We consider the following natural graph cut problem called Critical Node Cut (CNC): Given a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, and two positive integers $k$ and $x$, determine whether $G$ has a set of $k$ vertices whose removal leaves $G$ with at most $x$ connected pairs of vertices. We analyze this problem in the framework of parameterized complexity. That is, we are interested in whether or not this problem is solvable in $f(κ) \cdot n^{O(1)}$ time (i.e., whether or not it is fixed-parameter tractable), for various natural parameters $κ$. We consider four such parameters:
- The size $k$ of the required cut.
- The upper bound $x$ on the number of remaining connected pairs.
- The lower bound $y$ on the number of connected pairs to be removed.
- The treewidth $w$ of $G$.
We determine whether or not CNC is fixed-parameter tractable for each of these parameters. We determine this also for all possible aggregations of these four parameters, apart from $w+k$. Moreover, we also determine whether or not CNC admits a polynomial kernel for all these parameterizations. That is, whether or not there is an algorithm that reduces each instance of CNC in polynomial time to an equivalent instance of size $κ^{O(1)}$, where $κ$ is the given parameter.
We show that the Minimal Length-Bounded L-But problem can be computed in linear time with respect to L and the tree-width of the input graph as parameters. In this problem the task is to find a set of edges of a graph such that after removal of this set, the shortest path between two prescribed vertices is at least L long. We derive an FPT algorithm for a more general multi-commodity length bounded cut problem when parameterized by the number of terminals also. For the former problem we show a W[1]-hardness result when the parameterization is done by the path-width only (instead of the tree-wi…
Given a directed graph $G$, a set of $k$ terminals and an integer $p$, the \textsc{Directed Vertex Multiway Cut} problem asks if there is a set $S$ of at most $p$ (nonterminal) vertices whose removal disconnects each terminal from all other terminals. \textsc{Directed Edge Multiway Cut} is the analogous problem where $S$ is a set of at most $p$ edges. These two problems indeed are known to be equivalent. A natural generalization of the multiway cut is the \emph{multicut} problem, in which we want to disconnect only a set of $k$ given pairs instead of all pairs. Marx (Theor. Comp. Sci. 2006) sh…
Given an undirected graph $G$, a collection $\{(s_1,t_1),..., (s_k,t_k)\}$ of pairs of vertices, and an integer $p$, the Edge Multicut problem ask if there is a set $S$ of at most $p$ edges such that the removal of $S$ disconnects every $s_i$ from the corresponding $t_i$. Vertex Multicut is the analogous problem where $S$ is a set of at most $p$ vertices. Our main result is that both problems can be solved in time $2^{O(p^3)}... n^{O(1)}$, i.e., fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by the size $p$ of the cutset in the solution. By contrast, it is unlikely that an algorithm with running time…
We study the parameterized complexity of a robust generalization of the classical Feedback Vertex Set problem, namely the Group Feedback Vertex Set problem; we are given a graph G with edges labeled with group elements, and the goal is to compute the smallest set of vertices that hits all cycles of G that evaluate to a non-null element of the group. This problem generalizes not only Feedback Vertex Set, but also Subset Feedback Vertex Set, Multiway Cut and Odd Cycle Transversal. Completing the results of Guillemot [Discr. Opt. 2011], we provide a fixed-parameter algorithm for the parameterizat…
The parameterized complexity of counting minimum cuts stands as a natural question because Ball and Provan showed its #P-completeness. For any undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ and two disjoint sets of its vertices $S,T$, we design a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm which counts minimum edge $(S,T)$-cuts parameterized by their size $p$. Our algorithm operates on a transformed graph instance. This transformation, called drainage, reveals a collection of at most $n=\left| V \right|$ successive minimum $(S,T)$-cuts $Z_i$. We prove that any minimum $(S,T)$-cut $X$ contains edges of at least one cut $Z…
The field of kernelization studies polynomial-time preprocessing routines for hard problems in the framework of parameterized complexity. Although a framework for proving kernelization lower bounds has been discovered in 2008 and successfully applied multiple times over the last three years, establishing kernelization complexity of many important problems remains open. In this paper we show that, unless NP is a subset of coNP/poly and the polynomial hierarchy collapses up to its third level, the following parameterized problems do not admit a polynomial-time preprocessing algorithm that reduce…
