arXiv subjects

Holger Spakowski

Publications and source records attributed to Holger Spakowski.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Complexity of Domatic Criticality

The domatic number dom(G) of a graph G is the maximum number of dominating sets in a partition of its vertex set. A graph is domatically critical if deleting any edge lowers its domatic number. We determine the complexity of recognizing domatically critical graphs both when the domatic number is prescribed and when it is unrestricted. The problems DomCrit_1 and DomCrit_2 are polynomial-time decidable; in particular, DomCrit_2 consists precisely of the nonempty disjoint unions of nontrivial stars. In contrast, for every fixed integer k >= 3, the problem DomCrit_k is DP-complete under polynomial-time many-one reductions. The hardness proof at target value three uses a switch construction that reduces from edge-minimal 3-uncolorability and controls the effect of deleting every edge of the constructed graph. Clique addition then lifts the target-three result to every larger fixed target value. For the unrestricted recognition problem, we prove DP-hardness and membership in Theta_2^p.

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arXiv2026

Closing the Complexity Gap for Exact Domatic Number at Three and Four

The exact domatic-number problem asks, for a fixed integer k, whether a given graph G satisfies dom(G) = k. Riege and Rothe proved DP-completeness for every fixed k >= 5, while the cases k = 3 and k = 4 remained open. We close this classification gap. The main ingredient is a polynomial-time reduction from 3SAT whose output graphs have domatic number 4 in the satisfiable case and domatic number 2 in the unsatisfiable case; in particular, the reduction never produces a graph of domatic number 3. This directly realizes the route suggested by Riege and Rothe for closing the remaining cases. Together with a simpler three-versus-two reduction, this yields DP-completeness of Exact-3-DNP and Exact-4-DNP. The proofs are constructive and give explicit graph gadgets whose local domination constraints encode truth assignments and clause satisfaction. The soundness arguments show conversely that any sufficiently large domatic partition enforces the intended consistency conditions and therefore yields a satisfying assignment. Consequently, Exact-k-DNP is DP-complete for every fixed k >= 3, completing the fixed-value classification from k = 3 onward.

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arXiv2018

Team Diagonalization

Ten years ago, Glaßer, Pavan, Selman, and Zhang [GPSZ08] proved that if P $\neq$ NP, then all NP-complete sets can be simply split into two NP-complete sets. That advance might naturally make one wonder about a quite different potential consequence of NP-completeness: Can the union of easy NP sets ever be hard? In particular, can the union of two non-NP-complete NP sets ever be NP-complete? Amazingly, Ladner [Lad75] resolved this more than forty years ago: If P $\neq$ NP, then all NP-complete sets can be simply split into two non-NP-complete NP sets. Indeed, this holds even when one requires the two non-NP-complete NP sets to be disjoint. We present this result as a mini-tutorial. We give a relatively detailed proof of this result, using the same technique and idea Ladner [Lad75] invented and used in proving a rich collection of results that include many that are more general than this result: delayed diagonalization. In particular, the proof presented is based on what one can call team diagonalization (or if one is being playful, perhaps even tag-team diagonalization): Multiple sets are formed separately by delayed diagonalization, yet those diagonalizations are mutually aware and delay some of their actions until their partner(s) have also succeeded in some coordinated action. We relatedly note that, as a consequence of Ladner's result, if P $\neq$ NP, there exist OptP functions f and g whose composition is NP-hard yet neither f nor g is NP-hard.

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arXiv2018

The Robustness of LWPP and WPP, with an Application to Graph Reconstruction

We show that the counting class LWPP [FFK94] remains unchanged even if one allows a polynomial number of gap values rather than one. On the other hand, we show that it is impossible to improve this from polynomially many gap values to a superpolynomial number of gap values by relativizable proof techniques. The first of these results implies that the Legitimate Deck Problem (from the study of graph reconstruction) is in LWPP (and thus low for PP, i.e., $\rm PP^{\mbox{Legitimate Deck}} = PP$) if the weakened version of the Reconstruction Conjecture holds in which the number of nonisomorphic preimages is assumed merely to be polynomially bounded. This strengthens the 1992 result of Köbler, Schöning, and Torán [KST92] that the Legitimate Deck Problem is in LWPP if the Reconstruction Conjecture holds, and provides strengthened evidence that the Legitimate Deck Problem is not NP-hard. We additionally show on the one hand that our main LWPP robustness result also holds for WPP, and also holds even when one allows both the rejection- and acceptance- gap-value targets to simultaneously be polynomial-sized lists; yet on the other hand, we show that for the #P-based analog of LWPP the behavior much differs in that, in some relativized worlds, even two target values already yield a richer class than one value does. Despite that nonrobustness result for a #P-based class, we show that the #P-based "exact counting" class $\rm C_{=}P$ remains unchanged even if one allows a polynomial number of target values for the number of accepting paths of the machine.

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arXiv2008

Frequency of Correctness versus Average-Case Polynomial Time and Generalized Juntas

We prove that every distributional problem solvable in polynomial time on the average with respect to the uniform distribution has a frequently self-knowingly correct polynomial-time algorithm. We also study some features of probability weight of correctness with respect to generalizations of Procaccia and Rosenschein's junta distributions [PR07b].

