arXiv subjects

Tomáš Masařík

Publications and source records attributed to Tomáš Masařík.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Treewidth is Polynomial in Maximum Degree on Weakly Sparse Graphs Excluding a Planar Induced Minor

A graph $G$ contains a graph $H$ as an induced minor if $H$ can be obtained from $G$ after vertex deletions and edge contractions. We show that for every $k$-vertex planar graph $H$, every graph $G$ excluding $H$ as an induced minor and $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph has treewidth at most $Δ(G)^{f(k,t)}$ where $Δ(G)$ denotes the maximum degree of $G$. Without requiring the absence of a $K_{t,t}$ subgraph, Korhonen [JCTB '23] has shown the upper bound of $k^{O(1)} 2^{Δ(G)^5}$ whose dependence in $Δ(G)$ is exponential. Our result partially answers a question of Chudnovsky [Dagstuhl seminar '23] asking whether the treewidth of graphs with $Δ(G)=O(\log{|V(G)|})$ excluding both a $k$-vertex planar graph as an induced minor and the biclique $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph is in $O_{k,t}(\log |V(G)|)$. We confirm that the treewidth is in this case polylogarithmic in $|V(G)|$.

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arXiv2024

Proper Rainbow Saturation Numbers for Cycles

We say that an edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is proper if every pair of incident edges receive distinct colors, and is rainbow if no two edges of $G$ receive the same color. Furthermore, given a fixed graph $F$, we say that $G$ is rainbow $F$-saturated if $G$ admits a proper edge-coloring which does not contain any rainbow subgraph isomorphic to $F$, but the addition of any edge to $G$ makes such an edge-coloring impossible. The maximum number of edges in a rainbow $F$-saturated graph is the rainbow Turán number, whose study was initiated in 2007 by Keevash, Mubayi, Sudakov, and Verstraëte. Recently, Bushaw, Johnston, and Rombach introduced study of a corresponding saturation problem, asking for the minimum number of edges in a rainbow $F$-saturated graph. We term this minimum the proper rainbow saturation number of $F$, denoted $\mathrm{sat}^*(n,F)$. We asymptotically determine $\mathrm{sat}^*(n,C_4)$, answering a question of Bushaw, Johnston, and Rombach. We also exhibit constructions which establish upper bounds for $\mathrm{sat}^*(n,C_5)$ and $\mathrm{sat}^*(n,C_6)$.

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arXiv2023

A Generalised Theory of Proportionality in Collective Decision Making

We consider a voting model, where a number of candidates need to be selected subject to certain feasibility constraints. The model generalises committee elections (where there is a single constraint on the number of candidates that need to be selected), various elections with diversity constraints, the model of public decisions (where decisions needs to be taken on a number of independent issues), and the model of collective scheduling. A critical property of voting is that it should be fair -- not only to individuals but also to groups of voters with similar opinions on the subject of the vote; in other words, the outcome of an election should proportionally reflect the voters' preferences. We formulate axioms of proportionality in this general model. Our axioms do not require predefining groups of voters; to the contrary, we ensure that the opinion of every subset of voters whose preferences are cohesive-enough are taken into account to the extent that is proportional to the size of the subset. Our axioms generalise the strongest known satisfiable axioms for the more specific models. We explain how to adapt two prominent committee election rules, Proportional Approval Voting (PAV) and Phragmén Sequential Rule, as well as the concept of stable-priceability to our general model. The two rules satisfy our proportionality axioms if and only if the feasibility constraints are matroids.

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arXiv2022

Optimal Discretization is Fixed-parameter Tractable

Given two disjoint sets $W_1$ and $W_2$ of points in the plane, the Optimal Discretization problem asks for the minimum size of a family of horizontal and vertical lines that separate $W_1$ from $W_2$, that is, in every region into which the lines partition the plane there are either only points of $W_1$, or only points of $W_2$, or the region is empty. Equivalently, Optimal Discretization can be phrased as a task of discretizing continuous variables: we would like to discretize the range of $x$-coordinates and the range of $y$-coordinates into as few segments as possible, maintaining that no pair of points from $W_1 \times W_2$ are projected onto the same pair of segments under this discretization. We provide a fixed-parameter algorithm for the problem, parameterized by the number of lines in the solution. Our algorithm works in time $2^{O(k^2 \log k)} n^{O(1)}$, where $k$ is the bound on the number of lines to find and $n$ is the number of points in the input. Our result answers in positive a question of Bonnet, Giannopolous, and Lampis [IPEC 2017] and of Froese (PhD thesis, 2018) and is in contrast with the known intractability of two closely related generalizations: the Rectangle Stabbing problem and the generalization in which the selected lines are not required to be axis-parallel.

