15 research outputs found
Displaying blocking pairs in signed graphs
A signed graph is a pair (G, S) where G is a graph and S is a subset of the edges of G. A circuit of G is even (resp. odd) if it contains an even (resp. odd) number of edges of S. A blocking pair of (G, S) is a pair of vertices s, t such that every odd circuit intersects at least one of s or t. In this paper, we characterize when the blocking pairs of a signed graph can be represented by 2-cuts in an auxiliary graph. We discuss the relevance of this result to the problem of recognizing even cycle matroids and to the problem of characterizing signed graphs with no odd-K5 minor
Clean clutters and dyadic fractional packings
A vector is dyadic if each of its entries is a dyadic rational number, i.e., an integer multiple of 1 2k for some nonnegative integer k. We prove that every clean clutter with a covering number of at least two has a dyadic fractional packing of value two. This result is best possible for there exist clean clutters with a covering number of three and no dyadic fractional packing of value three. Examples of clean clutters include ideal clutters, binary clutters, and clutters without an intersecting minor. Our proof is constructive and leads naturally to an albeit exponential algorithm. We improve the running time to quasi-polynomial in the rank of the input, and to polynomial in the binary cas
Decomposition, approximation, and coloring of odd-minor-free graphs
We prove two structural decomposition theorems about graphs excluding
a fixed odd minor H, and show how these theorems can
be used to obtain approximation algorithms for several algorithmic
problems in such graphs. Our decomposition results provide new
structural insights into odd-H-minor-free graphs, on the one hand
generalizing the central structural result from Graph Minor Theory,
and on the other hand providing an algorithmic decomposition
into two bounded-treewidth graphs, generalizing a similar result for
minors. As one example of how these structural results conquer difficult
problems, we obtain a polynomial-time 2-approximation for
vertex coloring in odd-H-minor-free graphs, improving on the previous
O(jV (H)j)-approximation for such graphs and generalizing
the previous 2-approximation for H-minor-free graphs. The class
of odd-H-minor-free graphs is a vast generalization of the well-studied
H-minor-free graph families and includes, for example, all
bipartite graphs plus a bounded number of apices. Odd-H-minor-free
graphs are particularly interesting from a structural graph theory
perspective because they break away from the sparsity of H-
minor-free graphs, permitting a quadratic number of edges
Packing circuits in matroids
The purpose of this paper is to characterize all matroids M that satisfy the following minimax relation: for any nonnegative integral weight function w defined on E(M), Maximum { k: M has k circuits ,(repetition, allowed) such that each element e of M is used at most 2w(e) times by these circuits = Minimum { ∑x ∈ X w(x): X is a collection of elements (repetition allowed) of M such that every circuit in M meets X at least twice}. Our characterization contains a complete solution to a research problem on 2-edge-connected subgraph polyhedra posed by Cornuéjols, Fonlupt, and Naddef in 1985, which was independently solved by Vandenbussche and Nemhauser in Vandenbussche and Nemhauser (J. Comb. Optim. 9:357-379, 2005). © 2008 Springer-Verlag.preprin
Ranking tournaments with no errors II: Minimax relation
A tournament T=(V,A) is called cycle Mengerian (CM) if it satisfies the minimax relation on packing and covering cycles, for every nonnegative integral weight function defined on A. The purpose of this series of two papers is to show that a tournament is CM iff it contains none of four Möbius ladders as a subgraph; such a tournament is referred to as Möbius-free. In the first paper we have given a structural description of all Möbius-free tournaments, and have proved that every CM tournament is Möbius-free. In this second paper we establish the converse by using our structural theorems and linear programming approach
Ranking tournaments with no errors I: Structural description
In this series of two papers we examine the classical problem of ranking a set of players on the basis of a set of pairwise comparisons arising from a sports tournament, with the objective of minimizing the total number of upsets, where an upset occurs if a higher ranked player was actually defeated by a lower ranked player. This problem can be rephrased as the so-called minimum feedback arc set problem on tournaments, which arises in a rich variety of applications and has been a subject of extensive research. In this series we study this NP-hard problem using structure-driven and linear programming approaches. Let T=(V,A) be a tournament with a nonnegative integral weight w(e) on each arc e. A subset F of arcs is called a feedback arc set if T\F contains no cycles (directed). A collection C of cycles (with repetition allowed) is called a cycle packing if each arc e is used at most w(e) times by members of C. We call T cycle Mengerian (CM) if, for every nonnegative integral function w defined on A, the minimum total weight of a feedback arc set is equal to the maximum size of a cycle packing. The purpose of these two papers is to show that a tournament is CM iff it contains none of four Möbius ladders as a subgraph; such a tournament is referred to as Möbius-free. In this first paper we present a structural description of all Möbius-free tournaments, which relies heavily on a chain theorem concerning internally 2-strong tournaments
Packing odd -joins with at most two terminals
Take a graph , an edge subset , and a set of
terminals where is even. The triple is
called a signed graft. A -join is odd if it contains an odd number of edges
from . Let be the maximum number of edge-disjoint odd -joins.
A signature is a set of the form where and is even. Let be the minimum cardinality a -cut
or a signature can achieve. Then and we say that
packs if equality holds here.
We prove that packs if the signed graft is Eulerian and it
excludes two special non-packing minors. Our result confirms the Cycling
Conjecture for the class of clutters of odd -joins with at most two
terminals. Corollaries of this result include, the characterizations of weakly
and evenly bipartite graphs, packing two-commodity paths, packing -joins
with at most four terminals, and a new result on covering edges with cuts.Comment: extended abstract appeared in IPCO 2014 (under the different title
"the cycling property for the clutter of odd st-walks"
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