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Showing papers presented at "Workshop on Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science in 2014"


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: These are the first classes of geometric graphs where extending partial representations is provably harder than recognition, as opposed to e.g. interval graphs, circle graphs, permutation graphs or even standard representations of plane graphs.
Abstract: Planar graphs are known to have geometric representations of various types, e.g. as contacts of disks, triangles or - in the bipartite case - vertical and horizontal segments. It is known that such representations can be drawn in linear time, we here wonder whether it is as easy to decide whether a partial representation can be completed to a representation of the whole graph. We show that in each of the cases above, this problem becomes NP-hard. These are the first classes of geometric graphs where extending partial representations is provably harder than recognition, as opposed to e.g. interval graphs, circle graphs, permutation graphs or even standard representations of plane graphs.

41 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the Dynamic Map Visitation Problem (DMVP), in which a team of agents must visit a collection of critical locations as quickly as possible, in an environment that may change rapidly and unpredictably during the agents' navigation.
Abstract: We consider the Dynamic Map Visitation Problem (DMVP), in which a team of agents must visit a collection of critical locations as quickly as possible, in an environment that may change rapidly and unpredictably during the agents’ navigation. We apply recent formulations of time-varying graphs (TVGs) to DMVP, shedding new light on the computational hierarchy \(\mathcal {R} \supset \mathcal {B} \supset \mathcal {P}\) of TVG classes by analyzing them in the context of graph navigation. We provide hardness results for all three classes, and for several restricted topologies, we show a separation between the classes by showing severe inapproximability in \(\mathcal {R}\), limited approximability in \(\mathcal {B}\), and tractability in \(\mathcal {P}\). We also give topologies in which DMVP in \(\mathcal {R}\) is fixed parameter tractable, which may serve as a first step toward fully characterizing the features that make DMVP difficult.

32 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: It is shown that distributedly testing cycle-freeness requires at least \(\lceil \log d \rceil -1\) bits of information per node in graphs with maximum degree \(d\), even for connected graphs.
Abstract: We tackle local distributed testing of graph properties. This framework is well suited to contexts in which data dispersed among the nodes of a network can be collected by some central authority (like in, e.g., sensor networks). In local distributed testing, each node can provide the central authority with just a few information about what it perceives from its neighboring environment, and, based on the collected information, the central authority is aiming at deciding whether or not the network satisfies some property. We analyze in depth the prominent example of checking cycle-freeness, and establish tight bounds on the amount of information to be transferred by each node to the central authority for deciding cycle-freeness. In particular, we show that distributedly testing cycle-freeness requires at least \(\lceil \log d \rceil -1\) bits of information per node in graphs with maximum degree \(d\), even for connected graphs. Our proof is based on a novel version of the seminal result by Naor and Stockmeyer (1995) enabling to reduce the study of certain kinds of algorithms to order-invariant algorithms, and on an appropriate use of the known fact that every free group can be linearly ordered.

32 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The paper considers verification under uncertainty for the minimum spanning tree (MST) problem for undirected weighted graphs, where each edge is associated with an uncertainty area and an assumed edge weight, and gives a polynomial-time optimal algorithm for the MST verification problem by relating the choices of updates to vertex covers in a bipartite auxiliary graph.
Abstract: In the verification under uncertainty setting, an algorithm is given, for each input item, an uncertainty area that is guaranteed to contain the exact input value, as well as an assumed input value. An update of an input item reveals its exact value. If the exact value is equal to the assumed value, we say that the update verifies the assumed value. We consider verification under uncertainty for the minimum spanning tree (MST) problem for undirected weighted graphs, where each edge is associated with an uncertainty area and an assumed edge weight. The objective of an algorithm is to compute the smallest set of updates with the property that, if the updates of all edges in the set verify their assumed weights, the edge set of an MST can be computed. We give a polynomial-time optimal algorithm for the MST verification problem by relating the choices of updates to vertex covers in a bipartite auxiliary graph. Furthermore, we consider an alternative uncertainty setting where the vertices are embedded in the plane, the weight of an edge is the Euclidean distance between the endpoints of the edge, and the uncertainty is about the location of the vertices. An update of a vertex yields the exact location of that vertex. We prove that the MST verification problem in this vertex uncertainty setting is NP-hard. This shows a surprising difference in complexity between the edge and vertex uncertainty settings of the MST verification problem.

