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Takehiro Ito

Publications and source records attributed to Takehiro Ito.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Computational Complexity of Swish

Swish is a card game in which players are given cards having symbols (hoops and balls), and find a valid superposition of cards, called a "swish." Dailly, Lafourcade, and Marcadet (FUN 2024) studied a generalized version of Swish and showed that the problem is solvable in polynomial time with one symbol per card, while it is NP-complete with three or more symbols per card. In this paper, we resolve the previously open case of two symbols per card, which corresponds to the original game. We show that Swish is NP-complete for this case. Specifically, we prove the NP-hardness when the allowed transformations of cards are restricted to a single (horizontal or vertical) flip or 180-degree rotation, and extend the results to the original setting allowing all three transformations. In contrast, when neither transformation is allowed, we present a polynomial-time algorithm. Combining known and our results, we establish a complete characterization of the computational complexity of Swish with respect to both the number of symbols per card and the allowed transformations.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2025

Minimum Sum Coloring with Bundles in Trees and Bipartite Graphs

The minimum sum coloring problem with bundles was introduced by Darbouy and Friggstad (SWAT 2024) as a common generalization of the minimum coloring problem and the minimum sum coloring problem. During their presentation, the following open problem was raised: whether the minimum sum coloring problem with bundles could be solved in polynomial time for trees. We answer their question in the negative by proving that the minimum sum coloring problem with bundles is NP-hard even for paths. We complement this hardness by providing algorithms of the following types. First, we provide a fixed-parameter algorithm for trees when the number of bundles is a parameter; this can be extended to graphs of bounded treewidth. Second, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm for trees when bundles form a partition of the vertex set and the difference between the number of vertices and the number of bundles is constant. Third, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm for trees when bundles form a partition of the vertex set and each bundle induces a connected subgraph. We further show that for bipartite graphs, the problem with weights is NP-hard even when the number of bundles is at least three, but is polynomial-time solvable when the number of bundles is at most two. The threshold shifts to three versus four for the problem without weights.

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arXiv2024

Loss Minimization for Electrical Flows over Spanning Trees on Grids

We study the electrical distribution network reconfiguration problem, defined as follows. We are given an undirected graph with a root vertex, demand at each non-root vertex, and resistance on each edge. Then, we want to find a spanning tree of the graph that specifies the routing of power from the root to each vertex so that all the demands are satisfied and the energy loss is minimized. This problem is known to be NP-hard in general. When restricted to grids with uniform resistance and the root located at a corner, Gupta, Khodabaksh, Mortagy and Nikolova [Mathematical Programming 2022] invented the so-called Min-Min algorithm whose approximation factor is theoretically guaranteed. Our contributions are twofold. First, we prove that the problem is NP-hard even for grids; this resolves the open problem posed by Gupta et al. Second, we give a refined analysis of the Min-Min algorithm and improve its approximation factor under the same setup. In the analysis, we formulate the problem of giving an upper bound for the approximation factor as a non-linear optimization problem that maximizes a convex function over a polytope, which is less commonly employed in the analysis of approximation algorithms than linear optimization problems.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2024

Independent Set Reconfiguration Under Bounded-Hop Token

The independent set reconfiguration problem (ISReconf) is the problem of determining, for given independent sets I_s and I_t of a graph G, whether I_s can be transformed into I_t by repeatedly applying a prescribed reconfiguration rule that transforms an independent set to another. As reconfiguration rules for the ISReconf, the Token Sliding (TS) model and the Token Jumping (TJ) model are commonly considered. While the TJ model admits the addition of any vertex (as far as the addition yields an independent set), the TS model admits the addition of only a neighbor of the removed vertex. It is known that the complexity status of the ISReconf differs between the TS and TJ models for some graph classes. In this paper, we analyze how changes in reconfiguration rules affect the computational complexity of reconfiguration problems. To this end, we generalize the TS and TJ models to a unified reconfiguration rule, called the k-Jump model, which admits the addition of a vertex within distance k from the removed vertex. Then, the TS and TJ models are the 1-Jump and D(G)-Jump models, respectively, where D(G) denotes the diameter of a connected graph G. We give the following three results: First, we show that the computational complexity of the ISReconf under the k-Jump model for general graphs is equivalent for all k >= 3. Second, we present a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the ISReconf under the 2-Jump model for split graphs. We note that the ISReconf under the 1-Jump (i.e., TS) model is PSPACE-complete for split graphs, and hence the complexity status of the ISReconf differs between k = 1 and k = 2. Third, we consider the optimization variant of the ISReconf, which computes the minimum number of steps of any transformation between Is and It. We prove that this optimization variant under the k-Jump model is NP-complete for chordal graphs of diameter at most 2k + 1, for any k >=3.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2023

