Parameterized Complexity Dichotomy for Steiner Multicut

The Steiner Multicut problem asks, given an undirected graph G, terminals sets T1,...,Tt $\subseteq$ V(G) of size at most p, and an integer k, whether there is a set S of at most k edges or nodes s.t. of each set Ti at least one pair of terminals is in different connected components of G \ S. This problem generalizes several graph cut problems, in particular the Multicut problem (the case p = 2), which is fixed-parameter tractable for the parameter k [Marx and Razgon, Bousquet et al., STOC 2011]. We provide a dichotomy of the parameterized complexity of Steiner Multicut. That is, for any combination of k, t, p, and the treewidth tw(G) as constant, parameter, or unbounded, and for all versions of the problem (edge deletion and node deletion with and without deletable terminals), we prove either that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable or that the problem is hard (W[1]-hard or even (para-)NP-complete). We highlight that: - The edge deletion version of Steiner Multicut is fixed-parameter tractable for the parameter k+t on general graphs (but has no polynomial kernel, even on trees). We present two proofs: one using the randomized contractions technique of Chitnis et al, and one relying on new structural lemmas that decompose the Steiner cut into important separators and minimal s-t cuts. - In contrast, both node deletion versions of Steiner Multicut are W[1]-hard for the parameter k+t on general graphs. - All versions of Steiner Multicut are W[1]-hard for the parameter k, even when p=3 and the graph is a tree plus one node. Hence, the results of Marx and Razgon, and Bousquet et al. do not generalize to Steiner Multicut. Since we allow k, t, p, and tw(G) to be any constants, our characterization includes a dichotomy for Steiner Multicut on trees (for tw(G) = 1), and a polynomial time versus NP-hardness dichotomy (by restricting k,t,p,tw(G) to constant or unbounded).Comment: As submitted to journal. This version also adds a proof of fixed-parameter tractability for parameter k+t using the technique of randomized contraction

Brief Announcement: Bounded-Degree Cut is Fixed-Parameter Tractable

In the bounded-degree cut problem, we are given a multigraph G=(V,E), two disjoint vertex subsets A,B subseteq V, two functions u_A, u_B:V -> {0,1,...,|E|} on V, and an integer k >= 0. The task is to determine whether there is a minimal (A,B)-cut (V_A,V_B) of size at most k such that the degree of each vertex v in V_A in the induced subgraph G[V_A] is at most u_A(v) and the degree of each vertex v in V_B in the induced subgraph G[V_B] is at most u_B(v). In this paper, we show that the bounded-degree cut problem is fixed-parameter tractable by giving a 2^{18k}|G|^{O(1)}-time algorithm. This is the first single exponential FPT algorithm for this problem. The core of the algorithm lies two new lemmas based on important cuts, which give some upper bounds on the number of candidates for vertex subsets in one part of a minimal cut satisfying some properties. These lemmas can be used to design fixed-parameter tractable algorithms for more related problems

Parameterized Complexity of Critical Node Cuts

We consider the following natural graph cut problem called Critical Node Cut (CNC): Given a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, and two positive integers $k$ and $x$, determine whether $G$ has a set of $k$ vertices whose removal leaves $G$ with at most $x$ connected pairs of vertices. We analyze this problem in the framework of parameterized complexity. That is, we are interested in whether or not this problem is solvable in $f(\kappa) \cdot n^{O(1)}$ time (i.e., whether or not it is fixed-parameter tractable), for various natural parameters $\kappa$. We consider four such parameters: - The size $k$ of the required cut. - The upper bound $x$ on the number of remaining connected pairs. - The lower bound $y$ on the number of connected pairs to be removed. - The treewidth $w$ of $G$. We determine whether or not CNC is fixed-parameter tractable for each of these parameters. We determine this also for all possible aggregations of these four parameters, apart from $w+k$. Moreover, we also determine whether or not CNC admits a polynomial kernel for all these parameterizations. That is, whether or not there is an algorithm that reduces each instance of CNC in polynomial time to an equivalent instance of size $\kappa^{O(1)}$, where $\kappa$ is the given parameter

Fixed-Parameter Tractability of Directed Multiway Cut Parameterized by the Size of the Cutset

Given a directed graph $G$, a set of $k$ terminals and an integer $p$, the \textsc{Directed Vertex Multiway Cut} problem asks if there is a set $S$ of at most $p$ (nonterminal) vertices whose removal disconnects each terminal from all other terminals. \textsc{Directed Edge Multiway Cut} is the analogous problem where $S$ is a set of at most $p$ edges. These two problems indeed are known to be equivalent. A natural generalization of the multiway cut is the \emph{multicut} problem, in which we want to disconnect only a set of $k$ given pairs instead of all pairs. Marx (Theor. Comp. Sci. 2006) showed that in undirected graphs multiway cut is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) parameterized by $p$. Marx and Razgon (STOC 2011) showed that undirected multicut is FPT and directed multicut is W[1]-hard parameterized by $p$. We complete the picture here by our main result which is that both \textsc{Directed Vertex Multiway Cut} and \textsc{Directed Edge Multiway Cut} can be solved in time $2^{2^{O(p)}}n^{O(1)}$, i.e., FPT parameterized by size $p$ of the cutset of the solution. This answers an open question raised by Marx (Theor. Comp. Sci. 2006) and Marx and Razgon (STOC 2011). It follows from our result that \textsc{Directed Multicut} is FPT for the case of $k=2$ terminal pairs, which answers another open problem raised in Marx and Razgon (STOC 2011)