Decompositional parameters such as treewidth are commonly used to obtain fixed-parameter algorithms for NP-hard graph problems. For problems that are W[1]-hard parameterized by treewidth, a natural alternative would be to use a suitable analogue of treewidth that is based on edge cuts instead of vertex separators. While tree-cut width has been coined as such an analogue of treewidth for edge cuts, its algorithmic applications have often led to disappointing results: out of twelve problems where one would hope for fixed-parameter tractability parameterized by an edge-cut based analogue to treew…
We introduce a novel approach of using important cuts which allowed us to design significantly faster fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithms for the following routing problems: the Mixed Chinese Postman Problem parameterized by the number of directed edges (Gutin et al., JCSS 2017), the Minimum Shared Edges problem (MSE) parameterized by the number p of paths between two specified vertices (Fluschnik et al., JCSS 2019), and the Weighted Min Cut Prevention problem (Gruttemeier et al., WG 2021). The Minimum Vulnerability problem (MV) is a generalization of MSE (Assadi et al., Algorithmica 20…
The MULTICUT problem, given a graph G, a set of terminal pairs T={(s_i,t_i) | 1 <= i <= r} and an integer p, asks whether one can find a cutset consisting of at most p non-terminal vertices that separates all the terminal pairs, i.e., after removing the cutset, t_i is not reachable from s_i for each 1 <= i <= r. The fixed-parameter tractability of MULTICUT in undirected graphs, parameterized by the size of the cutset only, has been recently proven by Marx and Razgon (STOC'11) and, independently, by Bousquet et al. (STOC'11), after resisting attacks as a long-standing open problem. In this pape…
We study the parameterized complexity of separating a small set of vertices from a graph by a small vertex-separator. That is, given a graph $G$ and integers $k$, $t$, the task is to find a vertex set $X$ with $|X| \le k$ and $|N(X)| \le t$. We show that - the problem is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) when parameterized by $t$ but W[1]-hard when parameterized by $k$, and - a terminal variant of the problem, where $X$ must contain a given vertex $s$, is W[1]-hard when parameterized either by $k$ or by $t$ alone, but is FPT when parameterized by $k + t$. We also show that if we consider edge cu…
Let $G = (V, E)$ be an undirected graph and let $B \subseteq V \times V$ be a set of terminal pairs. A node/edge multicut is a subset of vertices/edges of $G$ whose removal destroys all the paths between every terminal pair in $B$. The problem of computing a {\em minimum} node/edge multicut is NP-hard and extensively studied from several viewpoints. In this paper, we study the problem of enumerating all {\em minimal} node multicuts. We give an incremental polynomial delay enumeration algorithm for minimal node multicuts, which extends an enumeration algorithm due to Khachiyan et al. (Algorithm…
Given a graph $G=(V,E)$, capacities $w(e)$ on edges, and a subset of terminals $\mathcal{T} \subseteq V: |\mathcal{T}| = k$, a mimicking network for $(G,\mathcal{T})$ is a graph $(H,w')$ that contains copies of $\mathcal{T}$ and preserves the value of minimum cuts separating any subset $A, B \subseteq \mathcal{T}$ of terminals. Mimicking networks of size $2^{2^k}$ are known to exist and can be constructed algorithmically, while the best known lower bound is $2^{Ω(k)}$; therefore, an exponential size is required if one aims at preserving cuts exactly. In this paper, we study mimicking networks …
The minimum $s$-$t$ cut problem in graphs is one of the most fundamental problems in combinatorial optimization, and graph cuts underlie algorithms throughout discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science, operations research, and data science. While graphs are a standard model for pairwise relationships, hypergraphs provide the flexibility to model multi-way relationships, and are now a standard model for complex data and systems. However, when generalizing from graphs to hypergraphs, the notion of a "cut hyperedge" is less clear, as a hyperedge's nodes can be split in several ways. Here…
Given a graph $G = (V,E)$ and a terminal $s\in V$, a cut $X$ for $s$ is a vertex set that contains $s$. We look for a cut that is small in two senses, i.e., there are no more than $k$ vertices in $X$ and no more than $t$ edges leaving $X$. Answering a question asked by Fomin et al. (arXiv:1304.6189), we show the problem is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by either $k$ or $t$.