20 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present graph theoretic results that allow to prove that some edges of a TSP instance cannot occur in any optimum TSP tour, and they propose a combinatorial algorithm to identify such edges.
Abstract: The Traveling Salesman Problem is one of the best studied NP-hard problems in combinatorial optimization. Powerful methods have been developed over the last 60 years to find optimum solutions to large TSP instances. The largest TSP instance so far that has been solved optimally has 85,900 vertices. Its solution required more than 136 years of total CPU time using the branch-and-cut based Concorde TSP code [1]. In this paper we present graph theoretic results that allow to prove that some edges of a TSP instance cannot occur in any optimum TSP tour. Based on these results we propose a combinatorial algorithm to identify such edges. The runtime of the main part of our algorithm is \(O(n^2 \log n)\) for an \(n\)-vertex TSP instance. By combining our approach with the Concorde TSP solver we are able to solve a large TSPLIB instance more than 11 times faster than Concorde alone.

16 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The class of graphs that do not contain an induced path on \(k\) vertices, \(P_k\)-free graphs, plays a prominent role in algorithmic graph theory and motivates the search for special structural properties of these graphs, including alternative characterizations.
Abstract: The class of graphs that do not contain an induced path on \(k\) vertices, \(P_k\)-free graphs, plays a prominent role in algorithmic graph theory. This motivates the search for special structural properties of \(P_k\)-free graphs, including alternative characterizations.

15 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: It is shown that the linear rank-width of every \(n\)-vertex distance-hereditary graph can be computed in time \(\mathcal {O}(n^2\cdot \log (n)), and a linear layout witnessing the linearRank-width can be compute with the same time complexity.
Abstract: We present a characterization of the linear rank-width of distance-hereditary graphs. Using the characterization, we show that the linear rank-width of every \(n\)-vertex distance-hereditary graph can be computed in time \(\mathcal {O}(n^2\cdot \log (n))\), and a linear layout witnessing the linear rank-width can be computed with the same time complexity. For our characterization, we combine modifications of canonical split decompositions with an idea of [Megiddo, Hakimi, Garey, Johnson, Papadimitriou: The complexity of searching a graph. JACM 1988], used for computing the path-width of trees. We also provide a set of distance-hereditary graphs which contains the set of distance-hereditary vertex-minor obstructions for linear rank-width. The set given in [Jeong, Kwon, Oum: Excluded vertex-minors for graphs of linear rank-width at most k. STACS 2013: 221–232] is a subset of our obstruction set.

14 citations


Book ChapterDOI
Paul Bonsma1
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The independent set reconfiguration problem, given two independent sets I and J of a graph G, is it possible to transform I into J by adding and removing vertices one-by-one, while maintaining an independent set of size at least k throughout, can be solved in polynomial time.
Abstract: We study the following independent set reconfiguration problem: given two independent sets I and J of a graph G, both of size at least k, is it possible to transform I into J by adding and removing vertices one-by-one, while maintaining an independent set of size at least k throughout? This problem is known to be PSPACE-hard in general. For the case that G is a cograph on n vertices, we show that it can be solved in polynomial time. More generally, we show that for a graph class G that includes all chordal and claw-free graphs, the problem can be solved in polynomial time for graphs that can be obtained from a collection of graphs from G using disjoint union and complete join operations.

12 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This work proves the weak Hanani-Tutte theorem for strip clustered graphs, whose clusters are linearly ordered vertical strips in the plane and edges join only vertices in the same cluster or in neighboring clusters with respect to this order.
Abstract: The weak variant of the Hanani–Tutte theorem says that a graph is planar, if it can be drawn in the plane so that every pair of edges cross an even number of times. Moreover, we can turn such a drawing into an embedding without changing the order in which edges leave the vertices. We prove a generalization of the weak Hanani–Tutte theorem that also easily implies the monotone variant of the weak Hanani–Tutte theorem by Pach and Toth. Thus, our result can be thought of as a common generalization of these two neat results. In other words, we prove the weak Hanani-Tutte theorem for strip clustered graphs, whose clusters are linearly ordered vertical strips in the plane and edges join only vertices in the same cluster or in neighboring clusters with respect to this order.

