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Hugo Jacob

Publications and source records attributed to Hugo Jacob.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Decomposing tournaments into comparability graphs

In this note, we introduce the \emph{partial order decomposition number} of a digraph $D$, denoted $pod(D)$, defined as the minimum integer $k$ such that $A(D)=A(P_1)\cup\cdots\cup A(P_k)$, where $P_1,\ldots,P_k$ are partial orders on $V(D)$. We prove that $\dic(D)\le \diomega(D)^{pod(D)}$ for every digraph $D$. In particular, every class of digraphs with bounded $pod$ is polynomially $\dic$-bounded. We apply this to tournaments, showing that if $\mathcal C$ is a class of tournaments with bounded dichromatic number, then the closure of $\mathcal C$ under substitution is polynomially $\dic$-bounded, thereby making progress on a question of Aubian, Charbit, Lopes, and the first author. As further applications of $pod$, we prove that poset tournaments of bounded dimension are $\dic$-bounded, derive polynomial lower bounds on the directed clique number of an explicit family of tournaments, thereby answering a conjecture of Gutowski and Rams, and show that tournaments with bounded $pod$ have bounded domination number.

math.CO↗
arXiv2025

Planar induced paths via a decomposition into non-crossing ordered graphs

In any graph, the maximum size of an induced path is bounded by the maximum size of a path. However, in the general case, one cannot find a converse bound, even up to an arbitrary function, as evidenced by the case of cliques. Galvin, Rival and Sands proved in 1982 that, when restricted to weakly sparse graphs, such a converse property actually holds. In this paper, we consider the maximal function $f$ such that any planar graph (and in general, any graph of bounded genus) containing a path on $n$ vertices contains an induced path of size $f(n)$, and prove that $f(n) \in \Theta \left(\frac{\log n}{\log \log n}\right)$ by providing a lower bound matching the upper bound obtained by Esperet, Lemoine and Maffray, up to a constant factor. We obtain these tight bounds by analyzing graphs ordered along a Hamiltonian path that admit an edge partition into a bounded number of sets without crossing edges. In particular, we prove that when such an ordered graph can be partitioned into $2k$ sets of non-crossing edges, then it contains an induced path of size $\Omega_k\left(\left(\frac{\log n}{\log \log n}\right)^{1/k} \right)$ and provide almost matching upper bounds.

math.CO↗
arXiv2025

On a tree-based variant of bandwidth and forbidding simple topological minors

We obtain structure theorems for graphs excluding a fan (a path with a universal vertex) or a dipole ($K_{2,k}$) as a topological minor. The corresponding decompositions can be computed in FPT linear time. This is motivated by the study of a graph parameter we call treebandwidth which extends the graph parameter bandwidth by replacing the linear layout by a rooted tree such that neighbours in the graph are in ancestor-descendant relation in the tree. We deduce an approximation algorithm for treebandwidth running in FPT linear time from our structure theorems. We complement this result with a precise characterisation of the parameterised complexity of computing the parameter exactly.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2025

Twin-width one

We investigate the structure of graphs of twin-width at most $1$, and obtain the following results: - Graphs of twin-width at most $1$ are permutation graphs. In particular they have an intersection model and a linear structure. - There is always a $1$-contraction sequence closely following a given permutation diagram. - Based on a recursive decomposition theorem, we obtain a simple algorithm running in linear time that produces a $1$-contraction sequence of a graph, or guarantees that it has twin-width more than $1$. - We characterise distance-hereditary graphs based on their twin-width and deduce a linear time algorithm to compute optimal sequences on this class of graphs.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2022

Exact antichain saturation numbers via a generalisation of a result of Lehman-Ron

For given positive integers $k$ and $n$, a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $\{1,\dots,n\}$ is $k$-antichain saturated if it does not contain an antichain of size $k$, but adding any set to $\mathcal{F}$ creates an antichain of size $k$. We use sat$^*(n, k)$ to denote the smallest size of such a family. For all $k$ and sufficiently large $n$, we determine the exact value of sat$^*(n, k)$. Our result implies that sat$^*(n, k)=n(k-1)-\Theta(k\log k)$, which confirms several conjectures on antichain saturation. Previously, exact values for sat$^*(n,k)$ were only known for $k$ up to $6$. We also prove a generalisation of a result of Lehman-Ron which may be of independent interest. We show that given $m$ disjoint chains in the Boolean lattice, we can create $m$ disjoint skipless chains that cover the same elements (where we call a chain skipless if any two consecutive elements differ in size by exactly one).

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

On the Complexity of Problems on Tree-structured Graphs

In this paper, we introduce a new class of parameterized problems, which we call XALP: the class of all parameterized problems that can be solved in $f(k)n^{O(1)}$ time and $f(k)\log n$ space on a non-deterministic Turing Machine with access to an auxiliary stack (with only top element lookup allowed). Various natural problems on `tree-structured graphs' are complete for this class: we show that List Colouring and All-or-Nothing Flow parameterized by treewidth are XALP-complete. Moreover, Independent Set and Dominating Set parameterized by treewidth divided by $\log n$, and Max Cut parameterized by cliquewidth are also XALP-complete. Besides finding a `natural home' for these problems, we also pave the road for future reductions. We give a number of equivalent characterisations of the class XALP, e.g., XALP is the class of problems solvable by an Alternating Turing Machine whose runs have tree size at most $f(k)n^{O(1)}$ and use $f(k)\log n$ space. Moreover, we introduce `tree-shaped' variants of Weighted CNF-Satisfiability and Multicolour Clique that are XALP-complete.

