arXiv subjects

Madhumita Kundu

Publications and source records attributed to Madhumita Kundu.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Fixed Budget vs. Covering Target: The Partial Set Cover Boundary for Bounded VC-Dimension

Maximum Coverage and Partial Set Cover are fundamental parameterized covering problems. The former fixes a budget $k$ and maximizes coverage; the latter meets a target with as few sets as possible. Badanidiyuru, Kleinberg, and Lee (SoCG 2012) give an EPAS for the former on bounded-VC set systems, while Jain et al. (SODA 2023) show that on $K_{d,d}$-free incidence graphs, $k+1$ sets suffice whenever $k$ sets meet the target. We ask whether this guarantee extends to all bounded-VC set systems. Our first result is negative. Unless FPT = W[1], Partial Set Cover admits no parameterized $(2-δ)$-approximation even at VC-dimension seven. Under ETH, it has no parameterized approximation scheme there and no $2^{o(d)}$-approximation at VC-dimension $d$. On the positive side, bounded semi-ladder index restores this guarantee. It is stronger than bounded VC-dimension but strictly generalizes the $K_{d,d}$-free setting. For Weighted Partial Set Cover, if $k$ sets cover weight $W$, we find $k+1$ sets covering weight $W$ in $2^{O(Γk\log k)}N$ time, where $Γ$ is the downward intersection complexity and $N$ is the input size. The framework supports per-class targets and matroid independence, with applications to partial dominating set and geometric and bounded-size covering. Finally, we give a deterministic FPT reduction from Weighted CC-MaxSAT to a bounded family of Weighted Maximum Coverage instances, preserving incidence structure and approximation schemes with constant-factor accuracy loss. This gives an EPAS at bounded semi-ladder index. We improve the deterministic BKL bounded-VC implementation; combined with our reduction, it yields a $2^{\widetilde{O}(kd/\varepsilon)}N^{O(1)}$-time EPAS for bounded-VC Weighted CC-MaxSAT.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2026

Covering Points with Rectangular Boundaries

Geometric covering problems ask for a small family of geometric objects whose union covers a given point set. We study the more restrictive \emph{boundary covering} variant, where every point must lie on the boundary of a chosen object. Motivated by the framework of Langerman and Morin\,[Discret.\ Comput.\ Geom., 2005] for hyperspheres, we initiate the study of boundary covering by axis-parallel rectangles. We first consider the \emph{discrete} setting, where rectangles must be selected from a given family. We define \bcdaprfull\ (\bcdaprshort): given a point set $P\subseteq\mathbb{R}^2$, a family $\mathcal{R}$ of axis-parallel rectangles, and an integer $k$, decide whether $P$ can be covered by the boundaries of at most $k$ rectangles from $\mathcal{R}$. We prove that \bcdaprshort\ is $\mathrm{W}[1]$-hard parameterized by $k$. We then study the \emph{continuous} variant, \prbcfull\ (\prbcshort), where rectangles may be placed freely. Given $P\subseteq\mathbb{R}^2$ and $k$, the goal is to decide whether $P$ can be covered by the boundaries of at most $k$ axis-parallel rectangles. In contrast to the discrete case, we show that \prbcshort\ is fixed-parameter tractable, with running time $2^{\cO(k\log k)}\cdot n^{\cO(1)}$, where $n=|P|$. Our algorithm relies on a structural analysis of how $k$ rectangles interact with the point set, reducing \prbcshort\ to at most $2^{\cO(k\log k)}$ instances of \ddmtcsp, each solvable in polynomial time. On the hardness side, we prove NP-completeness for boundary covering by axis-aligned $L$-shapes and use this reduction to establish NP-completeness of \prbcshort.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