Kernelization algorithms for the {\sc cluster editing} problem have been a popular topic in the recent research in parameterized computation. Thus far most kernelization algorithms for this problem are based on the concept of {\it critical cliques}. In this paper, we present new observations and new techniques for the study of kernelization algorithms for the {\sc cluster editing} problem. Our techniques are based on the study of the relationship between {\sc cluster editing} and graph edge-cuts. As an application, we present an ${\cal O}(n^2)$-time algorithm that constructs a $2k$ kernel for …
We consider the problem of controlling the spread of harmful items in networks, such as the contagion proliferation of diseases or the diffusion of fake news. We assume the linear threshold model of diffusion where each node has a threshold that measures the node resistance to the contagion. We study the parameterized complexity of the problem: Given a network, a set of initially contaminated nodes, and two integers $k$ and $\ell$, is it possible to limit the diffusion to at most $k$ other nodes of the network by immunizing at most $\ell$ nodes? We consider several parameters associated to the…
The optimization version of the Unique Label Cover problem is at the heart of the Unique Games Conjecture which has played an important role in the proof of several tight inapproximability results. In recent years, this problem has been also studied extensively from the point of view of parameterized complexity. Cygan et al. [FOCS 2012] proved that this problem is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) and Wahlström [SODA 2014] gave an FPT algorithm with an improved parameter dependence. Subsequently, Iwata, Wahlström and Yoshida [2014] proved that the edge version of Unique Label Cover can be solved…
Given an edge-weighted graph $G$ on $n$ nodes, the NP-hard Max-Cut problem asks for a node bipartition such that the sum of edge weights joining the different partitions is maximized. We propose a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm parameterized by the number $k$ of crossings in a given drawing of $G$. Our algorithm achieves a running time of $O(2^k \cdot p(n + k))$, where $p$ is the polynomial running time for planar Max-Cut. The only previously known similar algorithm [8] is restricted to 1-planar graphs (i.e., at most one crossing per edge) and its dependency on $k$ is of order $3^k$ . A d…
The complexity of a reasoning task over a graphical model is tied to the induced width of the underlying graph. It is well-known that the conditioning (assigning values) on a subset of variables yields a subproblem of the reduced complexity where instantiated variables are removed. If the assigned variables constitute a cycle-cutset, the rest of the network is singly-connected and therefore can be solved by linear propagation algorithms. A w-cutset is a generalization of a cycle-cutset defined as a subset of nodes such that the subgraph with cutset nodes removed has induced-width of w or less.…
We study the \emph{multiterminal cut} problem, which, given an $n$-vertex graph whose edges are integer-weighted and a set of terminals, asks for a partition of the vertex set such that each terminal is in a distinct part, and the total weight of crossing edges is at most $k$. Our weapons shall be two classical results known for decades: \emph{maximum volume minimum ($s,t$)-cuts} by [Ford and Fulkerson, \emph{Flows in Networks}, 1962] and \emph{isolating cuts} by [Dahlhaus et al., \emph{SIAM J. Comp.} 23(4):864-894, 1994]. We sharpen these old weapons with the help of submodular functions, and…
Fixed-parameter tractability of Directed Multicut with three terminal pairs parameterized by the size of the cutset: twin-width meets flow-augmentation
We study multi-budgeted variants of the classic minimum cut problem and graph separation problems that turned out to be important in parameterized complexity: Skew Multicut and Directed Feedback Arc Set. In our generalization, we assign colors $1,2,...,\ell$ to some edges and give separate budgets $k_{1},k_{2},...,k_{\ell}$. Let $E_{i}$ be the set of edges of color $i$. The solution $C$ for the multi-budgeted variant of a graph separation problem not only needs to satisfy the usual separation requirements, but also needs to satisfy that $|C\cap E_{i}|\leq k_{i}$ for every $i\in \{1,...,\ell\}$…
We introduce and study Weighted Min $(s,t)$-Cut Prevention, where we are given a graph $G=(V,E)$ with vertices $s$ and $t$ and an edge cost function and the aim is to choose an edge set $D$ of total cost at most $d$ such that $G$ has no $(s,t)$-edge cut of capacity at most $a$ that is disjoint from $D$. We show that Weighted Min $(s,t)$-Cut Prevention is NP-hard even on subcubcic graphs when all edges have capacity and cost one and provide a comprehensive study of the parameterized complexity of the problem. We show, for example W[1]-hardness with respect to $d$ and an FPT algorithm for $a$.
