On the Monadic Second-Order Transduction Hierarchy

We compare classes of finite relational structures via monadic second-order transductions. More precisely, we study the preorder where we set C \subseteq K if, and only if, there exists a transduction {\tau} such that C\subseteq{\tau}(K). If we only consider classes of incidence structures we can completely describe the resulting hierarchy. It is linear of order type {\omega}+3. Each level can be characterised in terms of a suitable variant of tree-width. Canonical representatives of the various levels are: the class of all trees of height n, for each n \in N, of all paths, of all trees, and of all grids

Regular Combinators for String Transformations

We focus on (partial) functions that map input strings to a monoid such as the set of integers with addition and the set of output strings with concatenation. The notion of regularity for such functions has been defined using two-way finite-state transducers, (one-way) cost register automata, and MSO-definable graph transformations. In this paper, we give an algebraic and machine-independent characterization of this class analogous to the definition of regular languages by regular expressions. When the monoid is commutative, we prove that every regular function can be constructed from constant functions using the combinators of choice, split sum, and iterated sum, that are analogs of union, concatenation, and Kleene-*, respectively, but enforce unique (or unambiguous) parsing. Our main result is for the general case of non-commutative monoids, which is of particular interest for capturing regular string-to-string transformations for document processing. We prove that the following additional combinators suffice for constructing all regular functions: (1) the left-additive versions of split sum and iterated sum, which allow transformations such as string reversal; (2) sum of functions, which allows transformations such as copying of strings; and (3) function composition, or alternatively, a new concept of chained sum, which allows output values from adjacent blocks to mix.Comment: This is the full version, with omitted proofs and constructions, of the conference paper currently in submissio

Are there any good digraph width measures?

Several different measures for digraph width have appeared in the last few years. However, none of them shares all the "nice" properties of treewidth: First, being \emph{algorithmically useful} i.e. admitting polynomial-time algorithms for all \MS1-definable problems on digraphs of bounded width. And, second, having nice \emph{structural properties} i.e. being monotone under taking subdigraphs and some form of arc contractions. As for the former, (undirected) \MS1 seems to be the least common denominator of all reasonably expressive logical languages on digraphs that can speak about the edge/arc relation on the vertex set.The latter property is a necessary condition for a width measure to be characterizable by some version of the cops-and-robber game characterizing the ordinary treewidth. Our main result is that \emph{any reasonable} algorithmically useful and structurally nice digraph measure cannot be substantially different from the treewidth of the underlying undirected graph. Moreover, we introduce \emph{directed topological minors} and argue that they are the weakest useful notion of minors for digraphs

Deciding first-order properties of nowhere dense graphs

Nowhere dense graph classes, introduced by Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez, form a large variety of classes of "sparse graphs" including the class of planar graphs, actually all classes with excluded minors, and also bounded degree graphs and graph classes of bounded expansion. We show that deciding properties of graphs definable in first-order logic is fixed-parameter tractable on nowhere dense graph classes. At least for graph classes closed under taking subgraphs, this result is optimal: it was known before that for all classes C of graphs closed under taking subgraphs, if deciding first-order properties of graphs in C is fixed-parameter tractable, then C must be nowhere dense (under a reasonable complexity theoretic assumption). As a by-product, we give an algorithmic construction of sparse neighbourhood covers for nowhere dense graphs. This extends and improves previous constructions of neighbourhood covers for graph classes with excluded minors. At the same time, our construction is considerably simpler than those. Our proofs are based on a new game-theoretic characterisation of nowhere dense graphs that allows for a recursive version of locality-based algorithms on these classes. On the logical side, we prove a "rank-preserving" version of Gaifman's locality theorem.Comment: 30 page

Between Treewidth and Clique-width

Many hard graph problems can be solved efficiently when restricted to graphs of bounded treewidth, and more generally to graphs of bounded clique-width. But there is a price to be paid for this generality, exemplified by the four problems MaxCut, Graph Coloring, Hamiltonian Cycle and Edge Dominating Set that are all FPT parameterized by treewidth but none of which can be FPT parameterized by clique-width unless FPT = W[1], as shown by Fomin et al [7, 8]. We therefore seek a structural graph parameter that shares some of the generality of clique-width without paying this price. Based on splits, branch decompositions and the work of Vatshelle [18] on Maximum Matching-width, we consider the graph parameter sm-width which lies between treewidth and clique-width. Some graph classes of unbounded treewidth, like distance-hereditary graphs, have bounded sm-width. We show that MaxCut, Graph Coloring, Hamiltonian Cycle and Edge Dominating Set are all FPT parameterized by sm-width

Compact Labelings For Efficient First-Order Model-Checking

We consider graph properties that can be checked from labels, i.e., bit sequences, of logarithmic length attached to vertices. We prove that there exists such a labeling for checking a first-order formula with free set variables in the graphs of every class that is \emph{nicely locally cwd-decomposable}. This notion generalizes that of a \emph{nicely locally tree-decomposable} class. The graphs of such classes can be covered by graphs of bounded \emph{clique-width} with limited overlaps. We also consider such labelings for \emph{bounded} first-order formulas on graph classes of \emph{bounded expansion}. Some of these results are extended to counting queries

The Equivalence Problem for Deterministic MSO Tree Transducers is Decidable

It is decidable for deterministic MSO definable graph-to-string or graph-to-tree transducers whether they are equivalent on a context-free set of graphs

On the stable degree of graphs

We define the stable degree s(G) of a graph G by s(G)∈=∈ min max d (v), where the minimum is taken over all maximal independent sets U of G. For this new parameter we prove the following. Deciding whether a graph has stable degree at most k is NP-complete for every fixed k∈≥∈3; and the stable degree is hard to approximate. For asteroidal triple-free graphs and graphs of bounded asteroidal number the stable degree can be computed in polynomial time. For graphs in these classes the treewidth is bounded from below and above in terms of the stable degree

Recognizing hyperelliptic graphs in polynomial time

Recently, a new set of multigraph parameters was defined, called "gonalities". Gonality bears some similarity to treewidth, and is a relevant graph parameter for problems in number theory and multigraph algorithms. Multigraphs of gonality 1 are trees. We consider so-called "hyperelliptic graphs" (multigraphs of gonality 2) and provide a safe and complete sets of reduction rules for such multigraphs, showing that for three of the flavors of gonality, we can recognize hyperelliptic graphs in O(n log n+m) time, where n is the number of vertices and m the number of edges of the multigraph.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figure

Well-quasi-ordering versus clique-width : new results on bigenic classes.

Daligault, Rao and Thomassé conjectured that if a hereditary class of graphs is well-quasi-ordered by the induced subgraph relation then it has bounded clique-width. Lozin, Razgon and Zamaraev recently showed that this conjecture is not true for infinitely defined classes. For finitely defined classes the conjecture is still open. It is known to hold for classes of graphs defined by a single forbidden induced subgraph H, as such graphs are well-quasi-ordered and are of bounded clique-width if and only if H is an induced subgraph of P4P4. For bigenic classes of graphs i.e. ones defined by two forbidden induced subgraphs there are several open cases in both classifications. We reduce the number of open cases for well-quasi-orderability of such classes from 12 to 9. Our results agree with the conjecture and imply that there are only two remaining cases to verify for bigenic classes