On Computing a Maximal Planar Subgraph using PQ-Trees

The problem of computing a maximal planar subgraph of a non-planar graph has been deeply investigated over the last 20 years. Several attempts have been tried to solve the problem with the help of PQ-trees. The latest attempt has been reported by Jayakumar, Thulasiraman and Swamy (1989). In this paper we show that the algorithm presented by Jayakumar et al. is not correct. We show that it does not necessarily compute a maximal planar subgraph and that the same holds for a modified version of the algorithm presented by Kant (1992). Our conclusions most likely suggest not to use PQ-trees at all for this specific problem

Cycles to the Rescue! Novel Constraints to Compute Maximum Planar Subgraphs Fast

The NP-hard Maximum Planar Subgraph problem asks for a planar subgraph H of a given graph G such that H has maximum edge cardinality. For more than two decades, the only known non-trivial exact algorithm was based on integer linear programming and Kuratowski\u27s famous planarity criterion. We build upon this approach and present new constraint classes - together with a lifting of the polyhedron - to obtain provably stronger LP-relaxations, and in turn faster algorithms in practice. The new constraints take Euler\u27s polyhedron formula as a starting point and combine it with considering cycles in G. This paper discusses both the theoretical as well as the practical sides of this strengthening

Pitfalls of using PQ-trees in Automatic Graph Drawing

A number of erroneous attempts involving PQ-trees in the context of automatic graph drawing algorithms have been presented in the literature in recent years. In order to prevent future research from constructing algorithms with similar errors we point out some of the major mistakes. In particular, we examine erroneous usage of the PQ-tree data structure in algorithms for computing maximal planar subgraphs and an algorithm for testing leveled planarity of leveled directed acyclic graphs with several sources and sinks

Decremental Single-Source Reachability in Planar Digraphs

In this paper we show a new algorithm for the decremental single-source reachability problem in directed planar graphs. It processes any sequence of edge deletions in $O(n\log^2{n}\log\log{n})$ total time and explicitly maintains the set of vertices reachable from a fixed source vertex. Hence, if all edges are eventually deleted, the amortized time of processing each edge deletion is only $O(\log^2 n \log \log n)$, which improves upon a previously known $O(\sqrt{n})$ solution. We also show an algorithm for decremental maintenance of strongly connected components in directed planar graphs with the same total update time. These results constitute the first almost optimal (up to polylogarithmic factors) algorithms for both problems. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first dynamic algorithms with polylogarithmic update times on general directed planar graphs for non-trivial reachability-type problems, for which only polynomial bounds are known in general graphs

Densities of Minor-Closed Graph Families

We define the limiting density of a minor-closed family of simple graphs F to be the smallest number k such that every n-vertex graph in F has at most kn(1+o(1)) edges, and we investigate the set of numbers that can be limiting densities. This set of numbers is countable, well-ordered, and closed; its order type is at least {\omega}^{\omega}. It is the closure of the set of densities of density-minimal graphs, graphs for which no minor has a greater ratio of edges to vertices. By analyzing density-minimal graphs of low densities, we find all limiting densities up to the first two cluster points of the set of limiting densities, 1 and 3/2. For multigraphs, the only possible limiting densities are the integers and the superparticular ratios i/(i+1).Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

A note on computing a maximal planar subgraph using PQ-trees

The problem of computing a maximal planar subgraph of a non planar graph has been deeply investigated over the last 20 years. Several attempts have been tried to solve the problem with the help of PQ-trees. The latest attempt has been reported by Jayakumar et al. [10]. In this paper we show that the algorithm presented by Jayakumar et al. is not correct. We show that it does not necessarily compute a maximal planar subgraph and we note that the same holds for a modified version of the algorithm presented by Kant [12]. Our conclusions most likely suggest not to use PQ-trees at all for this specific problem