We study the Minimum Crossing Number problem: given an $n$-vertex graph $G$, the goal is to find a drawing of $G$ in the plane with minimum number of edge crossings. This is one of the central problems in topological graph theory, that has been studied extensively over the past three decades. The first non-trivial efficient algorithm for the problem, due to Leighton and Rao, achieved an $O(n\log^4n)$-approximation for bounded degree graphs. This algorithm has since been improved by poly-logarithmic factors, with the best current approximation ratio standing on $O(n \poly(d) \log^{3/2}n)$ for graphs with maximum degree $d$. In contrast, only APX-hardness is known on the negative side.
In this paper we present an efficient randomized algorithm to find a drawing of any $n$-vertex graph $G$ in the plane with $O(OPT^{10}\cdot \poly(d \log n))$ crossings, where $OPT$ is the number of crossings in the optimal solution, and $d$ is the maximum vertex degree in $G$. This result implies an $\tilde{O}(n^{9/10} \poly(d))$-approximation for Minimum Crossing Number, thus breaking the long-standing $\tilde{O}(n)$-approximation barrier for bounded-degree graphs.
A graph G is an a-angle crossing (aAC) graph if every pair of crossing edges in G intersect at an angle of at least a. The concept of right angle crossing (RAC) graphs (a=Pi/2) was recently introduced by Didimo et. al. It was shown that any RAC graph with n vertices has at most 4n-10 edges and that there are infinitely many values of n for which there exists a RAC graph with n vertices and 4n-10 edges. In this paper, we give upper and lower bounds for the number of edges in aAC graphs for all 0 < a < Pi/2.
We study the algorithmic aspect of edge bundling. A bundled crossing in a drawing of a graph is a group of crossings between two sets of parallel edges. The bundled crossing number is the minimum number of bundled crossings that group all crossings in a drawing of the graph. We show that the bundled crossing number is closely related to the orientable genus of the graph. If multiple crossings and self-intersections of edges are allowed, the two values are identical; otherwise, the bundled crossing number can be higher than the genus. We then investigate the problem of minimizing the number of …
We define the crossing graph of a given embedded graph (such as a road network) to be a graph with a vertex for each edge of the embedding, with two crossing graph vertices adjacent when the corresponding two edges of the embedding cross each other. In this paper, we study the sparsity properties of crossing graphs of real-world road networks. We show that, in large road networks (the Urban Road Network Dataset), the crossing graphs have connected components that are primarily trees, and that the remaining non-tree components are typically sparse (technically, that they have bounded degeneracy…
Given an n-vertex graph G, a drawing of G in the plane is a mapping of its vertices into points of the plane, and its edges into continuous curves, connecting the images of their endpoints. A crossing in such a drawing is a point where two such curves intersect. In the Minimum Crossing Number problem, the goal is to find a drawing of G with minimum number of crossings. The value of the optimal solution, denoted by OPT, is called the graph's crossing number. This is a very basic problem in topological graph theory, that has received a significant amount of attention, but is still poorly underst…
Graph Crossing Number is a fundamental problem with various applications. In this problem, the goal is to draw an input graph $G$ in the plane so as to minimize the number of crossings between the images of its edges. Despite extensive work, non-trivial approximation algorithms are only known for bounded-degree graphs. Even for this special case, the best current algorithm achieves a $\tilde O(\sqrt n)$-approximation, while the best current negative result is APX-hardness. All current approximation algorithms for the problem build on the same paradigm: compute a set $E'$ of edges (called a \em…
Given two planar graphs that are defined on the same set of vertices, a RAC simultaneous drawing is one in which each graph is drawn planar, there are no edge overlaps and the crossings between the two graphs form right angles. The geometric version restricts the problem to straight-line drawings. It is known, however, that there exists a wheel and a matching which do not admit a geometric RAC simultaneous drawing. In order to enlarge the class of graphs that admit RAC simultaneous drawings, we allow bends in the resulting drawings. We prove that two planar graphs always admit a RAC simultaneo…
