A Characterization of Planar Graphs by Pseudo-Line Arrangements

Let ?? be an arrangement of pseudo-lines, i.e., a collection of unbounded x -monotone curves in which each curve crosses each of the others exactly once. A pseudo-line graph (??, E) is a graph for which the vertices are the pseudo-lines of ?? and the edges are some unordered pairs of pseudo-lines of ??. A diamond of a pseudo-line graph (??, E) is a pair of edges {p,q} , {p',q'}∈ E , {p,q} ∩ {p',q'}= Ø, such that the crossing point of the pseudo-lines p and q lies vertically between p' and q' and the crossing point of p' and q' lies vertically between p and q . We show that a graph is planar if and only if it is isomorphic to a diamond-free pseudo-line graph. An immediate consequence of this theorem is that the O(k1/3n) upper bound on the k -level complexity of an arrangement of straight lines, which was very recently discovered by Dey, holds for an arrangement of pseudo-lines as well.     

On Rooted Node-Connectivity Problems

Let G be a graph which is k -outconnected from a specified root node r , that is, G has k openly disjoint paths between r and v for every node v . We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a pair rv,rw of edges for which replacing these edges by a new edge vw gives a graph that is k -outconnected from r . This generalizes a theorem of Bienstock et al. on splitting off edges while preserving k -node-connectivity. We also prove that if C is a cycle in G such that each edge in C is critical with respect to k -outconnectivity from r , then C has a node v , distinct from r , which has degree k . This result is the rooted counterpart of a theorem due to Mader. We apply the above results to design approximation algorithms for the following problem: given a graph with nonnegative edge weights and node requirements c _u for each node u , find a minimum-weight subgraph that contains max {c _u ,c _v } openly disjoint paths between every pair of nodes u,v . For metric weights, our approximation guarantee is 3 . For uniform weights, our approximation guarantee is \min{ 2, (k+2q-1)/k} . Here k is the maximum node requirement, and q is the number of positive node requirements. Received September 15, 1998; revised March 10, 2000, and April 17, 2000.     

New Linear-Time Algorithms for Edge-Coloring Planar Graphs

We show efficient algorithms for edge-coloring planar graphs. Our main result is a linear-time algorithm for coloring planar graphs with maximum degree Δ with max {Δ,9} colors. Thus the coloring is optimal for graphs with maximum degree Δ≥9. Moreover for Δ=4,5,6 we give linear-time algorithms that use Δ+2 colors. These results improve over the algorithms of Chrobak and Yung (J. Algorithms 10:35–51, 1989) and of Chrobak and Nishizeki (J. Algorithms 11:102–116, 1990) which color planar graphs using max {Δ,19} colors in linear time or using max {Δ,9} colors in time. R. Cole supported in part by NSF grants CCR0105678 and CCF0515127 and IDM0414763. Ł. Kowalik supported in part by KBN grant 4T11C04425. Part of this work was done while Ł. Kowalik was staying at the Max Planck Institute in Saarbruecken, Germany.     

Applications of the crossing number

LetG be a graph ofn vertices that can be drawn in the plane by straight-line segments so that nok+1 of them are pairwise crossing. We show thatG has at mostc _k nlog^2k–2 n edges. This gives a partial answer to a dual version of a well-known problem of Avital-Hanani, Erdós, Kupitz, Perles, and others. We also construct two point sets {p ₁,,p _n }, {q ₁,,q _n } in the plane such that any piecewise linear one-to-one mappingfR ²R ² withf(pi)=qi (1in) is composed of at least (n ²) linear pieces. It follows from a recent result of Souvaine and Wenger that this bound is asymptotically tight. Both proofs are based on a relation between the crossing number and the bisection width of a graph.The first author was supported by NSF Grant CCR-91-22103, PSC-CUNY Research Award 663472, and OTKA-4269. An extended abstract of this paper was presented at the 10th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry, Stony Brook, NY, 1994.     

Approximation Algorithms for Minimum K -Cut

Let G=(V,E) be a complete undirected graph, with node set V={v ₁ , . . ., v _n } and edge set E . The edges (v _i ,v _j ) ∈ E have nonnegative weights that satisfy the triangle inequality. Given a set of integers K = { k _i } _i=1 ^p , the minimum K-cut problem is to compute disjoint subsets with sizes { k _i } _i=1 ^p , minimizing the total weight of edges whose two ends are in different subsets. We demonstrate that for any fixed p it is possible to obtain in polynomial time an approximation of at most three times the optimal value. We also prove bounds on the ratio between the weights of maximum and minimum cuts. Received September 4, 1997; revised July 15, 1998.     

