arXiv subjects

Phablo F. S. Moura

Publications and source records attributed to Phablo F. S. Moura.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Convex Recoloring of General Graphs: Formulations, Polyhedra, and Computational Experiments

A vertex coloring of a graph is convex if the vertices of each color induce a connected subgraph. In the convex recoloring problem (CR), the goal is to find a convex coloring while minimizing the weight of recolored vertices, i.e., vertices assigned a color different from their original one. This problem was originally motivated by the study of phylogenetic trees in bioinformatics and is NP-hard even on paths. Most existing research focuses on trees, with only limited results available for general graphs. We advance the state of the art by developing exact solution methods for CR on general graphs. In particular, we propose four mixed-integer linear programming formulations, including a compact flow-based model and a representatives model, and design corresponding solution methods. We compare the polytopes associated with the linear relaxation of the proposed formulations. Computational experiments on benchmark instances and on new synthetic instances show that a branch-and-cut algorithm based on the representatives formulation performs best overall.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2026

Covering and packing mixed-integer linear programs with a fixed number of constraints: Approximation and convex hull

This paper presents an algorithmic study of a class of covering mixed-integer linear programming problems which encompasses classic cover problems, including multidimensional knapsack, facility location and supplier selection problems. We first show some properties of optimal solutions, which are then used to decompose the problem into instances of the multidimensional knapsack cover problem with a single continuous variable per dimension. The proposed decomposition is used to design a polynomial-time approximation scheme for the problem with a fixed number of constraints. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approximation scheme for such a general class of covering mixed-integer linear programs. Moreover, we design a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme and an approximate linear programming formulation for the case with a single constraint. These results improve upon the previously best-known 2-approximation algorithm for the knapsack cover problem with a single continuous variable. Finally, we show a perfect compact formulation for the case where all variables have the same lower and upper bounds. Analogous results are derived for the packing and more general variants of the problem.

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arXiv2025

On the connected (sub)partition polytope

Let $k$ be a positive integer and let $G$ be a graph with $n$ vertices. A connected $k$-subpartition of $G$ is a collection of $k$ pairwise disjoint sets (a.k.a. classes) of vertices in $G$ such that each set induces a connected subgraph. The connected $k$-subpartition polytope of $G$, denoted by $\poly(G,k)$, is defined as the convex hull of the incidence vectors of all connected $k$-subpartitions of $G$. Many applications arising in off-shore oil-drilling, forest planning, image processing, cluster analysis, political districting, police patrolling, and biology are modeled in terms of finding connected (sub)partitions of a graph. This study focuses on the facial structure of~$\poly(G,k)$ and the computational complexity of the corresponding separation problems. We first propose a set of valid inequalities having non-zero coefficients associated with a single class that extends and generalizes the ones in the literature of related problems, show sufficient conditions for these inequalities to be facet-defining, and design a polynomial-time separation algorithm for them. We also devise two sets of inequalities that consider multiple classes, prove when they define facets, and study the computational complexity of associated separation problems. Finally, we report on computational experiments showing the usefulness of the proposed inequalities.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Balanced connected partitions of edge-weighted graphs: Hardness and solving methods

The balanced connected $k$-partition problem (\textsc{bcp}) is a classic problem, which consists in partitioning the set of vertices of a vertex-weighted connected graph into a collection of~$k$ classes such that each class induces a connected subgraph of \emph{roughly} the same weight. In this study, we investigate edge-weighted variants of $\textsc{bcp}$, where we are given a connected graph $G$, $k \in \Z_\ge$, and an edge-weight function $w \colon E(G)\to\Q_\ge$, and the goal is to compute a spanning $k$-forest~$\mathcal{T}$ of $G$ (i.e., a forest with exactly $k$ trees) that minimizes the weight of the heaviest tree in~$\mathcal{T}$ in the min-max version, or maximizes the weight of the lightest tree in~$\mathcal{T}$ in the max-min version. We show that both versions of this problem are $\NP$-hard on complete graphs with $k=2$, unweighted split graphs, and unweighted bipartite graphs with $k\geq 2$ fixed. Moreover, we prove that these problems do not admit subexponential-time algorithms, unless the Exponential-Time Hypothesis fails. We focus on the min-max version and devise a tight $k$-approximation algorithm, compact and non-compact integer linear programming formulations, branch and cut, and branch and price algorithms. Finally, we present the outcomes of an experimental study on the performances of different solution methods. The source code of the complete implementation of the proposed algorithms is also available.

