Search

We study the Length-Bounded Cut problem for special graph classes and from a parameterized complexity viewpoint. Here, we are given a graph G , two vertices s and t , and positive integers β and λ. The task is to find a set F of at most β edges such that each s - t -path of length at most λ in G contains some edge in F. Bazgan et al. [20] conjectured that Length-Bounded Cut admits a polynomial-time algorithm if the input graph is a proper interval graph. We confirm this conjecture by providing a dynamic-programming-based polynomial-time algorithm. Moreover, we strengthen the W[1]-hardness result of Dvořák and Knop [15] for Length-Bounded Cut parameterized by pathwidth by showing W[1]-hardness for the combined parameter pathwidth and maximum degree of the input graph. Finally, we prove that Length-Bounded Cut is W[1]-hard for the feedback vertex number. Both our hardness results complement known XP algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similar to the satisfiability (SAT) problem, which can be seen to be the archetypical problem for NP, the quantified Boolean formula problem (QBF) is the archetypical problem for PSPACE. Recently, Atserias and Oliva (2014) showed that, unlike for SAT, many of the well-known decompositional parameters (such as treewidth and pathwidth) do not allow efficient algorithms for QBF. The main reason for this seems to be the lack of awareness of these parameters towards the dependencies between variables of a QBF formula. In this paper we extend the ordinary pathwidth to the QBF-setting by introducing prefix pathwidth, which takes into account the dependencies between variables in a QBF, and show that it leads to an efficient algorithm for QBF. We hope that our approach will help to initiate the study of novel tailor-made decompositional parameters for QBF and thereby help to lift the success of these decompositional parameters from SAT to QBF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topological theory for semi-complete digraphs, pioneered by Chudnovsky, Fradkin, Kim, Scott, and Seymour [10–12,28,43,39] , concentrates on the interplay between the most important width measures — cutwidth and pathwidth — and containment relations like topological/minor containment or immersion. We propose a new approach to this theory that is based on outdegree orderings and new families of obstacles for cutwidth and pathwidth. Using the new approach we are able to reprove the most important known results in a unified and simplified manner, as well as provide multiple improvements. Notably, we obtain a number of efficient approximation and fixed-parameter tractable algorithms for computing width measures of semi-complete digraphs, as well as fast fixed-parameter tractable algorithms for testing containment relations in the semi-complete setting. As a direct corollary of our work, we also derive explicit and essentially tight bounds on duality relations between width parameters and containment orderings in semi-complete digraphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The treewidth of a graph is an important invariant in structural and algorithmic graph theory. This paper studies the treewidth of line graphs . We show that determining the treewidth of the line graph of a graph G is equivalent to determining the minimum vertex congestion of an embedding of G into a tree. Using this result, we prove sharp lower bounds in terms of both the minimum degree and average degree of G . These results are precise enough to exactly determine the treewidth of the line graph of a complete graph and other interesting examples. We also improve the best known upper bound on the treewidth of a line graph. Analogous results are proved for pathwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So-called ordered variants of the classical notions of pathwidth and treewidth are introduced and proposed as proof theoretically meaningful complexity measures for the directed acyclic graphs underlying proofs. Ordered pathwidth is roughly the same as proof space and the ordered treewidth of a proof is meant to serve as a measure of how far it is from being treelike. Length-space lower bounds for k -DNF refutations are generalized to arbitrary infinity axioms and strengthened in that the space measure is relaxed to ordered treewidth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Graph Searching, a team of searchers aims at capturing an invisible fugitive moving arbitrarily fast in a graph. Equivalently, the searchers try to clear a contaminated network. The problem is to compute the minimum number of searchers required to accomplish this task. Several variants of Graph Searching have been studied mainly because of their close relationship with the pathwidth of a graph. In this paper, we study the complexity of the Exclusive Graph Searching variant. We show that the problem is NP-hard in planar graphs and it can be solved in linear-time in the class of cographs. We also show that monotone Exclusive Graph Searching is NP-complete in split graphs where Pathwidth is known to be solvable in polynomial time. Moreover, we prove that monotone Exclusive Graph Searching is in P in a subclass of star-like graphs where Pathwidth is known to be NP-hard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a bicriterion generalization of the pathwidth problem: given integers k , l and a graph G , does there exist a path decomposition of G of width at most k and length (i.e., number of bags) at most l ? We provide a complete complexity classification of the problem in terms of k and l for general graphs. Contrary to the original pathwidth problem, which is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to k , the generalized problem is NP-complete for any fixed k ≥ 4 , and also for any fixed l ≥ 2 . On the other hand, we give a polynomial-time algorithm that constructs a minimum-length path decomposition of width at most k ≤ 3 for any disconnected input graph. As a by-product, we obtain an almost complete classification for connected graphs: the problem is NP-complete for any fixed k ≥ 5 , and polynomial for any k ≤ 3 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We will revisit the categorical notion of cospan decompositions of graphs and compare it to the well-known notions of path decomposition and tree decomposition from graph theory. More specifically, we will define several types of cospan decompositions with appropriate width measures and show that these width measures coincide with pathwidth and treewidth. Such graph decompositions of small width are used to efficiently decide graph properties, for instance via graph automata. Hence we will give an application by defining graph-accepting tree automata, thus integrating previous work by Courcelle into the setting of cospan decompositions. Furthermore we will show that regardless of whether we consider path or tree decompositions, we arrive at the same notion of recognizability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We prove that if a tournament has pathwidth then it has θ vertices that are pairwise θ-connected. As a consequence of this and previous results, we obtain that for every set of tournaments the following are equivalent: [•] there exists k such that every member of has pathwidth at most k, [•] there is a digraph H such that no subdivision of H is a subdigraph of any member of , [•] there exists k such that for each , there do not exist k vertices of T that are pairwise k-connected. As a further consequence, we obtain a polynomial-time algorithm to test whether a tournament contains a subdivision of a fixed digraph H as a subdigraph. