A Generalization of AT-Free Graphs and a Generic Algorithm for Solving Triangulation Problems

A subset A of the vertices of a graph G is an asteroidal set if for each vertex a ∈ A a connected component of G-N[a] exists containing A\backslash{a} . An asteroidal set of cardinality three is called asteriodal triple and graphs without an asteriodal triple are called AT-free . The maximum cardinality of an asteroidal set of G , denoted by \an(G) , is said to be the asteriodal number of G . We present a scheme for designing algorithms for triangulation problems on graphs. As a consequence, we obtain algorithms to compute graph parameters such as treewidth, minimum fill-in and vertex ranking number. The running time of these algorithms is a polynomial (of degree asteriodal number plus a small constant) in the number of vertices and the number of minimal separators of the input graph.     

On the Rainbow Connectivity of Graphs: Complexity and FPT Algorithms

For a graph G=(V,E) and a color set C, let f:E→C be an edge-coloring of G in which two adjacent edges may have the same color. Then, the graph G edge-colored by f is rainbow connected if every two vertices of G have a path in which all edges are assigned distinct colors. Chakraborty et al. defined the problem of determining whether the graph colored by a given edge-coloring is rainbow connected. Chen et al. introduced the vertex-coloring version of the problem as a variant, and we introduce the total-coloring version in this paper. We settle the precise computational complexities of all the three problems with regards to graph diameters, and also characterize these with regards to certain graph classes: cacti, outer planer and series-parallel graphs. We then give FPT algorithms for the three problems on general graphs when parameterized by the number of colors in C; our FPT algorithms imply that all the three problems can be solved in polynomial time for any graph with n vertices if |C|=O(logn).     

A Linear-Time Algorithm for Finding Locally Connected Spanning Trees on Circular-Arc Graphs

Suppose that T is a spanning tree of a graph G. T is called a locally connected spanning tree of G if for every vertex of T, the set of all its neighbors in T induces a connected subgraph of G. In this paper, given an intersection model of a circular-arc graph, an O(n)-time algorithm is proposed that can determine whether the circular-arc graph contains a locally connected spanning tree or not, and produce one if it exists.     

A polynomial time algorithm for obtaining minimum edge ranking on two-connected outerplanar graphs

An edge ranking of a graph G is a labeling r of its edges with positive integers such that every path between two different edges eu, ev with the same rank r(eu)=r(ev) contains an intermediate edge ew with rank r(ew)>r(eu). An edge ranking of G is minimum if the largest rank k assigned is the smallest among all rankings of G. The edge ranking problem is to find a minimum edge ranking of given graph G. This problem is NP-hard and no polynomial time algorithm for solving it is known for non-trivial classes of graphs other than the class of trees. In this paper, we first show, on a general graph G, a relation between a minimum edge ranking of G and its minimal cuts, which ensures that we can obtain a polynomial time algorithm for obtaining minimum edge ranking of a given graph G if minimal cuts for each subgraph of G can be found in polynomial time and the number of those is polynomial. Based on this relation, we develop a polynomial time algorithm for finding a minimum edge ranking on a 2-connected outerplanar graph.     

A linear-time algorithm to compute a MAD tree of an interval graph

The average distance of a connected graph G is the average of the distances between all pairs of vertices of G. We present a linear time algorithm that determines, for a given interval graph G, a spanning tree of G with minimum average distance (MAD tree). Such a tree is sometimes referred to as a minimum routing cost spanning tree.     

Partitioning a Weighted Tree into Subtrees with?Weights in a Given Range

Assume that each vertex of a graph G is assigned a nonnegative integer weight and that l and u are given integers such that 0≤l≤u. One wishes to partition G into connected components by deleting edges from G so that the total weight of each component is at least l and at most u. Such a partition is called an (l,u)-partition. We deal with three problems to find an (l,u)-partition of a given graph: the minimum partition problem is to find an (l,u)-partition with the minimum number of components; the maximum partition problem is defined analogously; and the p-partition problem is to find an (l,u)-partition with a given number p of components. All these problems are NP-hard even for series-parallel graphs, but are solvable in linear time for paths. In this paper, we present the first polynomial-time algorithm to solve the three problems for arbitrary trees.     

A Generalization of AT-Free Graphs and a Generic Algorithm for Solving Triangulation Problems

Abstract. A subset A of the vertices of a graph G is an asteroidal set if for each vertex a ∈ A a connected component of G-N[a] exists containing A\backslash{a} . An asteroidal set of cardinality three is called asteriodal triple and graphs without an asteriodal triple are called AT-free . The maximum cardinality of an asteroidal set of G , denoted by \an(G) , is said to be the asteriodal number of G . We present a scheme for designing algorithms for triangulation problems on graphs. As a consequence, we obtain algorithms to compute graph parameters such as treewidth, minimum fill-in and vertex ranking number. The running time of these algorithms is a polynomial (of degree asteriodal number plus a small constant) in the number of vertices and the number of minimal separators of the input graph.     

