A Discharging Method: Improved Kernels for Edge Triangle Packing and Covering

Zimo Sheng; Mingyu Xiao

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arXiv · 2308.16515

A Discharging Method: Improved Kernels for Edge Triangle Packing and Covering

Zimo Sheng·Mingyu Xiao

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Abstract

\textsc{Edge Triangle Packing} and \textsc{Edge Triangle Covering} are dual problems extensively studied in the field of parameterized complexity. Given a graph $G$ and an integer $k$, \textsc{Edge Triangle Packing} seeks to determine whether there exists a set of at least $k$ edge-disjoint triangles in $G$, while \textsc{Edge Triangle Covering} aims to find out whether there exists a set of at most $k$ edges that intersects all triangles in $G$. Previous research has shown that \textsc{Edge Triangle Packing} has a kernel of $(3+\epsilon)k$ vertices, while \textsc{Edge Triangle Covering} has a kernel of $6k$ vertices. In this paper, we show that the two problems allow kernels of $3k$ vertices, improving all previous results. A significant contribution of our work is the utilization of a novel discharging method for analyzing kernel size, which exhibits potential for analyzing other kernel algorithms.

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BibTeX RIS

Zimo Sheng, Mingyu Xiao. 2023-08-31. A Discharging Method: Improved Kernels for Edge Triangle Packing and Covering. https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.16515

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