986 research outputs found
The Parameterized Complexity of Finding Point Sets with Hereditary Properties
We consider problems where the input is a set of points in the plane and an integer k, and the task is to find a subset S of the input points of size k such that S satisfies some property. We focus on properties that depend only on the order type of the points and are monotone under point removals. We exhibit a property defined by three forbidden patterns for which finding a k-point subset with the property is W[1]-complete and (assuming the exponential time hypothesis) cannot be solved in time n^{o(k/log k)}. However, we show that problems of this type are fixed-parameter tractable for all properties that include all collinear point sets, properties that exclude at least one convex polygon, and properties defined by a single forbidden pattern
Assessing the Computational Complexity of Multi-Layer Subgraph Detection
Multi-layer graphs consist of several graphs (layers) over the same vertex
set. They are motivated by real-world problems where entities (vertices) are
associated via multiple types of relationships (edges in different layers). We
chart the border of computational (in)tractability for the class of subgraph
detection problems on multi-layer graphs, including fundamental problems such
as maximum matching, finding certain clique relaxations (motivated by community
detection), or path problems. Mostly encountering hardness results, sometimes
even for two or three layers, we can also spot some islands of tractability
From Gap-ETH to FPT-Inapproximability: Clique, Dominating Set, and More
We consider questions that arise from the intersection between the areas of
polynomial-time approximation algorithms, subexponential-time algorithms, and
fixed-parameter tractable algorithms. The questions, which have been asked
several times (e.g., [Marx08, FGMS12, DF13]), are whether there is a
non-trivial FPT-approximation algorithm for the Maximum Clique (Clique) and
Minimum Dominating Set (DomSet) problems parameterized by the size of the
optimal solution. In particular, letting be the optimum and be
the size of the input, is there an algorithm that runs in
time and outputs a solution of size
, for any functions and that are independent of (for
Clique, we want )?
In this paper, we show that both Clique and DomSet admit no non-trivial
FPT-approximation algorithm, i.e., there is no
-FPT-approximation algorithm for Clique and no
-FPT-approximation algorithm for DomSet, for any function
(e.g., this holds even if is the Ackermann function). In fact, our results
imply something even stronger: The best way to solve Clique and DomSet, even
approximately, is to essentially enumerate all possibilities. Our results hold
under the Gap Exponential Time Hypothesis (Gap-ETH) [Dinur16, MR16], which
states that no -time algorithm can distinguish between a satisfiable
3SAT formula and one which is not even -satisfiable for some
constant .
Besides Clique and DomSet, we also rule out non-trivial FPT-approximation for
Maximum Balanced Biclique, Maximum Subgraphs with Hereditary Properties, and
Maximum Induced Matching in bipartite graphs. Additionally, we rule out
-FPT-approximation algorithm for Densest -Subgraph although this
ratio does not yet match the trivial -approximation algorithm.Comment: 43 pages. To appear in FOCS'1
Solving Problems on Graphs of High Rank-Width
A modulator of a graph G to a specified graph class H is a set of vertices
whose deletion puts G into H. The cardinality of a modulator to various
tractable graph classes has long been used as a structural parameter which can
be exploited to obtain FPT algorithms for a range of hard problems. Here we
investigate what happens when a graph contains a modulator which is large but
"well-structured" (in the sense of having bounded rank-width). Can such
modulators still be exploited to obtain efficient algorithms? And is it even
possible to find such modulators efficiently?