Sublinear Fully Distributed Partition with Applications

We present new efficient deterministic and randomized distributed algorithms for decomposing a graph with n nodes into a disjoint set of connected clusters with radius at most k−1 and having O(n ^1+1/k ) intercluster edges. We show how to implement our algorithms in the distributed CONGEST\mathcal{CONGEST} model of computation, i.e., limited message size, which improves the time complexity of previous algorithms (Moran and Snir in Theor. Comput. Sci. 243(1–2):217–241, 2000; Awerbuch in J. ACM 32:804–823, 1985; Peleg in Distributed Computing: A Locality-Sensitive Approach, 2000) from O(n) to O(n ^1−1/k ). We apply our algorithms for constructing low stretch graph spanners and network synchronizers in sublinear deterministic time in the CONGEST\mathcal{CONGEST} model.     

Algorithms for derivation of structurally stable Hamiltonian signed graphs

A graph S_p,q,n refers to a signed graph with p nodes and q edges with n being the number of negative edges. We introduce two theorems to facilitate identification of the complete set of balanced signed graph configurations for any p-node Hamiltonian signed graph in terms of p, q and n. This allows for the development of computational procedures to efficiently determine the structural stability of a signed graph. This is potentially useful for the planning and analysis of complex situations or scenarios which can be depicted as signed graphs. Through the application of the theorems, the state of balance of a signed graph structure or its affinity towards balance can be determined in a more time-efficient manner compared to any explicit enumeration algorithm.     

Improved depth lower bounds for small distance connectivity

We consider the problem of determining, given a graph G with specified nodes s and t, whether or not there is a path of at most k edges in G from s to t. We show that solving this problem on polynomialsize unbounded fan-in circuits requires depth , improving on a depth lower bound of when given by Ajtai (1989), Bellantoni et al. (1992). More generally, we obtain an improved size-depth tradeoff lower bound for the problem for all .?The key to our technique is a new form of “switching lemma” which combines some of the features of iteratively shortening terms due to Furst et al. (1984) and Ajtai (1983) with the features of switching lemma arguments introduced by Yao (1985), H?stad (1987), and Cai (1986) that have been the methods of choice for subsequent results. Received: July 2, 1996.     

Maintaining the Classes of 4-Edge-Connectivity in a Graph On-Line

Two vertices of an undirected graph are called k -edge-connected if there exist k edge-disjoint paths between them (equivalently, they cannot be disconnected by the removal of less than k edges from the graph). Equivalence classes of this relation are called classes of k -edge-connectivity or k -edge-connected components. This paper describes graph structures relevant to classes of 4 -edge-connectivity and traces their transformations as new edges are inserted into the graph. Data structures and an algorithm to maintain these classes incrementally are given. Starting with the empty graph, any sequence of q Same-4-Class? queries and n Insert-Vertex and m Insert-Edge updates can be performed in O(q + m + n log n) total time. Each individual query requires O(1) time in the worst-case. In addition, an algorithm for maintaining the classes of k -edge-connectivity (k arbitrary) in a (k-1) -edge-connected graph is presented. Its complexity is O(q + m + n) , with O(M +k ² n log (n/k)) preprocessing, where M is the number of edges initially in the graph and n is the number of its vertices. Received July 5, 1995; revised October 21, 1996.     

Minimum Augmentation of Edge-Connectivity between Vertices and Sets of Vertices in Undirected Graphs

Given an undirected multigraph G=(V,E), a family $\mathcal{W}Given an undirected multigraph G=(V,E), a family W\mathcal{W} of areas W⊆V, and a target connectivity k≥1, we consider the problem of augmenting G by the smallest number of new edges so that the resulting graph has at least k edge-disjoint paths between v and W for every pair of a vertex v∈V and an area W ? WW\in \mathcal{W} . So far this problem was shown to be NP-complete in the case of k=1 and polynomially solvable in the case of k=2. In this paper, we show that the problem for k≥3 can be solved in O(m+n(k ³+n ²)(p+kn+nlog n)log k+pkn ³log (n/k)) time, where n=|V|, m=|{{u,v}|(u,v)∈E}|, and p=|W|p=|\mathcal{W}| .     

A Fast Algorithm for the Path 2-Packing Problem

Let G be an undirected graph and $\mathcal{T}=\{T_{1},\ldots,T_{k}\}Let G be an undirected graph and T={T₁,?,T_k}\mathcal{T}=\{T_{1},\ldots,T_{k}\} be a collection of disjoint subsets of nodes. Nodes in T ₁∪⋅⋅⋅∪T _k are called terminals, other nodes are called inner. By a T\mathcal{T} -path we mean a path P such that P connects terminals from distinct sets in T\mathcal{T} and all internal nodes of P are inner. We study the problem of finding a maximum cardinality collection ℘ of T\mathcal{T} -paths such that at most two paths in ℘ pass through any node. Our algorithm is purely combinatorial and has the time complexity O(mn ²), where n and m denote the numbers of nodes and edges in G, respectively.     

