Degree-preserving trees

We consider the degree-preserving spanning tree (DPST) problem: given a connected graph G, find a spanning tree T of G such that as many vertices of T as possible have the same degree in T as in G. This problem is a graph-theoretical translation of a problem arising in the system-theoretical context of identifiability in networks, a concept which has applications in e.g., water distribution networks and electrical networks. We show that the DPST problem is NP-complete, even when restricted to split graphs or bipartite planar graphs. We present linear time approximation algorithms for planar graphs of worst case performance ratio 1−ε for every constant ε > 0. Furthermore we give exact algorithms for interval graphs (linear time), graphs of bounded treewidth (linear time), cocomparability graphs (O(n 4)), and graphs of bounded asteroidal number.KeywordsSpan TreePlanar GraphInterval GraphChordal GraphLinear Time AlgorithmThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Finding Paths between graph colourings: PSPACE-completeness and superpolynomial distances

Finding dominating induced matchings in [formula omitted]-free graphs in polynomial time

Faster Shortest-Path Algorithms for Planar Graphs

We strengthen a result by Laskar and Lyle (Discrete Appl. Math. (2009), 330–338) by proving that it is \(\textsc {NP}\)-complete to decide whether a bipartite planar graph can be partitioned into three independent dominating sets. In contrast, we show that this is always possible for every maximal outerplanar graph with at least three vertices. Moreover, we extend their previous result by proving that deciding whether a bipartite graph can be partitioned into k independent dominating sets is \(\textsc {NP}\)-complete for every \(k \ge 3\). We also strengthen a result by Henning et al. (Discrete Math. (2009), 6451–6458) by showing that it is \(\textsc {NP}\)-complete to determine if a graph has two disjoint independent dominating sets, even when the problem is restricted to triangle-free planar graphs. Finally, for every \(k \ge 3\), we show that there is some constant t depending only on k such that deciding whether a k-regular graph can be partitioned into t independent dominating sets is \(\textsc {NP}\)-complete. We conclude by deriving moderately exponential-time algorithms for the problem.

For any positive integer k, the total k-domatic partition problem is to partition the vertices of a graph G into k pairwise disjoint total dominating sets. In this paper, we study the problem for planar graphs, chordal bipartite graphs, convex bipartite graphs, and bipartite permutation graphs. We show that the total 3-domatic partition problem on planar graphs is NP-complete. Moreover, we give an alternative algorithm to solve the total k-domatic partition problem for chordal bipartite graphs with weak elimination orderings, and adapt it to solve the problem in linear time for bipartite permutation graphs and convex bipartite graphs even if Gamma-free forms of the adjacency matrices of the considered graphs are not given.

Greenʼs theorem and isolation in planar graphs

We resolve a number of long-standing open problems in online graph coloring. More specifically, we develop tight lower bounds on the performance of online algorithms for fundamental graph classes. An important contribution is that our bounds also hold for randomized online algorithms, for which hardly any results were known. Technically, we construct lower bounds for chordal graphs. The constructions then allow us to derive results on the performance of randomized online algorithms for the following further graph classes: trees, planar, bipartite, inductive, bounded-treewidth and disk graphs. It shows that the best competitive ratio of both deterministic and randomized online algorithms is Theta(log n), where n is the number of vertices of a graph. Furthermore, we prove that this guarantee cannot be improved if an online algorithm has a lookahead of size O(n/log n) or access to a reordering buffer of size n^(1-epsilon), for any 0 < epsilon <= 1. A consequence of our results is that, for all of the above mentioned graph classes except bipartite graphs, the natural First Fit coloring algorithm achieves an optimal performance, up to constant factors, among deterministic and randomized online algorithms.

Tree decompositions for a class of graphs

We develop a bipartite rigidity theory for bipartite graphs parallel to the classical rigidity theory for general graphs, and define for two positive integers k , l k,l the notions of ( k , l ) (k,l) -rigid and ( k , l ) (k,l) -stress free bipartite graphs. This theory coincides with the study of Babson–Novik’s balanced shifting restricted to graphs. We establish bipartite analogs of the cone, contraction, deletion, and gluing lemmas, and apply these results to derive a bipartite analog of the rigidity criterion for planar graphs. Our result asserts that for a planar bipartite graph G G its balanced shifting, G b G^b , does not contain K 3 , 3 K_{3,3} ; equivalently, planar bipartite graphs are generically ( 2 , 2 ) (2,2) -stress free. We also discuss potential applications of this theory to Jockusch’s cubical lower bound conjecture and to upper bound conjectures for embedded simplicial complexes.

Let G be a finite undirected graph with edge set E. An edge set E′⊆E is an induced matching in G if the pairwise distance of the edges of E′ in G is at least two; E′ is dominating in G if every edge e∈E∖E′ intersects some edge in E′. The Dominating Induced Matching Problem (DIM, for short) asks for the existence of an induced matching E′ which is also dominating in G; this problem is also known as the Efficient Edge Domination Problem. The DIM problem is related to parallel resource allocation problems, encoding theory and network routing. It is ${\mathbb{NP}}$ -complete even for very restricted graph classes such as planar bipartite graphs with maximum degree three. However, its complexity was open for P k -free graphs for any k≥5; P k denotes a chordless path with k vertices and k−1 edges. We show in this paper that the weighted DIM problem is solvable in linear time for P 7-free graphs in a robust way.

In this paper we study the planar graphs that admit an acyclic 3-coloring. We show that testing acyclic 3-colorability is $\cal NP$-hard for planar graphs of maximum degree 4 and we show that there exist infinite classes of cubic planar graphs that are not acyclically 3-colorable. Further, we show that every planar graph has a subdivision with one vertex per edge that is acyclically 3-colorable. Finally, we characterize the series-parallel graphs such that every 3-coloring is acyclic and we provide a linear-time recognition algorithm for such graphs.

When we want to draw a graph to make the information contained in its structure easily accessible, it is highly desirable to have a drawing with as few edge crossings as possible (Purchase et al., 1997; Purchase, 1997). The class of graphs that can be drawn with no crossings at all is the class of planar graphs. Algorithms for drawing planar graphs are the main subject of this chapter.

Bipartite bithreshold graphs

For any class C of bipartite graphs, we define quasi-C to be the class of all graphs G such that every bipartition of G belongs to C. This definition is motivated by a generalisation of the switch Markov chain on perfect matchings from bipartite graphs to nonbipartite graphs. The monotone graphs, also known as bipartite permutation graphs and proper interval bigraphs, are such a class of bipartite graphs. We investigate the structure of quasi-monotone graphs and hence construct a polynomial time recognition algorithm for graphs in this class.