In the minimum $k$-cut problem, we want to find the minimum number of edges whose deletion breaks the input graph into at least $k$ connected components. The classic algorithm of Karger and Stein runs in $\tilde O(n^{2k-2})$ time, and recent, exciting developments have improved the running time to $O(n^k)$. For general, weighted graphs, this is tight assuming popular hardness conjectures. In this work, we show that perhaps surprisingly, $O(n^k)$ is not the right answer for simple, unweighted graphs. We design an algorithm that runs in time $O(n^{(1-\epsilon)k})$ where $\epsilon>0$ is an absolute constant, breaking the natural $n^k$ barrier. This establishes a separation of the two problems in the unweighted and weighted cases.
We study two "above guarantee" versions of the classical Longest Path problem on undirected and directed graphs and obtain the following results. In the first variant of Longest Path that we study, called Longest Detour, the task is to decide whether a graph has an (s,t)-path of length at least dist_G(s,t)+k (where dist_G(s,t) denotes the length of a shortest path from s to t). Bez\'akov\'a et al. proved that on undirected graphs the problem is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) by providing an algorithm of running time 2^{O (k)} n. Further, they left the parameterized complexity of the problem on directed graphs open. Our first main result establishes a connection between Longest Detour on directed graphs and 3-Disjoint Paths on directed graphs. Using these new insights, we design a 2^{O(k)} n^{O(1)} time algorithm for the problem on directed planar graphs. Further, the new approach yields a significantly faster FPT algorithm on undirected graphs. In the second variant of Longest Path, namely Longest Path Above Diameter, the task is to decide whether the graph has a path of length at least diam(G)+k (diam(G) denotes the length of a longest shortest path in a graph G). We obtain dichotomy results about Longest Path Above Diameter on undirected and directed graphs. For (un)directed graphs, Longest Path Above Diameter is NP-complete even for k=1. However, if the input undirected graph is 2-connected, then the problem is FPT. On the other hand, for 2-connected directed graphs, we show that Longest Path Above Diameter is solvable in polynomial time for each k\in{1,\dots, 4} and is NP-complete for every k\geq 5. The parameterized complexity of Longest Path Above Diameter on general directed graphs remains an interesting open problem.
The Maximum Induced Matching problem asks to find the maximum $k$ such that, given a graph $G=(V,E)$, can we find a subset of vertices $S$ of size $k$ for which every vertices $v$ in the induced graph $G[S]$ has exactly degree $1$. In this paper, we design an exact algorithm running in $O(1.2630^n)$ time and polynomial space to solve the Maximum Induced Matching problem for graphs where each vertex has degree at most 3. Prior work solved the problem by finding the Maximum Independent Set using polynomial space in the line graph $L(G^2)$; this method uses $O(1.3139^n)$ time.
Let $\Pi$ be a hereditary graph class. The problem of deletion to $\Pi$, takes as input a graph $G$ and asks for a minimum number (or a fixed integer $k$) of vertices to be deleted from $G$ so that the resulting graph belongs to $\Pi$. This is a well-studied problem in paradigms including approximation and parameterized complexity. Recently, the study of a natural extension of the problem was initiated where we are given a finite set of hereditary graph classes, and the goal is to determine whether $k$ vertices can be deleted from a given graph so that the connected components of the resulting graph belong to one of the given hereditary graph classes. The problem is shown to be FPT as long as the deletion problem to each of the given hereditary graph classes is fixed-parameter tractable, and the property of being in any of the graph classes is expressible in the counting monodic second order (CMSO) logic. While this was shown using some black box theorems, faster algorithms were shown when each of the hereditary graph classes has a finite forbidden set. In this paper, we do a deep dive on pairs of specific graph classes ($\Pi_1, \Pi_2$) in which we would like the connected components of the resulting graph to belong to, and design simpler and more efficient FPT algorithms. We design a general FPT algorithm and approximation algorithm for pairs of graph classes (possibly having infinite forbidden sets) satisfying certain conditions. These algorithms cover several pairs of popular graph classes. Our algorithm makes non-trivial use of the branching technique and as a black box, FPT algorithms for deletion to individual graph classes.
The possibilities offered by quantum computing have drawn attention in the distributed computing community recently, with several breakthrough results showing quantum distributed algorithms that run faster than the fastest known classical counterparts, and even separations between the two models. A prime example is the result by Izumi, Le Gall, and Magniez [STACS 2020], who showed that triangle detection by quantum distributed algorithms is easier than triangle listing, while an analogous result is not known in the classical case. In this paper we present a framework for fast quantum distributed clique detection. This improves upon the state-of-the-art for the triangle case, and is also more general, applying to larger clique sizes. Our main technical contribution is a new approach for detecting cliques by encapsulating this as a search task for nodes that can be added to smaller cliques. To extract the best complexities out of our approach, we develop a framework for nested distributed quantum searches, which employ checking procedures that are quantum themselves. Moreover, we show a circuit-complexity barrier on proving a lower bound of the form $\Omega(n^{3/5+\epsilon})$ for $K_p$-detection for any $p \geq 4$, even in the classical (non-quantum) distributed CONGEST setting.