12 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the separation dimension of a hypergraph is shown to be equal to the boxicity of the line graph of the hypergraph of the disjoint edges of the graph.
Abstract: A family \(\mathcal {F}\) of permutations of the vertices of a hypergraph \(H\) is called pairwise suitable for \(H\) if, for every pair of disjoint edges in \(H\), there exists a permutation in \(\mathcal {F}\) in which all the vertices in one edge precede those in the other. The cardinality of a smallest such family of permutations for \(H\) is called the separation dimension of \(H\) and is denoted by \(\pi (H)\). Equivalently, \(\pi (H)\) is the smallest natural number \(k\) so that the vertices of \(H\) can be embedded in \(\mathbb {R}^k\) such that any two disjoint edges of \(H\) can be separated by a hyperplane normal to one of the axes. We show that the separation dimension of a hypergraph \(H\) is equal to the boxicity of the line graph of \(H\). This connection helps us in borrowing results and techniques from the extensive literature on boxicity to study the concept of separation dimension.

10 citations


Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This work seeks a subset of a graph \(U\subseteq V\) of size \(k\), such that \(\alpha _1m_1 + \alpha _2m_2\) is at most (or at least) \(p\), where \(\alpha_1,\alpha_2\in \mathbb {R}\) are constants defining the problem.
Abstract: We study a broad class of graph partitioning problems, where each problem is specified by a graph \(G=(V,E)\), and parameters \(k\) and \(p\) We seek a subset \(U\subseteq V\) of size \(k\), such that \(\alpha _1m_1 + \alpha _2m_2\) is at most (or at least) \(p\), where \(\alpha _1,\alpha _2\in \mathbb {R}\) are constants defining the problem, and \(m_1, m_2\) are the cardinalities of the edge sets having both endpoints, and exactly one endpoint, in \(U\), respectively This class of fixed-cardinality graph partitioning problems (FGPPs) encompasses Max \((k,n-k)\)-Cut, Min \(k\)-Vertex Cover, \(k\)-Densest Subgraph, and \(k\)-Sparsest Subgraph

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: A necessary and sufficient condition is given for a 2-orientation and a flow in the angle graph that describes the contacts of the ends of a grid-path and the flow describes the behavior of agrid-path between its two ends to be realizable as a VCPG.
Abstract: We study Vertex Contact representations of Paths on a Grid (VCPG). In such a representation the vertices of \(G\) are represented by a family of interiorly disjoint grid-paths. Adjacencies are represented by contacts between an endpoint of one grid-path and an interior point of another grid-path. Defining \(u \rightarrow v\) if the path of \(u\) ends on path of \(v\) we obtain an orientation on \(G\) from a VCPG. To get hand on the bends of the grid path the orientation is not enough. We therefore consider pairs (\(\alpha ,\psi \)): a 2-orientation \(\alpha \) and a flow \(\psi \) in the angle graph. The 2-orientation describes the contacts of the ends of a grid-path and the flow describes the behavior of a grid-path between its two ends. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for such a pair \((\alpha ,\psi \)) to be realizable as a VCPG.

