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In 1943, Hadwiger conjectured that every graph with no K t + 1 minor is t-colorable for every t ≥ 0 . While Hadwiger's conjecture does not hold for list-coloring, the linear weakening is conjectured to be true. In the 1980 s, Kostochka and Thomason independently proved that every graph with no K t minor has average degree O ( t log ⁡ t ) and thus is O ( t log ⁡ t ) -list-colorable. Recently, the authors and Song proved that every graph with no K t minor is O ( t ( log ⁡ t ) β ) -colorable for every β > 1 4 . Here, we build on that result to show that every graph with no K t minor is O ( t ( log ⁡ t ) β ) -list-colorable for every β > 1 4 . Our main new tool is an upper bound on the number of vertices in highly connected K t -minor-free graphs: We prove that for every β > 1 4 , every Ω ( t ( log ⁡ t ) β ) -connected graph with no K t minor has O ( t ( log ⁡ t ) 7 / 4 ) vertices.

The suffix array, perhaps the most important data structure in modern string processing, is often augmented with the longest common prefix (LCP) array which stores the lengths of the LCPs for lexicographically adjacent suffixes of a string. Together the two arrays are roughly equivalent to the suffix tree with the LCP array representing the tree shape. In order to better understand the combinatorics of LCP arrays, we consider the problem of inferring a string from an LCP array, i.e., determining whether a given array of integers is a valid LCP array, and if it is, reconstructing some string or all strings with that LCP array. There are recent studies of inferring a string from a suffix tree shape but using significantly more information (in the form of suffix links) than is available in the LCP array. We provide two main results. (1) We describe two algorithms for inferring strings from an LCP array when we allow a generalized form of LCP array defined for a multiset of cyclic strings: a linear time algorithm for binary alphabet and a general algorithm with polynomial time complexity for a constant alphabet size. (2) We prove that determining whether a given integer array is a valid LCP array is NP-complete when we require more restricted forms of LCP array defined for a single cyclic or non-cyclic string or a multiset of non-cyclic strings. The result holds whether or not the alphabet is restricted to be binary. In combination, the two results show that the generalized form of LCP array for a multiset of cyclic strings is fundamentally different from the other more restricted forms.

The number of proper vertex-3-colorings of every triangle-free planar graph with n vertices and with no separating cycle of length 4 or 5 is at least 2 n / 17700000 . On the other hand, for infinitely many n, there exists a triangle-free planar graph with separating cycles of length 4 and 5 whose number of proper vertex-3-colorings is 2 15 n / log 2 ⁡ ( n ) .

What does it mean today to study a problem from a computational point of view? We focus on parameterized complexity and on Column 16 “Graph Restrictions and Their Effect” of D.S. Johnson’s Ongoing guide, where several puzzles were proposed in a summary table with 30 graph classes as rows and 11 problems as columns. Several of the 330 entries remain unclassified into Polynomial or NP -complete after 35 years. We provide a full dichotomy for the Steiner Tree column by proving that the problem is NP -complete when restricted to Undirected Path graphs. We revise Johnson’s summary table according to the granularity provided by the parameterized complexity for NP -complete problems.

Rainbow coloring problems, of noteworthy applications in Information Security, have been receiving much attention in the last years in Combinatorics. In particular, the rainbow connection number of a connected graph G , denoted r c ( G ) , is the least k for which G admits a (not necessarily proper) k -edge-coloring such that between any pair of vertices there is a path whose edge colors are all distinct. When G is disconnected, we define r c ( G ) = ∞ . A graph G is rainbow critical if the deletion of any edge of G increases r c ( G ) . In this paper we determine the rainbow connection number for the shadow graphs of paths, some circulant graphs, and some Cartesian products involving cycles and paths. We also determine conditions for the rainbow criticality and non-criticality of wheels, fans, and some Cartesian products involving cycles, paths, pans, and complete graphs.

Let G be a connected graph of order n , A ( G ) the adjacency matrix of G and D ( G ) the diagonal matrix of the row-sums of A ( G ) . For every real α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] , Nikiforov defined the matrix A α ( G ) as A α ( G ) = α D ( G ) + ( 1 − α ) A ( G ) . In this paper, we obtain a factorization of the A α -characteristic polynomial of the some families of graphs and determine in these families the conditions about α so that A α ( G ) is positive semidefinite.

We present a generalization of a combinatorial result by Aggarwal et al. (1989) on a linear-time algorithm that selects a constant fraction of leaves, with pairwise disjoint neighborhoods, from a binary tree embedded in the plane. This result of Aggarwal et al. (1989) is essential to the linear-time framework, which they also introduced, that computes certain Voronoi diagrams of points with a tree structure in linear time. An example is the diagram computed while updating the Voronoi diagram of points after deletion of one site. Our generalization allows that only a fraction of the tree leaves is considered, and it is motivated by research on linear time construction algorithms for Voronoi diagrams of non-point sites. We are given a plane tree T of n leaves, m of which have been marked, and each marked leaf is associated with a neighborhood (a subtree of T ) such that any two topologically consecutive marked leaves have disjoint neighborhoods. We show how to select in linear time a constant fraction of the marked leaves having pairwise disjoint neighborhoods.

