arXiv subjects

Dimitrios M. Thilikos

Publications and source records attributed to Dimitrios M. Thilikos.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

A k-core Decomposition Framework for Graph Clustering

Graph clustering or community detection constitutes an important task for investigating the internal structure of graphs, with a plethora of applications in several domains. Traditional techniques for graph clustering, such as spectral methods, typically suffer from high time and space complexity. In this article, we present CoreCluster, an efficient graph clustering framework based on the concept of graph degeneracy, that can be used along with any known graph clustering algorithm. Our approach capitalizes on processing the graph in an hierarchical manner provided by its core expansion sequence, an ordered partition of the graph into different levels according to the k-core decomposition. Such a partition provides an efficient way to process the graph in an incremental manner that preserves its clustering structure, while making the execution of the chosen clustering algorithm much faster due to the smaller size of the graph's partitions onto which the algorithm operates. An experimental analysis on a multitude of real and synthetic data demonstrates that our approach can be applied to any clustering algorithm accelerating the clustering process, while the quality of the clustering structure is preserved or even improved.

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arXiv2016

Irrelevant Vertices for the Planar Disjoint Paths Problem

The Disjoint Paths Problem asks, given a graph $G$ and a set of pairs of terminals $(s_{1},t_{1}),\ldots,(s_{k},t_{k})$, whether there is a collection of $k$ pairwise vertex-disjoint paths linking $s_{i}$ and $t_{i}$, for $i=1,\ldots,k.$ In their $f(k)\cdot n^{3}$ algorithm for this problem, Robertson and Seymour introduced the irrelevant vertex technique according to which in every instance of treewidth greater than $g(k)$ there is an "irrelevant" vertex whose removal creates an equivalent instance of the problem. This fact is based on the celebrated Unique Linkage Theorem, whose - very technical - proof gives a function $g(k)$ that is responsible for an immense parameter dependence in the running time of the algorithm. In this paper we give a new and self-contained proof of this result that strongly exploits the combinatorial properties of planar graphs and achieves $g(k)=O(k^{3/2}\cdot 2^{k}).$ Our bound is radically better than the bounds known for general graphs.

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arXiv2016

Packing and Covering Immersion Models of Planar subcubic Graphs

A graph $H$ is an immersion of a graph $G$ if $H$ can be obtained by some sugraph $G$ after lifting incident edges. We prove that there is a polynomial function $f:\Bbb{N}\times\Bbb{N}\rightarrow\Bbb{N}$, such that if $H$ is a connected planar subcubic graph on $h>0$ edges, $G$ is a graph, and $k$ is a non-negative integer, then either $G$ contains $k$ vertex/edge-disjoint subgraphs, each containing $H$ as an immersion, or $G$ contains a set $F$ of $f(k,h)$ vertices/edges such that $G\setminus F$ does not contain $H$ as an immersion.

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arXiv2016

The Structure of $W_4$-Immersion-Free Graphs

We study the structure of graphs that do not contain the wheel on 5 vertices W4 as an immersion, and show that these graphs can be constructed via 1, 2, and 3-edge-sums from subcubic graphs and graphs of bounded treewidth.

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arXiv2016

The Parameterized Complexity of Graph Cyclability

The cyclability of a graph is the maximum integer $k$ for which every $k$ vertices lie on a cycle. The algorithmic version of the problem, given a graph $G$ and a non-negative integer $k,$ decide whether the cyclability of $G$ is at least $k,$ is {\sf NP}-hard. We study the parametrized complexity of this problem. We prove that this problem, parameterized by $k,$ is ${\sf co\mbox{-}W[1]}$-hard and that its does not admit a polynomial kernel on planar graphs, unless ${\sf NP}\subseteq{\sf co}\mbox{-}{\sf NP}/{\sf poly}$. On the positive side, we give an {\sf FPT} algorithm for planar graphs that runs in time $2^{2^{O(k^2\log k)}}\cdot n^2$. Our algorithm is based on a series of graph-theoretical results on cyclic linkages in planar graphs.

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arXiv2015

Planar Disjoint-Paths Completion

introduce {\sc Planar Disjoint Paths Completion}, a completion counterpart of the Disjoint Paths problem, and study its parameterized complexity. The problem can be stated as follows: given a, not necessarily connected, plane graph $G,$ $k$ pairs of terminals, and a face $F$ of $G,$ find a minimum-size set of edges, if one exists, to be added inside $F$ so that the embedding remains planar and the pairs become connected by $k$ disjoint paths in the augmented network. Our results are twofold: first, we give an upper bound on the number of necessary additional edges when a solution exists. This bound is a function of $k$, independent of the size of $G.$ Second, we show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable, in particular, it can be solved in time $f(k)\cdot n^{2}.$