Proceedings Article
27 Jun 2014
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that hypergraph 2-colorability can be solved in polynomial time for hypergraphs whose vertex-hyperedge incidence graph is P7-free.
Abstract: The class of graphs that do not contain an induced path on k vertices, Pk-free graphs, plays a prominent role in algorithmic graph theory. This motivates the search for special structural properties of Pkfree graphs, including alternative characterizations. Let G be a connected Pk-free graph, k ≥ 4. We show that G admits a connected dominating set whose induced subgraph is either Pk−2-free, or isomorphic to Pk−2. Surprisingly, it turns out that every minimum connected dominating set of G has this property. This yields a new characterization for Pk-free graphs: a graph G is Pkfree if and only if each connected induced subgraph of G has a connected dominating set whose induced subgraph is either Pk−2-free, or isomorphic to Ck. This improves and generalizes several previous results; the particular case of k = 7 solves a problem posed by van ’t Hof and Paulusma [A new characterization of P6-free graphs, COCOON 2008]. In the second part of the paper, we present an efficient algorithm that, given a connected graph G, computes a connected dominating set X of G with the following property: for the minimum k such that G is Pk-free, the subgraph induced by X is Pk−2-free or isomorphic to Pk−2. As an application our results, we prove thatHypergraph 2-Colorability, an NP-complete problem in general, can be solved in polynomial time for hypergraphs whose vertex-hyperedge incidence graph is P7-free. keywords: Pk-free graph, connected domination, computational complexity. MSC: 05C69, 05C75, 05C38.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The main result in this paper is to show the existence of an FPT algorithm when the authors parameterize the problem by the solution size \(k\), showing that the problem has a polynomial size Turing-kernel.
Abstract: The maximum stable set problem is NP-hard, even when restricted to triangle-free graphs. In particular, one cannot expect a polynomial time algorithm deciding if a bull-free graph has a stable set of size \(k\), when \(k\) is part of the instance. Our main result in this paper is to show the existence of an FPT algorithm when we parameterize the problem by the solution size \(k\). A polynomial kernel is unlikely to exist for this problem. We show however that our problem has a polynomial size Turing-kernel. More precisely, the hard cases are instances of size \({O}(k^5)\). All our results rely on a decomposition theorem of bull-free graphs due to Chudnovsky which is modified here, allowing us to provide extreme decompositions, adapted to our computational purpose.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: It is proved that deciding if \(t(G)\ge 5\) is NP-Complete in bipartite graphs, as well as obtaining an \(\varTheta (m n^5)\)-time algorithm to decide if \(T(G)ge 3\) in general graphs.
Abstract: In \(2\)-neighbourhood bootstrap percolation on a graph \(G\), an infection spreads according to the following deterministic rule: infected vertices of \(G\) remain infected forever and in consecutive rounds healthy vertices with at least \(2\) already infected neighbours become infected. Percolation occurs if eventually every vertex is infected. The maximum time \(t(G)\) is the maximum number of rounds needed to eventually infect the entire vertex set. In 2013, it was proved [7] that deciding if \(t(G)\ge k\) is polynomial time solvable for \(k=2\), but is NP-Complete for \(k=4\) and is NP-Complete if the graph is bipartite and \(k=7\). In this paper, we solve the open questions. Let \(n = |V(G)|\) and \(m = |E(G)|\). We obtain an \(\varTheta (m n^5)\)-time algorithm to decide if \(t(G)\ge 3\) in general graphs. In bipartite graphs, we obtain an \(\varTheta (m n^3)\)-time algorithm to decide if \(t(G)\ge 3\) and an \(O(m n^{13})\)-time algorithm to decide if \(t(G)\ge 4\). We also prove that deciding if \(t(G)\ge 5\) is NP-Complete in bipartite graphs.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: It is proved that every \(n\)-vertex triangle-free graph has at most \(3^{n/3}\approx 1.4423^n\) maximal induced matchings, and this bound is attained by every disjoint union of copies of the complete bipartite graph \(K_{3,3}\).
Abstract: An induced matching in a graph is a set of edges whose endpoints induce a \(1\)-regular subgraph. It is known that every \(n\)-vertex graph has at most \(10^{n/5}\approx 1.5849^n\) maximal induced matchings, and this bound is best possible. We prove that every \(n\)-vertex triangle-free graph has at most \(3^{n/3}\approx 1.4423^n\) maximal induced matchings, and this bound is attained by every disjoint union of copies of the complete bipartite graph \(K_{3,3}\). Our result implies that all maximal induced matchings in an \(n\)-vertex triangle-free graph can be listed in time \(O(1.4423^n)\), yielding the fastest known algorithm for finding a maximum induced matching in a triangle-free graph.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This is the first \(\tilde{O}(n) time constant-factor approximation for branchwidth/treewidth and largest grid/cylinder minors of planar graphs and improves the previous \(\min O(n^{1+\epsilon }),O(nk^3)\}\) (\(\ep silon >0\) is a constant) time Constant-factor approximations.
Abstract: We give constant-factor approximation algorithms for branch-decomposition of planar graphs. Our main result is an algorithm which for an input planar graph \(G\) of \(n\) vertices and integer \(k\), in \(O(n\log ^4n)\) time either constructs a branch-decomposition of \(G\) with width at most \((2+\delta )k\), \(\delta >0\) is a constant, or a \((k+1)\times \lceil {\frac{k+1}{2}}\rceil \) cylinder minor of \(G\) implying \({\mathrm{bw}}(G)>k\), \({\mathrm{bw}}(G)\) is the branchwidth of \(G\). This is the first \(\tilde{O}(n)\) time constant-factor approximation for branchwidth/treewidth and largest grid/cylinder minors of planar graphs and improves the previous \(\min \{O(n^{1+\epsilon }),O(nk^3)\}\) (\(\epsilon >0\) is a constant) time constant-factor approximations. For a planar graph \(G\) and \(k={\mathrm{bw}}(G)\), a branch-decomposition of width at most \((2+\delta )k\) and a \(g\times \frac{g}{2}\) cylinder/grid minor with \(g=\frac{k}{\beta }\), \(\beta >2\) is constant, can be computed by our algorithm in \(O(n\log ^4n\log k)\) time.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: Deciding whether a given graph has a square root is known to be NP-complete, even if the root is required to be a chordal graph or even a split graph.