The main objective of this article is to study the Wiener index of zero-divisor graph of the ring of integer modulo n . We present a constructed method to calculate the Wiener index of zero-divisor graph of Z n for any positive integer n .

We characterize the optimal solution to the linear programming relaxation of the standard formulation for the minimum satisfiability problem. We give a O ( n m 2 ) combinatorial algorithm to solve the fractional version of the minimum satisfiability problem optimally where n ( m ) is the number of variables (clauses). As a by-product, we obtain a 2 ( 1 − 1 ∕ 2 k ) approximation algorithm for the minimum satisfiability problem where k is the maximum number of literals in any clause.

The eternal vertex cover problem is a variant of the classical vertex cover problem defined in terms of an infinite attacker–defender game played on a graph. In each round of the game, the defender reconfigures guards from one vertex cover to another in response to a move by the attacker. The minimum number of guards required in any winning strategy of the defender when this game is played on a graph G is the eternal vertex cover number of G , denoted by evc ( G ) . It is known that given a graph G and an integer k , checking whether evc ( G ) ≤ k is NP-hard. Further, it is known that for any graph G , mvc ( G ) ≤ evc ( G ) ≤ 2 mvc ( G ) , where mvc ( G ) is the vertex cover number of G . Though a characterization is known for graphs for which evc ( G ) = 2 mvc ( G ) , a characterization of graphs for which evc ( G ) = mvc ( G ) remained as an open problem, since 2009. We achieve such a characterization for a class of graphs that includes chordal graphs and internally triangulated planar graphs. For biconnected chordal graphs, our characterization leads to a polynomial time algorithm for precisely determining evc ( G ) and an algorithm for determining a safe strategy for guard movement in each round of the game using only evc ( G ) guards. Though the eternal vertex cover problem is only known to be in PSPACE in general, it follows from our new characterization that the problem is in NP for locally connected graphs, a graph class which includes all biconnected internally triangulated planar graphs. We also provide reductions establishing NP-completeness of the problem for biconnected internally triangulated planar graphs. As far as we know, this is the first NP-completeness result known for the problem for any graph class.

In this paper, we study the Cartesian product of signed graphs as defined by Germina, Hameed and Zaslavsky (2011). Here we focus on its algebraic properties and look at the chromatic number of some Cartesian products. One of our main results is the unicity of the prime factor decomposition of signed graphs. This leads us to present an algorithm to compute this decomposition in linear time based on a decomposition algorithm for oriented graphs by Imrich and Peterin (2018). We also study the chromatic number of a signed graph, that is the minimum order of a signed graph to which the input signed graph admits a homomorphism, of graphs with underlying graph of the form P n □ P m , of Cartesian products of signed paths, of Cartesian products of signed complete graphs and of Cartesian products of signed cycles.

In communication networks, the existence of fractional factors can be characterized as the feasibility of data transmission. When some nonadjacent nodes with each other are damaged and a special channel is assigned, the possibility of data transmission in a communication network is equivalent to the existence of fractional ID-factor-critical covered graph. As a consequence, the existence of fractional ID- [ a , b ] -factor-critical covered graph plays a key role in studying data transmissions of communication networks. Neighborhood and minimum degree of a graph or a network are often used to measure the vulnerability and robustness of a graph or a network, which are two important parameters considered in network design. In this article, we mainly investigate the relationship between neighborhood of independent set, minimum degree and the fractional ID- [ a , b ] -factor-critical covered graph, and acquire a neighborhood of independent set and minimum degree condition for a graph being fractional ID- [ a , b ] -factor-critical covered, which is a generalization of the previous results.

Indicated coloring is a graph coloring game in which two players collectively color the vertices of a graph in the following way. In each round the first player (Ann) selects a vertex, and then the second player (Ben) colors it properly, using a fixed set of colors. The goal of Ann is to achieve a proper coloring of the whole graph, while Ben is trying to prevent the realization of this project. The smallest number of colors necessary for Ann to win the game on a graph $G$ (regardless of Ben's strategy) is called the indicated chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $\chi_i(G)$. In this paper, we have shown that for any graphs $G$ and $H$, $G[H]$ is $k$-indicated colorable for all $k\geq\mathrm{col}(G)\mathrm{col}(H)$. Also, we have shown that for any graph $G$ and for some classes of graphs $H$ with $\chi(H)=\chi_i(H)=\ell$, $G[H]$ is $k$-indicated colorable if and only if $G[K_\ell]$ is $k$-indicated colorable. As a consequence of this result we have shown that for some particular families of graphs $G$ and $H$, $G[H]$ is $k$-indicated colorable for every $k\geq \chi(G[H])$. This serves as a partial answer to one of the questions raised by A. Grzesik in \cite{and}. In addition, if $G$ is a Bipartite graph or a $\{P_5,K_3\}$-free graph (or) a $\{P_5,Paw\}$-free graph and if $H$ is from the same families of graphs, then we have shown that $\chi_i(G[H])=\chi(G[H])$.

