Tight bounds for parameterized complexity of Cluster Editing

In the Correlation Clustering problem, also known as Cluster Editing, we are given an undirected graph G and a positive integer k; the task is to decide whether G can be transformed into a cluster graph, i.e., a disjoint union of cliques, by changing at most k adjacencies, that is, by adding or deleting at most k edges. The motivation of the problem stems from various tasks in computational biology (Ben-Dor et al., Journal of Computational Biology 1999) and machine learning (Bansal et al., Machine Learning 2004). Although in general Correlation Clustering is APX-hard (Charikar et al., FOCS 2003), the version of the problem where the number of cliques may not exceed a prescribed constant p admits a PTAS (Giotis and Guruswami, SODA 2006). We study the parameterized complexity of Correlation Clustering with this restriction on the number of cliques to be created. We give an algorithm that - in time O(2^{O(sqrt{pk})} + n+m) decides whether a graph G on n vertices and m edges can be transformed into a cluster graph with exactly p cliques by changing at most k adjacencies. We complement these algorithmic findings by the following, surprisingly tight lower bound on the asymptotic behavior of our algorithm. We show that unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH) fails - for any constant 0 <= sigma <= 1, there is p = Theta(k^sigma) such that there is no algorithm deciding in time 2^{o(sqrt{pk})} n^{O(1)} whether an n-vertex graph G can be transformed into a cluster graph with at most p cliques by changing at most k adjacencies. Thus, our upper and lower bounds provide an asymptotically tight analysis of the multivariate parameterized complexity of the problem for the whole range of values of p from constant to a linear function of k.publishedVersio

Tight bounds for parameterized complexity of cluster editing with a small number of clusters

In the Cluster Editing problem, also known as Correlation Clustering, we are given an undirected n-vertex graph G and a positive integer k. The task is to decide if G can be transformed into a cluster graph, i.e., a disjoint union of cliques, by changing at most k adjacencies, i.e. by adding/deleting at most k edges. We give a subexponential-time parameterized algorithm that in time View the MathML source decides whether G can be transformed into a cluster graph with exactly p cliques by changing at most k adjacencies. Our algorithmic findings are complemented by the following tight lower bound on the asymptotic behavior of our algorithm. We show that unless ETH fails, for any constant 0<σ≤1, there is p=Θ(kσ) such that there is no algorithm deciding in time View the MathML source whether G can be transformed into a cluster graph with at most p cliques by changing at most k adjacencies

Fast branching algorithm for Cluster Vertex Deletion

In the family of clustering problems, we are given a set of objects (vertices of the graph), together with some observed pairwise similarities (edges). The goal is to identify clusters of similar objects by slightly modifying the graph to obtain a cluster graph (disjoint union of cliques). Hueffner et al. [Theory Comput. Syst. 2010] initiated the parameterized study of Cluster Vertex Deletion, where the allowed modification is vertex deletion, and presented an elegant O(2^k * k^9 + n * m)-time fixed-parameter algorithm, parameterized by the solution size. In our work, we pick up this line of research and present an O(1.9102^k * (n + m))-time branching algorithm

Fast Biclustering by Dual Parameterization

We study two clustering problems, Starforest Editing, the problem of adding and deleting edges to obtain a disjoint union of stars, and the generalization Bicluster Editing. We show that, in addition to being NP-hard, none of the problems can be solved in subexponential time unless the exponential time hypothesis fails. Misra, Panolan, and Saurabh (MFCS 2013) argue that introducing a bound on the number of connected components in the solution should not make the problem easier: In particular, they argue that the subexponential time algorithm for editing to a fixed number of clusters (p-Cluster Editing) by Fomin et al. (J. Comput. Syst. Sci., 80(7) 2014) is an exception rather than the rule. Here, p is a secondary parameter, bounding the number of components in the solution. However, upon bounding the number of stars or bicliques in the solution, we obtain algorithms which run in time $2^{5 \sqrt{pk}} + O(n+m)$ for p-Starforest Editing and $2^{O(p \sqrt{k} \log(pk))} + O(n+m)$ for p-Bicluster Editing. We obtain a similar result for the more general case of t-Partite p-Cluster Editing. This is subexponential in k for fixed number of clusters, since p is then considered a constant. Our results even out the number of multivariate subexponential time algorithms and give reasons to believe that this area warrants further study.Comment: Accepted for presentation at IPEC 201

Fast Parallel Fixed-Parameter Algorithms via Color Coding

Fixed-parameter algorithms have been successfully applied to solve numerous difficult problems within acceptable time bounds on large inputs. However, most fixed-parameter algorithms are inherently \emph{sequential} and, thus, make no use of the parallel hardware present in modern computers. We show that parallel fixed-parameter algorithms do not only exist for numerous parameterized problems from the literature -- including vertex cover, packing problems, cluster editing, cutting vertices, finding embeddings, or finding matchings -- but that there are parallel algorithms working in \emph{constant} time or at least in time \emph{depending only on the parameter} (and not on the size of the input) for these problems. Phrased in terms of complexity classes, we place numerous natural parameterized problems in parameterized versions of AC$^0$. On a more technical level, we show how the \emph{color coding} method can be implemented in constant time and apply it to embedding problems for graphs of bounded tree-width or tree-depth and to model checking first-order formulas in graphs of bounded degree

Parameterized Complexity of Biclique Contraction and Balanced Biclique Contraction

In this work, we initiate the complexity study of Biclique Contraction and Balanced Biclique Contraction. In these problems, given as input a graph G and an integer k, the objective is to determine whether one can contract at most k edges in G to obtain a biclique and a balanced biclique, respectively. We first prove that these problems are NP-complete even when the input graph is bipartite. Next, we study the parameterized complexity of these problems and show that they admit single exponential-time FPT algorithms when parameterized by the number k of edge contractions. Then, we show that Balanced Biclique Contraction admits a quadratic vertex kernel while Biclique Contraction does not admit any polynomial compression (or kernel) under standard complexity-theoretic assumptions