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arXiv2015

Low Polynomial Exclusion of Planar Graph Patterns

The celebrated grid exclusion theorem states that for every $h$-vertex planar graph $H$, there is a constant $c_{h}$ such that if a graph $G$ does not contain $H$ as a minor then $G$ has treewidth at most $c_{h}$. We are looking for patterns of $H$ where this bound can become a low degree polynomial. We provide such bounds for the following parameterized graphs: the wheel ($c_{h}=O(h)$), the double wheel ($c_{h}=O(h^2\cdot \log^{2} h)$), any graph of pathwidth at most 2 ($c_{h}=O(h^{2})$), and the yurt graph ($c_{h}=O(h^{4})$).

math.CO↗

arXiv2015

Parameterized Algorithms for Min-Max Multiway Cut and List Digraph Homomorphism

In this paper we design {\sf FPT}-algorithms for two parameterized problems. The first is \textsc{List Digraph Homomorphism}: given two digraphs $G$ and $H$ and a list of allowed vertices of $H$ for every vertex of $G$, the question is whether there exists a homomorphism from $G$ to $H$ respecting the list constraints. The second problem is a variant of \textsc{Multiway Cut}, namely \textsc{Min-Max Multiway Cut}: given a graph $G$, a non-negative integer $\ell$, and a set $T$ of $r$ terminals, the question is whether we can partition the vertices of $G$ into $r$ parts such that (a) each part contains one terminal and (b) there are at most $\ell$ edges with only one endpoint in this part. We parameterize \textsc{List Digraph Homomorphism} by the number $w$ of edges of $G$ that are mapped to non-loop edges of $H$ and we give a time $2^{O(\ell\cdot\log h+\ell^2\cdot \log \ell)}\cdot n^{4}\cdot \log n$ algorithm, where $h$ is the order of the host graph $H$. We also prove that \textsc{Min-Max Multiway Cut} can be solved in time $2^{O((\ell r)^2\log \ell r)}\cdot n^{4}\cdot \log n$. Our approach introduces a general problem, called {\sc List Allocation}, whose expressive power permits the design of parameterized reductions of both aforementioned problems to it. Then our results are based on an {\sf FPT}-algorithm for the {\sc List Allocation} problem that is designed using a suitable adaptation of the {\em randomized contractions} technique (introduced by [Chitnis, Cygan, Hajiaghayi, Pilipczuk, and Pilipczuk, FOCS 2012]).

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arXiv2015

An FPT 2-Approximation for Tree-Cut Decomposition

The tree-cut width of a graph is a graph parameter defined by Wollan [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B, 110:47-66, 2015] with the help of tree-cut decompositions. In certain cases, tree-cut width appears to be more adequate than treewidth as an invariant that, when bounded, can accelerate the resolution of intractable problems. While designing algorithms for problems with bounded tree-cut width, it is important to have a parametrically tractable way to compute the exact value of this parameter or, at least, some constant approximation of it. In this paper we give a parameterized 2-approximation algorithm for the computation of tree-cut width; for an input $n$-vertex graph $G$ and an integer $w$, our algorithm either confirms that the tree-cut width of $G$ is more than $w$ or returns a tree-cut decomposition of $G$ certifying that its tree-cut width is at most $2w$, in time $2^{O(w^2\log w)} \cdot n^2$. Prior to this work, no constructive parameterized algorithms, even approximated ones, existed for computing the tree-cut width of a graph. As a consequence of the Graph Minors series by Robertson and Seymour, only the existence of a decision algorithm was known.

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arXiv2015

An edge variant of the Erdős-Pósa property

For every $r\in \mathbb{N}$, we denote by $θ_{r}$ the multigraph with two vertices and $r$ parallel edges. Given a graph $G$, we say that a subgraph $H$ of $G$ is a model of $θ_{r}$ in $G$ if $H$ contains $θ_{r}$ as a contraction. We prove that the following edge variant of the Erd{\H o}s-P{ó}sa property holds for every $r\geq 2$: if $G$ is a graph and $k$ is a positive integer, then either $G$ contains a packing of $k$ mutually edge-disjoint models of $θ_{r}$, or it contains a set $S$ of $f_r(k)$ edges such that $G\setminus S$ has no $θ_{r}$-model, for both $f_r(k) = O(k^2r^3 \mathrm{polylog}~kr)$ and $f_r(k) = O(k^4r^2 \mathrm{polylog}~kr).$

math.CO↗

arXiv2015

Variants of Plane Diameter Completion

The {\sc Plane Diameter Completion} problem asks, given a plane graph $G$ and a positive integer $d$, if it is a spanning subgraph of a plane graph $H$ that has diameter at most $d$. We examine two variants of this problem where the input comes with another parameter $k$. In the first variant, called BPDC, $k$ upper bounds the total number of edges to be added and in the second, called BFPDC, $k$ upper bounds the number of additional edges per face. We prove that both problems are {\sf NP}-complete, the first even for 3-connected graphs of face-degree at most 4 and the second even when $k=1$ on 3-connected graphs of face-degree at most 5. In this paper we give parameterized algorithms for both problems that run in $O(n^{3})+2^{2^{O((kd)^2\log d)}}\cdot n$ steps.