A subset D ⊆ V of a graph G = ( V , E ) is called a global total k -dominating set of G if D is a total k -dominating set of both G and G ¯ , the complement of G . The Minimum Global Total k - Domination problem is to find a global total k -dominating set of minimum cardinality of the input graph G and the Decide Global Total k - Domination problem is the decision version of the Minimum Global Total k - Domination problem. The Decide Global Total k - Domination problem is known to be NP -complete for general graphs. In this paper, we study the complexity of the Minimum Global Total k - Domination problem. We show the Decide Global Total k - Domination problem remains NP -complete for bipartite graphs and chordal graphs. We also show that Minimum Global Total k - Domination cannot be approximated within a factor of ( 1 − ϵ ) ln | V | for any ϵ > 0 unless P = NP for bipartite graphs as well as for chordal graphs. Next, we show that Minimum Global Total k - Domination admits a constant approximation algorithm for bounded degree graphs. Finally, we show that Minimum Global Total k - Domination problem is APX -complete for bounded degree graphs. We also show that Decide Global Total k - Domination problem is W[2] -hard for bipartite graphs and for chordal graphs when we choose the size of the GTkD-set as the parameter.

In an undirected graph, a matching cut is a partition of vertices into two sets such that the edges across the sets induce a matching. The Matching Cut problem is the problem of deciding whether a given graph has a matching cut. Let H be a fixed undirected graph. A vertex coloring of an undirected input graph G is said to be an H - Free Coloring if none of the color classes contain H as an induced subgraph. The H - Free Chromatic Number of G is the minimum number of colors required for an H - Free Coloring of G . Both The Matching Cut problem and the H - Free Coloring problem can be expressed using a monadic second-order logic (MSOL) formula and hence is solvable in linear time for graphs with bounded tree-width. However, this approach leads to a running time of f ( | | φ | | , t ) n O ( 1 ) , where | | φ | | is the length of the MSOL formula, t is the tree-width of the graph and n is the number of vertices of the graph. The dependency of f ( | | φ | | , t ) on | | φ | | can be as bad as a tower of exponentials. In this paper, we provide explicit combinatorial FPT algorithms for Matching Cut problem and H - Free Coloring problem, parameterized by the tree-width of G . The single exponential FPT algorithm for the Matching Cut problem answers an open question posed by Kratsch and Le (2016). The techniques used in the paper are also used to provide an FPT algorithm for a variant of H -free coloring, where H is forbidden as a subgraph (not necessarily induced) in the color classes of G .

Sierpinski triangle graphs S n have often been mistaken for Sierpinski graphs S 3 n . Whereas the latter’s metric properties are by now well understood, the former graphs were mostly just considered as a pictorial representation of approximations to the Sierpinski triangle fractal. Therefore, we present here a new labeling for them which shows the relation, but also the differences to the more famous Sierpinski graphs proper. On the base of this labeling we describe an algorithm to obtain individual distances between vertices. This type of algorithm can then be extended to base- p Sierpinski triangle graphs S p n which are related to the class of classical Sierpinski graphs S p n , p ≥ 2 . Some of the metric properties of S p n can now be investigated for S p n as well; e.g., we characterize center and periphery of S p n .

Consider a variant of the famous Tower of Hanoi problem where moves of the discs are allowed along the edges of a connected simple graph D whose vertices represent the vertical pegs of the puzzle. The task is to transfer a tower of n ∈ N discs from one peg to another according to the well-known rules of the classical game corresponding to D ≅ K 3 . Apart from its recreational appeal, the problem brings about fascinating integer sequences engendered by the respective minimum number of moves, i.e. the distance in the canonical metric of the state graph H D n . We construct an algorithm which solves the task for all cases but the exceptional instance of the Linear Tower of Hanoi (i.e. where D is a path graph) in which the transfer is between the two end vertices of D . Optimality of this algorithm is claimed in our central conjecture which is supported by large-scale computational explorations.

An {\em orientation} of an undirected graph $G$ is an assignment of exactly one direction to each edge of $G$. Converting two-way traffic networks to one-way traffic networks and bidirectional communication networks to unidirectional communication networks are practical instances of graph orientations. In these contexts minimising the diameter of the resulting oriented graph is of prime interest. The $n$-star network topology was proposed as an alternative to the hypercube network topology for multiprocessor systems by Akers and Krishnamurthy [IEEE Trans. on Computers (1989)]. The $n$-star graph $S_n$ consists of $n!$ vertices, each labelled with a distinct permutation of $[n]$. Two vertices are adjacent if their labels differ exactly in the first and one other position. $S_n$ is an $(n-1)$-regular, vertex-transitive graph with diameter $\lfloor 3(n-1)/2 \rfloor$. Orientations of $S_n$, called unidirectional star graphs and distributed routing protocols over them were studied by Day and Tripathi [Information Processing Letters (1993)] and Fujita [The First International Symposium on Computing and Networking (CANDAR 2013)]. Fujita showed that the (directed) diameter of this unidirectional star graph $\overrightarrow{S_n}$ is at most $\lceil{5n/2}\rceil + 2$. In this paper, we propose a new distributed routing algorithm for the same $\overrightarrow{S_n}$ analysed by Fujita, which routes a packet from any node $s$ to any node $t$ at an undirected distance $d$ from $s$ using at most $\min\{4d+4, 2n+4\}$ hops. This shows that the (directed) diameter of $\overrightarrow{S_n}$ is at most $2n+4$. We also show that the diameter of $\overrightarrow{S_n}$ is at least $2n$ when $n \geq 7$, thereby showing that our upper bound is tight up to an additive factor., Full version of the paper to be presented in CALDAM 2020

