47 research outputs found
Cliques, colouring and satisfiability : from structure to algorithms
We examine the implications of various structural restrictions on the computational
complexity of three central problems of theoretical computer science
(colourability, independent set and satisfiability), and their relatives. All problems
we study are generally NP-hard and they remain NP-hard under various restrictions.
Finding the greatest possible restrictions under which a problem is computationally
difficult is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, this can make it easier to
establish the NP-hardness of new problems by allowing easier transformations. Secondly,
this can help clarify the boundary between tractable and intractable instances
of the problem.
Typically an NP-hard graph problem admits an infinite sequence of narrowing
families of graphs for which the problem remains NP-hard. We obtain a number
of such results; each of these implies necessary conditions for polynomial-time
solvability of the respective problem in restricted graph classes. We also identify
a number of classes for which these conditions are sufficient and describe explicit
algorithms that solve the problem in polynomial time in those classes. For the
satisfiability problem we use the language of graph theory to discover the very first
boundary property, i.e. a property that separates tractable and intractable instances
of the problem. Whether this property is unique remains a big open problem
Fast spatial inference in the homogeneous Ising model
The Ising model is important in statistical modeling and inference in many
applications, however its normalizing constant, mean number of active vertices
and mean spin interaction are intractable. We provide accurate approximations
that make it possible to calculate these quantities numerically. Simulation
studies indicate good performance when compared to Markov Chain Monte Carlo
methods and at a tiny fraction of the time. The methodology is also used to
perform Bayesian inference in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
activation detection experiment.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, 3 table
Proceedings of the 8th Cologne-Twente Workshop on Graphs and Combinatorial Optimization
International audienceThe Cologne-Twente Workshop (CTW) on Graphs and Combinatorial Optimization started off as a series of workshops organized bi-annually by either Köln University or Twente University. As its importance grew over time, it re-centered its geographical focus by including northern Italy (CTW04 in Menaggio, on the lake Como and CTW08 in Gargnano, on the Garda lake). This year, CTW (in its eighth edition) will be staged in France for the first time: more precisely in the heart of Paris, at the Conservatoire National d’Arts et Métiers (CNAM), between 2nd and 4th June 2009, by a mixed organizing committee with members from LIX, Ecole Polytechnique and CEDRIC, CNAM
Graph Colouring with Input Restrictions
In this thesis, we research the computational complexity of the graph colouring problem and its variants including precolouring extension and list colouring for graph classes that can be characterised by forbidding one or more induced subgraphs. We investigate the structural properties of such graph classes and prove a number of new properties. We then consider to what extent these properties can be used for efficiently solving the three types of colouring problems on these graph classes. In some cases we obtain polynomial-time algorithms, whereas other cases turn out to be NP-complete.
We determine the computational complexity of k-COLOURING, k-PRECOLOURING EXTENSION and LIST k-COLOURING on -free graphs. In particular, we prove that k-COLOURING on -free graphs is NP-complete, 4-PRECOLOURING EXTENSION -free graphs is NP-complete, and LIST 4-COLOURING on -free graphs is NP-complete. In addition, we show the existence of an integer r such that k-COLOURING is NP-complete for -free graphs with girth 4. In contrast, we determine for any fixed girth a lower bound such that every -free graph with girth at least is 3-colourable. We also prove that 3-LIST COLOURING is NP-complete for complete graphs minus a matching. We present a polynomial-time algorithm for solving 4-PRECOLOURING EXTENSION on -free graphs, a polynomial-time algorithm for solving LIST 3-Colouring on -free graphs, and a polynomial-time algorithm for solving LIST 3-COLOURING on -free graphs. We prove that LIST k-COLOURING for -free graphs is also polynomial-time solvable. We obtain several new dichotomies by combining the above results with some known results