Parameterized Complexity of 1-Planarity

We consider the problem of finding a 1-planar drawing for a general graph, where a 1-planar drawing is a drawing in which each edge participates in at most one crossing. Since this problem is known to be NP-hard we investigate the parameterized complexity of the problem with respect to the vertex cover number, tree-depth, and cyclomatic number. For these parameters we construct fixed-parameter tractable algorithms. However, the problem remains NP-complete for graphs of bounded bandwidth, pathwidth, or treewidth.Comment: WADS 201

Characterizations of Planar Lattices by Left-relations

Recently, Formal Concept Analysis has proven to be an efficient method for the analysis and representation of information. However, the possibility to visualize concept hierarchies is being affected by the difficulty of drawing attractive diagrams automatically. Reducing the number of edge crossings seems to increase the readability of those drawings. This dissertation concerns with a mandatory prerequisite of this constraint, namely the characterization and visual representation of planar lattices. The manifold existing approaches and algorithms are thereby considered under a different point of view. It is well known that exactly the planar lattices (or planar posets) possess an additional order ``from left to right''. Our aim in this work is to define left-relations and left-orders more precisely and to describe several aspects of planar lattices with their help. The three approaches employed structure the work in as many parts: Left-relations on lattices allow a more efficient consideration of conjugate orders since they are uniquely determined by the sorting of the meet-irreducibles. Additionally, the restriction on the meet-irreducibles enables us to achieve an intuitive description of standard contexts of planar lattices similar to the consecutive-one property. With the help of left-relations on diagrams, planar lattices can indeed be drawn without edge crossings in the plane. Thereby, lattice-theoretically found left-orders can be detected in the graphical representation again. Furthermore, we modify the left-right-numbering algorithm in order to obtain attribute-additive and plane drawings of planar lattices. Finally, we will consider left-relations on contexts. They turn out to be fairly similar structures to the Ferrers-graphs. Planar lattices can be characterized by a property of these graphs, namely the bipartiteness. We will constructively prove this result. Subsequently, we can design an efficient algorithm that finds all non-similar plane diagrams of a lattice.Die Formale Begriffsanalyse hat sich in den letzten Jahren als effizientes Werkzeug zur Datenanalyse und -repräsentation bewährt. Die Möglichkeit der visuellen Darstellung von Begriffshierarchien wird allerdings durch die Schwierigkeit, ansprechende Diagramme automatisch generieren zu können, beeinträchtigt. Offenbar sind Diagramme mit möglichst wenig Kantenkreuzungen für den menschlichen Anwender leichter lesbar. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit mit einer diesem Kriterium zugrunde liegenden Vorleistung, nämlich der Charakterisierung und Darstellung planarer Verbände. Die schon existierenden vielfältigen Ansätze und Methoden werden dabei unter einem neuen Gesichtspunkt betrachtet. Bekannterweise besitzen genau die planaren Verbände (bzw. planare geordnete Mengen) eine zusätzliche Ordnung "von links nach rechts". Unser Ziel in dieser Arbeit ist es, solche Links-Relationen bzw. Links-Ordnungen genauer zu definieren und verschiedene Aspekte planarer Verbände mit ihrer Hilfe zu beschreiben. Die insgesamt drei auftretenden Sichtweisen gliedern die Arbeit in ebensoviele Teile: Links-Relationen auf Verbänden erlauben eine effizientere Behandlung konjugierter Ordnungen, da sie durch die Anordnung der Schnitt-Irreduziblen schon eindeutig festgelegt sind. Außerdem erlaubt die Beschränkung auf die Schnitt-Irreduziblen eine anschauliche Beschreibung von Standardkontexten planarer Verbände ähnlich der consecutive-one property. Mit Hilfe der Links-Relationen auf Diagrammen können planare Verbände tatsächlich eben gezeichnet werden. Dabei lassen sich verbandstheoretisch ermittelte Links-Ordnungen in der graphischen Darstellung wieder finden. Weiterhin geben wir in eine Modifikation des left-right-numbering an, mit der planare Verbände merkmaladditiv und eben gezeichnet werden können. Schließlich werden wir Links-Relationen auf Kontexten betrachten. Diese stellen sich als sehr ähnlich zu Ferrers-Graphen heraus. Planare Verbände lassen sich durch eine Eigenschaft dieser Graphen, nämlich die Bipartitheit, charakterisieren. Wir werden dieses Ergebnis konstruktiv beweisen und darauf aufbauend einen effizienten Algorithmus angeben, mit dem alle nicht-ähnlichen ebenen Diagramme eines Verbandes bestimmt werden können

An Algorithm for the Graph Crossing Number Problem

We study the Minimum Crossing Number problem: given an $n$-vertex graph $G$, the goal is to find a drawing of $G$ in the plane with minimum number of edge crossings. This is one of the central problems in topological graph theory, that has been studied extensively over the past three decades. The first non-trivial efficient algorithm for the problem, due to Leighton and Rao, achieved an $O(n\log^4n)$-approximation for bounded degree graphs. This algorithm has since been improved by poly-logarithmic factors, with the best current approximation ratio standing on O(n \poly(d) \log^{3/2}n) for graphs with maximum degree $d$. In contrast, only APX-hardness is known on the negative side. In this paper we present an efficient randomized algorithm to find a drawing of any $n$-vertex graph $G$ in the plane with O(OPT^{10}\cdot \poly(d \log n)) crossings, where $OPT$ is the number of crossings in the optimal solution, and $d$ is the maximum vertex degree in $G$. This result implies an \tilde{O}(n^{9/10} \poly(d))-approximation for Minimum Crossing Number, thus breaking the long-standing $\tilde{O}(n)$-approximation barrier for bounded-degree graphs

Gap-ETH-Tight Approximation Schemes for Red-Green-Blue Separation and Bicolored Noncrossing Euclidean Travelling Salesman Tours

In this paper, we study problems of connecting classes of points via noncrossing structures. Given a set of colored terminal points, we want to find a graph for each color that connects all terminals of its color with the restriction that no two graphs cross each other. We consider these problems both on the Euclidean plane and in planar graphs. On the algorithmic side, we give a Gap-ETH-tight EPTAS for the two-colored traveling salesman problem as well as for the red-blue-green separation problem (in which we want to separate terminals of three colors with two noncrossing polygons of minimum length), both on the Euclidean plane. This improves the work of Arora and Chang (ICALP 2003) who gave a slower PTAS for the simpler red-blue separation problem. For the case of unweighted plane graphs, we also show a PTAS for the two-colored traveling salesman problem. All these results are based on our new patching procedure that might be of independent interest. On the negative side, we show that the problem of connecting terminal pairs with noncrossing paths is NP-hard on the Euclidean plane, and that the problem of finding two noncrossing spanning trees is NP-hard in plane graphs.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures (colored