Reconfiguration of Time-Respecting Arborescences

An arborescence, which is a directed analogue of a spanning tree in an undirected graph, is one of the most fundamental combinatorial objects in a digraph. In this paper, we study arborescences in digraphs from the viewpoint of combinatorial reconfiguration, which is the field where we study reachability between two configurations of some combinatorial objects via some specified operations. Especially, we consider reconfiguration problems for time-respecting arborescences, which were introduced by Kempe, Kleinberg, and Kumar. We first prove that if the roots of the initial and target time-respecting arborescences are the same, then the target arborescence is always reachable from the initial one and we can find a shortest reconfiguration sequence in polynomial time. Furthermore, we show if the roots are not the same, then the target arborescence may not be reachable from the initial one. On the other hand, we show that we can determine whether the target arborescence is reachable form the initial one in polynomial time. Finally, we prove that it is NP-hard to find a shortest reconfiguration sequence in the case where the roots are not the same. Our results show an interesting contrast to the previous results for (ordinary) arborescences reconfiguration problems.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2023

Algorithmic Theory of Qubit Routing

The qubit routing problem, also known as the swap minimization problem, is a (classical) combinatorial optimization problem that arises in the design of compilers of quantum programs. We study the qubit routing problem from the viewpoint of theoretical computer science, while most of the existing studies investigated the practical aspects. We concentrate on the linear nearest neighbor (LNN) architectures of quantum computers, in which the graph topology is a path. Our results are three-fold. (1) We prove that the qubit routing problem is NP-hard. (2) We give a fixed-parameter algorithm when the number of two-qubit gates is a parameter. (3) We give a polynomial-time algorithm when each qubit is involved in at most one two-qubit gate.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2023

Hardness of Finding Combinatorial Shortest Paths on Graph Associahedra

We prove that the computation of a combinatorial shortest path between two vertices of a graph associahedron, introduced by Carr and Devadoss, is NP-hard. This resolves an open problem raised by Cardinal. A graph associahedron is a generalization of the well-known associahedron. The associahedron is obtained as the graph associahedron of a path. It is a tantalizing and important open problem in theoretical computer science whether the computation of a combinatorial shortest path between two vertices of the associahedron can be done in polynomial time, which is identical to the computation of the flip distance between two triangulations of a convex polygon, and the rotation distance between two rooted binary trees. Our result shows that a certain generalized approach to tackling this open problem is not promising. As a corollary of our theorem, we prove that the computation of a combinatorial shortest path between two vertices of a polymatroid base polytope cannot be done in polynomial time unless P = NP. Since a combinatorial shortest path on the matroid base polytope can be computed in polynomial time, our result reveals an unexpected contrast between matroids and polymatroids.

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

Reconfiguration of colorings in triangulations of the sphere

In 1973, Fisk proved that any $4$-coloring of a $3$-colorable triangulation of the $2$-sphere can be obtained from any $3$-coloring by a sequence of Kempe-changes. On the other hand, in the case where we are only allowed to recolor a single vertex in each step, which is a special case of a Kempe-change, there exists a $4$-coloring that cannot be obtained from any $3$-coloring. In this paper, we present a characterization of a $4$-coloring of a $3$-colorable triangulation of the $2$-sphere that can be obtained from a $3$-coloring by a sequence of recoloring operations at single vertices, and a criterion for a $3$-colorable triangulation of the $2$-sphere that all $4$-colorings can be obtained from a $3$-coloring by such a sequence. Moreover, our first result can be generalized to a high-dimensional case, in which ``$4$-coloring,'' ``$3$-colorable,'' and ``$2$-sphere'' above are replaced with ``$k$-coloring,'' ``$(k-1)$-colorable,'' and ``$(k-2)$-sphere'' for $k \geq 4$, respectively. In addition, we show that the problem of deciding whether, for given two $(k+1)$-colorings, one can be obtained from the other by such a sequence is PSPACE-complete for any fixed $k \geq 4$. Our results above can be rephrased as new results on the computational problems named {\sc $k$-Recoloring} and {\sc Connectedness of $k$-Coloring Reconfiguration Graph}, which are fundamental problems in the field of combinatorial reconfiguration.