The Dense k -Subgraph Problem

This paper considers the problem of computing the dense k -vertex subgraph of a given graph, namely, the subgraph with the most edges. An approximation algorithm is developed for the problem, with approximation ratio O(n ^δ ) , for some δ < 1/3 . Received April 29, 1997; revised June 26, 1998, and April 13, 1999.     

Chordal Deletion is Fixed-Parameter Tractable

It is known to be NP-hard to decide whether a graph can be made chordal by the deletion of k vertices or by the deletion of k edges. Here we present a uniformly polynomial-time algorithm for both problems: the running time is f(k)⋅n ^α for some constant α not depending on k and some f depending only on k. For large values of n, such an algorithm is much better than trying all the O(n ^k ) possibilities. Therefore, the chordal deletion problem parameterized by the number k of vertices or edges to be deleted is fixed-parameter tractable. This answers an open question of Cai (Discrete Appl. Math. 127:415–429, 2003).     

Max-Stretch Reduction for Tree Spanners

A tree t-spanner T of a graph G is a spanning tree of G whose max-stretch is t, i.e., the distance between any two vertices in T is at most t times their distance in G. If G has a tree t-spanner but not a tree (t−1)-spanner, then G is said to have max-stretch of t. In this paper, we study the Max-Stretch Reduction Problem: for an unweighted graph G=(V,E), find a set of edges not in E originally whose insertion into G can decrease the max-stretch of G. Our results are as follows: (i) For a ring graph, we give a linear-time algorithm which inserts k edges improving the max-stretch optimally. (ii) For a grid graph, we give a nearly optimal max-stretch reduction algorithm which preserves the structure of the grid. (iii) In the general case, we show that it is -hard to decide, for a given graph G and its spanning tree of max-stretch t, whether or not one-edge insertion can decrease the max-stretch to t−1. (iv) Finally, we show that the max-stretch of an arbitrary graph on n vertices can be reduced to s′≥2 by inserting O(n/s′) edges, which can be determined in linear time, and observe that this number of edges is optimal up to a constant.     

Finding bipartite subgraphs efficiently

Polynomial algorithms are given for the following two problems:

•

given a graph with n vertices and m edges, find a complete balanced bipartite subgraph Kq,q with ,

•

given a graph with n vertices, find a decomposition of its edges into complete balanced bipartite graphs having altogether O(n²/lnn) vertices.

The first algorithm can be modified to have running time linear in m and find a Kq^′,q^′ with q^′=⌊q/5⌋. Previous proofs of the existence of such objects, due to K?vári, Sós and Turán (1954) [10], Chung, Erd?s and Spencer (1983) [5], Bublitz (1986) [4] and Tuza (1984) [13] were non-constructive.     

Special classes of separable Goppa codes with improved parameter estimates

We show that subclasses of q-ary separable Goppa codes Γ(L, G) with L = {α ∈ GF(q ^2ℓ): G(α) ∈ 0} and with special Goppa polynomials G(x) can be represented as a chain of equivalent and embedded codes. For all codes of the chain we obtain an improved bound for the dimension and find an exact value of the minimum distance. A chain of binary codes is considered as a particular case with specific properties.     

The linear programming approach to the Randić index

Let G(k, n) be the set of simple graphs (i.e. without multiple edges or loops) that have n vertices and the minimum degree of vertices is k. The Randi? index of a graph G is: , where δ_u is the degree of vertex u and the summation extends over all edges (uv) of G. Using linear programming, we find the extremal graphs or give good bounds for this index when the number n_k of vertices of degree kis n?k+t, for 0tk and kn/2. We also prove that for n_kn?k, (kn/2) the minimum value of the Randi? index is attained for the graph .     

Improved approximation algorithms for MAXk-CUT and MAX BISECTION

Polynomial-time approximation algorithms with nontrivial performance guarantees are presented for the problems of (a) partitioning the vertices of a weighted graph intok blocks so as to maximize the weight of crossing edges, and (b) partitioning the vertices of a weighted graph into two blocks of equal cardinality, again so as to maximize the weight of crossing edges. The approach, pioneered by Goemans and Williamson, is via a semidefinite programming relaxation. The first author was supported in part by NSF Grant CCR-9225008. The work described here was undertaken while the second author was visiting Carnegie Mellon University; at that time he was a Nuffield Science Research Fellow, and was supported in part by Grant GR/F 90363 of the UK Science and Engineering Research Council, and Esprit Working Group 7097 “RAND”.