Algorithms for Classes of Graphs with Bounded Expansion

Our goal in this paper is the development of fast algorithms for recognizing general classes of graphs. We seek algorithms whose complexity can be expressed as a linear function of the graph size plus an exponential function of k, a natural parameter describing the class. Our classes are of the form Wk(G), graphs that can be formed by augmenting graphs in G by adding at most k vertices (and incident edges). If G is the class of edgeless graphs, Wk(G) is the class of graphs with a vertex cover of size at most k. We describe a recognition algorithm for Wk(G) running in time O((g + k)|V (G)| + (fk)k), where g and f are modest constants depending on the class G, when G is a minor-closed class such that each graph in G has bounded maximum degree, and all obstructions of G (minor-minimal graphs outside G) are connected. If G is the class of graphs with maximum degree bounded by D (not closed under minors), we can still recognize graphs in Wk(G) in time O(|V (G)|(D + k) + k(D + k)k+3). Our results are obtained by considering minor-closed classes G for which all obstructions are connected graphs, and showing that the size of any obstruction for Wk(G) is O(tk7 + t7k2), where t is a bound on the size of obstructions for G.

Asymptotic dimension and Assouad–Nagata dimension are measures of the large-scale shape of a class of graphs. Bonamy, Bousquet, Esperet, Groenland, Liu, Pirot, and Scott [ J. Eur. Math. Society ] showed that any proper minor-closed class has asymptotic dimension 2, dropping to 1 only if the treewidth is bounded. We improve this result by showing it also holds for the stricter Assouad–Nagata dimension. We also characterise when subdivision-closed classes of graphs have bounded Assouad–Nagata dimension.

FPT algorithms for domination in sparse graphs and beyond

The concept of bounded expansion provides a robust way to capture sparse graph classes with interesting algorithmic properties. Most notably, every problem definable in first-order logic can be solved in linear time on bounded expansion graph classes. First-order interpretations and transductions of sparse graph classes lead to more general, dense graph classes that seem to inherit many of the nice algorithmic properties of their sparse counterparts.In this work we introduce lacon- and shrub-decompositions and use them to characterize transductions of bounded expansion graph classes and other graph classes. If one can efficiently compute sparse shrub- or lacon-decompositions of transductions of bounded expansion classes then one can solve every problem definable in first-order logic in linear time on these classes.

We show that planar graphs have bounded queue-number, thus proving a conjecture of Heath et al. [66] from 1992. The key to the proof is a new structural tool called layered partitions , and the result that every planar graph has a vertex-partition and a layering, such that each part has a bounded number of vertices in each layer, and the quotient graph has bounded treewidth. This result generalises for graphs of bounded Euler genus. Moreover, we prove that every graph in a minor-closed class has such a layered partition if and only if the class excludes some apex graph. Building on this work and using the graph minor structure theorem, we prove that every proper minor-closed class of graphs has bounded queue-number. Layered partitions have strong connections to other topics, including the following two examples. First, they can be interpreted in terms of strong products. We show that every planar graph is a subgraph of the strong product of a path with some graph of bounded treewidth. Similar statements hold for all proper minor-closed classes. Second, we give a simple proof of the result by DeVos et al. [31] that graphs in a proper minor-closed class have low treewidth colourings.

Obstructions for two-vertex alternating embeddings of graphs in surfaces

In recent years, a variety of randomized constructions of sketching matrices have been devised, that have been used in fast algorithms for numerical linear algebra problems, such as least squares regression, low-rank approximation, and the approximation of leverage scores. A key property of sketching matrices is that of subspace embedding. In this paper, we study sketching matrices that are obtained from bipartite graphs that are sparse, i.e., have left degree s that is small. In particular, we explore two popular classes of sparse graphs, namely, expander graphs and magical graphs. For a given subspace ${\mathcal{U}} \subseteq {{\mathbb{R}}^n}$ of dimension k, we show that the magical graph with left degree s = 2 yields a (1 ± ϵ) ℓ <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> -subspace embedding for ${\mathcal{U}}$, if the number of right vertices (the sketch size) $m = {\mathcal{O}}\left( {{k^2}/{\varepsilon ^2}} \right)$. The expander graph with $s = {\mathcal{O}}(\log k/\varepsilon )$ yields a subspace embedding for $m = {\mathcal{O}}\left( {k\log k/{\varepsilon ^2}} \right)$. We also discuss the construction of sparse sketching matrices with reduced randomness using expanders based on error-correcting codes. Empirical results on various synthetic and real datasets show that these sparse graph sketching matrices work very well in practice.

