4,374 research outputs found
Maximum weight cycle packing in directed graphs, with application to kidney exchange programs
Centralized matching programs have been established in several countries to organize kidney exchanges between incompatible patient-donor pairs. At the heart of these programs are algorithms to solve kidney exchange problems, which can be modelled as cycle packing problems in a directed graph, involving cycles of length 2, 3, or even longer. Usually, the goal is to maximize the number of transplants, but sometimes the total benefit is maximized by considering the differences between suitable kidneys. These problems correspond to computing cycle packings of maximum size or maximum weight in directed graphs. Here we prove the APX-completeness of the problem of finding a maximum size exchange involving only 2-cycles and 3-cycles. We also present an approximation algorithm and an exact algorithm for the problem of finding a maximum weight exchange involving cycles of bounded length. The exact algorithm has been used to provide optimal solutions to real kidney exchange problems arising from the National Matching Scheme for Paired Donation run by NHS Blood and Transplant, and we describe practical experience based on this collaboration
Packing k-partite k-uniform hypergraphs
Let and be -graphs (-uniform hypergraphs); then a perfect
-packing in is a collection of vertex-disjoint copies of in
which together cover every vertex of . For any fixed let
be the minimum such that any -graph on vertices with
minimum codegree contains a perfect -packing. The
problem of determining has been widely studied for graphs (i.e.
-graphs), but little is known for . Here we determine the
asymptotic value of for all complete -partite -graphs ,
as well as a wide class of other -partite -graphs. In particular, these
results provide an asymptotic solution to a question of R\"odl and Ruci\'nski
on the value of when is a loose cycle. We also determine
asymptotically the codegree threshold needed to guarantee an -packing
covering all but a constant number of vertices of for any complete
-partite -graph .Comment: v2: Updated with minor corrections. Accepted for publication in
Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series
Optimal Recombination in Genetic Algorithms
This paper surveys results on complexity of the optimal recombination problem
(ORP), which consists in finding the best possible offspring as a result of a
recombination operator in a genetic algorithm, given two parent solutions. We
consider efficient reductions of the ORPs, allowing to establish polynomial
solvability or NP-hardness of the ORPs, as well as direct proofs of hardness
results
How many matchings cover the nodes of a graph?
Given an undirected graph, are there matchings whose union covers all of
its nodes, that is, a matching--cover? A first, easy polynomial solution
from matroid union is possible, as already observed by Wang, Song and Yuan
(Mathematical Programming, 2014). However, it was not satisfactory neither from
the algorithmic viewpoint nor for proving graphic theorems, since the
corresponding matroid ignores the edges of the graph.
We prove here, simply and algorithmically: all nodes of a graph can be
covered with matchings if and only if for every stable set we have
. When , an exception occurs: this condition is not
enough to guarantee the existence of a matching--cover, that is, the
existence of a perfect matching, in this case Tutte's famous matching theorem
(J. London Math. Soc., 1947) provides the right `good' characterization. The
condition above then guarantees only that a perfect -matching exists, as
known from another theorem of Tutte (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., 1953).
Some results are then deduced as consequences with surprisingly simple
proofs, using only the level of difficulty of bipartite matchings. We give some
generalizations, as well as a solution for minimization if the edge-weights are
non-negative, while the edge-cardinality maximization of matching--covers
turns out to be already NP-hard.
We have arrived at this problem as the line graph special case of a model
arising for manufacturing integrated circuits with the technology called
`Directed Self Assembly'.Comment: 10 page
Bidimensionality and EPTAS
Bidimensionality theory is a powerful framework for the development of
metaalgorithmic techniques. It was introduced by Demaine et al. as a tool to
obtain sub-exponential time parameterized algorithms for problems on H-minor
free graphs. Demaine and Hajiaghayi extended the theory to obtain PTASs for
bidimensional problems, and subsequently improved these results to EPTASs.
Fomin et. al related the theory to the existence of linear kernels for
parameterized problems. In this paper we revisit bidimensionality theory from
the perspective of approximation algorithms and redesign the framework for
obtaining EPTASs to be more powerful, easier to apply and easier to understand.
Two of the most widely used approaches to obtain PTASs on planar graphs are
the Lipton-Tarjan separator based approach, and Baker's approach. Demaine and
Hajiaghayi strengthened both approaches using bidimensionality and obtained
EPTASs for a multitude of problems. We unify the two strenghtened approaches to
combine the best of both worlds. At the heart of our framework is a
decomposition lemma which states that for "most" bidimensional problems, there
is a polynomial time algorithm which given an H-minor-free graph G as input and
an e > 0 outputs a vertex set X of size e * OPT such that the treewidth of G n
X is f(e). Here, OPT is the objective function value of the problem in question
and f is a function depending only on e. This allows us to obtain EPTASs on
(apex)-minor-free graphs for all problems covered by the previous framework, as
well as for a wide range of packing problems, partial covering problems and
problems that are neither closed under taking minors, nor contractions. To the
best of our knowledge for many of these problems including cycle packing,
vertex-h-packing, maximum leaf spanning tree, and partial r-dominating set no
EPTASs on planar graphs were previously known
On the tractability of some natural packing, covering and partitioning problems
In this paper we fix 7 types of undirected graphs: paths, paths with
prescribed endvertices, circuits, forests, spanning trees, (not necessarily
spanning) trees and cuts. Given an undirected graph and two "object
types" and chosen from the alternatives above, we
consider the following questions. \textbf{Packing problem:} can we find an
object of type and one of type in the edge set of
, so that they are edge-disjoint? \textbf{Partitioning problem:} can we
partition into an object of type and one of type ?
\textbf{Covering problem:} can we cover with an object of type
, and an object of type ? This framework includes 44
natural graph theoretic questions. Some of these problems were well-known
before, for example covering the edge-set of a graph with two spanning trees,
or finding an - path and an - path that are
edge-disjoint. However, many others were not, for example can we find an
- path and a spanning tree that are
edge-disjoint? Most of these previously unknown problems turned out to be
NP-complete, many of them even in planar graphs. This paper determines the
status of these 44 problems. For the NP-complete problems we also investigate
the planar version, for the polynomial problems we consider the matroidal
generalization (wherever this makes sense)
Packing Topological Minors Half-Integrally
The packing problem and the covering problem are two of the most general
questions in graph theory. The Erd\H{o}s-P\'{o}sa property characterizes the
cases when the optimal solutions of these two problems are bounded by functions
of each other. Robertson and Seymour proved that when packing and covering
-minors for any fixed graph , the planarity of is equivalent with the
Erd\H{o}s-P\'{o}sa property. Thomas conjectured that the planarity is no longer
required if the solution of the packing problem is allowed to be half-integral.
In this paper, we prove that this half-integral version of Erd\H{o}s-P\'{o}sa
property holds with respect to the topological minor containment, which easily
implies Thomas' conjecture. Indeed, we prove an even stronger statement in
which those subdivisions are rooted at any choice of prescribed subsets of
vertices. Precisely, we prove that for every graph , there exists a function
such that for every graph , every sequence of
subsets of and every integer , either there exist subgraphs
of such that every vertex of belongs to at most two
of and each is isomorphic to a subdivision of whose
branch vertex corresponding to belongs to for each , or
there exists a set with size at most intersecting all
subgraphs of isomorphic to a subdivision of whose branch vertex
corresponding to belongs to for each .
Applications of this theorem include generalizations of algorithmic
meta-theorems and structure theorems for -topological minor free (or
-minor free) graphs to graphs that do not half-integrally pack many
-topological minors (or -minors)
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