FPT Approximations for Connected Maximum Coverage

We revisit connectivity-constrained coverage through a unifying model, Partial Connected Red-Blue Dominating Set. Given a red-blue bipartite graph $G$ and an auxiliary connectivity graph $G_{conn}$ on red vertices, and integers $k, t$, the task is to find a $k$-sized subset of red vertices that dominates at least $t$ blue vertices, and that induces a connected subgraph in $G_{conn}$. This formulation captures connected variants of Max Coverage, Partial Dominating Set, and Partial Vertex Cover studied in prior literature. After identifying (parameterized) inapproximability results inherited from known problems, we first show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable by $t$. Furthermore, when the bipartite graph excludes $K_{d,d}$ as a subgraph, we design (resp. efficient) parameterized approximation schemes for approximating $t$ (resp. $k$). Notably, these FPT approximations do not impose any restrictions on $G_{conn}$. Together, these results chart the boundary between hardness and FPT-approximability for connectivity-constrained coverage.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2025

A Quadratic Vertex Kernel and a Subexponential Algorithm for Subset-FAST

In the Subset Feedback Arc Set in Tournaments, Subset-FAST problem we are given as input a tournament $T$ with a vertex set $V(T)$ and an arc set $A(T)$, along with a terminal set $S \subseteq V(T)$, and an integer $ k$. The objective is to determine whether there exists a set $ F \subseteq A(T) $ with $|F| \leq k$ such that the resulting graph $T-F $ contains no cycle that includes any vertex of $S$. When $S=V(T)$ this is the classic Feedback Arc Set in Tournaments (FAST) problem. We obtain the first polynomial kernel for this problem parameterized by the solution size. More precisely, we obtain an algorithm that, given an input instance $(T, S, k)$, produces an equivalent instance $(T',S',k')$ with $k'\leq k$ and $V(T')=O(k^2)$. It was known that FAST admits a simple quadratic vertex kernel and a non-trivial linear vertex kernel. However, no such kernel was previously known for Subset-FAST. Our kernel employs variants of the most well-known reduction rules for FAST and introduces two new reduction rules to identify irrelevant vertices. As a result of our kernelization, we also obtain the first sub-exponential time FPT algorithm for Subset-FAST.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2024

Sensing food quality by silicene nanosheets : a Density Functional Theory study

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by food products are considered markers for assessing quality of food. In this work, first-principles Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) methods have been employed to model chemo-resistive gas sensor based on two-dimensional silicene based nanosheets that can sense the six different VOCs emitted by standard food products. Our calculations with unpassivated and flourine passivated silicene(F-silicene) sheets as sensor materials show that flourine passivated silicene has significantly better sensitivity towards all six VOC molecules (Acetone, Dimethylsulfide, Ethanol, Methanol, Methylacetate and Toluene). Moreover, flourinated silicene sensor is found to be capable of separately recognising four VOCs, a much better performance than r-GO used in a recent experiment. We analyse the microscopic picture influencing sensing capabilities of un-passivated and fluorinated silicene from the perspectives of adsorption energy, charge transfer and changes in the electronic structure. We find that better sensing ability of fluorinated silicene nanosheet can be correlated with the changes in the electronic structures near the Fermi level upon adsorption of different VOCs. The results imply that passivated silicene can work better as a sensor than r-GO in case of generic food VOCs. The results are important since modelling of various two-dimensional nano-sensors can be done in the similar way for detection of more complex VOCs emitted by specific food products.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

FPT Approximations for Packing and Covering Problems Parameterized by Elimination Distance and Even Less