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arXiv2022

Proving a directed analogue of the Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture for orientations of $P_4$

An oriented graph is a digraph that does not contain a directed cycle of length two. An (oriented) graph $D$ is $H$-free if $D$ does not contain $H$ as an induced sub(di)graph. The Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture is a widely-open conjecture on simple graphs, which states that for any forest $F$, there is some function $f$ such that every $F$-free graph $G$ with clique number $ω(G)$ has chromatic number at most $f(ω(G))$. Aboulker, Charbit, and Naserasr [Extension of Gyárfás-Sumner Conjecture to Digraphs; E-JC 2021] proposed an analogue of this conjecture to the dichromatic number of oriented graphs. The dichromatic number of a digraph $D$ is the minimum number of colors required to color the vertex set of $D$ so that no directed cycle in $D$ is monochromatic. Aboulker, Charbit, and Naserasr's $\overrightarrowχ$-boundedness conjecture states that for every oriented forest $F$, there is some function $f$ such that every $F$-free oriented graph $D$ has dichromatic number at most $f(ω(D))$, where $ω(D)$ is the size of a maximum clique in the graph underlying $D$. In this paper, we perform the first step towards proving Aboulker, Charbit, and Naserasr's $\overrightarrowχ$-boundedness conjecture by showing that it holds when $F$ is any orientation of a path on four vertices.

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arXiv2022

On weighted graph separation problems and flow-augmentation

One of the first application of the recently introduced technique of \emph{flow-augmentation} [Kim et al., STOC 2022] is a fixed-parameter algorithm for the weighted version of \textsc{Directed Feedback Vertex Set}, a landmark problem in parameterized complexity. In this note we explore applicability of flow-augmentation to other weighted graph separation problems parameterized by the size of the cutset. We show the following. -- In weighted undirected graphs \textsc{Multicut} is FPT, both in the edge- and vertex-deletion version. -- The weighted version of \textsc{Group Feedback Vertex Set} is FPT, even with an oracle access to group operations. -- The weighted version of \textsc{Directed Subset Feedback Vertex Set} is FPT. Our study reveals \textsc{Directed Symmetric Multicut} as the next important graph separation problem whose parameterized complexity remains unknown, even in the unweighted setting.

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arXiv2022

Tuza's Conjecture for Threshold Graphs

Tuza famously conjectured in 1981 that in a graph without k+1 edge-disjoint triangles, it suffices to delete at most 2k edges to obtain a triangle-free graph. The conjecture holds for graphs with small treewidth or small maximum average degree, including planar graphs. However, for dense graphs that are neither cliques nor 4-colorable, only asymptotic results are known. Here, we confirm the conjecture for threshold graphs, i.e. graphs that are both split graphs and cographs, and for co-chain graphs with both sides of the same size divisible by 4.

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arXiv2022

Fixed-parameter tractability of Directed Multicut with three terminal pairs parameterized by the size of the cutset: twin-width meets flow-augmentation

We show fixed-parameter tractability of the Directed Multicut problem with three terminal pairs (with a randomized algorithm). This problem, given a directed graph $G$, pairs of vertices (called terminals) $(s_1,t_1)$, $(s_2,t_2)$, and $(s_3,t_3)$, and an integer $k$, asks to find a set of at most $k$ non-terminal vertices in $G$ that intersect all $s_1t_1$-paths, all $s_2t_2$-paths, and all $s_3t_3$-paths. The parameterized complexity of this case has been open since Chitnis, Cygan, Hajiaghayi, and Marx proved fixed-parameter tractability of the 2-terminal-pairs case at SODA 2012, and Pilipczuk and Wahlström proved the W[1]-hardness of the 4-terminal-pairs case at SODA 2016. On the technical side, we use two recent developments in parameterized algorithms. Using the technique of directed flow-augmentation [Kim, Kratsch, Pilipczuk, Wahlström, STOC 2022] we cast the problem as a CSP problem with few variables and constraints over a large ordered domain.We observe that this problem can be in turn encoded as an FO model-checking task over a structure consisting of a few 0-1 matrices. We look at this problem through the lenses of twin-width, a recently introduced structural parameter [Bonnet, Kim, Thomassé, Watrigant, FOCS 2020]: By a recent characterization [Bonnet, Giocanti, Ossona de Mendes, Simon, Thomassé, Toruńczyk, STOC 2022] the said FO model-checking task can be done in FPT time if the said matrices have bounded grid rank. To complete the proof, we show an irrelevant vertex rule: If any of the matrices in the said encoding has a large grid minor, a vertex corresponding to the ``middle'' box in the grid minor can be proclaimed irrelevant -- not contained in the sought solution -- and thus reduced.