The crossing angle of a straight-line drawing $Γ$ of a graph $G=(V, E)$ is the smallest angle between two crossing edges in $Γ$. Deciding whether a graph $G$ has a straight-line drawing with a crossing angle of $90^\circ$ is $\mathcal NP$-hard. We propose a simple heuristic to compute a drawing with a large crossing angle. The heuristic greedily selects the best position for a single vertex in a random set of points. The algorithm is accompanied by a speed-up technique to compute the crossing angle of a straight-line drawing. We show the effectiveness of the heuristic in an extensive empirical…
The crossing resolution of a non-planar drawing of a graph is the value of the minimum angle formed by any pair of crossing edges. Recent experiments have shown that the larger the crossing resolution is, the easier it is to read and interpret a drawing of a graph. However, maximizing the crossing resolution turns out to be an NP-hard problem in general and only heuristic algorithms are known that are mainly based on appropriately adjusting force-directed algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic algorithm for the crossing resolution maximization problem and we experimentally compa…
We study the maximum flow problem in directed H-minor-free graphs where H can be drawn in the plane with one crossing. If a structural decomposition of the graph as a clique-sum of planar graphs and graphs of constant complexity is given, we show that a maximum flow can be computed in O(n log n) time. In particular, maximum flows in directed K_{3,3}-minor-free graphs and directed K_5-minor-free graphs can be computed in O(n log n) time without additional assumptions.
A problem that arises in drawings of transportation networks is to minimize the number of crossings between different transportation lines. While this can be done efficiently under specific constraints, not all solutions are visually equivalent. We suggest merging crossings into block crossings, that is, crossings of two neighboring groups of consecutive lines. Unfortunately, minimizing the total number of block crossings is NP-hard even for very simple graphs. We give approximation algorithms for special classes of graphs and an asymptotically worst-case optimal algorithm for block crossings …
The $2$-layer drawing model is a well-established paradigm to visualize bipartite graphs. Several beyond-planar graph classes have been studied under this model. Surprisingly, however, the fundamental class of $k$-planar graphs has been considered only for $k=1$ in this context. We provide several contributions that address this gap in the literature. First, we show tight density bounds for the classes of $2$-layer $k$-planar graphs with $k\in\{2,3,4,5\}$. Based on these results, we provide a Crossing Lemma for $2$-layer $k$-planar graphs, which then implies a general density bound for $2$-lay…
A graph $H$ is single-crossing if it can be drawn in the plane with at most one crossing. For any single-crossing graph $H$, we give an $O(n^4)$ time algorithm for counting perfect matchings in graphs excluding $H$ as a minor. The runtime can be lowered to $O(n^{1.5})$ when $G$ excludes $K_5$ or $K_{3,3}$ as a minor. This is the first generalization of an algorithm for counting perfect matchings in $K_{3,3}$-free graphs (Little 1974, Vazirani 1989). Our algorithm uses black-boxes for counting perfect matchings in planar graphs and for computing certain graph decompositions. Together with an in…
We provide linear-time algorithms for geometric graphs with sublinearly many crossings. That is, we provide algorithms running in O(n) time on connected geometric graphs having n vertices and k crossings, where k is smaller than n by an iterated logarithmic factor. Specific problems we study include Voronoi diagrams and single-source shortest paths. Our algorithms all run in linear time in the standard comparison-based computational model; hence, we make no assumptions about the distribution or bit complexities of edge weights, nor do we utilize unusual bit-level operations on memory words. In…
We investigate crossing minimization for 1-page and 2-page book drawings. We show that computing the 1-page crossing number is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the number of crossings, that testing 2-page planarity is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to treewidth, and that computing the 2-page crossing number is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the sum of the number of crossings and the treewidth of the input graph. We prove these results via Courcelle's theorem on the fixed-parameter tractability of properties expressible in monadic second order logic for graphs of bou…