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arXiv2025

Compact formulations and valid inequalities for parallel machine scheduling with conflicts

The problem of scheduling conflicting jobs on parallel machines consists in assigning a set of jobs to a set of machines so that no two conflicting jobs are allocated to the same machine, and the maximum processing time among all machines is minimized. We propose a new compact mixed integer linear formulation based on the representatives model for the vertex coloring problem, which overcomes a number of issues inherent in the natural assignment model. We present a polyhedral study of the associated polytope, and describe classes of valid inequalities inherited from the stable set polytope. We describe branch-and-cut algorithms for the problem, and report on computational experiments with benchmark instances. Our computational results on the hardest instances of the benchmark set show that the proposed algorithms are superior (either in running time or quality of the solutions) to the current state-of-the-art methods. We find that our new method performs better than the existing ones especially when the gap between the optimal value and the trivial lower bound (i.e., the sum of all processing times divided by the number of machines) increases.

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arXiv2023

Polyhedral approach to weighted connected matchings in general graphs

A connected matching in a graph G consists of a set of pairwise disjoint edges whose covered vertices induce a connected subgraph of G. While finding a connected matching of maximum cardinality is a well-solved problem, it is NP-hard to determine an optimal connected matching in an edge-weighted graph, even in the planar bipartite case. We present two mixed integer programming formulations and a sophisticated branch-and-cut scheme to find weighted connected matchings in general graphs. The formulations explore different polyhedra associated to this problem, including strong valid inequalities both from the matching polytope and from the connected subgraph polytope. We conjecture that one attains a tight approximation of the convex hull of connected matchings using our strongest formulation, and report encouraging computational results over DIMACS Implementation Challenge benchmark instances. The source code of the complete implementation is also made available.

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arXiv2023

Approximations for the Steiner Multicycle Problem

The Steiner Multicycle problem consists of, given a complete graph, a weight function on its vertices, and a collection of pairwise disjoint non-unitary sets called terminal sets, finding a minimum weight collection of vertex-disjoint cycles in the graph such that, for every terminal set, all of its vertices are in a same cycle of the collection. This problem generalizes the Traveling Salesman problem and therefore is hard to approximate in general. On the practical side, it models a collaborative less-than-truckload problem with pickup and delivery locations. Using an algorithm for the Survivable Network Design problem and T -joins, we obtain a 3-approximation for the metric case, improving on the previous best 4-approximation. Furthermore, we present an (11/9)-approximation for the particular case of the Steiner Multicycle in which each edge weight is 1 or 2. This algorithm can be adapted to obtain a (7/6)-approximation when every terminal set contains at least 4 vertices. Finally, we devise an O(lg n)-approximation algorithm for the asymmetric version of the problem.

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arXiv2022

Seymour's Second Neighborhood Conjecture for orientations of (pseudo)random graphs

Seymour's Second Neighborhood Conjecture (SNC) states that every oriented graph contains a vertex whose second neighborhood is as large as its first neighborhood. We investigate the SNC for orientations of both binomial and pseudo random graphs, verifying the SNC asymptotically almost surely (a.a.s.) (i) for all orientations of $G(n,p)$ if $\limsup_{n\to\infty} p < 1/4$; and (ii) for a uniformly-random orientation of each weakly $(p,A\sqrt{np})$-bijumbled graph of order $n$ and density $p$, where $p=Ω(n^{-1/2})$ and $1-p = Ω(n^{-1/6})$ and $A>0$ is a universal constant independent of both $n$ and $p$. We also show that a.a.s. the SNC holds for almost every orientation of $G(n,p)$. More specifically, we prove that a.a.s. (iii) for all $\varepsilon > 0$ and $p=p(n)$ with $\limsup_{n\to\infty} p \le 2/3-\varepsilon$, every orientation of $G(n,p)$ with minimum outdegree $Ω_\varepsilon(\sqrt{n})$ satisfies the SNC; and (iv) for all $p=p(n)$, a random orientation of $G(n,p)$ satisfies the SNC.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Approximation and parameterized algorithms to find balanced connected partitions of graphs

Partitioning a connected graph into $k$~vertex-disjoint connected subgraphs of similar (or given) orders is a classical problem that has been intensively investigated since late seventies. Given a connected graph $G=(V,E)$ and a weight function $w : V \to \mathbb{Q}_\geq$, a connected $k$-partition of $G$ is a partition of $V$ such that each class induces a connected subgraph. The balanced connected $k$-partition problem consists in finding a connected $k$-partition in which every class has roughly the same weight. To model this concept of balance, one may seek connected $k$-partitions that either maximize the weight of a lightest class $(\text{max-min BCP}_k)$ or minimize the weight of a heaviest class $(\text{min-max BCP}_k)$. Such problems are equivalent when $k=2$, but they are different when $k\geq 3$. In this work, we propose a simple pseudo-polynomial $\frac{k}{2}$-approximation algorithm for $\text{min-max BCP}_k$ which runs in time $\mathcal{O}(W|V||E|)$, where $W = \sum_{v \in V} w(v)$. Based on this algorithm and using a scaling technique, we design a (polynomial) $(\frac{k}{2} +\varepsilon)$-approximation for the same problem with running-time $\mathcal{O}(|V|^3|E|/\varepsilon)$, for any fixed $\varepsilon>0$. Additionally, we propose a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm based on integer linear programming for the unweighted $\text{max-min BCP}_k$ parameterized by the size of a vertex cover.