Obtaining Online Ecological Colourings by Generalizing First-Fit

A colouring of a graph is ecological if every pair of vertices that have the same set of colours in their neighbourhood are coloured alike. We consider the following problem: if a graph G and an ecological colouring c of G are given, can further vertices added to G, one at a time, be coloured so that at each stage the current graph is ecologically coloured? If the answer is yes, then we say that the pair (G,c) is ecologically online extendible. By generalizing the well-known First-Fit algorithm, we are able to characterize when (G,c) is ecologically online extendible, and to show that deciding whether (G,c) is ecologically extendible can be done in polynomial time. We also describe when the extension is possible using only colours from a given finite set C. For the case where c is a colouring of G in which each vertex is coloured distinctly, we give a simple characterization of when (G,c) is ecologically online extendible using only the colours of c, and we also show that (G,c) is always online extendible using the colours of c plus one extra colour. We also study (off-line) ecological H-colourings (an H-colouring of G is a homomorphism from G to H). We study the problem of deciding whether G has an ecological H-colouring for some fixed H and give a characterization of its computational complexity in terms of the structure of H.     

Conflict-free star-access in parallel memory systems

We study conflict-free data distribution schemes in parallel memories in multiprocessor system architectures. Given a host graph G, the problem is to map the nodes of G into memory modules such that any instance of a template type T in G can be accessed without memory conflicts. A conflict occurs if two or more nodes of T are mapped to the same memory module. The mapping algorithm should: (i) be fast in terms of data access (possibly mapping each node in constant time); (ii) minimize the required number of memory modules for accessing any instance in G of the given template type; and (iii) guarantee load balancing on the modules. In this paper, we consider conflict-free access to star templates, i.e., to any node of G along with all of its neighbors. Such a template type arises in many classical algorithms like breadth-first search in a graph, message broadcasting in networks, and nearest neighbor based approximation in numerical computation. We consider the star-template access problem on two specific host graphs—tori and hypercubes—that are also popular interconnection network topologies. The proposed conflict-free mappings on these graphs are fast, use an optimal or provably good number of memory modules, and guarantee load balancing.     

The complexity of determining the rainbow vertex-connection of a graph

A vertex-colored graph is rainbow vertex-connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose internal vertices have distinct colors, which was introduced by Krivelevich and Yuster. The rainbow vertex-connection of a connected graph G, denoted by rvc(G), is the smallest number of colors that are needed in order to make G rainbow vertex-connected. In this paper, we study the complexity of determining the rainbow vertex-connection of a graph and prove that computing rvc(G) is NP-Hard. Moreover, we show that it is already NP-Complete to decide whether rvc(G)=2. We also prove that the following problem is NP-Complete: given a vertex-colored graph G, check whether the given coloring makes G rainbow vertex-connected.     

The clique-transversal set problem in claw-free graphs with degree at most 4

A clique of a graph G is defined as a complete subgraph maximal under inclusion and having at least two vertices. A clique-transversal set D of G is a subset of vertices of G such that D meets all cliques of G. The clique-transversal set problem is to find a minimum clique-transversal set of G. In this paper we present a polynomial time algorithm for the clique-transversal set problem on claw-free graphs with degree at most 4.     

Comparing Universal Covers in Polynomial Time

The universal cover T _G of a connected graph G is the unique (possibly infinite) tree covering G, i.e., that allows a locally bijective homomorphism from T _G to G. It is well-known that if a graph G covers a graph H, then their universal covers are isomorphic, and that the latter can be tested in polynomial time by checking if G and H share the same degree refinement matrix. We extend this result to locally injective and locally surjective homomorphisms by following a very different approach. Using linear programming techniques we design two polynomial time algorithms that check if there exists a locally injective or a locally surjective homomorphism, respectively, from a universal cover T _G to a universal cover T _H (both given by their degree matrices). This way we obtain two heuristics for testing the corresponding locally constrained graph homomorphisms. Our algorithm can also be used for testing (subgraph) isomorphism between universal covers, and for checking if there exists a locally injective or locally surjective homomorphism (role assignment) from a given tree to an arbitrary graph H.     

Maximum Series-Parallel Subgraph

Consider the NP-hard problem of, given a simple graph?G, to find a series-parallel subgraph of?G with the maximum number of edges. The algorithm that, given a connected graph?G, outputs a spanning tree of?G, is a $\frac{1}{2}$ -approximation. Indeed, if n is the number of vertices in G, any spanning tree in G has?n?1 edges and any series-parallel graph on?n vertices has at most?2n?3 edges. We present a $\frac{7}{12}$ -approximation for this problem and results showing the limits of our approach.     