We first show that the parameters derived from such well-structured
modulators are strictly more general than the cardinality of modulators and
rank-width itself. Then, we develop an FPT algorithm for finding such
well-structured modulators to any graph class which can be characterized by a
finite set of forbidden induced subgraphs. We proceed by showing how
well-structured modulators can be used to obtain efficient parameterized
algorithms for Minimum Vertex Cover and Maximum Clique. Finally, we use
well-structured modulators to develop an algorithmic meta-theorem for deciding
problems expressible in Monadic Second Order (MSO) logic, and prove that this
result is tight in the sense that it cannot be generalized to LinEMSO problems.Comment: Accepted at WADS 201
Complexity of Token Swapping and its Variants
In the Token Swapping problem we are given a graph with a token placed on
each vertex. Each token has exactly one destination vertex, and we try to move
all the tokens to their destinations, using the minimum number of swaps, i.e.,
operations of exchanging the tokens on two adjacent vertices. As the main
result of this paper, we show that Token Swapping is -hard parameterized
by the length of a shortest sequence of swaps. In fact, we prove that, for
any computable function , it cannot be solved in time where is the number of vertices of the input graph, unless the ETH
fails. This lower bound almost matches the trivial -time algorithm.
We also consider two generalizations of the Token Swapping, namely Colored
Token Swapping (where the tokens have different colors and tokens of the same
color are indistinguishable), and Subset Token Swapping (where each token has a
set of possible destinations). To complement the hardness result, we prove that
even the most general variant, Subset Token Swapping, is FPT in nowhere-dense
graph classes.
Finally, we consider the complexities of all three problems in very
restricted classes of graphs: graphs of bounded treewidth and diameter, stars,
cliques, and paths, trying to identify the borderlines between polynomial and
NP-hard cases.Comment: 23 pages, 7 Figure
Data Reduction for Graph Coloring Problems
This paper studies the kernelization complexity of graph coloring problems
with respect to certain structural parameterizations of the input instances. We
are interested in how well polynomial-time data reduction can provably shrink
instances of coloring problems, in terms of the chosen parameter. It is well
known that deciding 3-colorability is already NP-complete, hence parameterizing
by the requested number of colors is not fruitful. Instead, we pick up on a
research thread initiated by Cai (DAM, 2003) who studied coloring problems
parameterized by the modification distance of the input graph to a graph class
on which coloring is polynomial-time solvable; for example parameterizing by
the number k of vertex-deletions needed to make the graph chordal. We obtain
various upper and lower bounds for kernels of such parameterizations of
q-Coloring, complementing Cai's study of the time complexity with respect to
these parameters.
Our results show that the existence of polynomial kernels for q-Coloring
parameterized by the vertex-deletion distance to a graph class F is strongly
related to the existence of a function f(q) which bounds the number of vertices
which are needed to preserve the NO-answer to an instance of q-List-Coloring on
F.Comment: Author-accepted manuscript of the article that will appear in the FCT
2011 special issue of Information & Computatio
FPT is Characterized by Useful Obstruction Sets
Many graph problems were first shown to be fixed-parameter tractable using
the results of Robertson and Seymour on graph minors. We show that the
combination of finite, computable, obstruction sets and efficient order tests
is not just one way of obtaining strongly uniform FPT algorithms, but that all
of FPT may be captured in this way. Our new characterization of FPT has a
strong connection to the theory of kernelization, as we prove that problems
with polynomial kernels can be characterized by obstruction sets whose elements
have polynomial size. Consequently we investigate the interplay between the
sizes of problem kernels and the sizes of the elements of such obstruction
sets, obtaining several examples of how results in one area yield new insights
in the other. We show how exponential-size minor-minimal obstructions for
pathwidth k form the crucial ingredient in a novel OR-cross-composition for
k-Pathwidth, complementing the trivial AND-composition that is known for this
problem. In the other direction, we show that OR-cross-compositions into a
parameterized problem can be used to rule out the existence of efficiently
generated quasi-orders on its instances that characterize the NO-instances by
polynomial-size obstructions.Comment: Extended abstract with appendix, as accepted to WG 201
A survey on algorithmic aspects of modular decomposition
The modular decomposition is a technique that applies but is not restricted
to graphs. The notion of module naturally appears in the proofs of many graph
theoretical theorems. Computing the modular decomposition tree is an important
preprocessing step to solve a large number of combinatorial optimization
problems. Since the first polynomial time algorithm in the early 70's, the
algorithmic of the modular decomposition has known an important development.
This paper survey the ideas and techniques that arose from this line of
research
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