Given a graph \(G = (V,\!E)\) with \(n\) vertices and \(m\) edges, the Dominating Set problem asks for a set \(\mathcal{D} \subseteq V\) of minimal cardinality such that every vertex either is in \(D\) or adjacent to a member of \(D\). Although there is little hope for a kernelization algorithm on general graphs due to the W[2]-hardness of Dominating Set, data reduction rules are extensively used in practice.

We present a novel space-efficient graph coarsening technique for n -vertex planar graphs G , called cloud partition , which partitions the vertices V ( G ) into disjoint sets C of size O (log n ) such that each C induces a connected subgraph of G . Using this partition P we construct a so-called structure-maintaining minor F of G via specific contractions within the disjoint sets such that F has O ( n /log n ) vertices. The combination of ( F , P ) is referred to as a cloud decomposition . For planar graphs we show that a cloud decomposition can be constructed in O ( n ) time and using O ( n ) bits. Given a cloud decomposition ( F , P ) constructed for a planar graph G we are able to find a balanced separator of G in O ( n /log n ) time. Contrary to related publications, we do not make use of an embedding of the planar input graph. We generalize our cloud decomposition from planar graphs to H -minor-free graphs for any fixed graph H . This allows us to construct the succinct encoding scheme for H -minor-free graphs due to Blelloch and Farzan (CPM 2010) in O ( n ) time and O ( n ) bits improving both runtime and space by a factor of Θ(log n ). As an additional application of our cloud decomposition we show that, for H -minor-free graphs, a tree decomposition of width O ( n 1 / 2 + ϵ ) for any ϵ > 0 can be constructed in O ( n ) bits and a time linear in the size of the tree decomposition. A similar result by Izumi and Otachi (ICALP 2020) constructs a tree decomposition of width O ( k n log n ) for graphs of treewidth k ≤ n in sublinear space and polynomial time.

We call a graph G separable if a balanced separator can be computed for G of size O(n^ε) with ε < 1. Many real-world graphs are separable such as graphs of bounded genus, graphs of constant treewidth, and graphs excluding a fixed minor. In particular, the well-known planar graphs are separable. We present a succinct encoding of separable graphs G such that, after the encoding is computed, any number of depth-first searches (DFS) can be performed from any given start vertex, each in o(n) time and o(n) bits in the word RAM model. After the execution of a DFS, the succinct encoding of G is augmented such that the DFS tree is encoded inside the encoding while maintaining succinctness. Afterward, the encoding provides common DFS-related queries in constant time. These queries include queries such as lowest-common ancestor of two given vertices in the DFS tree or queries that output the lowpoint of a given vertex in the DFS tree. Furthermore, for planar graphs, we show that the succinct encoding can be computed in O(n) bits and expected linear time, and a compact variant can be constructed in O(n) time and bits. For other separable graph classes 𝒢 the runtime and space usage depends on the specific algorithms used to find balanced separators in graphs of 𝒢.

Temporal graphs are graphs where the edge set can change in each time step, and the vertex set stays the same. Exploration of temporal graphs whose snapshot in each time step is a connected graph, called connected temporal graphs, has been widely studied. We extend the concept of graph automorphisms from static graphs to temporal graphs and show that symmetries enable faster exploration: We prove that a connected temporal graph with $n$ vertices and orbit number $r$ (i.e., $r$ is the number of automorphism orbits) can be explored in $O(r n^{1+ε})$ time steps, for any fixed $ε>0$. For $r=O(n^c)$ for constant $c<1$, this is a significant improvement over the known tight worst-case bound of $Θ(n^2)$ time steps for arbitrary connected temporal graphs. We also give two lower bounds for exploration, showing that $Ω(n \log n)$ time steps are required for some inputs with $r=O(1)$ and that $Ω(rn)$ time steps are required for some inputs for any $r$ with $1\le r\le n$. The techniques we develop for fast exploration are used to derive the following result for rendezvous in connected temporal graphs: Two agents are placed by an adversary at arbitrary vertices and given full information about the temporal graph, except that they do not have consistent vertex labels. The agents can meet at a common vertex after $O(n^{1+ε})$ time steps, for any $ε>0$. For some connected temporal graphs with constant orbit number we present a complementary lower bound of $Ω(n\log n)$ time steps. Finally, we give a randomized algorithm to construct a temporal walk $W$ that visits all vertices of a given orbit with probability at least $1-ε$ for any $0<ε<1$ such that $W$ spans $O((n^{5/3}+rn)\log n)$ time steps. The runtime of this algorithm consists of $O(n^{1/3} \log (n/ε))$ linear-time scans of the snapshots that exist in this time span.