A graph $G$ is $k$-out-connected from its node $s$ if it contains $k$ internally disjoint $sv$-paths to every node $v$; $G$ is $k$-connected if it is $k$-out-connected from every node. In connectivity augmentation problems the goal is to augment a graph $G_0=(V,E_0)$ by a minimum costs edge set $J$ such that $G_0 \cup J$ has higher connectivity than $G_0$. In the $k$-Out-Connectivity Augmentation ($k$-OCA) problem, $G_0$ is $(k-1)$-out-connected from $s$ and $G_0 \cup J$ should be $k$-out-connected from $s$; in the $k$-Connectivity Augmentation ($k$-CA) problem $G_0$ is $(k-1)$-connected and $…
There are many applications of max flow with capacities that depend on one or more parameters. Many of these applications fall into the "Source-Sink Monotone" framework, a special case of Topkis's monotonic optimization framework, which implies that the parametric min cuts are nested. When there is a single parameter, this property implies that the number of distinct min cuts is linear in the number of nodes, which is quite useful for constructing algorithms to identify all possible min cuts. When there are multiple Source-Sink Monotone parameters and the vector of parameters are ordered in th…
In this paper we consider two above lower bound parameterizations of the Node Multiway Cut problem - above the maximum separating cut and above a natural LP-relaxation - and prove them to be fixed-parameter tractable. Our results imply O*(4^k) algorithms for Vertex Cover above Maximum Matching and Almost 2-SAT as well as an O*(2^k) algorithm for Node Multiway Cut with a standard parameterization by the solution size, improving previous bounds for these problems.
The computational complexity of multicut-like problems may vary significantly depending on whether the terminals are fixed or not. In this work we present a comprehensive study of this phenomenon in two types of cut problems in directed graphs: double cut and bicut. 1. The fixed-terminal edge-weighted double cut is known to be solvable efficiently. We show a tight approximability factor of $2$ for the fixed-terminal node-weighted double cut. We show that the global node-weighted double cut cannot be approximated to a factor smaller than $3/2$ under the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). 2. The fix…
Correlation Clustering is an elegant model that captures fundamental graph cut problems such as Min $s-t$ Cut, Multiway Cut, and Multicut, extensively studied in combinatorial optimization. Here, we are given a graph with edges labeled $+$ or $-$ and the goal is to produce a clustering that agrees with the labels as much as possible: $+$ edges within clusters and $-$ edges across clusters. The classical approach towards Correlation Clustering (and other graph cut problems) is to optimize a global objective. We depart from this and study local objectives: minimizing the maximum number of disagr…
We prove that Multicut in directed graphs, parameterized by the size of the cutset, is W[1]-hard and hence unlikely to be fixed-parameter tractable even if restricted to instances with only four terminal pairs. This negative result almost completely resolves one of the central open problems in the area of parameterized complexity of graph separation problems, posted originally by Marx and Razgon [SIAM J. Comput. 43(2):355-388 (2014)], leaving only the case of three terminal pairs open. Our gadget methodology allows us also to prove W[1]-hardness of the Steiner Orientation problem parameterized…
Finding sparse cuts is an important tool in analyzing large-scale distributed networks such as the Internet and Peer-to-Peer networks, as well as large-scale graphs such as the web graph, online social communities, and VLSI circuits. In distributed communication networks, they are useful for topology maintenance and for designing better search and routing algorithms. In this paper, we focus on developing fast distributed algorithms for computing sparse cuts in networks. Given an undirected $n$-node network $G$ with conductance $ϕ$, the goal is to find a cut set whose conductance is close to $ϕ…