A graph G is P ≥ k -factor deleted if for every edge e ∈ E ( G ) , G contains a P ≥ k -factor that excludes e . We first define the concept of ( P ≥ k , n ) -critical deleted graph, that is, a graph G is ( P ≥ k , n ) -critical deleted if for every subset D ⊆ V ( G ) with | D | = n , the graph G − D is P ≥ k -factor deleted. Clearly, a ( P ≥ k , 0 ) -critical deleted graph is a P ≥ k -factor deleted graph. In this paper, we verify that (i) an ( n + 2 ) -connected graph G is ( P ≥ 2 , n ) -critical deleted if its binding number b i n d ( G ) > 3 + n 4 ; (ii) an ( n + 2 ) -connected graph G is ( P ≥ 3 , n ) -critical deleted if its binding number b i n d ( G ) > 3 + n 2 . Furthermore, we claim that two results above are best possible in some sense.

Given a graph G , we call a partition ( V 1 , V 2 , … , V k ) of its vertex set an induced star partition of G if each set in the partition induces a star. In this paper, we consider the problem of finding an induced star partition of a graph of minimum size and its decision versions. This problem may be viewed as an amalgamation of the well-known dominating set and coloring problems. We obtain the following main results: (1) Deciding whether a graph can be partitioned into k induced stars is NP-complete for each fixed k ≥ 3 and has a polynomial time algorithm for each k ≤ 2 . (2) It is NP-hard to approximate the minimum induced star partition size within n 1 2 − ϵ for all ϵ > 0 . (3) The decision version of the induced star partition problem is NP-complete for subcubic bipartite planar graphs, line graphs (a subclass of K 1 , r -free graphs, r ≥ 3 ), K 1 , 5 -free split graphs and co-tripartite graphs. (4) The minimum induced star partition problem has an r 2 -approximation algorithm for K 1 , r -free graphs ( r ≥ 2 ) and a 2-approximation algorithms for split graphs. We also identify some fixed parameter tractable and exact exponential time algorithms that follow from the literature.

Let G = ( V , E ) be a simple undirected graph. A set D ⊆ V is called a vertex-edge dominating set of G if for each edge e = u v ∈ E , either u or v is in D or one vertex from their neighbor is in D . Simply, a vertex v ∈ V , vertex-edge dominates every edge u v , as well as every edge adjacent to these edges. The objective of the vertex-edge domination problem is to find a minimum size vertex-edge dominating set of G . Herein, we study the vertex-edge domination problem in unit disk graphs and prove that the decision version of the problem belongs to the NP-complete class. We also show that the problem admits a simple polynomial-time 4-factor approximation algorithm and a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) in unit disk graphs.

For a given graph $G$, the metric and edge metric dimensions of $G$, $\dim(G)$ and ${\rm edim}(G)$, are the cardinalities of the smallest possible subsets of vertices in $V(G)$ such that they uniquely identify the vertices and the edges of $G$, respectively, by means of distances. It is already known that metric and edge metric dimensions are not in general comparable. Infinite families of graphs with pendant vertices in which the edge metric dimension is smaller than the metric dimension are already known. In this article, we construct a 2-connected graph $G$ such that $\dim(G)=a$ and ${\rm edim}(G)=b$ for every pair of integers $a,b$, where $4\le b, Comment: 12 pages

We consider the directed minimum latency problem (DirLat), wherein we seek a path P visiting all points (or clients) in a given asymmetric metric starting at a given root node r, so as to minimize the sum of the client waiting times, where the waiting time of a client v is the length of the r-v portion of P. We give the first constant-factor approximation guarantee for DirLat, but in quasi-polynomial time. Previously, a polynomial-time O(log n)-approximation was known [Z. Friggstad et al., 2013], and no better approximation guarantees were known even in quasi-polynomial time. A key ingredient of our result, and our chief technical contribution, is an extension of a recent result of [A. Köhne et al., 2019] showing that the integrality gap of the natural Held-Karp relaxation for asymmetric TSP-Path (ATSPP) is at most a constant, which itself builds on the breakthrough similar result established for asymmetric TSP (ATSP) by Svensson et al. [O. Svensson et al., 2018]. We show that the integrality gap of the Held-Karp relaxation for ATSPP is bounded by a constant even if the cut requirements of the LP relaxation are relaxed from x(δ^{in}(S)) ≥ 1 to x(δ^{in}(S)) ≥ ρ for some constant 1/2 < ρ ≤ 1. We also give a better approximation guarantee for the minimum total-regret problem, where the goal is to find a path P that minimizes the total time that nodes spend in excess of their shortest-path distances from r, which can be cast as a special case of DirLat involving so-called regret metrics.