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arXiv2019

Polyhedral study of the Convex Recoloring problem

A coloring of the vertices of a connected graph is convex if each color class induces a connected subgraph. We address the convex recoloring (CR) problem defined as follows. Given a graph $G$ and a coloring of its vertices, recolor a minimum number of vertices of $G$ so that the resulting coloring is convex. This problem, known to be NP-hard even on paths, was firstly motivated by applications on perfect phylogenies. In this work, we study CR on general graphs from a polyhedral point of view. First, we introduce a full-dimensional polytope based on the idea of connected subgraphs, and present a class of valid inequalities with righthand side one that comprises all facet-defining inequalities with binary coefficients when the input graph is a tree. Moreover, we define a general class of inequalities with righthand side in $\{1, \ldots, k\}$, where $k$ is the amount of colors used in the initial coloring, and show sufficient conditions for validity and facetness of such inequalities. Finally, we report on computational experiments for an application on mobile networks that can be modeled by the polytope of CR on paths. We evaluate the potential of the proposed inequalities to reduce the integrality gaps.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2019

Integer Programming Approaches to Balanced Connected $k$-Partition

We address the problem of partitioning a vertex-weighted connected graph into $k$ connected subgraphs that have similar weights, for a fixed integer $k\geq 2$. This problem, known as the \emph{balanced connected $k$-partition problem} ($BCP_k$), is defined as follows. Given a connected graph $G$ with nonnegative weights on the vertices, find a partition $\{V_i\}_{i=1}^k$ of $V(G)$ such that each class $V_i$ induces a connected subgraph of $G$, and the weight of a class with the minimum weight is as large as possible. It is known that $BCP_k$ is $NP$-hard even on bipartite graphs and on interval graphs. It has been largely investigated under different approaches and perspectives. On the practical side, $BCP_k$ is used to model many applications arising in police patrolling, image processing, cluster analysis, operating systems and robotics. We propose three integer linear programming formulations for the balanced connected $k$-partition problem. The first one contains only binary variables and a potentially large number of constraints that are separable in polynomial time. Some polyhedral results on this formulation, when all vertices have unit weight, are also presented. The other formulations are based on flows and have a polynomial number of constraints and variables. Preliminary computational experiments have shown that the proposed formulations outperform the other formulations presented in the literature.

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arXiv2016

Subdivisions in digraphs of large out-degree or large dichromatic number

In 1985, Mader conjectured the existence of a function $f$ such that every digraph with minimum out-degree at least $f(k)$ contains a subdivision of the transitive tournament of order $k$. This conjecture is still completely open, as the existence of $f(5)$ remains unknown. In this paper, we show that if $D$ is an oriented path, or an in-arborescence (i.e., a tree with all edges oriented towards the root) or the union of two directed paths from $x$ to $y$ and a directed path from $y$ to $x$, then every digraph with minimum out-degree large enough contains a subdivision of $D$. Additionally, we study Mader's conjecture considering another graph parameter. The dichromatic number of a digraph $D$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that $D$ can be partitioned into $k$ acyclic subdigraphs. We show that any digraph with dichromatic number greater than $4^m (n-1)$ contains every digraph with $n$ vertices and $m$ arcs as a subdivision.

math.CO↗

arXiv2011

Optimal k-fold colorings of webs and antiwebs

A k-fold x-coloring of a graph is an assignment of (at least) k distinct colors from the set {1, 2, ..., x} to each vertex such that any two adjacent vertices are assigned disjoint sets of colors. The smallest number x such that G admits a k-fold x-coloring is the k-th chromatic number of G, denoted by χ_k(G). We determine the exact value of this parameter when G is a web or an antiweb. Our results generalize the known corresponding results for odd cycles and imply necessary and sufficient conditions under which χ_k(G) attains its lower and upper bounds based on the clique, the fractional chromatic and the chromatic numbers. Additionally, we extend the concept of χ-critical graphs to χ_k-critical graphs. We identify the webs and antiwebs having this property, for every integer k <= 1.

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