667 research outputs found
Between Treewidth and Clique-width
Many hard graph problems can be solved efficiently when restricted to graphs
of bounded treewidth, and more generally to graphs of bounded clique-width. But
there is a price to be paid for this generality, exemplified by the four
problems MaxCut, Graph Coloring, Hamiltonian Cycle and Edge Dominating Set that
are all FPT parameterized by treewidth but none of which can be FPT
parameterized by clique-width unless FPT = W[1], as shown by Fomin et al [7,
8]. We therefore seek a structural graph parameter that shares some of the
generality of clique-width without paying this price. Based on splits, branch
decompositions and the work of Vatshelle [18] on Maximum Matching-width, we
consider the graph parameter sm-width which lies between treewidth and
clique-width. Some graph classes of unbounded treewidth, like
distance-hereditary graphs, have bounded sm-width. We show that MaxCut, Graph
Coloring, Hamiltonian Cycle and Edge Dominating Set are all FPT parameterized
by sm-width
Space Saving by Dynamic Algebraization
Dynamic programming is widely used for exact computations based on tree
decompositions of graphs. However, the space complexity is usually exponential
in the treewidth. We study the problem of designing efficient dynamic
programming algorithm based on tree decompositions in polynomial space. We show
how to construct a tree decomposition and extend the algebraic techniques of
Lokshtanov and Nederlof such that the dynamic programming algorithm runs in
time , where is the maximum number of vertices in the union of
bags on the root to leaf paths on a given tree decomposition, which is a
parameter closely related to the tree-depth of a graph. We apply our algorithm
to the problem of counting perfect matchings on grids and show that it
outperforms other polynomial-space solutions. We also apply the algorithm to
other set covering and partitioning problems.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur
On Minimum Maximal Distance-k Matchings
We study the computational complexity of several problems connected with
finding a maximal distance- matching of minimum cardinality or minimum
weight in a given graph. We introduce the class of -equimatchable graphs
which is an edge analogue of -equipackable graphs. We prove that the
recognition of -equimatchable graphs is co-NP-complete for any fixed . We provide a simple characterization for the class of strongly chordal
graphs with equal -packing and -domination numbers. We also prove that
for any fixed integer the problem of finding a minimum weight
maximal distance- matching and the problem of finding a minimum weight
-independent dominating set cannot be approximated in polynomial
time in chordal graphs within a factor of unless
, where is a fixed constant (thereby
improving the NP-hardness result of Chang for the independent domination case).
Finally, we show the NP-hardness of the minimum maximal induced matching and
independent dominating set problems in large-girth planar graphs.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
A Geometric Theory for Hypergraph Matching
We develop a theory for the existence of perfect matchings in hypergraphs
under quite general conditions. Informally speaking, the obstructions to
perfect matchings are geometric, and are of two distinct types: 'space
barriers' from convex geometry, and 'divisibility barriers' from arithmetic
lattice-based constructions. To formulate precise results, we introduce the
setting of simplicial complexes with minimum degree sequences, which is a
generalisation of the usual minimum degree condition. We determine the
essentially best possible minimum degree sequence for finding an almost perfect
matching. Furthermore, our main result establishes the stability property:
under the same degree assumption, if there is no perfect matching then there
must be a space or divisibility barrier. This allows the use of the stability
method in proving exact results. Besides recovering previous results, we apply
our theory to the solution of two open problems on hypergraph packings: the
minimum degree threshold for packing tetrahedra in 3-graphs, and Fischer's
conjecture on a multipartite form of the Hajnal-Szemer\'edi Theorem. Here we
prove the exact result for tetrahedra and the asymptotic result for Fischer's
conjecture; since the exact result for the latter is technical we defer it to a
subsequent paper.Comment: Accepted for publication in Memoirs of the American Mathematical
Society. 101 pages. v2: minor changes including some additional diagrams and
passages of expository tex
Solving weighted and counting variants of connectivity problems parameterized by treewidth deterministically in single exponential time
It is well known that many local graph problems, like Vertex Cover and
Dominating Set, can be solved in 2^{O(tw)}|V|^{O(1)} time for graphs G=(V,E)
with a given tree decomposition of width tw. However, for nonlocal problems,
like the fundamental class of connectivity problems, for a long time we did not
know how to do this faster than tw^{O(tw)}|V|^{O(1)}. Recently, Cygan et al.
(FOCS 2011) presented Monte Carlo algorithms for a wide range of connectivity
problems running in time $c^{tw}|V|^{O(1)} for a small constant c, e.g., for
Hamiltonian Cycle and Steiner tree. Naturally, this raises the question whether
randomization is necessary to achieve this runtime; furthermore, it is
desirable to also solve counting and weighted versions (the latter without
incurring a pseudo-polynomial cost in terms of the weights).
We present two new approaches rooted in linear algebra, based on matrix rank
and determinants, which provide deterministic c^{tw}|V|^{O(1)} time algorithms,
also for weighted and counting versions. For example, in this time we can solve
the traveling salesman problem or count the number of Hamiltonian cycles. The
rank-based ideas provide a rather general approach for speeding up even
straightforward dynamic programming formulations by identifying "small" sets of
representative partial solutions; we focus on the case of expressing
connectivity via sets of partitions, but the essential ideas should have
further applications. The determinant-based approach uses the matrix tree
theorem for deriving closed formulas for counting versions of connectivity
problems; we show how to evaluate those formulas via dynamic programming.Comment: 36 page
Parameterized Complexity of Edge Interdiction Problems
We study the parameterized complexity of interdiction problems in graphs. For
an optimization problem on graphs, one can formulate an interdiction problem as
a game consisting of two players, namely, an interdictor and an evader, who
compete on an objective with opposing interests. In edge interdiction problems,
every edge of the input graph has an interdiction cost associated with it and
the interdictor interdicts the graph by modifying the edges in the graph, and
the number of such modifications is constrained by the interdictor's budget.
The evader then solves the given optimization problem on the modified graph.
The action of the interdictor must impede the evader as much as possible. We
focus on edge interdiction problems related to minimum spanning tree, maximum
matching and shortest paths. These problems arise in different real world
scenarios. We derive several fixed-parameter tractability and W[1]-hardness
results for these interdiction problems with respect to various parameters.
Next, we show close relation between interdiction problems and partial cover
problems on bipartite graphs where the goal is not to cover all elements but to
minimize/maximize the number of covered elements with specific number of sets.
Hereby, we investigate the parameterized complexity of several partial cover
problems on bipartite graphs
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