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arXiv2015

Contraction Obstructions for Connected Graph Searching

We consider the connected variant of the classic mixed search game where, in each search step, cleaned edges form a connected subgraph. We consider graph classes with bounded connected (and monotone) mixed search number and we deal with the question whether the obstruction set, with respect of the contraction partial ordering, for those classes is finite. In general, there is no guarantee that those sets are finite, as graphs are not well quasi ordered under the contraction partial ordering relation. In this paper we provide the obstruction set for $k=2$, where $k$ is the number of searchers we are allowed to use. This set is finite, it consists of 177 graphs and completely characterises the graphs with connected (and monotone) mixed search number at most 2. Our proof reveals that the "sense of direction" of an optimal search searching is important for connected search which is in contrast to the unconnected original case. We also give a double exponential lower bound on the size of the obstruction set for the classes where this set is finite.

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arXiv2015

Editing to a Planar Graph of Given Degrees

We consider the following graph modification problem. Let the input consist of a graph $G=(V,E)$, a weight function $w\colon V\cup E\rightarrow \mathbb{N}$, a cost function $c\colon V\cup E\rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ and a degree function $δ\colon V\rightarrow \mathbb{N}_0$, together with three integers $k_v, k_e$ and $C$. The question is whether we can delete a set of vertices of total weight at most $k_v$ and a set of edges of total weight at most $k_e$ so that the total cost of the deleted elements is at most $C$ and every non-deleted vertex $v$ has degree $δ(v)$ in the resulting graph $G'$. We also consider the variant in which $G'$ must be connected. Both problems are known to be NP-complete and W[1]-hard when parameterized by $k_v+k_e$. We prove that, when restricted to planar graphs, they stay NP-complete but have polynomial kernels when parameterized by $k_v+k_e$.

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arXiv2015

An alternative proof for the constructive Asymmetric Lovász Local Lemma

We provide an alternative constructive proof of the Asymmetric Lovász Local Lemma. Our proof uses the classic algorithmic framework of Moser and the analysis introduced by Giotis, Kirousis, Psaromiligkos, and Thilikos in "On the algorithmic Lovász Local Lemma and acyclic edge coloring", combined with the work of Bender and Richmond on the multivariable Lagrange Inversion formula.

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arXiv2014

Explicit linear kernels via dynamic programming

Several algorithmic meta-theorems on kernelization have appeared in the last years, starting with the result of Bodlaender et al. [FOCS 2009] on graphs of bounded genus, then generalized by Fomin et al. [SODA 2010] to graphs excluding a fixed minor, and by Kim et al. [ICALP 2013] to graphs excluding a fixed topological minor. Typically, these results guarantee the existence of linear or polynomial kernels on sparse graph classes for problems satisfying some generic conditions but, mainly due to their generality, it is not clear how to derive from them constructive kernels with explicit constants. In this paper we make a step toward a fully constructive meta-kernelization theory on sparse graphs. Our approach is based on a more explicit protrusion replacement machinery that, instead of expressibility in CMSO logic, uses dynamic programming, which allows us to find an explicit upper bound on the size of the derived kernels. We demonstrate the usefulness of our techniques by providing the first explicit linear kernels for $r$-Dominating Set and $r$-Scattered Set on apex-minor-free graphs, and for Planar-\mathcal{F}-Deletion on graphs excluding a fixed (topological) minor in the case where all the graphs in \mathcal{F} are connected.

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arXiv2014

A Polynomial-time Algorithm for Outerplanar Diameter Improvement

The Outerplanar Diameter Improvement problem asks, given a graph $G$ and an integer $D$, whether it is possible to add edges to $G$ in a way that the resulting graph is outerplanar and has diameter at most $D$. We provide a dynamic programming algorithm that solves this problem in polynomial time. Outerplanar Diameter Improvement demonstrates several structural analogues to the celebrated and challenging Planar Diameter Improvement problem, where the resulting graph should, instead, be planar. The complexity status of this latter problem is open.

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arXiv2013

Nearly Planar Graphs and λ-flat Graphs

A graph G is ξ-nearly planar if it can be embedded in the sphere so that each of its edges is crossed at most ξ times. The family of ξ-nearly planar graphs is widely extending the notion of planarity. We introduce an alternative parameterized graph family extending the notion of planarity, the λ-flat graphs, this time defined as powers of plane graphs in regard to a novel notion of distance, the wall-by-wall distance. We show that the two parameterized graph classes are parametrically equivalent.

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arXiv2013

(Meta) Kernelization

In a parameterized problem, every instance I comes with a positive integer k. The problem is said to admit a polynomial kernel if, in polynomial time, one can reduce the size of the instance I to a polynomial in k, while preserving the answer. In this work we give two meta-theorems on kernelzation. The first theorem says that all problems expressible in Counting Monadic Second Order Logic and satisfying a coverability property admit a polynomial kernel on graphs of bounded genus. Our second result is that all problems that have finite integer index and satisfy a weaker coverability property admit a linear kernel on graphs of bounded genus. These theorems unify and extend all previously known kernelization results for planar graph problems.

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