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

Rerouting Planar Curves and Disjoint Paths

In this paper, we consider a transformation of $k$ disjoint paths in a graph. For a graph and a pair of $k$ disjoint paths $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{Q}$ connecting the same set of terminal pairs, we aim to determine whether $\mathcal{P}$ can be transformed to $\mathcal{Q}$ by repeatedly replacing one path with another path so that the intermediates are also $k$ disjoint paths. The problem is called Disjoint Paths Reconfiguration. We first show that Disjoint Paths Reconfiguration is PSPACE-complete even when $k=2$. On the other hand, we prove that, when the graph is embedded on a plane and all paths in $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{Q}$ connect the boundaries of two faces, Disjoint Paths Reconfiguration can be solved in polynomial time. The algorithm is based on a topological characterization for rerouting curves on a plane using the algebraic intersection number. We also consider a transformation of disjoint $s$-$t$ paths as a variant. We show that the disjoint $s$-$t$ paths reconfiguration problem in planar graphs can be determined in polynomial time, while the problem is PSPACE-complete in general.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2022

On Reachable Assignments under Dichotomous Preferences

We consider the problem of determining whether a target item assignment can be reached from an initial item assignment by a sequence of pairwise exchanges of items between agents. In particular, we consider the situation where each agent has a dichotomous preference over the items, that is, each agent evaluates each item as acceptable or unacceptable. Furthermore, we assume that communication between agents is limited, and the relationship is represented by an undirected graph. Then, a pair of agents can exchange their items only if they are connected by an edge and the involved items are acceptable. We prove that this problem is PSPACE-complete even when the communication graph is complete (that is, every pair of agents can exchange their items), and this problem can be solved in polynomial time if an input graph is a tree.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2022

ZDD-Based Algorithmic Framework for Solving Shortest Reconfiguration Problems

This paper proposes an algorithmic framework for various reconfiguration problems using zero-suppressed binary decision diagrams (ZDDs), a data structure for families of sets. In general, a reconfiguration problem checks if there is a step-by-step transformation between two given feasible solutions (e.g., independent sets of an input graph) of a fixed search problem such that all intermediate results are also feasible and each step obeys a fixed reconfiguration rule (e.g., adding/removing a single vertex to/from an independent set). The solution space formed by all feasible solutions can be exponential in the input size, and indeed many reconfiguration problems are known to be PSPACE-complete. This paper shows that an algorithm in the proposed framework efficiently conducts the breadth-first search by compressing the solution space using ZDDs, and finds a shortest transformation between two given feasible solutions if exists. Moreover, the proposed framework provides rich information on the solution space, such as the connectivity of the solution space and all feasible solutions reachable from a specified one. We demonstrate that the proposed framework can be applied to various reconfiguration problems, and experimentally evaluate their performances.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2022

Reforming an Envy-Free Matching

We consider the problem of reforming an envy-free matching when each agent is assigned a single item. Given an envy-free matching, we consider an operation to exchange the item of an agent with an unassigned item preferred by the agent that results in another envy-free matching. We repeat this operation as long as we can. We prove that the resulting envy-free matching is uniquely determined up to the choice of an initial envy-free matching, and can be found in polynomial time. We call the resulting matching a reformist envy-free matching, and then we study a shortest sequence to obtain the reformist envy-free matching from an initial envy-free matching. We prove that a shortest sequence is computationally hard to obtain even when each agent accepts at most four items and each item is accepted by at most three agents. On the other hand, we give polynomial-time algorithms when each agent accepts at most three items or each item is accepted by at most two agents. Inapproximability and fixed-parameter (in)tractability are also discussed.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2022