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arXiv2022

A tight quasi-polynomial bound for Global Label Min-Cut

We study a generalization of the classic Global Min-Cut problem, called Global Label Min-Cut (or sometimes Global Hedge Min-Cut): the edges of the input (multi)graph are labeled (or partitioned into color classes or hedges), and removing all edges of the same label (color or from the same hedge) costs one. The problem asks to disconnect the graph at minimum cost. While the $st$-cut version of the problem is known to be NP-hard, the above global cut version is known to admit a quasi-polynomial randomized $n^{O(\log \mathrm{OPT})}$-time algorithm due to Ghaffari, Karger, and Panigrahi [SODA 2017]. They consider this as ``strong evidence that this problem is in P''. We show that this is actually not the case. We complete the study of the complexity of the Global Label Min-Cut problem by showing that the quasi-polynomial running time is probably optimal: We show that the existence of an algorithm with running time $(np)^{o(\log n/ (\log \log n)^2)}$ would contradict the Exponential Time Hypothesis, where $n$ is the number of vertices, and $p$ is the number of labels in the input. The key step for the lower bound is a proof that Global Label Min-Cut is W[1]-hard when parameterized by the number of uncut labels. In other words, the problem is difficult in the regime where almost all labels need to be cut to disconnect the graph. To turn this lower bound into a quasi-polynomial-time lower bound, we also needed to revisit the framework due to Marx [Theory Comput. 2010] of proving lower bounds assuming Exponential Time Hypothesis through the Subgraph Isomorphism problem parameterized by the number of edges of the pattern. Here, we provide an alternative simplified proof of the hardness of this problem that is more versatile with respect to the choice of the regimes of the parameters.

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arXiv2022

Max Weight Independent Set in graphs with no long claws: An analog of the Gyárfás' path argument

We revisit recent developments for the Maximum Weight Independent Set problem in graphs excluding a subdivided claw $S_{t,t,t}$ as an induced subgraph [Chudnovsky, Pilipczuk, Pilipczuk, Thomassé, SODA 2020] and provide a subexponential-time algorithm with improved running time $2^{\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{n}\log n)}$ and a quasipolynomial-time approximation scheme with improved running time $2^{\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^{-1} \log^{5} n)}$. The Gyárfás' path argument, a powerful tool that is the main building block for many algorithms in $P_t$-free graphs, ensures that given an $n$-vertex $P_t$-free graph, in polynomial time we can find a set $P$ of at most $t-1$ vertices, such that every connected component of $G-N[P]$ has at most $n/2$ vertices. Our main technical contribution is an analog of this result for $S_{t,t,t}$-free graphs: given an $n$-vertex $S_{t,t,t}$-free graph, in polynomial time we can find a set $P$ of $\mathcal{O}(t \log n)$ vertices and an extended strip decomposition (an appropriate analog of the decomposition into connected components) of $G-N[P]$ such that every particle (an appropriate analog of a connected component to recurse on) of the said extended strip decomposition has at most $n/2$ vertices.

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arXiv2022

List Locally Surjective Homomorphisms in Hereditary Graph Classes

A locally surjective homomorphism from a graph $G$ to a graph $H$ is an edge-preserving mapping from $V(G)$ to $V(H)$ that is surjective in the neighborhood of each vertex in $G$. In the list locally surjective homomorphism problem, denoted by LLSHom($H$), the graph $H$ is fixed and the instance consists of a graph $G$ whose every vertex is equipped with a subset of $V(H)$, called list. We ask for the existence of a locally surjective homomorphism from $G$ to $H$, where every vertex of $G$ is mapped to a vertex from its list. In this paper, we study the complexity of the LLSHom($H$) problem in $F$-free graphs, i.e., graphs that exclude a fixed graph $F$ as an induced subgraph. We aim to understand for which pairs $(H,F)$ the problem can be solved in subexponential time. We show that for all graphs $H$, for which the problem is NP-hard in general graphs, it cannot be solved in subexponential time in $F$-free graphs unless $F$ is a bounded-degree forest or the ETH fails. The initial study reveals that a natural subfamily of bounded-degree forests $F$ that might lead to some tractability results is the family $\mathcal S$ consisting of forests whose every component has at most three leaves. In this case, we exhibit the following dichotomy theorem: besides the cases that are polynomial-time solvable in general graphs, the graphs $H \in \{P_3,C_4\}$ are the only connected ones that allow for a subexponential-time algorithm in $F$-free graphs for every $F \in \mathcal S$ (unless the ETH fails).

