Spanning trees short or small

We study the problem of finding small trees. Classical network design problems are considered with the additional constraint that only a specified number $k$ of nodes are required to be connected in the solution. A prototypical example is the $k$MST problem in which we require a tree of minimum weight spanning at least $k$ nodes in an edge-weighted graph. We show that the $k$MST problem is NP-hard even for points in the Euclidean plane. We provide approximation algorithms with performance ratio $2\sqrt{k}$ for the general edge-weighted case and $O(k^{1/4})$ for the case of points in the plane. Polynomial-time exact solutions are also presented for the class of decomposable graphs which includes trees, series-parallel graphs, and bounded bandwidth graphs, and for points on the boundary of a convex region in the Euclidean plane. We also investigate the problem of finding short trees, and more generally, that of finding networks with minimum diameter. A simple technique is used to provide a polynomial-time solution for finding $k$-trees of minimum diameter. We identify easy and hard problems arising in finding short networks using a framework due to T. C. Hu.Comment: 27 page

A note on arbitrarily vertex decomposable graphs

A graph $G$ of order $n$ is said to be arbitrarily vertex decomposable if for each sequence $(n_{1},\ldots,n_k)$ of positive integers such that $n_{1}+\ldots+n_{k}=n$ there exists a partition $(V_{1},\ldots,V_{k})$ of the vertex set of $G$ such that for each $i \in \{1,\ldots,k\}$, $V_{i}$ induces a connected subgraph of $G$ on $n_i$ vertices. In this paper we show that if $G$ is a two-connected graph on $n$ vertices with the independence number at most $\lceil n/2\rceil$ and such that the degree sum of any pair of non-adjacent vertices is at least $n-3$, then $G$ is arbitrarily vertex decomposable. We present another result for connected graphs satisfying a similar condition, where the bound $n-3$ is replaced by $n-2$

On Strong Diameter Padded Decompositions

Given a weighted graph G=(V,E,w), a partition of V is Delta-bounded if the diameter of each cluster is bounded by Delta. A distribution over Delta-bounded partitions is a beta-padded decomposition if every ball of radius gamma Delta is contained in a single cluster with probability at least e^{-beta * gamma}. The weak diameter of a cluster C is measured w.r.t. distances in G, while the strong diameter is measured w.r.t. distances in the induced graph G[C]. The decomposition is weak/strong according to the diameter guarantee. Formerly, it was proven that K_r free graphs admit weak decompositions with padding parameter O(r), while for strong decompositions only O(r^2) padding parameter was known. Furthermore, for the case of a graph G, for which the induced shortest path metric d_G has doubling dimension ddim, a weak O(ddim)-padded decomposition was constructed, which is also known to be tight. For the case of strong diameter, nothing was known. We construct strong O(r)-padded decompositions for K_r free graphs, matching the state of the art for weak decompositions. Similarly, for graphs with doubling dimension ddim we construct a strong O(ddim)-padded decomposition, which is also tight. We use this decomposition to construct (O(ddim),O~(ddim))-sparse cover scheme for such graphs. Our new decompositions and cover have implications to approximating unique games, the construction of light and sparse spanners, and for path reporting distance oracles

Regularity of squarefree monomial ideals

We survey a number of recent studies of the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of squarefree monomial ideals. Our focus is on bounds and exact values for the regularity in terms of combinatorial data from associated simplicial complexes and/or hypergraphs.Comment: 23 pages; survey paper; minor changes in V.

Regularity of Edge Ideals and Their Powers

We survey recent studies on the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of edge ideals of graphs and their powers. Our focus is on bounds and exact values of $\text{ reg } I(G)$ and the asymptotic linear function $\text{ reg } I(G)^q$, for $q \geq 1,$ in terms of combinatorial data of the given graph $G.$Comment: 31 pages, 15 figure

Polar syzygies in characteristic zero: the monomial case

Given a set of forms f={f_1,...,f_m} in R=k[x_1,...,x_n], where k is a field of characteristic zero, we focus on the first syzygy module Z of the transposed Jacobian module D(f), whose elements are called differential syzygies of f. There is a distinct submodule P of Z coming from the polynomial relations of f through its transposed Jacobian matrix, the elements of which are called polar syzygies of f. We say that f is polarizable if equality P=Z holds. This paper is concerned with the situation where f are monomials of degree 2, in which case one can naturally associate to them a graph G(f) with loops and translate the problem into a combinatorial one. A main result is a complete combinatorial characterization of polarizability in terms of special configurations in this graph. As a consequence, we show that polarizability implies normality of the subalgebra k[f] of R and that the converse holds provided the graph G(f) is free of certain degenerate configurations. One main combinatorial class of polarizability is the class of polymatroidal sets. We also prove that if the edge graph of G(f) has diameter at most 2 then f is polarizable. We establish a curious connection with birationality of rational maps defined by monomial quadrics.Comment: 33 pages, 15 figure

A survey on algorithmic aspects of modular decomposition

The modular decomposition is a technique that applies but is not restricted to graphs. The notion of module naturally appears in the proofs of many graph theoretical theorems. Computing the modular decomposition tree is an important preprocessing step to solve a large number of combinatorial optimization problems. Since the first polynomial time algorithm in the early 70's, the algorithmic of the modular decomposition has known an important development. This paper survey the ideas and techniques that arose from this line of research

Cyclic sums, network sharing and restricted edge cuts in graphs with long cycles

Cyclic Sums, Network Sharing and Restricted Edge Cuts in Graphs with Long Cycles Dieter Rautenbach , Lutz Volkmann Preprint series: 07-06, 8 MSC 2000 05A17 Partitions of integers 05C40 Connectivity Abstract We study graphs G = (V,E) containing a long cycle which for given integers a1, a2, ..., ak 2 N have an edge cut whose removal results in k components with vertex sets V1, V2, ..., Vk such that |Vi| ai for 1 i k. Our results closely relate to problems and recent research in network sharing and network reliability. Keywords: restricted edge connectivity, arbitrarily vertex decomposable graph, network reliability, network sharin