16,335 research outputs found
The node-deletion problem for hereditary properties is NP-complete
AbstractWe consider the family of graph problems called node-deletion problems, defined as follows; For a fixed graph property Π, what is the minimum number of nodes which must be deleted from a given graph so that the resulting subgraph satisfies Π? We show that if Π is nontrivial and hereditary on induced subgraphs, then the node-deletion problem for Π is NP-complete for both undirected and directed graphs
On the Complexity of Making a Distinguished Vertex Minimum or Maximum Degree by Vertex Deletion
In this paper, we investigate the approximability of two node deletion
problems. Given a vertex weighted graph and a specified, or
"distinguished" vertex , MDD(min) is the problem of finding a minimum
weight vertex set such that becomes the
minimum degree vertex in ; and MDD(max) is the problem of
finding a minimum weight vertex set such that
becomes the maximum degree vertex in . These are known
-complete problems and have been studied from the parameterized complexity
point of view in previous work. Here, we prove that for any ,
both the problems cannot be approximated within a factor , unless . We also show that for any
, MDD(min) cannot be approximated within a factor on bipartite graphs, unless , and that for any , MDD(max) cannot be approximated within a
factor on bipartite graphs, unless . We give an factor approximation algorithm
for MDD(max) on general graphs, provided the degree of is . We
then show that if the degree of is , a similar result holds
for MDD(min). We prove that MDD(max) is -complete on 3-regular unweighted
graphs and provide an approximation algorithm with ratio when is a
3-regular unweighted graph. In addition, we show that MDD(min) can be solved in
polynomial time when is a regular graph of constant degree.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Elsevier's Journal of Discrete
Algorithm
Parameterized Complexity Dichotomy for Steiner Multicut
The Steiner Multicut problem asks, given an undirected graph G, terminals
sets T1,...,Tt V(G) of size at most p, and an integer k, whether
there is a set S of at most k edges or nodes s.t. of each set Ti at least one
pair of terminals is in different connected components of G \ S. This problem
generalizes several graph cut problems, in particular the Multicut problem (the
case p = 2), which is fixed-parameter tractable for the parameter k [Marx and
Razgon, Bousquet et al., STOC 2011].
We provide a dichotomy of the parameterized complexity of Steiner Multicut.
That is, for any combination of k, t, p, and the treewidth tw(G) as constant,
parameter, or unbounded, and for all versions of the problem (edge deletion and
node deletion with and without deletable terminals), we prove either that the
problem is fixed-parameter tractable or that the problem is hard (W[1]-hard or
even (para-)NP-complete). We highlight that:
- The edge deletion version of Steiner Multicut is fixed-parameter tractable
for the parameter k+t on general graphs (but has no polynomial kernel, even on
trees). We present two proofs: one using the randomized contractions technique
of Chitnis et al, and one relying on new structural lemmas that decompose the
Steiner cut into important separators and minimal s-t cuts.
- In contrast, both node deletion versions of Steiner Multicut are W[1]-hard
for the parameter k+t on general graphs.
- All versions of Steiner Multicut are W[1]-hard for the parameter k, even
when p=3 and the graph is a tree plus one node. Hence, the results of Marx and
Razgon, and Bousquet et al. do not generalize to Steiner Multicut.
Since we allow k, t, p, and tw(G) to be any constants, our characterization
includes a dichotomy for Steiner Multicut on trees (for tw(G) = 1), and a
polynomial time versus NP-hardness dichotomy (by restricting k,t,p,tw(G) to
constant or unbounded).Comment: As submitted to journal. This version also adds a proof of
fixed-parameter tractability for parameter k+t using the technique of
randomized contraction
On the Threshold of Intractability
We study the computational complexity of the graph modification problems
Threshold Editing and Chain Editing, adding and deleting as few edges as
possible to transform the input into a threshold (or chain) graph. In this
article, we show that both problems are NP-complete, resolving a conjecture by
Natanzon, Shamir, and Sharan (Discrete Applied Mathematics, 113(1):109--128,
2001). On the positive side, we show the problem admits a quadratic vertex
kernel. Furthermore, we give a subexponential time parameterized algorithm
solving Threshold Editing in time,
making it one of relatively few natural problems in this complexity class on
general graphs. These results are of broader interest to the field of social
network analysis, where recent work of Brandes (ISAAC, 2014) posits that the
minimum edit distance to a threshold graph gives a good measure of consistency
for node centralities. Finally, we show that all our positive results extend to
the related problem of Chain Editing, as well as the completion and deletion
variants of both problems
On the (non-)existence of polynomial kernels for Pl-free edge modification problems
Given a graph G = (V,E) and an integer k, an edge modification problem for a
graph property P consists in deciding whether there exists a set of edges F of
size at most k such that the graph H = (V,E \vartriangle F) satisfies the
property P. In the P edge-completion problem, the set F of edges is constrained
to be disjoint from E; in the P edge-deletion problem, F is a subset of E; no
constraint is imposed on F in the P edge-edition problem. A number of
optimization problems can be expressed in terms of graph modification problems
which have been extensively studied in the context of parameterized complexity.
When parameterized by the size k of the edge set F, it has been proved that if
P is an hereditary property characterized by a finite set of forbidden induced
subgraphs, then the three P edge-modification problems are FPT. It was then
natural to ask whether these problems also admit a polynomial size kernel.
Using recent lower bound techniques, Kratsch and Wahlstrom answered this
question negatively. However, the problem remains open on many natural graph
classes characterized by forbidden induced subgraphs. Kratsch and Wahlstrom
asked whether the result holds when the forbidden subgraphs are paths or cycles
and pointed out that the problem is already open in the case of P4-free graphs
(i.e. cographs). This paper provides positive and negative results in that line
of research. We prove that parameterized cograph edge modification problems
have cubic vertex kernels whereas polynomial kernels are unlikely to exist for
the Pl-free and Cl-free edge-deletion problems for large enough l
Contraction blockers for graphs with forbidden induced paths.
We consider the following problem: can a certain graph parameter of some given graph be reduced by at least d for some integer d via at most k edge contractions for some given integer k? We examine three graph parameters: the chromatic number, clique number and independence number. For each of these graph parameters we show that, when d is part of the input, this problem is polynomial-time solvable on P4-free graphs and NP-complete as well as W[1]-hard, with parameter d, for split graphs. As split graphs form a subclass of P5-free graphs, both results together give a complete complexity classification for Pℓ-free graphs. The W[1]-hardness result implies that it is unlikely that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable for split graphs with parameter d. But we do show, on the positive side, that the problem is polynomial-time solvable, for each parameter, on split graphs if d is fixed, i.e., not part of the input. We also initiate a study into other subclasses of perfect graphs, namely cobipartite graphs and interval graphs
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
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