cs.CC↗
arXiv2022

On the parameterized complexity of computing tree-partitions

We study the parameterized complexity of computing the tree-partition-width, a graph parameter equivalent to treewidth on graphs of bounded maximum degree. On one hand, we can obtain approximations of the tree-partition-width efficiently: we show that there is an algorithm that, given an $n$-vertex graph $G$ and an integer $k$, constructs a tree-partition of width $O(k^7)$ for $G$ or reports that $G$ has tree-partition-width more than $k$, in time $k^{O(1)}n^2$. We can improve slightly on the approximation factor by sacrificing the dependence on $k$, or on $n$. On the other hand, we show the problem of computing tree-partition-width exactly is XALP-complete, which implies that it is $W[t]$-hard for all $t$. We deduce XALP-completeness of the problem of computing the domino treewidth. Next, we adapt some known results on the parameter tree-partition-width and the topological minor relation, and use them to compare tree-partition-width to tree-cut width. Finally, for the related parameter weighted tree-partition-width, we give a similar approximation algorithm (with ratio now $O(k^{15})$) and show XALP-completeness for the special case where vertices and edges have weight 1.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2022

List Colouring Trees in Logarithmic Space

We show that List Colouring can be solved on $n$-vertex trees by a deterministic Turing machine using $O(\log n)$ bits on the worktape. Given an $n$-vertex graph $G=(V,E)$ and a list $L(v)\subseteq\{1,\dots,n\}$ of available colours for each $v\in V$, a list colouring for $G$ is a proper colouring $c$ such that $c(v)\in L(v)$ for all $v$.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2022

XNLP-completeness for Parameterized Problems on Graphs with a Linear Structure

In this paper, we showcase the class XNLP as a natural place for many hard problems parameterized by linear width measures. This strengthens existing $W[1]$-hardness proofs for these problems, since XNLP-hardness implies $W[t]$-hardness for all $t$. It also indicates, via a conjecture by Pilipczuk and Wrochna [ToCT 2018], that any XP algorithm for such problems is likely to require XP space. In particular, we show XNLP-completeness for natural problems parameterized by pathwidth, linear clique-width, and linear mim-width. The problems we consider are Independent Set, Dominating Set, Odd Cycle Transversal, ($q$-)Coloring, Max Cut, Maximum Regular Induced Subgraph, Feedback Vertex Set, Capacitated (Red-Blue) Dominating Set, and Bipartite Bandwidth.

cs.CC↗
arXiv2022

Bounding twin-width for bounded-treewidth graphs, planar graphs, and bipartite graphs

Twin-width is a newly introduced graph width parameter that aims at generalizing a wide range of "nicely structured" graph classes. In this work, we focus on obtaining good bounds on twin-width $\text{tww}(G)$ for graphs $G$ from a number of classic graph classes. We prove the following: - $\text{tww}(G) \leq 3\cdot 2^{\text{tw}(G)-1}$, where $\text{tw}(G)$ is the treewidth of $G$, - $\text{tww}(G) \leq \max(4\text{bw}(G),\frac{9}{2}\text{bw}(G)-3)$ for a planar graph $G$ with $\text{bw}(G) \geq 2$, where $\text{bw}(G)$ is the branchwidth of $G$, - $\text{tww}(G) \leq 183$ for a planar graph $G$, - the twin-width of a universal bipartite graph $(X,2^X,E)$ with $|X|=n$ is $n - \log_2(n) + \mathcal{O}(1)$ . An important idea behind the bounds for planar graphs is to use an embedding of the graph and sphere-cut decompositions to obtain good bounds on neighbourhood complexity.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2021

Close relatives (of Feedback Vertex Set), revisited

At IPEC 2020, Bergougnoux, Bonnet, Brettell, and Kwon showed that a number of problems related to the classic Feedback Vertex Set (FVS) problem do not admit a $2^{o(k \log k)} \cdot n^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$-time algorithm on graphs of treewidth at most $k$, assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis. This contrasts with the $3^{k} \cdot k^{\mathcal{O}(1)} \cdot n$-time algorithm for FVS using the Cut&Count technique. During their live talk at IPEC 2020, Bergougnoux et al.~posed a number of open questions, which we answer in this work. - Subset Even Cycle Transversal, Subset Odd Cycle Transversal, Subset Feedback Vertex Set can be solved in time $2^{\mathcal{O}(k \log k)} \cdot n$ in graphs of treewidth at most $k$. This matches a lower bound for Even Cycle Transversal of Bergougnoux et al.~and improves the polynomial factor in some of their upper bounds. - Subset Feedback Vertex Set and Node Multiway Cut can be solved in time $2^{\mathcal{O}(k \log k)} \cdot n$, if the input graph is given as a clique-width expression of size $n$ and width $k$. - Odd Cycle Transversal can be solved in time $4^k \cdot k^{\mathcal{O}(1)} \cdot n$ if the input graph is given as a clique-width expression of size $n$ and width $k$. Furthermore, the existence of a constant $\varepsilon > 0$ and an algorithm performing this task in time $(4-\varepsilon)^k \cdot n^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$ would contradict the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis.

cs.DM↗