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arXiv2021

The Phase Transition of Discrepancy in Random Hypergraphs

Motivated by the Beck-Fiala conjecture, we study the discrepancy problem in two related models of random hypergraphs on $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. In the first (edge-independent) model, a random hypergraph $H_1$ is constructed by fixing a parameter $p$ and allowing each of the $n$ vertices to join each of the $m$ edges independently with probability $p$. In the parameter range in which $pn \rightarrow \infty$ and $pm \rightarrow \infty$, we show that with high probability (w.h.p.) $H_1$ has discrepancy at least $Ω(2^{-n/m} \sqrt{pn})$ when $m = O(n)$, and at least $Ω(\sqrt{pn \logγ})$ when $m \gg n$, where $γ= \min\{ m/n, pn\}$. In the second (edge-dependent) model, $d$ is fixed and each vertex of $H_2$ independently joins exactly $d$ edges uniformly at random. We obtain analogous results for this model by generalizing the techniques used for the edge-independent model with $p=d/m$. Namely, for $d \rightarrow \infty$ and $dn/m \rightarrow \infty$, we prove that w.h.p. $H_{2}$ has discrepancy at least $Ω(2^{-n/m} \sqrt{dn/m})$ when $m = O(n)$, and at least $Ω(\sqrt{(dn/m) \logγ})$ when $m \gg n$, where $γ=\min\{m/n, dn/m\}$. Furthermore, we obtain nearly matching asymptotic upper bounds on the discrepancy in both models (when $p=d/m$), in the dense regime of $m \gg n$. Specifically, we apply the partial colouring lemma of Lovett and Meka to show that w.h.p. $H_{1}$ and $H_{2}$ each have discrepancy $O( \sqrt{dn/m} \log(m/n))$, provided $d \rightarrow \infty$, $d n/m \rightarrow \infty$ and $m \gg n$. This result is algorithmic, and together with the work of Bansal and Meka characterizes how the discrepancy of each random hypergraph model transitions from $Θ(\sqrt{d})$ to $o(\sqrt{d})$ as $m$ varies from $m=Θ(n)$ to $m \gg n$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Random 2-cell embeddings of multistars

Random 2-cell embeddings of a given graph $G$ are obtained by choosing a random local rotation around every vertex. We analyze the expected number of faces, $\mathbb{E}[F_G]$, of such an embedding which is equivalent to studying its average genus. So far, tight results are known for two families called monopoles and dipoles. We extend the dipole result to a more general family called multistars, i.e., loopless multigraphs in which there is a vertex incident with all the edges. In particular, we show that the expected number of faces of every multistar with $n$ nonleaf edges lies in an interval of length $2/(n + 1)$ centered at the expected number of faces of an $n$-edge dipole. This allows us to derive bounds on $\mathbb{E}[F_G]$ for any given graph $G$ in terms of vertex degrees. We conjecture that $\mathbb{E}[F_G ] \le O(n)$ for any simple $n$-vertex graph $G$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Linear Bounds for Cycle-free Saturation Games

Given a family of graphs $\mathcal{F}$, we define the $\mathcal{F}$-saturation game as follows. Two players alternate adding edges to an initially empty graph on $n$ vertices, with the only constraint being that neither player can add an edge that creates a subgraph in $\mathcal{F}$. The game ends when no more edges can be added to the graph. One of the players wishes to end the game as quickly as possible, while the other wishes to prolong the game. We let $\textrm{sat}_g(n,\mathcal{F})$ denote the number of edges that are in the final graph when both players play optimally. In general there are very few non-trivial bounds on the order of magnitude of $\textrm{sat}_g(n,\mathcal{F})$. In this work, we find collections of infinite families of cycles $\mathcal{C}$ such that $\textrm{sat}_g(n,\mathcal{C})$ has linear growth rate.

