71 research outputs found
Model-Checking on Ordered Structures
We study the model-checking problem for first- and monadic second-order logic
on finite relational structures. The problem of verifying whether a formula of
these logics is true on a given structure is considered intractable in general,
but it does become tractable on interesting classes of structures, such as on
classes whose Gaifman graphs have bounded treewidth. In this paper we continue
this line of research and study model-checking for first- and monadic
second-order logic in the presence of an ordering on the input structure. We do
so in two settings: the general ordered case, where the input structures are
equipped with a fixed order or successor relation, and the order invariant
case, where the formulas may resort to an ordering, but their truth must be
independent of the particular choice of order. In the first setting we show
very strong intractability results for most interesting classes of structures.
In contrast, in the order invariant case we obtain tractability results for
order-invariant monadic second-order formulas on the same classes of graphs as
in the unordered case. For first-order logic, we obtain tractability of
successor-invariant formulas on classes whose Gaifman graphs have bounded
expansion. Furthermore, we show that model-checking for order-invariant
first-order formulas is tractable on coloured posets of bounded width.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1701.0851
On Brambles, Grid-Like Minors, and Parameterized Intractability of Monadic Second-Order Logic
Brambles were introduced as the dual notion to treewidth, one of the most
central concepts of the graph minor theory of Robertson and Seymour. Recently,
Grohe and Marx showed that there are graphs G, in which every bramble of order
larger than the square root of the treewidth is of exponential size in |G|. On
the positive side, they show the existence of polynomial-sized brambles of the
order of the square root of the treewidth, up to log factors. We provide the
first polynomial time algorithm to construct a bramble in general graphs and
achieve this bound, up to log-factors. We use this algorithm to construct
grid-like minors, a replacement structure for grid-minors recently introduced
by Reed and Wood, in polynomial time. Using the grid-like minors, we introduce
the notion of a perfect bramble and an algorithm to find one in polynomial
time. Perfect brambles are brambles with a particularly simple structure and
they also provide us with a subgraph that has bounded degree and still large
treewidth; we use them to obtain a meta-theorem on deciding certain
parameterized subgraph-closed problems on general graphs in time singly
exponential in the parameter.
The second part of our work deals with providing a lower bound to Courcelle's
famous theorem, stating that every graph property that can be expressed by a
sentence in monadic second-order logic (MSO), can be decided by a linear time
algorithm on classes of graphs of bounded treewidth. Using our results from the
first part of our work we establish a strong lower bound for tractability of
MSO on classes of colored graphs
Parametrised Complexity of Model Checking and Satisfiability in Propositional Dependence Logic
In this paper, we initiate a systematic study of the parametrised complexity
in the field of Dependence Logics which finds its origin in the Dependence
Logic of V\"a\"an\"anen from 2007. We study a propositional variant of this
logic (PDL) and investigate a variety of parametrisations with respect to the
central decision problems. The model checking problem (MC) of PDL is
NP-complete. The subject of this research is to identify a list of
parametrisations (formula-size, treewidth, treedepth, team-size, number of
variables) under which MC becomes fixed-parameter tractable. Furthermore, we
show that the number of disjunctions or the arity of dependence atoms
(dep-arity) as a parameter both yield a paraNP-completeness result. Then, we
consider the satisfiability problem (SAT) showing a different picture: under
team-size, or dep-arity SAT is paraNP-complete whereas under all other
mentioned parameters the problem is in FPT. Finally, we introduce a variant of
the satisfiability problem, asking for teams of a given size, and show for this
problem an almost complete picture.Comment: Update includes refined result
Lower Bounds on the Complexity of MSO1 Model-Checking
One of the most important algorithmic meta-theorems is a famous result by
Courcelle, which states that any graph problem definable in monadic
second-order logic with edge-set quantifications (i.e., MSO2 model-checking) is
decidable in linear time on any class of graphs of bounded tree-width.
Recently, Kreutzer and Tazari proved a corresponding complexity lower-bound -
that MSO2 model-checking is not even in XP wrt. the formula size as parameter
for graph classes that are subgraph-closed and whose tree-width is
poly-logarithmically unbounded. Of course, this is not an unconditional result
but holds modulo a certain complexity-theoretic assumption, namely, the
Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH).
In this paper we present a closely related result. We show that even MSO1
model-checking with a fixed set of vertex labels, but without edge-set
quantifications, is not in XP wrt. the formula size as parameter for graph
classes which are subgraph-closed and whose tree-width is poly-logarithmically
unbounded unless the non-uniform ETH fails. In comparison to Kreutzer and
Tazari; we use a stronger prerequisite, namely non-uniform instead of
uniform ETH, to avoid the effectiveness assumption and the construction of
certain obstructions used in their proofs; and we assume a different set
of problems to be efficiently decidable, namely MSO1-definable properties on
vertex labeled graphs instead of MSO2-definable properties on unlabeled graphs.
Our result has an interesting consequence in the realm of digraph width
measures: Strengthening the recent result, we show that no subdigraph-monotone
measure can be "algorithmically useful", unless it is within a poly-logarithmic
factor of undirected tree-width
Lower Bounds on the Complexity of MSO_1 Model-Checking
One of the most important algorithmic meta-theorems is a famous result
by Courcelle, which states that any graph problem definable in monadic second-order logic with edge-set quantifications (MSO2) is decidable in linear time on any class of graphs of bounded tree-width. In the parlance of parameterized complexity, this means that MSO2 model-checking is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the tree-width as parameter. Recently, Kreutzer and Tazari proved a corresponding complexity lower-bound---that MSO2 model-checking is not even in XP wrt the formula size as parameter for graph classes that are subgraph-closed and whose tree-width is poly-logarithmically unbounded. Of course, this is not an unconditional result but holds modulo a certain complexity-theoretic assumption, namely, the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH).
In this paper we present a closely related result. We show that
even MSO1 model-checking with a fixed set of vertex labels,
but without edge-set quantifications, is not in XP wrt the formula
size as parameter for graph classes which are subgraph-closed and
whose tree-width is poly-logarithmically unbounded unless the non-uniform ETH fails. In comparison to Kreutzer and Tazari, (1) we use a stronger prerequisite, namely non-uniform instead of uniform ETH, to avoid the effectiveness assumption and the construction of certain obstructions used in their proofs; and (2) we assume a different set of problems to be efficiently decidable, namely MSO1-definable properties on vertex labeled graphs instead of MSO2-definable properties on unlabeled graphs.
Our result has an interesting consequence in the realm of digraph width measures: Strengthening a recent result, we show that no
subdigraph-monotone measure can be algorithmically useful, unless it is within a poly-logarithmic factor of (undirected) tree-width
The Parameterised Complexity of List Problems on Graphs of Bounded Treewidth
We consider the parameterised complexity of several list problems on graphs,
with parameter treewidth or pathwidth. In particular, we show that List Edge
Chromatic Number and List Total Chromatic Number are fixed parameter tractable,
parameterised by treewidth, whereas List Hamilton Path is W[1]-hard, even
parameterised by pathwidth. These results resolve two open questions of
Fellows, Fomin, Lokshtanov, Rosamond, Saurabh, Szeider and Thomassen (2011).Comment: Author final version, to appear in Information and Computation.
Changes from previous version include improved literature references and
restructured proof in Section
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