An (m,n)-colored mixed graph, or simply, an (m,n)-graph is a graph having m different types of arcs and n different types of edges. A homomorphism of an (m,n)-graph G to another (m,n)-graph H is a vertex mapping that preserves adjacency, the type thereto and the direction. A subset R of the set of vertices of G that always maps distinct vertices in itself to distinct image vertices under any homomorphism is called an (m,n)-relative clique of G. The maximum cardinality of an (m,n)-relative clique of a graph is called the (m,n)-relative clique number of the graph. In this article, we explore the (m,n)-relative clique numbers for various families of graphs.
For a graph class ${\cal H}$, the graph parameters elimination distance to ${\cal H}$ (denoted by ${\bf ed}_{\cal H}$) [Bulian and Dawar, Algorithmica, 2016], and ${\cal H}$-treewidth (denoted by ${\bf tw}_{\cal H}$) [Eiben et al. JCSS, 2021] aim to minimize the treedepth and treewidth, respectively, of the "torso" of the graph induced on a modulator to the graph class ${\cal H}$. Here, the torso of a vertex set $S$ in a graph $G$ is the graph with vertex set $S$ and an edge between two vertices $u, v \in S$ if there is a path between $u$ and $v$ in $G$ whose internal vertices all lie outside $S$. In this paper, we show that from the perspective of (non-uniform) fixed-parameter tractability (FPT), the three parameters described above give equally powerful parameterizations for every hereditary graph class ${\cal H}$ that satisfies mild additional conditions. In fact, we show that for every hereditary graph class ${\cal H}$ satisfying mild additional conditions, with the exception of ${\bf tw}_{\cal H}$ parameterized by ${\bf ed}_{\cal H}$, for every pair of these parameters, computing one parameterized by itself or any of the others is FPT-equivalent to the standard vertex-deletion (to ${\cal H}$) problem. As an example, we prove that an FPT algorithm for the vertex-deletion problem implies a non-uniform FPT algorithm for computing ${\bf ed}_{\cal H}$ and ${\bf tw}_{\cal H}$. The conclusions of non-uniform FPT algorithms being somewhat unsatisfactory, we essentially prove that if ${\cal H}$ is hereditary, union-closed, CMSO-definable, and (a) the canonical equivalence relation (or any refinement thereof) for membership in the class can be efficiently computed, or (b) the class admits a "strong irrelevant vertex rule", then there exists a uniform FPT algorithm for ${\bf ed}_{\cal H}$.
We study the problem of query evaluation on probabilistic graphs, namely, tuple-independent probabilistic databases over signatures of arity two. We focus on the class of queries closed under homomorphisms, or, equivalently, the infinite unions of conjunctive queries. Our main result states that the probabilistic query evaluation problem is #P-hard for all unbounded queries from this class. As bounded queries from this class are equivalent to a union of conjunctive queries, they are already classified by the dichotomy of Dalvi and Suciu (2012). Hence, our result and theirs imply a complete data complexity dichotomy, between polynomial time and #P-hardness, on evaluating homomorphism-closed queries over probabilistic graphs. This dichotomy covers in particular all fragments of infinite unions of conjunctive queries over arity-two signatures, such as negation-free (disjunctive) Datalog, regular path queries, and a large class of ontology-mediated queries. The dichotomy also applies to a restricted case of probabilistic query evaluation called generalized model counting, where fact probabilities must be 0, 0.5, or 1. We show the main result by reducing from the problem of counting the valuations of positive partitioned 2-DNF formulae, or from the source-to-target reliability problem in an undirected graph, depending on properties of minimal models for the query.
We present a $(1- \varepsilon)$-approximation algorithms for maximum cardinality matchings in disk intersection graphs -- all with near linear running time. We also present estimation algorithm that returns $(1\pm \varepsilon)$-approximation to the size of such matchings -- this algorithms run in linear time for unit disks, and $O(n \log n)$ for general disks (as long as the density is relatively small).
In Defective Coloring we are given a graph $G$ and two integers $\chi_d$, $\Delta^*$ and are asked if we can $\chi_d$-color $G$ so that the maximum degree induced by any color class is at most $\Delta^*$. We show that this natural generalization of Coloring is much harder on several basic graph classes. In particular, we show that it is NP-hard on split graphs, even when one of the two parameters $\chi_d$, $\Delta^*$ is set to the smallest possible fixed value that does not trivialize the problem ($\chi_d = 2$ or $\Delta^* = 1$). Together with a simple treewidth-based DP algorithm this completely determines the complexity of the problem also on chordal graphs. We then consider the case of cographs and show that, somewhat surprisingly, Defective Coloring turns out to be one of the few natural problems which are NP-hard on this class. We complement this negative result by showing that Defective Coloring is in P for cographs if either $\chi_d$ or $\Delta^*$ is fixed; that it is in P for trivially perfect graphs; and that it admits a sub-exponential time algorithm for cographs when both $\chi_d$ and $\Delta^*$ are unbounded.
Shamir and Spencer proved in the 1980s that the chromatic number of the binomial random graph G(n,p) is concentrated in an interval of length at most \omega\sqrt{n}, and in the 1990s Alon showed that an interval of length \omega\sqrt{n}/\log n suffices for constant edge-probabilities p \in (0,1). We prove a similar logarithmic improvement of the Shamir-Spencer concentration results for the sparse case p=p(n) \to 0, and uncover a surprising concentration `jump' of the chromatic number in the very dense case p=p(n) \to 1.