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate algorithms for some related graph parameters. Each of these asks for a linear ordering of the vertices of the graph (or can be formulated as such), and constructive linear time algorithms for the fixed parameter versions of the problems have been published for several of these. Examples are cutwidth, pathwidth, and directed or weighted variants of these. However, these algorithms have complicated technical details. This paper attempts to present ideas in these algorithms in a different more easily accessible manner, by showing that the algorithms can be obtained by a stepwise modification of a trivial hypothetical non-deterministic algorithm. The methodology is applied to rederive known results for the cutwidth and the pathwidth problem, and obtain new results for several variants of these problems, like directed and weighted variants of cutwidth and modified cutwidth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Search games are attractive for their correspondence with classical width parameters. For instance, the invisible search number (a.k.a. node search number) of a graph is equal to its pathwidth plus 1, and the visible search number of a graph is equal to its treewidth plus 1. The connected variants of these games ask for search strategies that are connected, i.e., at every step of the strategy, the searched part of the graph induces a connected subgraph. We focus on monotone search strategies, i.e., strategies for which every node is searched exactly once. The monotone connected visible search number of an n-node graph is at most times its visible search number. First, we prove that this logarithmic bound is tight. Precisely, we prove that there is an infinite family of graphs for which the ratio monotone connected visible search number over visible search number is . Second, we prove that, as opposed to the non-connected variant of visible graph searching, “recontamination helps” for connected visible search. Precisely, we prove that, for any , there exists a graph with connected visible search number at most k, and monotone connected visible search number >k [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this article we consider the application of ideas from parameterized complexity, and topological graph theory, to online problems. We focus on parameterized promise problems, where we are promised that the problem input obeys certain properties, or is presented in a certain fashion. We explore the effects of using graph width metrics as restrictions on the input to online problems. It seems natural to suppose that, for graphs having some form of bounded width, good online algorithms may exist for a number of natural problems. In the work presented we concentrate on online graph coloring problems, where we restrict the allowed input to instances having some form of bounded treewidth or pathwidth. We also consider the effects of restricting the presentation of the input to some form of bounded width decomposition or layout. A consequence of this part of the work is the clarification of a new parameter for graphs, persistence, which arises naturally in the online setting, and is of interest in its own right. We present some basic results regarding the general recognition of graphs having bounded persistence path decompositions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The cutwidth of a graph G is the smallest integer k such that the vertices of G can be arranged in a linear layout in such a way that, for every , there are at most k edges with one endpoint in and the other in . In this paper we provide, for any constant k, a linear time algorithm that for any input graph G, answers whether G has cutwidth at most k and, in the case of a positive answer, outputs the corresponding linear layout. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The cutwidth of a graph G is defined to be the smallest integer k such that the vertices of G can be arranged in a vertex ordering in a way that, for every , there are at most k edges with one endpoint in and the other in . We examine the problem of computing in polynomial time the cutwidth of a partial w-tree with bounded degree. In particular, we show how to construct an algorithm that, in steps, computes the cutwidth of any partial w-tree with vertices of degree bounded by a fixed constant d. Our algorithm is constructive in the sense that it can be adapted to output a corresponding optimal vertex ordering. Also, it is the main subroutine of an algorithm computing the pathwidth of a bounded degree partial w-tree with the same time complexity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We describe an O(nlogn) algorithm for the computation of the vertex separation of unicyclic graphs. The algorithm also computes a linear layout with optimal vertex separation in the same time bound. Pathwidth, node search number and vertex separation are different ways of defining the same notion. Path decompositions and search strategies can be derived from linear layouts. The algorithm applies existing, linear time, techniques for the computation of the vertex separation of trees together with corresponding optimal layouts. We reformulate the earlier work on the linear time computation of optimal layouts. A polynomial time algorithm for the problem on unicyclic graphs can be inferred from existing more general methods for graphs of fixed treewidth, since unicyclic graphs have treewidth two, but the time complexity of the resulting method would seem to be an inordinately high order polynomial. Our algorithm we claim is “practical.” The addition of one edge to a tree does seem to require a considerably more elaborate algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There exists a polynomial time algorithm to compute the pathwidth of outerplanar graphs, but the large exponent makes this algorithm impractical. In this paper, we give an algorithm that, given a biconnected outerplanar graph G, finds a path decomposition of G of pathwidth at most twice the pathwidth of G plus one. To obtain the result, several relations between the pathwidth of a biconnected outerplanar graph and its dual are established. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]