Parameterized Approximation Algorithms for Bidirected Steiner Network Problems

The Directed Steiner Network (DSN) problem takes as input a directed edge-weighted graph $G=(V,E)$ and a set $\mathcal{D}\subseteq V\times V$ of $k$ demand pairs. The aim is to compute the cheapest network $N\subseteq G$ for which there is an $s\to t$ path for each $(s,t)\in\mathcal{D}$. It is known that this problem is notoriously hard as there is no $k^{1/4-o(1)}$-approximation algorithm under Gap-ETH, even when parametrizing the runtime by $k$ [Dinur & Manurangsi, ITCS 2018]. In light of this, we systematically study several special cases of DSN and determine their parameterized approximability for the parameter $k$. For the bi-DSN$_\text{Planar}$ problem, the aim is to compute a planar optimum solution $N\subseteq G$ in a bidirected graph $G$, i.e., for every edge $uv$ of $G$ the reverse edge $vu$ exists and has the same weight. This problem is a generalization of several well-studied special cases. Our main result is that this problem admits a parameterized approximation scheme (PAS) for $k$. We also prove that our result is tight in the sense that (a) the runtime of our PAS cannot be significantly improved, and (b) it is unlikely that a PAS exists for any generalization of bi-DSN$_\text{Planar}$, unless FPT=W[1]. One important special case of DSN is the Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph (SCSS) problem, for which the solution network $N\subseteq G$ needs to strongly connect a given set of $k$ terminals. It has been observed before that for SCSS a parameterized $2$-approximation exists when parameterized by $k$ [Chitnis et al., IPEC 2013]. We give a tight inapproximability result by showing that for $k$ no parameterized $(2-\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm exists under Gap-ETH. Additionally we show that when restricting the input of SCSS to bidirected graphs, the problem remains NP-hard but becomes FPT for $k$

Forbidden Directed Minors and Kelly-width

Partial 1-trees are undirected graphs of treewidth at most one. Similarly, partial 1-DAGs are directed graphs of KellyWidth at most two. It is well-known that an undirected graph is a partial 1-tree if and only if it has no K_3 minor. In this paper, we generalize this characterization to partial 1-DAGs. We show that partial 1-DAGs are characterized by three forbidden directed minors, K_3, N_4 and M_5

Flows on Bidirected Graphs

The study of nowhere-zero flows began with a key observation of Tutte that in planar graphs, nowhere-zero k-flows are dual to k-colourings (in the form of k-tensions). Tutte conjectured that every graph without a cut-edge has a nowhere-zero 5-flow. Seymour proved that every such graph has a nowhere-zero 6-flow. For a graph embedded in an orientable surface of higher genus, flows are not dual to colourings, but to local-tensions. By Seymour's theorem, every graph on an orientable surface without the obvious obstruction has a nowhere-zero 6-local-tension. Bouchet conjectured that the same should hold true on non-orientable surfaces. Equivalently, Bouchet conjectured that every bidirected graph with a nowhere-zero $\mathbb{Z}$-flow has a nowhere-zero 6-flow. Our main result establishes that every such graph has a nowhere-zero 12-flow.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

Directed Ramsey number for trees

In this paper, we study Ramsey-type problems for directed graphs. We first consider the $k$-colour oriented Ramsey number of $H$, denoted by $\overrightarrow{R}(H,k)$, which is the least $n$ for which every $k$-edge-coloured tournament on $n$ vertices contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. We prove that $\overrightarrow{R}(T,k) \le c_k|T|^k$ for any oriented tree $T$. This is a generalisation of a similar result for directed paths by Chv\'atal and by Gy\'arf\'as and Lehel, and answers a question of Yuster. In general, it is tight up to a constant factor. We also consider the $k$-colour directed Ramsey number $\overleftrightarrow{R}(H,k)$ of $H$, which is defined as above, but, instead of colouring tournaments, we colour the complete directed graph of order $n$. Here we show that $\overleftrightarrow{R}(T,k) \le c_k|T|^{k-1}$ for any oriented tree $T$, which is again tight up to a constant factor, and it generalises a result by Williamson and by Gy\'arf\'as and Lehel who determined the $2$-colour directed Ramsey number of directed paths.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

New Exact and Approximation Algorithms for the Star Packing Problem in Undirected Graphs

By a T-star we mean a complete bipartite graph K_{1,t} for some t <= T. For an undirected graph G, a T-star packing is a collection of node-disjoint T-stars in G. For example, we get ordinary matchings for $T = 1$ and packings of paths of length 1 and 2 for $T = 2$. Hereinafter we assume that T >= 2. Hell and Kirkpatrick devised an ad-hoc augmenting algorithm that finds a T-star packing covering the maximum number of nodes. The latter algorithm also yields a min-max formula. We show that T-star packings are reducible to network flows, hence the above problem is solvable in $O(m sqrt(n))$ time (hereinafter n denotes the number of nodes in G, and m --- the number of edges). For the edge-weighted case (in which weights may be assumed positive) finding a maximum $T$-packing is NP-hard. A novel 9/4 T/(T + 1)-factor approximation algorithm is presented. For non-negative node weights the problem reduces to a special case of a max-cost flow. We develop a divide-and-conquer approach that solves it in O(m sqrt(n) log(n)) time. The node-weighted problem with arbitrary weights is more difficult. We prove that it is NP-hard for T >= 3 and is solvable in strongly-polynomial time for T = 2