Applications of dimensionality reduction and exponential sums to graph automorphism

Given a connected undirected graph, we associate a simplex with it such that two graphs are isomorphic if and only if their corresponding simplices are congruent under an isometric map. In the first part of the paper, we study the effectiveness of a dimensionality reduction approach to Graph Automorphism. More precisely, we show that orthogonal projections of the simplex onto a lower dimensional space preserves an automorphism if and only if the space is an invariant subspace of the automorphism. This insight motivates the study of invariant subspaces of an automorphism. We show the existence of some interesting (possibly lower dimensional) invariant subspaces of an automorphism. As an application of the correspondence between a graph and its simplex, we show that there are roughly a quadratic number of invariants that uniquely characterize a connected undirected graph up to isomorphism.In the second part, we present an exponential sum formula for counting the number of automorphisms of a graph and study the computation of this formula. As an application, we show that for a fixed prime p and any graph G, we can count, modulo p, the number of permutations that violate a multiple of p edges in G in polynomial time.     

Inapproximability of the Tutte polynomial of a planar graph

The Tutte polynomial of a graph G is a two-variable polynomial T(G; x, y) that encodes many interesting properties of the graph. We study the complexity of the following problem, for rationals x and y: given as input a planar graph G, determine T(G; x, y). Vertigan completely mapped the complexity of exactly computing the Tutte polynomial of a planar graph. He showed that the problem can be solved in polynomial time if (x, y) is on the hyperbola H _q given by (x ? 1)(y ? 1) = q for q = 1 or q = 2 or if (x, y) is one of the two special points (x, y) = (?1, ?1) or (x, y) = (1, 1). Otherwise, the problem is #P-hard. In this paper, we consider the problem of approximating T(G; x, y), in the usual sense of “fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme” or FPRAS. Roughly speaking, an FPRAS is required to produce, in polynomial time and with high probability, an answer that has small relative error. Assuming that NP is different from RP, we show that there is no FPRAS for the Tutte polynomial in a large portion of the (x, y) plane. In particular, there is no FPRAS if x > 1, y < ?1 or if y > 1, x < ?1 or if x < 0, y < 0 and q > 5. Also, there is no FPRAS if x < 1, y < 1 and q = 3. For q > 5, our result is intriguing because it shows that there is no FPRAS at (x, y) =?(1 ? q/(1 + ε), ?ε) for any positive ε but it leaves open the limit point ε =?0, which corresponds to approximately counting q-colorings of a planar graph.     

An optimal parallel algorithm for c-vertex-ranking of trees

For a positive integer c, a c-vertex-ranking of a graph G=(V,E) is a labeling of the vertices of G with integers such that, for any label i, deletion of all vertices with labels >i leaves connected components, each having at most c vertices with label i. The c-vertex-ranking problem is to find a c-vertex-ranking of a given graph using the minimum number of ranks. In this paper we give an optimal parallel algorithm for solving the c-vertex-ranking problem on trees in O(log₂n) time using linear number of operations on the EREW PRAM model.     

The oriented chromatic number of Halin graphs

The oriented chromatic number of an oriented graph G is the minimum order of an oriented graph H such that G admits a homomorphism to H. The oriented chromatic number of an unoriented graph G is the maximal chromatic number over all possible orientations of G. In this paper, we prove that every Halin graph has oriented chromatic number at most 8, improving a previous bound by Hosseini Dolama and Sopena, and confirming the conjecture given by Vignal.     

Super-connected but not super edge-connected graphs

A connected graph G is super-connected (resp. super edge-connected) if every minimum vertex-cut (resp. edge-cut) isolates a vertex of G. In [Super connectivity of line graphs, Inform. Process. Lett. 94 (2005) 191-195], Xu et al. shows that a super-connected graph with minimum degree at least 4 is also super edge-connected. In this paper, a characterization of all super-connected but not super edge-connected graphs is given. It follows from this result that there is a unique super-connected but not super edge-connected graph with minimum degree 3, that is, the Ladder graph L₃ of order 6, and that there are infinitely many super-connected but not super edge-connected graphs with minimum degree 1 or 2.     

Restricted arc-connectivity of digraphs

Since interconnection networks are often modeled by graphs or digraphs, the edge-connectivity of a graph or arc-connectivity of a digraph are important measurements for fault tolerance of networks.The restricted edge-connectivity λ^′(G) of a graph G is the minimum cardinality over all edge-cuts S in a graph G such that there are no isolated vertices in G−S. A connected graph G is called λ^′-connected, if λ^′(G) exists.In 1988, Esfahanian and Hakimi [A.H. Esfahanian, S.L. Hakimi, On computing a conditional edge-connectivity of a graph, Inform. Process. Lett. 27 (1988), 195-199] have shown that each connected graph G of order n?4, except a star, is λ^′-connected and satisfies λ^′(G)?ξ(G), where ξ(G) is the minimum edge-degree of G.If D is a strongly connected digraph, then we call in this paper an arc set S a restricted arc-cut of D if D−S has a non-trivial strong component D₁ such that D−V(D₁) contains an arc. The restricted arc-connectivity λ^′(D) is the minimum cardinality over all restricted arc-cuts S.We observe that the recognition problem, whether λ^′(D) exists for a strongly connected digraph D is solvable in polynomial time. Furthermore, we present some analogous results to the above mentioned theorem of Esfahanian and Hakimi for digraphs, and we show that this theorem follows easily from one of our results.