411 research outputs found
Fully Dynamic Matching in Bipartite Graphs
Maximum cardinality matching in bipartite graphs is an important and
well-studied problem. The fully dynamic version, in which edges are inserted
and deleted over time has also been the subject of much attention. Existing
algorithms for dynamic matching (in general graphs) seem to fall into two
groups: there are fast (mostly randomized) algorithms that do not achieve a
better than 2-approximation, and there slow algorithms with \O(\sqrt{m})
update time that achieve a better-than-2 approximation. Thus the obvious
question is whether we can design an algorithm -- deterministic or randomized
-- that achieves a tradeoff between these two: a approximation
and a better-than-2 approximation simultaneously. We answer this question in
the affirmative for bipartite graphs.
Our main result is a fully dynamic algorithm that maintains a 3/2 + \eps
approximation in worst-case update time O(m^{1/4}\eps^{/2.5}). We also give
stronger results for graphs whose arboricity is at most \al, achieving a (1+
\eps) approximation in worst-case time O(\al (\al + \log n)) for constant
\eps. When the arboricity is constant, this bound is and when the
arboricity is polylogarithmic the update time is also polylogarithmic.
The most important technical developement is the use of an intermediate graph
we call an edge degree constrained subgraph (EDCS). This graph places
constraints on the sum of the degrees of the endpoints of each edge: upper
bounds for matched edges and lower bounds for unmatched edges. The main
technical content of our paper involves showing both how to maintain an EDCS
dynamically and that and EDCS always contains a sufficiently large matching. We
also make use of graph orientations to help bound the amount of work done
during each update.Comment: Longer version of paper that appears in ICALP 201
Super-Fast 3-Ruling Sets
A -ruling set of a graph is a vertex-subset
that is independent and satisfies the property that every vertex is
at a distance of at most from some vertex in . A \textit{maximal
independent set (MIS)} is a 1-ruling set. The problem of computing an MIS on a
network is a fundamental problem in distributed algorithms and the fastest
algorithm for this problem is the -round algorithm due to Luby
(SICOMP 1986) and Alon et al. (J. Algorithms 1986) from more than 25 years ago.
Since then the problem has resisted all efforts to yield to a sub-logarithmic
algorithm. There has been recent progress on this problem, most importantly an
-round algorithm on graphs with
vertices and maximum degree , due to Barenboim et al. (Barenboim,
Elkin, Pettie, and Schneider, April 2012, arxiv 1202.1983; to appear FOCS
2012).
We approach the MIS problem from a different angle and ask if O(1)-ruling
sets can be computed much more efficiently than an MIS? As an answer to this
question, we show how to compute a 2-ruling set of an -vertex graph in
rounds. We also show that the above result can be improved
for special classes of graphs such as graphs with high girth, trees, and graphs
of bounded arboricity.
Our main technique involves randomized sparsification that rapidly reduces
the graph degree while ensuring that every deleted vertex is close to some
vertex that remains. This technique may have further applications in other
contexts, e.g., in designing sub-logarithmic distributed approximation
algorithms. Our results raise intriguing questions about how quickly an MIS (or
1-ruling sets) can be computed, given that 2-ruling sets can be computed in
sub-logarithmic rounds
Vertex Arboricity of Toroidal Graphs with a Forbidden Cycle
The vertex arboricity of a graph is the minimum such that
can be partitioned into sets where each set induces a forest. For a
planar graph , it is known that . In two recent papers, it was
proved that planar graphs without -cycles for some
have vertex arboricity at most 2. For a toroidal graph , it is known that
. Let us consider the following question: do toroidal graphs
without -cycles have vertex arboricity at most 2? It was known that the
question is true for k=3, and recently, Zhang proved the question is true for
. Since a complete graph on 5 vertices is a toroidal graph without any
-cycles for and has vertex arboricity at least three, the only
unknown case was k=4. We solve this case in the affirmative; namely, we show
that toroidal graphs without 4-cycles have vertex arboricity at most 2.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Testing bounded arboricity
In this paper we consider the problem of testing whether a graph has bounded
arboricity. The family of graphs with bounded arboricity includes, among
others, bounded-degree graphs, all minor-closed graph classes (e.g. planar
graphs, graphs with bounded treewidth) and randomly generated preferential
attachment graphs. Graphs with bounded arboricity have been studied extensively
in the past, in particular since for many problems they allow for much more
efficient algorithms and/or better approximation ratios.
We present a tolerant tester in the sparse-graphs model. The sparse-graphs
model allows access to degree queries and neighbor queries, and the distance is
defined with respect to the actual number of edges. More specifically, our
algorithm distinguishes between graphs that are -close to having
arboricity and graphs that -far from having
arboricity , where is an absolute small constant. The query
complexity and running time of the algorithm are
where denotes
the number of vertices and denotes the number of edges. In terms of the
dependence on and this bound is optimal up to poly-logarithmic factors
since queries are necessary (and .
We leave it as an open question whether the dependence on can be
improved from quasi-polynomial to polynomial. Our techniques include an
efficient local simulation for approximating the outcome of a global (almost)
forest-decomposition algorithm as well as a tailored procedure of edge
sampling
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