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In the Maximum Independent Set problem we are asked to find a set of pairwise nonadjacent vertices in a given graph with the maximum possible cardinality. In general graphs, this classical problem is known to be NP-hard and hard to approximate within a factor of n1−ε for any ε > 0. Due to this, investigating the complexity of Maximum Independent Set in various graph classes in hope of finding better tractability results is an active research direction. In H-free graphs, that is, graphs not containing a fixed graph H as an induced subgraph, the problem is known to remain NP-hard and APX-hard whenever H contains a cycle, a vertex of degree at least four, or two vertices of degree at least three in one connected component. For the remaining cases, where every component of H is a path or a subdivided claw, the complexity of Maximum Independent Set remains widely open, with only a handful of polynomial-time solvability results for small graphs H such as P5, P6, the claw, or the fork. We prove that for every such “possibly tractable” graph H there exists an algorithm that, given an H-free graph G and an accuracy parameter ε > 0, finds an independent set in G of cardinality within a factor of (1 – ε) of the optimum in time exponential in a polynomial of log | V(G) | and ε−1. That is, we show that for every graph H for which Maximum Independent Set is not known to be APX-hard in H-free graphs, the problem admits a quasi-polynomial time approximation scheme in this graph class. Our algorithm works also in the more general weighted setting, where the input graph is supplied with a weight function on vertices and we are maximizing the total weight of an independent set.
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On the Hardness and Inapproximability of Recognizing Wheeler Graphs
In recent years several compressed indexes based on variants of the Burrows-Wheeler transformation have been introduced. Some of these are used to index structures far more complex than a single string, as was originally done with the FM-index [Ferragina and Manzini, J. ACM 2005]. As such, there has been an increasing effort to better understand under which conditions such an indexing scheme is possible. This has led to the introduction of Wheeler graphs [Gagie et al., Theor. Comput. Sci., 2017]. Gagie et al. showed that de Bruijn graphs, generalized compressed suffix arrays, and several other BWT related structures can be represented as Wheeler graphs and that Wheeler graphs can be indexed in a way which is space-efficient. Hence, being able to recognize whether a given graph is a Wheeler graph, or being able to approximate a given graph by a Wheeler graph, could have numerous applications in indexing. Here we resolve the open question of whether there exists an efficient algorithm for recognizing if a given graph is a Wheeler graph. We present - The problem of recognizing whether a given graph G=(V,E) is a Wheeler graph is NP-complete for any edge label alphabet of size sigma >= 2, even when G is a DAG. This holds even on a restricted, subset of graphs called d-NFA's for d >= 5. This is in contrast to recent results demonstrating the problem can be solved in polynomial time for d-NFA's where d <= 2. We also show the recognition problem can be solved in linear time for sigma =1; - There exists an 2^{e log sigma + O(n + e)} time exact algorithm where n = |V| and e = |E|. This algorithm relies on graph isomorphism being computable in strictly sub-exponential time; - We define an optimization variant of the problem called Wheeler Graph Violation, abbreviated WGV, where the aim is to remove the minimum number of edges in order to obtain a Wheeler graph. We show WGV is APX-hard, even when G is a DAG, implying there exists a constant C >= 1 for which there is no C-approximation algorithm (unless P = NP). Also, conditioned on the Unique Games Conjecture, for all C >= 1, it is NP-hard to find a C-approximation; - We define the Wheeler Subgraph problem, abbreviated WS, where the aim is to find the largest subgraph which is a Wheeler Graph (the dual of the WGV). In contrast to WGV, we prove that the WS problem is in APX for sigma=O(1); The above findings suggest that most problems under this theme are computationally difficult. However, we identify a class of graphs for which the recognition problem is polynomial-time solvable, raising the open question of which parameters determine this problem's difficulty.
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- PAR ID:
- 10164524
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 27th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA) 2019
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2019.51