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arXiv2021

On 3-Coloring of $(2P_4,C_5)$-Free Graphs

The 3-coloring of hereditary graph classes has been a deeply-researched problem in the last decade. A hereditary graph class is characterized by a (possibly infinite) list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs $H_1,H_2,\ldots$; the graphs in the class are called $(H_1,H_2,\ldots)$-free. The complexity of 3-coloring is far from being understood, even for classes defined by a few small forbidden induced subgraphs. For $H$-free graphs, the complexity is settled for any $H$ on up to seven vertices. There are only two unsolved cases on eight vertices, namely $2P_4$ and $P_8$. For $P_8$-free graphs, some partial results are known, but to the best of our knowledge, $2P_4$-free graphs have not been explored yet. In this paper, we show that the 3-coloring problem is polynomial-time solvable on $(2P_4,C_5)$-free graphs.

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arXiv2021

Robust Connectivity of Graphs on Surfaces

Let $Λ(T)$ denote the set of leaves in a tree $T$. One natural problem is to look for a spanning tree $T$ of a given graph $G$ such that $Λ(T)$ is as large as possible. This problem is called maximum leaf number, and it is a well-known NP-hard problem. Throughout recent decades, this problem has received considerable attention, ranging from pure graph theoretic questions to practical problems related to the construction of wireless networks. Recently, a similar but stronger notion was defined by Bradshaw, Masařík, and Stacho [Flexible List Colorings in Graphs with Special Degeneracy Conditions, ISAAC 2020]. They introduced a new invariant for a graph $G$, called the robust connectivity and written $κ_ρ(G)$, defined as the minimum value $\frac{|R \cap Λ(T)|}{|R|}$ taken over all nonempty subsets $R\subseteq V(G)$, where $T = T(R)$ is a spanning tree on $G$ chosen to maximize $|R \cap Λ(T)|$. Large robust connectivity was originally used to show flexible choosability in non-regular graphs. In this paper, we investigate some interesting properties of robust connectivity for graphs embedded in surfaces. We prove a tight asymptotic bound of $Ω(γ^{-\frac{1}{r}})$ for the robust connectivity of $r$-connected graphs of Euler genus $γ$. Moreover, we give a surprising connection between the robust connectivity of graphs with an edge-maximal embedding in a surface and the surface connectivity of that surface, which describes to what extent large induced subgraphs of embedded graphs can be cut out from the surface without splitting the surface into multiple parts. For planar graphs, this connection provides an equivalent formulation of a long-standing conjecture of Albertson and Berman [A conjecture on planar graphs, 1979], which states that every planar graph on $n$ vertices contains an induced forest of size at least $n/2$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Colouring $(P_r+P_s)$-Free Graphs

The $k$-Colouring problem is to decide if the vertices of a graph can be coloured with at most $k$ colours for a fixed integer $k$ such that no two adjacent vertices are coloured alike. If each vertex u must be assigned a colour from a prescribed list $L(u) \subseteq \{1,\cdots, k\}$, then we obtain the List $k$-Colouring problem. A graph $G$ is $H$-free if $G$ does not contain $H$ as an induced subgraph. We continue an extensive study into the complexity of these two problems for $H$-free graphs. The graph $P_r+P_s$ is the disjoint union of the $r$-vertex path $P_r$ and the $s$-vertex path $P_s$. We prove that List $3$-Colouring is polynomial-time solvable for $(P_2+P_5)$-free graphs and for $(P_3+P_4)$-free graphs. Combining our results with known results yields complete complexity classifications of $3$-Colouring and List $3$-Colouring on $H$-free graphs for all graphs $H$ up to seven vertices.

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arXiv2021

Constant congestion brambles in directed graphs

The Directed Grid Theorem, stating that there is a function $f$ such that a directed graphs of directed treewidth at least $f(k)$ contains a directed grid of size at least $k$ as a butterfly minor, after being a conjecture for nearly 20 years, has been proven in 2015 by Kawarabayashi and Kreutzer. However, the function $f$ obtained in the proof is very fast growing. In this work, we show that if one relaxes directed grid to bramble of constant congestion, one can obtain a polynomial bound. More precisely, we show that for every $k \geq 1$ there exists $t = \mathcal{O}(k^{48} \log^{13} k)$ such that every directed graph of directed treewidth at least $t$ contains a bramble of congestion at most $8$ and size at least $k$.

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