16 research outputs found
Collapsibility to a subcomplex of a given dimension is NP-complete
In this paper we extend the works of Tancer and of Malgouyres and Franc\'es,
showing that -collapsibility is NP-complete for except
. By -collapsibility we mean the following problem: determine
whether a given -dimensional simplicial complex can be collapsed to some
-dimensional subcomplex. The question of establishing the complexity status
of -collapsibility was asked by Tancer, who proved NP-completeness of
and -collapsibility (for ). Our extended result,
together with the known polynomial-time algorithms for and ,
answers the question completely
Fixed parameter tractable algorithms in combinatorial topology
To enumerate 3-manifold triangulations with a given property, one typically
begins with a set of potential face pairing graphs (also known as dual
1-skeletons), and then attempts to flesh each graph out into full
triangulations using an exponential-time enumeration. However, asymptotically
most graphs do not result in any 3-manifold triangulation, which leads to
significant "wasted time" in topological enumeration algorithms. Here we give a
new algorithm to determine whether a given face pairing graph supports any
3-manifold triangulation, and show this to be fixed parameter tractable in the
treewidth of the graph.
We extend this result to a "meta-theorem" by defining a broad class of
properties of triangulations, each with a corresponding fixed parameter
tractable existence algorithm. We explicitly implement this algorithm in the
most generic setting, and we identify heuristics that in practice are seen to
mitigate the large constants that so often occur in parameterised complexity,
highlighting the practicality of our techniques.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
LIPIcs
Motivated by fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) problems in computational topology, we consider the treewidth tw(M) of a compact, connected 3-manifold M, defined to be the minimum treewidth of the face pairing graph of any triangulation T of M. In this setting the relationship between the topology of a 3-manifold and its treewidth is of particular interest. First, as a corollary of work of Jaco and Rubinstein, we prove that for any closed, orientable 3-manifold M the treewidth tw(M) is at most 4g(M)-2, where g(M) denotes Heegaard genus of M. In combination with our earlier work with Wagner, this yields that for non-Haken manifolds the Heegaard genus and the treewidth are within a constant factor. Second, we characterize all 3-manifolds of treewidth one: These are precisely the lens spaces and a single other Seifert fibered space. Furthermore, we show that all remaining orientable Seifert fibered spaces over the 2-sphere or a non-orientable surface have treewidth two. In particular, for every spherical 3-manifold we exhibit a triangulation of treewidth at most two. Our results further validate the parameter of treewidth (and other related parameters such as cutwidth or congestion) to be useful for topological computing, and also shed more light on the scope of existing FPT-algorithms in the field
Hardness of Approximation for Morse Matching
Discrete Morse theory has emerged as a powerful tool for a wide range of
problems, including the computation of (persistent) homology. In this context,
discrete Morse theory is used to reduce the problem of computing a topological
invariant of an input simplicial complex to computing the same topological
invariant of a (significantly smaller) collapsed cell or chain complex.
Consequently, devising methods for obtaining gradient vector fields on
complexes to reduce the size of the problem instance has become an emerging
theme over the last decade. While computing the optimal gradient vector field
on a simplicial complex is NP-hard, several heuristics have been observed to
compute near-optimal gradient vector fields on a wide variety of datasets.
Understanding the theoretical limits of these strategies is therefore a
fundamental problem in computational topology. In this paper, we consider the
approximability of maximization and minimization variants of the Morse matching
problem, posed as open problems by Joswig and Pfetsch. We establish hardness
results for Max-Morse matching and Min-Morse matching. In particular, we show
that, for a simplicial complex with n simplices and dimension , it is
NP-hard to approximate Min-Morse matching within a factor of
, for any . Moreover, using an L-reduction
from Degree 3 Max-Acyclic Subgraph to Max-Morse matching, we show that it is
both NP-hard and UGC-hard to approximate Max-Morse matching for simplicial
complexes of dimension within certain explicit constant factors.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur
On the treewidth of triangulated 3-manifolds
In graph theory, as well as in 3-manifold topology, there exist several width-type parameters to describe how "simple" or "thin" a given graph or 3-manifold is. These parameters, such as pathwidth or treewidth for graphs, or the concept of thin position for 3-manifolds, play an important role when studying algorithmic problems; in particular, there is a variety of problems in computational 3-manifold topology - some of them known to be computationally hard in general - that become solvable in polynomial time as soon as the dual graph of the input triangulation has bounded treewidth.
In view of these algorithmic results, it is natural to ask whether every 3-manifold admits a triangulation of bounded treewidth. We show that this is not the case, i.e., that there exists an infinite family of closed 3-manifolds not admitting triangulations of bounded pathwidth or treewidth (the latter implies the former, but we present two separate proofs).
We derive these results from work of Agol, of Scharlemann and Thompson, and of Scharlemann, Schultens and Saito by exhibiting explicit connections between the topology of a 3-manifold M on the one hand and width-type parameters of the dual graphs of triangulations of M on the other hand, answering a question that had been raised repeatedly by researchers in computational 3-manifold topology. In particular, we show that if a closed, orientable, irreducible, non-Haken 3-manifold M has a triangulation of treewidth (resp. pathwidth) k then the Heegaard genus of M is at most 18(k+1) (resp. 4(3k+1))