Abstract: The square of a graph \(G\), denoted \(G^2\), is obtained from \(G\) by putting an edge between two distinct vertices whenever their distance is two. Then \(G\) is called a square root of \(G^2\). Deciding whether a given graph has a square root is known to be NP-complete, even if the root is required to be a chordal graph or even a split graph.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: A general duality theorem for width parameters in combinatorial structures such as graphs and matroids is proved, which implies the classical such theorems for path- width, tree-width, branch- width and rank-width and gives rise to new width parameters with associated duality theorem.
Abstract: We prove a general duality theorem for width parameters in combinatorial structures such as graphs and matroids. It implies the classical such theorems for path-width, tree-width, branch-width and rank-width, and gives rise to new width parameters with associated duality theorems. The dense substructures witnessing large width are presented in a unified way akin to tangles, as orientations of separation systems satisfying certain consistency axioms.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The Hybridization Number problem asks if there exists a rooted phylogenetic network on \(X\) that displays all trees from \(\mathcal {T}\) and has reticulation number at most \(k\), and it is shown that hybridization Number admits a kernel of size \(4k(5k)^t\) if \(t\) (not necessarily binary) rooted phylogenetics trees are contains.
Abstract: A well-studied problem in phylogenetics is to determine the minimum number of hybridization events necessary to explain conflicts among several evolutionary trees, e.g. from different genes. An evolutionary history with hybridization events (or, more generally, reticulations) can be described by a rooted leaf-labelled directed acyclic graph, which is called a phylogenetic network. The reticulation number of such a phylogenetic network can be defined as the sum of all indegrees minus the number of vertices plus one. The considered problem can now formally be stated as follows. Given a finite set \(X\), a collection \(\mathcal {T}\) of rooted phylogenetic trees on \(X\) and \(k\in \mathbb {N}^{+}\), the Hybridization Number problem asks if there exists a rooted phylogenetic network on \(X\) that displays all trees from \(\mathcal {T}\) and has reticulation number at most \(k\). We show that Hybridization Number admits a kernel of size \(4k(5k)^t\) if \(\mathcal {T}\) contains \(t\) (not necessarily binary) rooted phylogenetic trees. In addition, we show a slightly different kernel of size \(20k^2(\varDelta ^+-1)\) with \(\varDelta ^+\) the maximum outdegree of the input trees.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This paper seeks a structural graph parameter that shares some of the generality of clique-width without paying this price.
Abstract: 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 the Exponential Time Hypothesis fails, as shown by Fomin et al. [7]. We therefore seek a structural graph parameter that shares some of the generality of clique-width without paying this price.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This work settles an open question by showing that Edge Hamiltonian Path is FPT parameterized by vertex cover, and that it also admits a cubic kernel, and shows fixed-parameter tractability even for a generalization of the problem to arbitrary hypergraphs, parameterization by the size of a (supplied) hitting set.
Abstract: We study the parameterized complexity of the classical Edge Hamiltonian Path problem and give several fixed-parameter tractability results. First, we settle an open question of Demaine et al. by showing that Edge Hamiltonian Path is FPT parameterized by vertex cover, and that it also admits a cubic kernel. We then show fixed-parameter tractability even for a generalization of the problem to arbitrary hypergraphs, parameterized by the size of a (supplied) hitting set. We also consider the problem parameterized by treewidth or clique-width. Surprisingly, we show that the problem is FPT for both of these standard parameters, in contrast to its vertex version, which is W[1]-hard for clique-width. Our technique, which may be of independent interest, relies on a structural characterization of clique-width in terms of treewidth and complete bipartite subgraphs due to Gurski and Wanke.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: It is shown that Boxicity is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the cluster vertex deletion number of the input graph, which generalizes the result of Adiga et al.
Abstract: The boxicity of a graph \(G\) is the least integer \(d\) such that \(G\) has an intersection model of axis-aligned \(d\)-dimensional boxes. Boxicity, the problem of deciding whether a given graph \(G\) has boxicity at most \(d\), is NP-complete for every fixed \(d \ge 2\). We show that Boxicity is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the cluster vertex deletion number of the input graph. This generalizes the result of Adiga et al. [4], that Boxicity is fixed-parameter tractable in the vertex cover number. Moreover, we show that Boxicity admits an additive \(1\)-approximation when parameterized by the pathwidth of the input graph.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This work shows how to combine the classic “double spanning tree” algorithm with Christofides’ algorithm to obtain a TSP tour of length at most \(\frac{4n}{3}\).
Abstract: We present an approach for the traveling salesman problem with graph metric based on Steiner cycles. A Steiner cycle is a cycle that is required to contain some specified subset of vertices. For a graph \(G\), if we can find a spanning tree \(T\) and a simple cycle that contains the vertices with odd-degree in \(T\), then we show how to combine the classic “double spanning tree” algorithm with Christofides’ algorithm to obtain a TSP tour of length at most \(\frac{4n}{3}\). We use this approach to show that a graph containing a Hamiltonian path has a TSP tour of length at most \(4n/3\).

