaller than 2
Improved Parameterized Algorithms for Constraint Satisfaction
For many constraint satisfaction problems, the algorithm which chooses a
random assignment achieves the best possible approximation ratio. For instance,
a simple random assignment for {\sc Max-E3-Sat} allows 7/8-approximation and
for every \eps >0 there is no polynomial-time (7/8+\eps)-approximation
unless P=NP. Another example is the {\sc Permutation CSP} of bounded arity.
Given the expected fraction of the constraints satisfied by a random
assignment (i.e. permutation), there is no (\rho+\eps)-approximation
algorithm for every \eps >0, assuming the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC).
In this work, we consider the following parameterization of constraint
satisfaction problems. Given a set of constraints of constant arity, can we
satisfy at least constraint, where is the expected fraction
of constraints satisfied by a random assignment? {\sc Constraint Satisfaction
Problems above Average} have been posed in different forms in the literature
\cite{Niedermeier2006,MahajanRamanSikdar09}. We present a faster parameterized
algorithm for deciding whether equations can be simultaneously
satisfied over . As a consequence, we obtain -variable
bikernels for {\sc boolean CSPs} of arity for every fixed , and for {\sc
permutation CSPs} of arity 3. This implies linear bikernels for many problems
under the "above average" parameterization, such as {\sc Max--Sat}, {\sc
Set-Splitting}, {\sc Betweenness} and {\sc Max Acyclic Subgraph}. As a result,
all the parameterized problems we consider in this paper admit -time
algorithms.
We also obtain non-trivial hybrid algorithms for every Max -CSP: for every
instance , we can either approximate beyond the random assignment
threshold in polynomial time, or we can find an optimal solution to in
subexponential time.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper has been accepted for IPEC 201
A structural approach to kernels for ILPs: Treewidth and Total Unimodularity
Kernelization is a theoretical formalization of efficient preprocessing for
NP-hard problems. Empirically, preprocessing is highly successful in practice,
for example in state-of-the-art ILP-solvers like CPLEX. Motivated by this,
previous work studied the existence of kernelizations for ILP related problems,
e.g., for testing feasibility of Ax <= b. In contrast to the observed success
of CPLEX, however, the results were largely negative. Intuitively, practical
instances have far more useful structure than the worst-case instances used to
prove these lower bounds.
In the present paper, we study the effect that subsystems with (Gaifman graph
of) bounded treewidth or totally unimodularity have on the kernelizability of
the ILP feasibility problem. We show that, on the positive side, if these
subsystems have a small number of variables on which they interact with the
remaining instance, then we can efficiently replace them by smaller subsystems
of size polynomial in the domain without changing feasibility. Thus, if large
parts of an instance consist of such subsystems, then this yields a substantial
size reduction. We complement this by proving that relaxations to the
considered structures, e.g., larger boundaries of the subsystems, allow
worst-case lower bounds against kernelization. Thus, these relaxed structures
can be used to build instance families that cannot be efficiently reduced, by
any approach.Comment: Extended abstract in the Proceedings of the 23rd European Symposium
on Algorithms (ESA 2015
A Survey on Approximation in Parameterized Complexity: Hardness and Algorithms
Parameterization and approximation are two popular ways of coping with
NP-hard problems. More recently, the two have also been combined to derive many
interesting results. We survey developments in the area both from the
algorithmic and hardness perspectives, with emphasis on new techniques and
potential future research directions
Polynomial Kernels for {\lambda}-extendible Properties Parameterized Above the Poljak-Turz\'ik Bound
Poljak and Turzik (Discrete Mathematics 1986) introduced the notion of
{\lambda}-extendible properties of graphs as a generalization of the property
of being bipartite. They showed that for any 0 < {\lambda} < 1 and
{\lambda}-extendible property {\Pi}, any connected graph G on n vertices and m
edges contains a spanning subgraph H in {\Pi} with at least {\lambda}m +
(1-{\lambda})(n-1)/2 edges. The property of being bipartite is
{\lambda}-extendible for {\lambda} = 1/2, and so the Poljak-Turzik bound
generalizes the well-known Edwards-Erdos bound for Max-Cut. Other examples of
{\lambda}-extendible properties include: being an acyclic oriented graph, a
balanced signed graph, or a q-colorable graph for some integer q.
Mnich et. al. (FSTTCS 2012) defined the closely related notion of strong
{\lambda}-extendibility. They showed that the problem of finding a subgraph
satisfying a given strongly {\lambda}-extendible property {\Pi} is
fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) when parameterized above the Poljak-Turzik
bound - does there exist a spanning subgraph H of a connected graph G such that
H in {\Pi} and H has at least {\lambda}m + (1-{\lambda})(n-1)/2 + k edges? -
subject to the condition that the problem is FPT on a certain simple class of
graphs called almost-forests of cliques.
In this paper we settle the kernelization complexity of nearly all problems
parameterized above Poljak-Turzik bounds, in the affirmative. We show that
these problems admit quadratic kernels (cubic when {\lambda} = 1/2), without
using the assumption that the problem is FPT on almost-forests of cliques. Thus
our results not only remove the technical condition of being FPT on
almost-forests of cliques from previous results, but also unify and extend
previously known kernelization results in this direction. Our results add to
the select list of generic kernelization results known in the literature
Sparsification Upper and Lower Bounds for Graphs Problems and Not-All-Equal SAT
We present several sparsification lower and upper bounds for classic problems in graph theory and logic. For the problems 4-Coloring, (Directed) Hamiltonian Cycle, and (Connected) Dominating Set, we prove that there is no polynomial-time algorithm that reduces any n-vertex input to an equivalent instance, of an arbitrary problem, with bitsize O(n^{2-epsilon}) for epsilon > 0, unless NP is a subset of coNP/poly and the polynomial-time hierarchy collapses. These results imply that existing linear-vertex kernels for k-Nonblocker and k-Max Leaf Spanning Tree (the parametric duals of (Connected) Dominating Set) cannot be improved to have O(k^{2-epsilon}) edges, unless NP is a subset of NP/poly. We also present a positive result and exhibit a non-trivial sparsification algorithm for d-Not-All-Equal-SAT. We give an algorithm that reduces an n-variable input with clauses of size at most d to an equivalent input with O(n^{d-1}) clauses, for any fixed d. Our algorithm is based on a linear-algebraic proof of Lovász that bounds the number of hyperedges in critically 3-chromatic d-uniform n-vertex hypergraphs by binom{n}{d-1}. We show that our kernel is tight under the assumption that NP is not a subset of NP/poly
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