Point-set embeddings and large-angle crossings are two areas of graph drawing that independently have received a lot of attention in the past few years. In this paper, we consider problems in the intersection of these two areas. Given the point-set-embedding scenario, we are interested in how much we gain in terms of computational complexity, curve complexity, and generality if we allow large-angle crossings as compared to the planar case. We investigate two drawing styles where only bends or both bends and edges must be drawn on an underlying grid. We present various results for drawings with…
We consider the classical Minimum Crossing Number problem: given an $n$-vertex graph $G$, compute a drawing of $G$ in the plane, while minimizing the number of crossings between the images of its edges. This is a fundamental and extensively studied problem, whose approximability status is widely open. In all currently known approximation algorithms, the approximation factor depends polynomially on $Δ$ -- the maximum vertex degree in $G$. The best current approximation algorithm achieves an $O(n^{1/2-\varepsilon}\cdot \text{poly}(Δ\cdot\log n))$-approximation, for a small fixed constant $ε$, wh…
We give an algorithm that decides whether the bipartite crossing number of a given graph is at most $k$. The running time of the algorithm is upper bounded by $2^{O(k)} + n^{O(1)}$, where $n$ is the number of vertices of the input graph, which improves the previously known algorithm due to Kobayashi et al. (TCS 2014) that runs in $2^{O(k \log k)} + n^{O(1)}$ time. This result is based on a combinatorial upper bound on the number of two-layer drawings of a connected bipartite graph with a bounded crossing number.
We show that for every fixed non-negative integer k there is a quadratic time algorithm that decides whether a given graph has crossing number at most k and, if this is the case, computes a drawing of the graph in the plane with at most k crossings.
Crossing minimization is one of the central problems in graph drawing. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the problem of minimizing crossings between paths in drawings of graphs. This is the metro-line crossing minimization problem (MLCM): Given an embedded graph and a set L of simple paths, called lines, order the lines on each edge so that the total number of crossings is minimized. So far, the complexity of MLCM has been an open problem. In contrast, the problem variant in which line ends must be placed in outermost position on their edges (MLCM-P) is known to be NP-hard. Our…
Let c denote a non-negative constant. Suppose that we are given an edge-weighted bipartite graph G=(V,E) with its 2-layered drawing and a family X of intersecting edge pairs. We consider the problem of finding a maximum weighted matching M* such that each edge in M* intersects with at most c other edges in M*, and that all edge crossings in M* are contained in X. In the present paper, we propose polynomial-time algorithms for the cases of c=1 and 2. The time complexities of the algorithms are O((k+m)log n+n) for c=1 and O(k^3+k^2n+m(m+log n)) for c=2, respectively, where n=|V|, m=|E| and k=|X|…
In the area of graph drawing, the One-Sided Crossing Minimization Problem (OSCM) is defined on a bipartite graph with both vertex sets aligned parallel to each other and all edges being drawn as straight lines. The task is to find a permutation of one of the node sets such that the total number of all edge-edge intersections, called crossings, is minimized. Usually, the degree of the nodes of one set is limited by some constant k, with the problem then abbreviated to OSCM-k. In this work, we study an online variant of this problem, in which one of the node sets is already given. The other node…
The Max-Cut problem is known to be NP-hard on general graphs, while it can be solved in polynomial time on planar graphs. In this paper, we present a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm for the problem on `almost' planar graphs: Given an $n$-vertex graph and its drawing with $k$ crossings, our algorithm runs in time $O(2^k(n+k)^{3/2} \log (n + k))$. Previously, Dahn, Kriege and Mutzel (IWOCA 2018) obtained an algorithm that, given an $n$-vertex graph and its $1$-planar drawing with $k$ crossings, runs in time $O(3^k n^{3/2} \log n)$. Our result simultaneously improves the running time and remo…