People are often reluctant to sell a house, or shares of stock, below the price at which they originally bought it. While this is generally not consistent with rational utility maximization, it does reflect two strong empirical regularities that are central to the behavioral science of human decision-making: a tendency to evaluate outcomes relative to a reference point determined by context (in this case the original purchase price), and the phenomenon of loss aversion in which people are particularly prone to avoid outcomes below the reference point. Here we explore the implications of reference points and loss aversion in optimal stopping problems, where people evaluate a sequence of options in one pass, either accepting the option and stopping the search or giving up on the option forever. The best option seen so far sets a reference point that shifts as the search progresses, and a biased decision-maker's utility incurs an additional penalty when they accept a later option that is below this reference point. We formulate and study a behaviorally well-motivated version of the optimal stopping problem that incorporates these notions of reference dependence and loss aversion. We obtain tight bounds on the performance of a biased agent in this model relative to the best option obtainable in retrospect (a type of prophet inequality for biased agents), as well as tight bounds on the ratio between the performance of a biased agent and the performance of a rational one. We further establish basic monotonicity results, and show an exponential gap between the performance of a biased agent in a stopping problem with respect to a worst-case versus a random order. As part of this, we establish fundamental differences between optimal stopping problems for rational versus biased agents, and these differences inform our analysis., Comment: To appear in the 2021 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC'21)

It is well known that the treewidth of a graph G corresponds to the node search number where a team of searchers is pursuing a fugitive that is lazy and invisible (or alternatively is agile and visible) and has the ability to move with infinite speed via unguarded paths. Recently, monotone and connected node search strategies have been considered. A search strategy is monotone if it prevents the fugitive from pervading again areas from where he had been expelled and is connected if, at each step, the set of vertices that is or has been occupied by the searchers induces a connected subgraph of G . It has been shown that the corresponding connected and monotone search number of a graph G can be expressed as the connected treewidth, denoted by ctw ( G ) , that is defined as the minimum width of a rooted tree-decomposition ( X , T , r ) , where the union of the bags corresponding to the nodes of a path of T containing the root r is connected in G . In this paper, we initiate the algorithmic study of connected treewidth. We design a O ( n 2 ⋅ log n ) -time dynamic programming algorithm to compute the connected treewidth of biconnected series–parallel graphs. At the price of an extra n factor in the running time, our algorithm generalizes to graphs of treewidth at most two.

A clutter is \emph{clean} if it has no delta or the blocker of an extended odd hole minor, and it is \emph{tangled} if its covering number is two and every element appears in a minimum cover. Clean tangled clutters have been instrumental in progress towards several open problems on ideal clutters, including the $\tau=2$ Conjecture. Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a clean tangled clutter. It was recently proved that $\mathcal{C}$ has a fractional packing of value two. Collecting the supports of all such fractional packings, we obtain what is called the {\it core} of $\mathcal{C}$. The core is a duplication of the cuboid of a set of $0-1$ points, called the {\it setcore} of $\mathcal{C}$. In this paper, we prove three results about the setcore. First, the convex hull of the setcore is a full-dimensional polytope containing the center point of the hypercube in its interior. Secondly, this polytope is a simplex if, and only if, the setcore is the cocycle space of a projective geometry over the two-element field. Finally, if this polytope is a simplex of dimension more than three, then $\mathcal{C}$ has the clutter of the lines of the Fano plane as a minor. Our results expose a fascinating interplay between the combinatorics and the geometry of clean tangled clutters.

This paper presents the properties of the minimum mean cycle-canceling algorithm for solving linear programming models. Originally designed for solving network flow problems for which it runs in strongly polynomial time, most of its properties are preserved. This is at the price of adapting the fundamental decomposition theorem of a network flow solution together with various definitions: that of a cycle and the way to calculate its cost, the residual problem, and the improvement factor at the end of a phase. We also use the primal and dual necessary and sufficient optimality conditions stated on the residual problem for establishing the pricing step giving its name to the algorithm. It turns out that the successive solutions need not be basic, there are no degenerate pivots, and the improving directions are potentially interior in addition to those on edges. For solving an m × n linear program, it requires a pseudo-polynomial number O ( n Δ ) of so-called phases, where Δ depends on the number of rows and the coefficient matrix.

Consider a region that requires to be protected from unauthorized penetrations. The border of the region, modeled as a unit line segment, consists of high priority segments that require the highest level of protection separated by low priority segments that require to be visited infinitely often. We study the problem of patrolling the border with a set of k robots. The goal is to obtain a strategy that minimizes the maximum idle time (the time that a point is left unattended) of the high priority points while visiting the low priority points infinitely often. We use the concept of single lid cover (segments of fixed length) where each high priority point is covered with at least one lid, and then we extend it to strong double-lid cover where each high priority point is covered with at least two lids, and the unit line segment is fully covered. Let λk-1 be the minimum lid length that accepts a single λk-1-lid cover with k - 1 lids and Λ2k be the minimum lid length that accepts a strong double Λ2k-lid cover with 2k lids. We show that 2min(Λ2k, λk-1) is the lower bound of the idle time when the max speed of the robots is one. To compute Λ2k and λk-1, we present an algorithm with time complexity O(max(k, n) logn) where n is the number of high priority sections. Our algorithm improves by a factor of min(n, k) the previous O(knlogn) running time algorithm. For the upper bound, first we present a strategy with idle time λk-1 where one robot covers the unit line, and the remaining robots cover the lids of a single λk-1-lid cover with k - 1 lids. Then, we present a simple strategy with idle time 3Λ2k that splits the unit line into not-disjoint k segments of equal length that robots synchronously cover, i.e., reaching the leftmost and rightmost point simultaneously. Then, we present a complex strategy that split the unit line into k non-disjoint segments that robots asynchronously cover. We show that combining strategies one and two attain an approximation of 1.5 the optimal idle time and combining strategy one and third attain optimal idle time.