In this paper we show that every graph of pathwidth less than $k$ that has a path of order $n$ also has an induced path of order at least $\frac{1}{3} n^{1/k}$. This is an exponential improvement and a generalization of the polylogarithmic bounds obtained by Esperet, Lemoine and Maffray (2016) for interval graphs of bounded clique number. We complement this result with an upper-bound.This result is then used to prove the two following generalizations:&#x0D; &#x0D; every graph of treewidth less than $k$ that has a path of order $n$ contains an induced path of order at least $\frac{1}{4} (\log n)^{1/k}$;&#x0D; for every non-trivial graph class that is closed under topological minors there is a constant $d \in (0,1)$ such that every graph from this class that has a path of order $n$ contains an induced path of order at least $(\log n)^d$.&#x0D; &#x0D; We also describe consequences of these results beyond graph classes that are closed under topological minors.

Given a minor-closed class of graphs $\mathcal{G}$, what is the infimum of the non-trivial roots of the chromatic polynomial of $G \in \mathcal{G}$? When $\mathcal{G}$ is the class of all graphs, the answer is known to be $32/27$. We answer this question exactly for three minor-closed classes of graphs. Furthermore, we conjecture precisely when the value is larger than $32/27$.

Baker [1] devised a technique to obtain approximation schemes for many optimization problems restricted to planar graphs; her technique was later extended to more general graph classes. In particular, using the Baker's technique and the minor structure theorem, Dawar et al. [5] gave Polynomial-Time Approximation Schemes (PTAS) for all monotone optimization problems expressible in the first-order logic when restricted to a proper minor-closed class of graphs. We define a Baker game formalizing the notion of repeated application of Baker's technique interspersed with vertex removal, prove that monotone optimization problems expressible in the first-order logic admit PTAS when restricted to graph classes in which the Baker game can be won in a constant number of rounds, and prove without use of the minor structure theorem that all proper minor-closed classes of graphs have this property.

We consider a class of graphs on n vertices, called ( d, f)-arrangeable graphs. This class of graphs contains all graphs of bounded degree d, and all df-arrangeable graphs, a class introduced by Chen and Schelp in 1993. In 1992, a variation of the Regularity Lemma of Szemerédi was introduced by Eaton and Rödl. As an application of this lemma, we give a linear upper bound, c( d, f) n, for the Ramsey number of graphs in this class, where log 2 log 2 c( d, f) = 24 df 5. This improves the earlier result, given in 1983 by Chvátal et al. of a linear bound on the Ramsey number of graphs with bounded degree d, where the constant term was more that a tower of d 2's, and later extended by Chen and Schelp to include d-arrangeable graphs.

We prove that the distance-r dominating set, distance-r connected dominating set, distance-r vertex cover, and distance-r connected vertex cover problems admit constant factor approximations in the CONGEST model of distributed computing in a constant number of rounds on classes of sparse high-girth graphs. In this paper, sparse means bounded expansion, and high-girth means girth at least 4r+2. Our algorithm is quite simple; however, the proof of its approximation guarantee is non-trivial. To complement the algorithmic results, we show tightness of our approximation by providing a loosely matching lower bound on rings.Our result is the first to show the existence of constant-factor approximations in a constant number of rounds in non-trivial classes of graphs for distance-r covering problems.

Suppose that we have (i) a graph with an unknown edge set and (ii) access to an oracle that returns all neighbors of a probed vertex. We want to find the hubs, that is, vertices with degree above a given threshold. An almost obvious two-stage randomized strategy is to query randomly sampled vertices and then their neighbors. We prove that this strategy achieves, in certain classes of sparse graphs, an asymptotically optimal query number among all possible querying strategies, including adaptive strategies. A detail of importance for an optimal constant factor is the number of probes in the neighborhood of a hub candidate. We show that 2 is in general the best choice in the graphs of interest. In a similar way we analyze, in the same model, the problem of finding small, almost dominating sets. The problems and graph classes are motivated mainly by the elucidation of interaction networks in molecular biology. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 57(4), 344-350 2011 © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We improve the running time of the general algorithmic technique known as Baker’s approach (1994) on H-minor-free graphs from \(\mathcal{O}(n^{f(|H|)})\) to \(\mathcal{O}(f(|H|) n^{O(1)})\). The numerous applications include, e.g. a 2-approximation for coloring and PTASes for various problems such as dominating set and max-cut, where we obtain similar improvements.On classes of odd-minor-free graphs, which have gained significant attention in recent time, we obtain a similar acceleration for a variant of the structural decomposition theorem proved by Demaine et al. (2010). We use these algorithms to derive faster 2-approximations; furthermore, we present the first PTASes and subexponential FPT-algorithms for independent set and vertex cover on these graph classes using a novel dynamic programming technique.We also introduce a technique to derive (nearly) subexponential parameterized algorithms on H-minor-free graphs. Our technique applies, in particular, to problems such as Steiner tree, (directed) subgraph with a property, (directed) longest path, and (connected/independent) dominating set, on some or all proper minor-closed graph classes. We obtain as a corollary that all problems with a minor-monotone subexponential kernel and amenable to our technique can be solved in subexponential FPT-time on H-minor free graphs. This results in a general methodology for subexponential parameterized algorithms outside the framework of bidimensionality.KeywordsSubexponential AlgorithmsGraph MinorsOdd Minors

Squares of Low Clique Number