Reducing the clique and chromatic number via edge contractions and vertex deletions.

We consider the following problem: can a certain graph parameter of some given graph G be reduced by at least d, for some integer d, via at most k graph operations from some specified set S, for some given integer k? As graph parameters we take the chromatic number and the clique number. We let the set S consist of either an edge contraction or a vertex deletion. As all these problems are NP-complete for general graphs even if d is fixed, we restrict the input graph G to some special graph class. We continue a line of research that considers these problems for subclasses of perfect graphs, but our main results are full classifications, from a computational complexity point of view, for graph classes characterized by forbidding a single induced connected subgraph H

Reducing the clique and chromatic number via edge contractions and vertex deletions

We consider the following problem: can a certain graph parameter of some given graph G be reduced by at least d, for some integer d, via at most k graph operations from some specified set S, for some given integer k? As graph parameters we take the chromatic number and the clique number. We let the set S consist of either an edge contraction or a vertex deletion. As all these problems are NP-complete for general graphs even if d is fixed, we restrict the input graph G to some special graph class. We continue a line of research that considers these problems for subclasses of perfect graphs, but our main results are full classifications, from a computational complexity point of view, for graph classes characterized by forbidding a single induced connected subgraph H

Reducing the Clique and Chromatic Number via Edge Contractions and Vertex Deletions

We consider the following problem: can a certain graph parameter of some given graph G be reduced by at least d, for some integer d, via at most k graph operations from some specified set S, for some given integer k? As graph parameters we take the chromatic number and the clique number. We let the set S consist of either an edge contraction or a vertex deletion. As all these problems are NP-complete for general graphs even if d is fixed, we restrict the input graph G to some special graph class. We continue a line of research that considers these problems for subclasses of perfect graphs, but our main results are full classifications, from a computational complexity point of view, for graph classes characterized by forbidding a single induced connected subgraph H

Contraction blockers for graphs with forbidden induced paths.

We consider the following problem: can a certain graph parameter of some given graph be reduced by at least d for some integer d via at most k edge contractions for some given integer k? We examine three graph parameters: the chromatic number, clique number and independence number. For each of these graph parameters we show that, when d is part of the input, this problem is polynomial-time solvable on P4-free graphs and NP-complete as well as W[1]-hard, with parameter d, for split graphs. As split graphs form a subclass of P5-free graphs, both results together give a complete complexity classification for Pℓ-free graphs. The W[1]-hardness result implies that it is unlikely that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable for split graphs with parameter d. But we do show, on the positive side, that the problem is polynomial-time solvable, for each parameter, on split graphs if d is fixed, i.e., not part of the input. We also initiate a study into other subclasses of perfect graphs, namely cobipartite graphs and interval graphs

Structural Rounding: Approximation Algorithms for Graphs Near an Algorithmically Tractable Class

We develop a framework for generalizing approximation algorithms from the structural graph algorithm literature so that they apply to graphs somewhat close to that class (a scenario we expect is common when working with real-world networks) while still guaranteeing approximation ratios. The idea is to edit a given graph via vertex- or edge-deletions to put the graph into an algorithmically tractable class, apply known approximation algorithms for that class, and then lift the solution to apply to the original graph. We give a general characterization of when an optimization problem is amenable to this approach, and show that it includes many well-studied graph problems, such as Independent Set, Vertex Cover, Feedback Vertex Set, Minimum Maximal Matching, Chromatic Number, (l-)Dominating Set, Edge (l-)Dominating Set, and Connected Dominating Set. To enable this framework, we develop new editing algorithms that find the approximately-fewest edits required to bring a given graph into one of a few important graph classes (in some cases these are bicriteria algorithms which simultaneously approximate both the number of editing operations and the target parameter of the family). For bounded degeneracy, we obtain an O(r log{n})-approximation and a bicriteria (4,4)-approximation which also extends to a smoother bicriteria trade-off. For bounded treewidth, we obtain a bicriteria (O(log^{1.5} n), O(sqrt{log w}))-approximation, and for bounded pathwidth, we obtain a bicriteria (O(log^{1.5} n), O(sqrt{log w} * log n))-approximation. For treedepth 2 (related to bounded expansion), we obtain a 4-approximation. We also prove complementary hardness-of-approximation results assuming P != NP: in particular, these problems are all log-factor inapproximable, except the last which is not approximable below some constant factor 2 (assuming UGC)

On Blockers and Transversals of Maximum Independent Sets in Co-Comparability Graphs

In this paper, we consider the following two problems: (i) Deletion Blocker($\alpha$) where we are given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ and two integers $k,d\geq 1$ and ask whether there exists a subset of vertices $S\subseteq V$ with $|S|\leq k$ such that $\alpha(G-S) \leq \alpha(G)-d$, that is the independence number of $G$ decreases by at least $d$ after having removed the vertices from $S$; (ii) Transversal($\alpha$) where we are given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ and two integers $k,d\geq 1$ and ask whether there exists a subset of vertices $S\subseteq V$ with $|S|\leq k$ such that for every maximum independent set $I$ we have $|I\cap S| \geq d$. We show that both problems are polynomial-time solvable in the class of co-comparability graphs by reducing them to the well-known Vertex Cut problem. Our results generalize a result of [Chang et al., Maximum clique transversals, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2204, pp. 32-43, WG 2001] and a recent result of [Hoang et al., Assistance and interdiction problems on interval graphs, Discrete Applied Mathematics 340, pp. 153-170, 2023]

Blocking independent sets for H-free graphs via edge contractions and vertex deletions.

Let d and k be two given integers, and let G be a graph. Can we reduce the independence number of G by at least d via at most k graph operations from some fixed set S? This problem belongs to a class of so-called blocker problems. It is known to be co-NP-hard even if S consists of either an edge contraction or a vertex deletion. We further investigate its computational complexity under these two settings: we give a sufficient condition on a graph class for the vertex deletion variant to be co-NP-hard even if d=k=1d=k=1 ; in addition we prove that the vertex deletion variant is co-NP-hard for triangle-free graphs even if d=k=1d=k=1 ; we prove that the edge contraction variant is NP-hard for bipartite graphs but linear-time solvable for trees. By combining our new results with known ones we are able to give full complexity classifications for both variants restricted to H-free graphs. D. Paulusma received support from EPSRC (EP/K025090/1)

Blocking Independent Sets for H-Free Graphs via Edge Contractions and Vertex Deletions

Let d and k be two given integers, and let G be a graph. Can we reduce the independence number of G by at least d via at most k graph operations from some fixed set S? This problem belongs to a class of so-called blocker problems. It is known to be co-NP-hard even if S consists of either an edge contraction or a vertex deletion. We further investigate its computational complexity under these two settings: – we give a sufficient condition on a graph class for the vertex deletion variant to be co-NP- hard even if d = k = 1; – in addition we prove that the vertex deletion variant is co-NP- hard for triangle-free graphs even if d = k = 1; – we prove that the edge contraction variant is NP-hard for bipartite graphs but linear-time solvable for trees. By combining our new results with known ones we are able to give full complexity classifications for both variants restricted to H-free graphs