Let q be a power of the prime number p, let K = F q ( t ) , and let r ⩾ 2 be an integer. For points a , b ∈ K which are F q -linearly independent, we show that there exist positive constants N 0 and c 0 such that for each integer l ⩾ N 0 and for each generator τ of F q l / F q , we have that for all except N 0 values λ ∈ F q ‾ , the corresponding specializations a ( τ ) and b ( τ ) cannot have orders of degrees less than c 0 log ⁡ log ⁡ l as torsion points for the Drinfeld module Φ ( τ , λ ) : F q [ T ] ⟶ End F q ‾ ( G a ) (where G a is the additive group scheme), given by Φ T ( τ , λ ) ( x ) = τ x + λ x q + x q r .

International audience; In this paper we study a single machine scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the sum of completion times. Each of the given jobs is either short or long. However the processing times are initially hidden to the algorithm, but can be tested. This is done by executing a processing time oracle, which reveals the processing time of a given job. Each test occupies a time unit in the schedule, therefore the algorithm must decide for which jobs it will call the processing time oracle. The objective value of the resulting schedule is compared with the objective value of an optimal schedule, which is computed using full information. The resulting competitive ratio measures the price of hidden processing times, and the goal is to design an algorithm with minimal competitive ratio. Two models are studied in this paper. In the non-adaptive model, the algorithm needs to decide beforehand which jobs to test, and which jobs to execute untested. However in the adaptive model, the algorithm can make these decisions adaptively depending on the outcomes of the job tests. In both models we provide optimal polynomial time algorithms following a two-phase strategy, which consist of a first phase where jobs are tested, and a second phase where jobs are executed obliviously. Experiments give strong evidence that optimal algorithms have this structure. Proving this property is left as an open problem

Given a connected graph $G=(V,E)$ and a length function $\ell:E\to {\mathbb R}$ we let $d_{v,w}$ denote the shortest distance between vertex $v$ and vertex $w$. A $t$-spanner is a subset $E'\subseteq E$ such that if $d'_{v,w}$ denotes shortest distances in the subgraph $G'=(V,E')$ then $d'_{v,w}\leq t d_{v,w}$ for all $v,w\in V$. We show that for a large class of graphs with suitable degree and expansion properties with independent exponential mean one edge lengths, there is w.h.p.~a 1-spanner that uses $\approx \frac12n\log n$ edges and that this is best possible. In particular, our result applies to the random graphs $G_{n,p}$ for $np\gg \log n$.

Diagnosis plays an important role in measuring the reliability of an interconnection network, and the diagnosability of interconnection networks has been widely investigated. For a system G , Zhang et al. introduced h -extra conditional diagnosability, denoted by t h ( G ) , which is a novel measure of diagnosability. In this paper, several new structural properties of balanced hypercubes have been derived. Based on these properties, the 3-extra conditional diagnosability of an n -dimensional balanced hypercube is determined to be t 3 ( B H n ) = 4 n − 1 for n ≥ 5 under the MM ∗ model.

For a graph G and c R : E ( G ) → [ k ] , a path P between u , v ∈ V ( G ) is a rainbow path if for distinct e , e ′ ∈ E ( P ) , we have c R ( e ) ≠ c R ( e ′ ) . Rainbow k -Coloring takes a graph G and the objective is to check if there is c R : E ( G ) → [ k ] such that for all u , v ∈ V ( G ) there is a rainbow path between u and v. Two variants of the above problem are Subset Rainbow k -Coloring and Steiner Rainbow k -Coloring , where we are additionally given a subset S ⊆ V ( G ) × V ( G ) and S ′ ⊆ V ( G ) , respectively. Moreover, the objective is to check if there is c R : E ( G ) → [ k ] , such that there is a rainbow path for each ( u , v ) ∈ S and u , v ∈ S ′ , respectively. Under ETH, we obtain that for each k ≥ 3 : 1. Rainbow k -Coloring has no 2 o ( | E ( G ) | ) n O ( 1 ) -time algorithm. 2. Steiner Rainbow k -Coloring has no 2 o ( | S | 2 ) n O ( 1 ) -time algorithm. We also obtain that Subset Rainbow k -Coloring and Steiner Rainbow k -Coloring admit 2 O ( | S | ) n O ( 1 ) - and 2 O ( | S | 2 ) n O ( 1 ) -time algorithms, respectively.

We introduce multi-poly-Bernoulli–Carlitz numbers, function field analogues of multi-poly-Bernoulli numbers of Imatomi–Kaneko–Takeda. We explicitly describe multi-poly-Bernoulli Carlitz numbers in terms of the Carlitz factorial and the Stirling–Carlitz numbers of the second kind and also show their relationships with function field analogues of finite multiple zeta values.

