47 research outputs found
First-Order Interpretations of Bounded Expansion Classes
The notion of bounded expansion captures uniform sparsity of graph classes and renders various algorithmic problems that are hard in general tractable. In particular, the model-checking problem for first-order logic is fixed-parameter tractable over such graph classes. With the aim of generalizing such results to dense graphs, we introduce classes of graphs with structurally bounded expansion, defined as first-order interpretations of classes of bounded expansion. As a first step towards their algorithmic treatment, we provide their characterization analogous to the characterization of classes of bounded expansion via low treedepth decompositions, replacing treedepth by its dense analogue called shrubdepth
Recovering sparse graphs
We construct a fixed parameter algorithm parameterized by d and k that takes
as an input a graph G' obtained from a d-degenerate graph G by complementing on
at most k arbitrary subsets of the vertex set of G and outputs a graph H such
that G and H agree on all but f(d,k) vertices.
Our work is motivated by the first order model checking in graph classes that
are first order interpretable in classes of sparse graphs. We derive as a
corollary that if G_0 is a graph class with bounded expansion, then the first
order model checking is fixed parameter tractable in the class of all graphs
that can obtained from a graph G from G_0 by complementing on at most k
arbitrary subsets of the vertex set of G; this implies an earlier result that
the first order model checking is fixed parameter tractable in graph classes
interpretable in classes of graphs with bounded maximum degree
Quantified Conjunctive Queries on Partially Ordered Sets
We study the computational problem of checking whether a quantified
conjunctive query (a first-order sentence built using only conjunction as
Boolean connective) is true in a finite poset (a reflexive, antisymmetric, and
transitive directed graph). We prove that the problem is already NP-hard on a
certain fixed poset, and investigate structural properties of posets yielding
fixed-parameter tractability when the problem is parameterized by the query.
Our main algorithmic result is that model checking quantified conjunctive
queries on posets of bounded width is fixed-parameter tractable (the width of a
poset is the maximum size of a subset of pairwise incomparable elements). We
complement our algorithmic result by complexity results with respect to classes
of finite posets in a hierarchy of natural poset invariants, establishing its
tightness in this sense.Comment: Accepted at IPEC 201
The parameterized space complexity of model-checking bounded variable first-order logic
The parameterized model-checking problem for a class of first-order sentences
(queries) asks to decide whether a given sentence from the class holds true in
a given relational structure (database); the parameter is the length of the
sentence. We study the parameterized space complexity of the model-checking
problem for queries with a bounded number of variables. For each bound on the
quantifier alternation rank the problem becomes complete for the corresponding
level of what we call the tree hierarchy, a hierarchy of parameterized
complexity classes defined via space bounded alternating machines between
parameterized logarithmic space and fixed-parameter tractable time. We observe
that a parameterized logarithmic space model-checker for existential bounded
variable queries would allow to improve Savitch's classical simulation of
nondeterministic logarithmic space in deterministic space .
Further, we define a highly space efficient model-checker for queries with a
bounded number of variables and bounded quantifier alternation rank. We study
its optimality under the assumption that Savitch's Theorem is optimal
Testing first-order properties for subclasses of sparse graphs
We present a linear-time algorithm for deciding first-order (FO) properties
in classes of graphs with bounded expansion, a notion recently introduced by
Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez. This generalizes several results from the
literature, because many natural classes of graphs have bounded expansion:
graphs of bounded tree-width, all proper minor-closed classes of graphs, graphs
of bounded degree, graphs with no subgraph isomorphic to a subdivision of a
fixed graph, and graphs that can be drawn in a fixed surface in such a way that
each edge crosses at most a constant number of other edges. We deduce that
there is an almost linear-time algorithm for deciding FO properties in classes
of graphs with locally bounded expansion.
More generally, we design a dynamic data structure for graphs belonging to a
fixed class of graphs of bounded expansion. After a linear-time initialization
the data structure allows us to test an FO property in constant time, and the
data structure can be updated in constant time after addition/deletion of an
edge, provided the list of possible edges to be added is known in advance and
their simultaneous addition results in a graph in the class. All our results
also hold for relational structures and are based on the seminal result of
Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez on the existence of low tree-depth colorings
Testing first-order properties for subclasses of sparse graphs
We present a linear-time algorithm for deciding first-order (FO) properties in classes of graphs with bounded expansion, a notion recently introduced by NeÅ”etÅil and Ossona de Mendez. This generalizes several results from the literature, because many natural classes of graphs have bounded expansion: graphs of bounded tree-width, all proper minor-closed classes of graphs, graphs of bounded degree, graphs with no subgraph isomorphic to a subdivision of a fixed graph, and graphs that can be drawn in a fixed surface in such a way that each edge crosses at most a constant number of other edges. We deduce that there is an almost linear-time algorithm for deciding FO properties in classes of graphs with locally bounded expansion.
More generally, we design a dynamic data structure for graphs belonging to a fixed class of graphs of bounded expansion. After a linear-time initialization the data structure allows us to test an FO property in constant time, and the data structure can be updated in constant time after addition/deletion of an edge, provided the list of possible edges to be added is known in advance and their simultaneous addition results in a graph in the class. All our results also hold for relational structures and are based on the seminal result of NeÅ”etÅil and Ossona de Mendez on the existence of low tree-depth colorings