In the presented paper we study the Length-Bounded Cut problem for special graph classes as well as from a parameterized-complexity viewpoint. Here, we are given a graph $G$, two vertices $s$ and $t$, and positive integers $β$ and $λ$. The task is to find a set of edges $F$ of size at most $β$ such that every $s$-$t$-path of length at most $λ$ in $G$ contains some edge in $F$. Bazgan et al. conjectured that Length-Bounded Cut admits a polynomial-time algorithm if the input graph $G$ is a~proper interval graph. We confirm this conjecture by showing a dynamic-programming based polynomial-time al…
We introduce FlowCutter, a novel algorithm to compute a set of edge cuts or node separators that optimize cut size and balance in the Pareto-sense. Our core algorithm solves the balanced connected st-edge-cut problem, where two given nodes s and t must be separated by removing edges to obtain two connected parts. Using the core algorithm we build variants that compute node separators and are independent of s and t. Using the Pareto-set we can identify cuts with a particularly good trade-off between cut size and balance that can be used to compute contraction and minimum fill-in orders, which c…
We consider multicommodity flow and cut problems in {\em polymatroidal} networks where there are submodular capacity constraints on the edges incident to a node. Polymatroidal networks were introduced by Lawler and Martel and Hassin in the single-commodity setting and are closely related to the submodular flow model of Edmonds and Giles; the well-known maxflow-mincut theorem holds in this more general setting. Polymatroidal networks for the multicommodity case have not, as far as the authors are aware, been previously explored. Our work is primarily motivated by applications to information flo…
We study a number of multi-route cut problems: given a graph G=(V,E) and connectivity thresholds k_(u,v) on pairs of nodes, the goal is to find a minimum cost set of edges or vertices the removal of which reduces the connectivity between every pair (u,v) to strictly below its given threshold. These problems arise in the context of reliability in communication networks; They are natural generalizations of traditional minimum cut problems where the thresholds are either 1 (we want to completely separate the pair) or infinity (we don't care about the connectivity for the pair). We provide the fir…
Let $G$ be an $n$-node simple directed planar graph with nonnegative edge weights. We study the fundamental problems of computing (1) a global cut of $G$ with minimum weight and (2) a~cycle of $G$ with minimum weight. The best previously known algorithm for the former problem, running in $O(n\log^3 n)$ time, can be obtained from the algorithm of \Lacki, Nussbaum, Sankowski, and Wulff-Nilsen for single-source all-sinks maximum flows. The best previously known result for the latter problem is the $O(n\log^3 n)$-time algorithm of Wulff-Nilsen. By exploiting duality between the two problems in pla…
The input of the Maximum Colored Cut problem consists of a graph $G=(V,E)$ with an edge-coloring $c:E\to \{1,2,3,\ldots , p\}$ and a positive integer $k$, and the question is whether $G$ has a nontrivial edge cut using at least $k$ colors. The Colorful Cut problem has the same input but asks for a nontrivial edge cut using all $p$ colors. Unlike what happens for the classical Maximum Cut problem, we prove that both problems are NP-complete even on complete, planar, or bounded treewidth graphs. Furthermore, we prove that Colorful Cut is NP-complete even when each color class induces a clique of…
We consider the problem of firefighting to save a critical subset of nodes. The firefighting game is a turn-based game played on a graph, where the fire spreads to vertices in a breadth-first manner from a source, and firefighters can be placed on yet unburnt vertices on alternate rounds to block the fire. In this work, we consider the problem of saving a critical subset of nodes from catching fire, given a total budget on the number of firefighters. We show that the problem is para-NP-hard when parameterized by the size of the critical set. We also show that it is fixed-parameter tractable on…
We study the Maximum Happy Vertices and Maximum Happy Edges problems. The former problem is a variant of clusterization, where some vertices have already been assigned to clusters. The second problem gives a natural generalization of Multiway Uncut, which is the complement of the classical Multiway Cut problem. Due to their fundamental role in theory and practice, clusterization and cut problems has always attracted a lot of attention. We establish a new connection between these two classes of problems by providing a reduction between Maximum Happy Vertices and Node Multiway Cut. Moreover, we …