We study growth rates of generalised Fibonacci sequences of a particular structure. These sequences are constructed from choosing two real numbers for the first two terms and always having the next term be either the sum or the difference of the two preceding terms where the pluses and minuses follow a certain pattern. In 2012, McLellan proved that if the pluses and minuses follow a periodic pattern and G n is the nth term of the resulting generalised Fibonacci sequence, then lim n → ∞ ⁡ | G n | 1 / n exists. We extend her results to recurrences of the form G m + 2 = α m G m + 1 ± G m if the choices of pluses and minuses, and of the α m follow a balancing word type pattern.

We study the Student-Project Allocation problem with lecturer preferences over Projects ( spa-p ). In this context it is known that stable matchings can have different sizes and the problem of finding a maximum size stable matching is NP-hard. There are two known approximation algorithms for max-spa-p , with performance guarantees 2 and 3 2 . We show that max-spa-p is polynomial-time solvable if there is only one lecturer involved, and NP-hard to approximate within some constant c > 1 if there are two lecturers involved. We also show that this problem remains NP-hard if each preference list is of length at most 3, with an arbitrary number of lecturers. We then describe an Integer Programming (IP) model to enable max-spa-p to be solved optimally in the general case. Following this, we present results arising from an empirical evaluation that investigates how the solutions produced by the approximation algorithms compare to optimal solutions obtained from the IP model, with respect to the size of the stable matchings constructed, on instances that are both randomly-generated and derived from real datasets.

We present well known properties related to the topology of Steiner minimal trees and to the geometric position of Steiner points, and investigate their application in the exact algorithms that have been proposed for the Euclidean Steiner problem. We discuss the difficulty in the application of properties that were very successfully applied to solve the problem in the plane, when the dimension of the space increases, and point out that the application of some geometric conditions for Steiner points is hindered when the well known implicit enumeration scheme proposed by Smith in 1992 is considered. Finally, we mention mathematical-optimization methods as a direction to explore in the search for good formulations of inequalities that would allow the application of these restrictive geometric conditions.

We represent a flow of a graph G = ( V , E ) as a couple ( C , e ) with C a circuit of G and e an edge of C , and its incidence vector is the 0 ∕ ± 1 vector χ C ∖ e − χ e . The flow cone of G is the cone generated by the flows of G and the unit vectors. When G has no K 5 -minor, this cone can be described by the system x ( M ) ≥ 0 for all multicuts M of G . We prove that this system is box-totally dual integral if and only if G is series–parallel. Then, we refine this result to provide the Schrijver system describing the flow cone in series–parallel graphs. This answers a question raised by Chervet et al., (2018).

This work focuses on finding optimal locations for charging stations for one-way electric car sharing programs. The relocation of vehicles by a service staff is generally required in vehicle sharing programs in order to correct imbalances in the network. We seek to limit the need for vehicle relocation by strategically locating charging stations given estimates of traffic flow. A mixed-integer linear programming formulation is presented with a large number of potential charging station locations. A column generation approach is used which finds an optimal set of locations for the continuous relaxation of our problem. Results of a numerical experiment using real traffic and geographic information system location data show that our formulation significantly increases the balanced flow across the network, while our column generation technique was found to produce a superior solution in much shorter computation time compared to solving the original formulation with all possible station locations.

An online algorithm is typically unaware of the length of the input request sequence that it is called upon. Consequently, it cannot determine whether it has already processed most of its input or whether the bulk of work is still ahead. In this paper, we are interested in whether some sort of orientation within the request sequence is nevertheless possible. For a real number 0 f 1 , our objective is to preemptively guess the position f n within the request sequence of unknown length n : While processing the input, the online algorithm maintains a guess and is only allowed to update its guess to the position of the current element under investigation. We give a complete characterization of the optimal guessing strategies with respect to f : For f ≤ f 0 ≈ 0 . 1867 , the trivial algorithm that never updates its initial guess is (asymptotically) optimal. For f > f 0 , we give a randomized algorithm that in expectation places the guess at distance β ( f ) n from f n , where β is a non-elementary function, and we prove that this is optimal. Our findings show that the position f max n ≈ 0 . 2847 n is hardest to guess. We also give upper and lower bounds for a natural extension to weighted sequences. Our work can also be seen as the first randomized approach to the online checkpointing problem.

The question if a given partial solution to a problem can be extended reasonably occurs in many algorithmic approaches for optimization problems. For instance, when enumerating minimal dominating sets of a graph $G=(V,E)$, one usually arrives at the problem to decide for a vertex set $U \subseteq V$, if there exists a \textit{minimal} dominating set $S$ with $U\subseteq S$. We propose a general, partial-order based formulation of such extension problems and study a number of specific problems which can be expressed in this framework. Possibly contradicting intuition, these problems tend to be NP-hard, even for problems where the underlying optimisation problem can be solved in polynomial time. This raises the question of how fixing a partial solution causes this increase in difficulty. In this regard, we study the parameterised complexity of extension problems with respect to parameters related to the partial solution, as well as the optimality of simple exact algorithms under the Exponential-Time Hypothesis. All complexity considerations are also carried out in very restricted scenarios, be it degree restrictions or topological restrictions (planarity) for graph problems or the size of the given partition for the considered extension variant of Bin Packing.