For numerous graph problems in the realm of parameterized algorithms, using the size of a smallest deletion set (called a modulator) into well-understood graph families as parameterization has led to a long and successful line of research. Recently, however, there has been an extensive study of structural parameters that are potentially much smaller than the modulator size. In particular, recent papers [Jansen et al. STOC 2021; Agrawal et al. SODA 2022] have studied parameterization by the size of the modulator to a graph family $\mathcal{H}$ ($\textbf{mod}_{\mathcal{H}}$), elimination distance to $\mathcal{H}$ ($\textbf{ed}_{\mathcal{H}}$), and $\mathcal{H}$-treewidth ($\textbf{tw}_{\mathcal{H}}$). While these new parameters have been successfully exploited to design fast exact algorithms their utility (especially that of latter two) in the context of approximation algorithms is mostly unexplored. The conceptual contribution of this paper is to present novel algorithmic meta-theorems that expand the impact of these structural parameters to the area of FPT Approximation, mirroring their utility in the design of exact FPT algorithms. Precisely, we show that if a covering or packing problem is definable in Monadic Second Order Logic and has a property called Finite Integer Index, then the existence of an FPT Approximation Scheme (FPT-AS, i.e., ($1\pm ε$)-approximation) parameterized these three parameters is in fact equivalent. As concrete exemplifications of our meta-theorems, we obtain FPT-ASes for well-studied graph problems such as Vertex Cover, Feedback Vertex Set, Cycle Packing and Dominating Set, parameterized by these three parameters.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2023

Fixed-Parameter Algorithms for Fair Hitting Set Problems

Selection of a group of representatives satisfying certain fairness constraints, is a commonly occurring scenario. Motivated by this, we initiate a systematic algorithmic study of a \emph{fair} version of \textsc{Hitting Set}. In the classical \textsc{Hitting Set} problem, the input is a universe $\mathcal{U}$, a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $\mathcal{U}$, and a non-negative integer $k$. The goal is to determine whether there exists a subset $S \subseteq \mathcal{U}$ of size $k$ that \emph{hits} (i.e., intersects) every set in $\mathcal{F}$. Inspired by several recent works, we formulate a fair version of this problem, as follows. The input additionally contains a family $\mathcal{B}$ of subsets of $\mathcal{U}$, where each subset in $\mathcal{B}$ can be thought of as the group of elements of the same \emph{type}. We want to find a set $S \subseteq \mathcal{U}$ of size $k$ that (i) hits all sets of $\mathcal{F}$, and (ii) does not contain \emph{too many} elements of each type. We call this problem \textsc{Fair Hitting Set}, and chart out its tractability boundary from both classical as well as multivariate perspective. Our results use a multitude of techniques from parameterized complexity including classical to advanced tools, such as, methods of representative sets for matroids, FO model checking, and a generalization of best known kernels for \textsc{Hitting Set}.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2020

Parameterized Complexity of Maximum Edge Colorable Subgraph

A graph $H$ is {\em $p$-edge colorable} if there is a coloring $ψ: E(H) \rightarrow \{1,2,\dots,p\}$, such that for distinct $uv, vw \in E(H)$, we have $ψ(uv) \neq ψ(vw)$. The {\sc Maximum Edge-Colorable Subgraph} problem takes as input a graph $G$ and integers $l$ and $p$, and the objective is to find a subgraph $H$ of $G$ and a $p$-edge-coloring of $H$, such that $|E(H)| \geq l$. We study the above problem from the viewpoint of Parameterized Complexity. We obtain \FPT\ algorithms when parameterized by: $(1)$ the vertex cover number of $G$, by using {\sc Integer Linear Programming}, and $(2)$ $l$, a randomized algorithm via a reduction to \textsc{Rainbow Matching}, and a deterministic algorithm by using color coding, and divide and color. With respect to the parameters $p+k$, where $k$ is one of the following: $(1)$ the solution size, $l$, $(2)$ the vertex cover number of $G$, and $(3)$ $l - {\mm}(G)$, where ${\mm}(G)$ is the size of a maximum matching in $G$; we show that the (decision version of the) problem admits a kernel with $\mathcal{O}(k \cdot p)$ vertices. Furthermore, we show that there is no kernel of size $\mathcal{O}(k^{1-ε} \cdot f(p))$, for any $ε> 0$ and computable function $f$, unless $\NP \subseteq \CONPpoly$.

cs.DM↗