Proceedings Article
01 Jan 2014
Abstract: The class of graphs that do not contain an induced path on $k$ vertices, $P_k$-free graphs, plays a prominent role in algorithmic graph theory. This motivates the search for special structural properties of $P_k$-free graphs, including alternative characterizations. Let $G$ be a connected $P_k$-free graph, $k \ge 4$. We show that $G$ admits a connected dominating set whose induced subgraph is either $P_{k-2}$-free, or isomorphic to $P_{k-2}$. Surprisingly, it turns out that every minimum connected dominating set of $G$ has this property. This yields a new characterization for $P_k$-free graphs: a graph $G$ is $P_k$-free if and only if each connected induced subgraph of $G$ has a connected dominating set whose induced subgraph is either $P_{k-2}$-free, or isomorphic to $C_k$. This improves and generalizes several previous results; the particular case of $k=7$ solves a problem posed by van 't Hof and Paulusma [A new characterization of $P_6$-free graphs, COCOON 2008]. In the second part of the paper, we present an efficient algorithm that, given a connected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, computes a connected dominating set $X$ of $G$ with the following property: for the minimum $k$ such that $G$ is $P_k$-free, the subgraph induced by $X$ is $P_{k-2}$-free or isomorphic to $P_{k-2}$. As an application our results, we prove that Hypergraph 2-Colorability, an NP-complete problem in general, can be solved in polynomial time for hypergraphs whose vertex-hyperedge incidence graph is $P_7$-free.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The problem of determining the Hadwiger number of a graph is NP-hard on co-bipartite graphs, but can be solved in polynomial time on cographs and on bipartite permutation graphs.
Abstract: The Hadwiger number of a graph \(G\) is the largest integer \(h\) such that \(G\) has the complete graph \(K_h\) as a minor. We show that the problem of determining the Hadwiger number of a graph is NP-hard on co-bipartite graphs, but can be solved in polynomial time on cographs and on bipartite permutation graphs. We also consider a natural generalization of this problem that asks for the largest integer \(h\) such that \(G\) has a minor with \(h\) vertices and diameter at most \(s\). We show that this problem can be solved in polynomial time on AT-free graphs when \(s\ge 2\), but is NP-hard on chordal graphs for every fixed \(s\ge 2\).