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arXiv2007

On Approximating Optimal Weighted Lobbying, and Frequency of Correctness versus Average-Case Polynomial Time

We investigate issues related to two hard problems related to voting, the optimal weighted lobbying problem and the winner problem for Dodgson elections. Regarding the former, Christian et al. [CFRS06] showed that optimal lobbying is intractable in the sense of parameterized complexity. We provide an efficient greedy algorithm that achieves a logarithmic approximation ratio for this problem and even for a more general variant--optimal weighted lobbying. We prove that essentially no better approximation ratio than ours can be proven for this greedy algorithm. The problem of determining Dodgson winners is known to be complete for parallel access to NP [HHR97]. Homan and Hemaspaandra [HH06] proposed an efficient greedy heuristic for finding Dodgson winners with a guaranteed frequency of success, and their heuristic is a ``frequently self-knowingly correct algorithm.'' We prove that every distributional problem solvable in polynomial time on the average with respect to the uniform distribution has a frequently self-knowingly correct polynomial-time algorithm. Furthermore, we study some features of probability weight of correctness with respect to Procaccia and Rosenschein's junta distributions [PR07].

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arXiv2007

Hierarchical Unambiguity

We develop techniques to investigate relativized hierarchical unambiguous computation. We apply our techniques to generalize known constructs involving relativized unambiguity based complexity classes (UP and \mathcal{UP}) to new constructs involving arbitrary higher levels of the relativized unambiguous polynomial hierarchy (UPH). Our techniques are developed on constraints imposed by hierarchical arrangement of unambiguous nondeterministic polynomial-time Turing machines, and so they differ substantially, in applicability and in nature, from standard methods (such as the switching lemma [Hastad, Computational Limitations of Small-Depth Circuits, MIT Press, 1987]), which play roles in carrying out similar generalizations. Aside from achieving these generalizations, we resolve a question posed by Cai, Hemachandra, and Vyskoc [J. Cai, L. Hemachandra, and J. Vyskoc, Promises and fault-tolerant database access, In K. Ambos-Spies, S. Homer, and U. Schoening, editors, Complexity Theory, pages 101-146. Cambridge University Press, 1993] on an issue related to nonadaptive Turing access to UP and adaptive smart Turing access to \mathcal{UP}.

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arXiv2006

An Improved Exact Algorithm for the Domatic Number Problem

The 3-domatic number problem asks whether a given graph can be partitioned intothree dominating sets. We prove that this problem can be solved by a deterministic algorithm in time 2.695^n (up to polynomial factors). This result improves the previous bound of 2.8805^n, which is due to Fomin, Grandoni, Pyatkin, and Stepanov. To prove our result, we combine an algorithm by Fomin et al. with Yamamoto's algorithm for the satisfiability problem. In addition, we show that the 3-domatic number problem can be solved for graphs G with bounded maximum degree Delta(G) by a randomized algorithm, whose running time is better than the previous bound due to Riege and Rothe whenever Delta(G) >= 5. Our new randomized algorithm employs Schoening's approach to constraint satisfaction problems.

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arXiv2005

Recognizing When Heuristics Can Approximate Minimum Vertex Covers Is Complete for Parallel Access to NP

For both the edge deletion heuristic and the maximum-degree greedy heuristic, we study the problem of recognizing those graphs for which that heuristic can approximate the size of a minimum vertex cover within a constant factor of r, where r is a fixed rational number. Our main results are that these problems are complete for the class of problems solvable via parallel access to NP. To achieve these main results, we also show that the restriction of the vertex cover problem to those graphs for which either of these heuristics can find an optimal solution remains NP-hard.

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arXiv2003

Complexity of Cycle Length Modularity Problems in Graphs

The even cycle problem for both undirected and directed graphs has been the topic of intense research in the last decade. In this paper, we study the computational complexity of \emph{cycle length modularity problems}. Roughly speaking, in a cycle length modularity problem, given an input (undirected or directed) graph, one has to determine whether the graph has a cycle $C$ of a specific length (or one of several different lengths), modulo a fixed integer. We denote the two families (one for undirected graphs and one for directed graphs) of problems by $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm UC}$ and $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm DC}$, where $m \in \mathcal{N}$ and $S \subseteq \{0,1, ..., m-1\}$. $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm UC}$ (respectively, $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm DC}$) is defined as follows: Given an undirected (respectively, directed) graph $G$, is there a cycle in $G$ whose length, modulo $m$, is a member of $S$? In this paper, we fully classify (i.e., as either polynomial-time solvable or as ${\rm NP}$-complete) each problem $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm UC}$ such that $0 \in S$ and each problem $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm DC}$ such that $0 \notin S$. We also give a sufficient condition on $S$ and $m$ for the following problem to be polynomial-time computable: $(S,m)\hbox{-}{\rm UC}$ such that $0 \notin S$.

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arXiv2001

Exact Complexity of the Winner Problem for Young Elections

In 1977, Young proposed a voting scheme that extends the Condorcet Principle based on the fewest possible number of voters whose removal yields a Condorcet winner. We prove that both the winner and the ranking problem for Young elections is complete for the class of problems solvable in polynomial time by parallel access to NP. Analogous results for Lewis Carroll's 1876 voting scheme were recently established by Hemaspaandra et al. In contrast, we prove that the winner and ranking problems in Fishburn's homogeneous variant of Carroll's voting scheme can be solved efficiently by linear programming.

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