In this paper we investigate non-linear matroid optimization problems with polynomial objective functions where the monomials satisfy certain monotonicity properties. Indeed, we study problems where the set of non-linear monomials consists of all non-linear monomials that can be built from a given subset of the variables. Linearizing all non-linear monomials we study the respective polytope. We present a complete description of this polytope. Apart from linearization constraints one needs appropriately strengthened rank inequalities. The separation problem for these inequalities reduces to a submodular function minimization problem. These polyhedral results give rise to a new hierarchy for the solution of matroid optimization problems with polynomial objectives. This hierarchy allows to strengthen the relaxations of arbitrary linearized combinatorial optimization problems with polynomial objective functions and matroidal substructures. Finally, we give suggestions for future work.

A graph G is a B 0 -VPG graph if one can associate a horizontal or vertical path on a rectangular grid with each vertex such that two vertices are adjacent if and only if the corresponding paths intersect in at least one grid-point. A graph G is a contact B 0 -VPG graph if it is a B 0 -VPG graph admitting a representation with no one-point paths, no two paths crossing, and no two paths sharing an edge of the grid. In this paper, we present a minimal forbidden induced subgraph characterisation of contact B 0 -VPG graphs within four special graph classes: chordal graphs, tree-cographs, P 4 -tidy graphs and P 5 -free graphs. Moreover, we present a polynomial-time algorithm for recognising chordal contact B 0 -VPG graphs.

Within the framework of the superadditive duality theory of integer programming, we study two types of dual-feasible functions of a single real variable (Alves et al., 2016). We introduce software that automates testing piecewise linear functions for maximality and extremality, enabling a computer-based search. We build a connection to cut-generating functions in the Gomory–Johnson and related models, complete the characterization of maximal functions, and prove analogues of the Gomory–Johnson 2-slope theorem and the Basu–Hildebrand–Molinaro approximation theorem.

We prove a new PPA parity theorem: Given a bipartite graph G with bipartition ( A , B ) where B is a set of even-degree vertices, and given a tree T ∗ of G containing all of A , such that any vertex of B in T ∗ has degree 2 in T ∗ and such that each vertex of A which is not a leaf of T ∗ is met by an odd number of edges not in T ∗ , then there is an even number of trees of G containing all of A , with degree 0 or 2 at each vertex of B and with the same degree as T ∗ at each vertex of A . This theorem generalizes Berman’s generalization of Thomason’s generalization of Smith’s Theorem.

In d - Scattered Set we are given an (edge-weighted) graph and are asked to select at least k vertices, so that the distance between any pair is at least d , thus generalizing Independent Set . We provide upper and lower bounds on the complexity of this problem with respect to various standard graph parameters. In particular, we show the following: • For any d ≥ 2 , an O ∗ ( d tw ) -time algorithm, where tw is the treewidth of the input graph and a tight SETH-based lower bound matching this algorithm’s performance. These generalize known results for Independent Set . • d - Scattered Set is W[1]-hard parameterized by vertex cover (for edge-weighted graphs), or feedback vertex set (for unweighted graphs), even if k is an additional parameter. • A single-exponential algorithm parameterized by vertex cover for unweighted graphs, complementing the above-mentioned hardness. • A 2 O ( td 2 ) -time algorithm parameterized by tree-depth ( td ), as well as a matching ETH-based lower bound, both for unweighted graphs. We complement these mostly negative results by providing an FPT approximation scheme parameterized by treewidth. In particular, we give an algorithm which, for any error parameter ϵ > 0 , runs in time O ∗ ( ( tw ∕ ϵ ) O ( tw ) ) and returns a d ∕ ( 1 + ϵ ) -scattered set of size k , if a d -scattered set of the same size exists.

Scatter Search is an evolutionary metaheuristic introduced by Glover (1977) as a heuristic for integer programming and was joined with a directional rounding strategy for 0–1 Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) problems based on Star Paths in Glover (1995). In this paper, we address directional rounding both independently and together with these other algorithmic components, studying its properties as a mapping from continuous to discrete (binary) space. We establish several useful properties of directional rounding and show that it provides an extension of classical rounding and complementing operators. Moreover, we observe that directional rounding of a line, as embodied in a Star Path, contains a finite number of distinct 0–1 points. This property, together with those of the solution space of 0–1 MIP, enables us to organize the search for an optimal solution of 0–1 MIP problems using Scatter Search in association with both cutting plane and extreme point solution approaches. Building on this, we provide a Convergent Scatter Search algorithm for 0–1 Mixed Integer Programs with proof of its finite convergence, along with two variants of its implementation and examples that illustrate the running of the approach.

This work is devoted to the study of the Lovasz–Schrijver PSD-operator L S + applied to the edge relaxation ESTAB ( G ) of the stable set polytope STAB ( G ) of a graph G . In order to characterize the graphs G for which STAB ( G ) is achieved in one iteration of the L S + -operator, called L S + -perfect graphs, an according conjecture has been recently formulated ( L S + -Perfect Graph Conjecture). Here we study two graph classes defined by clique cutsets (pseudothreshold graphs and graphs without certain Truemper configurations). We completely describe the facets of the stable set polytope for such graphs, which enables us to show that one class is a subclass of L S + -perfect graphs, and to verify the L S + -Perfect Graph Conjecture for the other class.