Algorithmic Meta-Theorems for Combinatorial Reconfiguration Revisited

Given a graph and two vertex sets satisfying a certain feasibility condition, a reconfiguration problem asks whether we can reach one vertex set from the other by repeating prescribed modification steps while maintaining feasibility. In this setting, Mouawad et al. [IPEC 2014] presented an algorithmic meta-theorem for reconfiguration problems that says if the feasibility can be expressed in monadic second-order logic (MSO), then the problem is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by $\textrm{treewidth} + \ell$, where $\ell$ is the number of steps allowed to reach the target set. On the other hand, it is shown by Wrochna [J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 2018] that if $\ell$ is not part of the parameter, then the problem is PSPACE-complete even on graphs of bounded bandwidth. In this paper, we present the first algorithmic meta-theorems for the case where $\ell$ is not part of the parameter, using some structural graph parameters incomparable with bandwidth. We show that if the feasibility is defined in MSO, then the reconfiguration problem under the so-called token jumping rule is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by neighborhood diversity. We also show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by $\textrm{treedepth} + k$, where $k$ is the size of sets being transformed. We finally complement the positive result for treedepth by showing that the problem is PSPACE-complete on forests of depth $3$.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2022

Independent set reconfiguration on directed graphs

\textsc{Directed Token Sliding} asks, given a directed graph and two sets of pairwise nonadjacent vertices, whether one can reach from one set to the other by repeatedly applying a local operation that exchanges a vertex in the current set with one of its out-neighbors, while keeping the nonadjacency. It can be seen as a reconfiguration process where a token is placed on each vertex in the current set, and the local operation slides a token along an arc respecting its direction. Previously, such a problem was extensively studied on undirected graphs, where the edges have no directions and thus the local operation is symmetric. \textsc{Directed Token Sliding} is a generalization of its undirected variant since an undirected edge can be simulated by two arcs of opposite directions. In this paper, we initiate the algorithmic study of \textsc{Directed Token Sliding}. We first observe that the problem is PSPACE-complete even if we forbid parallel arcs in opposite directions and that the problem on directed acyclic graphs is NP-complete and W[1]-hard parameterized by the size of the sets in consideration. We then show our main result: a linear-time algorithm for the problem on directed graphs whose underlying undirected graphs are trees, which are called polytrees. Such a result is also known for the undirected variant of the problem on trees~[Demaine et al.~TCS 2015], but the techniques used here are quite different because of the asymmetric nature of the directed problem. We present a characterization of yes-instances based on the existence of a certain set of directed paths, and then derive simple equivalent conditions from it by some observations, which admits an efficient algorithm. For the polytree case, we also present a quadratic-time algorithm that outputs, if the input is a yes-instance, one of the shortest reconfiguration sequences.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2022

Sorting Balls and Water: Equivalence and Computational Complexity

Various forms of sorting problems have been studied over the years. Recently, two kinds of sorting puzzle apps are popularized. In these puzzles, we are given a set of bins filled with colored units, balls or water, and some empty bins. These puzzles allow us to move colored units from a bin to another when the colors involved match in some way or the target bin is empty. The goal of these puzzles is to sort all the color units in order. We investigate computational complexities of these puzzles. We first show that these two puzzles are essentially the same from the viewpoint of solvability. That is, an instance is sortable by ball-moves if and only if it is sortable by water-moves. We also show that every yes-instance has a solution of polynomial length, which implies that these puzzles belong to in NP. We then show that these puzzles are NP-complete. For some special cases, we give polynomial-time algorithms. We finally consider the number of empty bins sufficient for making all instances solvable and give non-trivial upper and lower bounds in terms of the number of filled bins and the capacity of bins.

cs.CC↗
arXiv2022

Reconfiguration of Spanning Trees with Degree Constraint or Diameter Constraint

We investigate the complexity of finding a transformation from a given spanning tree in a graph to another given spanning tree in the same graph via a sequence of edge flips. The exchange property of the matroid bases immediately yields that such a transformation always exists if we have no constraints on spanning trees. In this paper, we wish to find a transformation which passes through only spanning trees satisfying some constraint. Our focus is bounding either the maximum degree or the diameter of spanning trees, and we give the following results. The problem with a lower bound on maximum degree is solvable in polynomial time, while the problem with an upper bound on maximum degree is PSPACE-complete. The problem with a lower bound on diameter is NP-hard, while the problem with an upper bound on diameter is solvable in polynomial time.

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