A matching cut is a partition of the vertex set of a graph into two sets $A$ and $B$ such that each vertex has at most one neighbor in the other side of the cut. The MATCHING CUT problem asks whether a graph has a matching cut, and has been intensively studied in the literature. Motivated by a question posed by Komusiewicz et al. [IPEC 2018], we introduce a natural generalization of this problem, which we call $d$-CUT: for a positive integer $d$, a $d$-cut is a bipartition of the vertex set of a graph into two sets $A$ and $B$ such that each vertex has at most $d$ neighbors across the cut. We …
The Cut & Count technique and the rank-based approach have lead to single-exponential FPT algorithms parameterized by treewidth, that is, running in time $2^{O(tw)}n^{O(1)}$, for Feedback Vertex Set and connected versions of the classical graph problems (such as Vertex Cover and Dominating Set). We show that Subset Feedback Vertex Set, Subset Odd Cycle Transversal, Restricted Edge-Subset Feedback Edge Set, Node Multiway Cut, and Multiway Cut are unlikely to have such running times. More precisely, we match algorithms running in time $2^{O(tw \log tw)}n^{O(1)}$ with tight lower bounds under the…
Hypergraph clustering is a basic algorithmic primitive for analyzing complex datasets and systems characterized by multiway interactions, such as group email conversations, groups of co-purchased retail products, and co-authorship data. This paper presents a practical $O(\log n)$-approximation algorithm for a broad class of hypergraph ratio cut clustering objectives. This includes objectives involving generalized hypergraph cut functions, which allow a user to penalize cut hyperedges differently depending on the number of nodes in each cluster. Our method is a generalization of the cut-matchin…
We study the problem of finding large cuts in $d$-regular triangle-free graphs. In prior work, Shearer (1992) gives a randomised algorithm that finds a cut of expected size $(1/2 + 0.177/\sqrt{d})m$, where $m$ is the number of edges. We give a simpler algorithm that does much better: it finds a cut of expected size $(1/2 + 0.28125/\sqrt{d})m$. As a corollary, this shows that in any $d$-regular triangle-free graph there exists a cut of at least this size. Our algorithm can be interpreted as a very efficient randomised distributed algorithm: each node needs to produce only one random bit, and th…
We consider the following "multiway cut packing" problem in undirected graphs: we are given a graph G=(V,E) and k commodities, each corresponding to a set of terminals located at different vertices in the graph; our goal is to produce a collection of cuts {E_1,...,E_k} such that E_i is a multiway cut for commodity i and the maximum load on any edge is minimized. The load on an edge is defined to be the number of cuts in the solution crossing the edge. In the capacitated version of the problem the goal is to minimize the maximum relative load on any edge--the ratio of the edge's load to its cap…
We study the minimum diameter spanning tree problem under the reload cost model (DIAMETER-TREE for short) introduced by Wirth and Steffan (2001). In this problem, given an undirected edge-colored graph $G$, reload costs on a path arise at a node where the path uses consecutive edges of different colors. The objective is to find a spanning tree of $G$ of minimum diameter with respect to the reload costs. We initiate a systematic study of the parameterized complexity of the DIAMETER-TREE problem by considering the following parameters: the cost of a solution, and the treewidth and the maximum de…
The minimum cut problem for an undirected edge-weighted graph asks us to divide its set of nodes into two blocks while minimizing the weight sum of the cut edges. In this paper, we engineer the fastest known exact algorithm for the problem. State-of-the-art algorithms like the algorithm of Padberg and Rinaldi or the algorithm of Nagamochi, Ono and Ibaraki identify edges that can be contracted to reduce the graph size such that at least one minimum cut is maintained in the contracted graph. Our algorithm achieves improvements in running time over these algorithms by a multitude of techniques. F…