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: A linear-time algorithm is presented that solves Induced Disjoint Paths and finds the corresponding paths (if they exist) on circular-arc graphs.
Abstract: The Induced Disjoint Paths problem is to test whether a graph \(G\) with \(k\) distinct pairs of vertices \((s_{i},t_{i})\) contains paths \(P_{1},\ldots ,P_{k}\) such that \(P_{i}\) connects \(s_{i}\) and \(t_{i}\) for \(i=1,\ldots ,k\), and \(P_{i}\) and \(P_{j}\) have neither common vertices nor adjacent vertices (except perhaps their ends) for \(1 \le i < j \le k\). We present a linear-time algorithm that solves Induced Disjoint Paths and finds the corresponding paths (if they exist) on circular-arc graphs. For interval graphs, we exhibit a linear-time algorithm for the generalization of Induced Disjoint Paths where the pairs \((s_{i},t_{i})\) are not necessarily distinct.

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The approximation ratio is improved by giving a \(2-approximation algorithm for the MWEC problem, a \((2-\epsilon )\)-inapproximability under Small Set Expansion Conjecture conjecture is shown, and an approximation guarantee of \(\rho \) for the FCEC problem implies a \(rho (1+o(1))\) approximation.
Abstract: We study two problems related to the Small Set Expansion Conjecture [14]: the Maximum weight \(m'\) -edge cover (MWEC) problem and the Fixed cost minimum edge cover (FCEC) problem In the MWEC problem, we are given an undirected simple graph \(G=(V,E)\) with integral vertex weights The goal is to select a set \(U\subseteq V\) of maximum weight so that the number of edges with at least one endpoint in \(U\) is at most \(m'\) Goldschmidt and Hochbaum [8] show that the problem is NP-hard and they give a \(3\)-approximation algorithm for the problem The approximation guarantee was improved to \(2+\epsilon \), for any fixed \(\epsilon > 0\) [12] We present an approximation algorithm that achieves a guarantee of \(2\) Interestingly, we also show that for any constant \(\epsilon > 0\), a \((2-\epsilon )\)-ratio for MWEC implies that the Small Set Expansion Conjecture [14] does not hold Thus, assuming the Small Set Expansion Conjecture, the bound of 2 is tight In the FCEC problem, we are given a vertex weighted graph, a bound \(k\), and our goal is to find a subset of vertices \(U\) of total weight at least \(k\) such that the number of edges with at least one edges in \(U\) is minimized A \(2(1+\epsilon )\)-approximation for the problem follows from the work of Carnes and Shmoys [3] We improve the approximation ratio by giving a \(2\)-approximation algorithm for the problem and show a \((2-\epsilon )\)-inapproximability under Small Set Expansion Conjecture conjecture Only the NP-hardness result was known for this problem [8] We show that a natural linear program for FCEC has an integrality gap of \(2-o(1)\) We also show that for any constant \(\rho >1\), an approximation guarantee of \(\rho \) for the FCEC problem implies a \(\rho (1+o(1))\) approximation for MWEC Finally, we define the Degrees density augmentation problem which is the density version of the FCEC problem In this problem we are given an undirected graph \(G=(V,E)\) and a set \(U\subseteq V\) The objective is to find a set \(W\) so that \((e(W)+e(U,W))/deg(W)\) is maximum This problem admits an LP-based exact solution [4] We give a combinatorial algorithm for this problem

Book ChapterDOI
Felix Joos1
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: This work gives a complete characterization of mixed unit interval graphs, the intersection graphs of closed, open, and half-open unit intervals of the real line, and leads to a polynomial-time recognition algorithm for mixed unit intervals graphs.
Abstract: We give a complete characterization of mixed unit interval graphs, the intersection graphs of closed, open, and half-open unit intervals of the real line This is a proper superclass of the well known unit interval graphs Our result solves a problem posed by Dourado, Le, Protti, Rautenbach and Szwarcfiter (Mixed unit interval graphs Discrete Math 312, 3357–3363 (2012)) Our characterization also leads to a polynomial-time recognition algorithm for mixed unit interval graphs

Book ChapterDOI
25 Jun 2014
TL;DR: The non-separating families that allow us to prove that those two decompositions have the same properties on graphs and on trigraphs are introduced.
Abstract: We introduce the colored decompositions framework, in which vertices of the graph can be equipped with colors, and in which the goal is to find decompositions of this graph that do not separate the color classes. In this paper, we give two linear time algorithms for the colored modular and split decompositions of graphs, and we apply them to give linear time algorithms for the modular and split decompositions of trigraphs, which improves a result of Thomasse, Trotignon and Vuskovic (2013). As a byproduct, we introduce the non-separating families that allow us to prove that those two decompositions have the same properties on graphs and on trigraphs.