Let $G$ be an unlabeled planar and simple $n$-vertex graph. Unlabeled graphs are graphs where the label-information is either not given or lost during the construction of data-structures. We present a succinct encoding of $G$ that provides induced-minor operations, i.e., edge contractions and vertex deletions. Any sequence of such operations is processed in $O(n)$ time in the word-RAM model. At all times the encoding provides constant time (per element output) neighborhood access and degree queries. Optional hash tables extend the encoding with constant expected time adjacency queries and edge-deletion (thus, all minor operations are supported) such that any number of edge deletions are computed in $O(n)$ expected time. Constructing the encoding requires $O(n)$ bits and $O(n)$ time. The encoding requires $\mathcal{H}(n) + o(n)$ bits of space with $\mathcal{H}(n)$ being the entropy of encoding a planar graph with $n$ vertices. Our data structure is based on the recent result of Holm et al. [ESA 2017] who presented a linear time contraction data structure that allows to maintain parallel edges and works for labeled graphs, but uses $Θ(n \log n)$ bits of space. We combine the techniques used by Holm et al. with novel ideas and the succinct encoding of Blelloch and Farzan [CPM 2010] for arbitrary separable graphs. Our result partially answers the question raised by Blelloch and Farzan whether their encoding can be modified to allow modifications of the graph. As a simple application of our encoding, we present a linear time outerplanarity testing algorithm that uses $O(n)$ bits of space.

We present a novel space-efficient graph coarsening technique for $n$-vertex planar graphs $G$, called cloud partition, which partitions the vertices $V(G)$ into disjoint sets $C$ of size $O(\log n)$ such that each $C$ induces a connected subgraph of $G$. Using this partition $P$ we construct a so-called structure-maintaining minor $F$ of $G$ via specific contractions within the disjoint sets such that $F$ has $O(n/\log n)$ vertices. The combination of $(F, P)$ is referred to as a cloud decomposition. For planar graphs we show that a cloud decomposition can be constructed in $O(n)$ time and using $O(n)$ bits. Given a cloud decomposition $(F, P)$ constructed for a planar graph $G$ we are able to find a balanced separator of $G$ in $O(n/\log n)$ time. Contrary to related publications, we do not make use of an embedding of the planar input graph. We generalize our cloud decomposition from planar graphs to $H$-minor-free graphs for any fixed graph $H$. This allows us to construct the succinct encoding scheme for $H$-minor-free graphs due to Blelloch and Farzan (CPM 2010) in $O(n)$ time and $O(n)$ bits improving both runtime and space by a factor of $Θ(\log n)$. As an additional application of our cloud decomposition we show that, for $H$-minor-free graphs, a tree decomposition of width $O(n^{1/2 + ε})$ for any $ε> 0$ can be constructed in $O(n)$ bits and a time linear in the size of the tree decomposition. Finally, we implemented our cloud decomposition algorithm and experimentally verified its practical effectiveness on both randomly generated graphs and real-world graphs such as road networks. The obtained data shows that a simplified version of our algorithms suffices in a practical setting, as many of the theoretical worst-case scenarios are not present in the graphs we encountered.

Abstract For n-vertex graphs with treewidth $$k = O(n^{1/2-\epsilon })$$ k = O ( n 1 / 2 - ϵ ) and an arbitrary $$\epsilon >0$$ ϵ > 0 , we present a word-RAM algorithm to compute vertex separators using only O(n) bits of working memory. As an application of our algorithm, we give an O(1)-approximation algorithm for tree decomposition. Our algorithm computes a tree decomposition in $$c^k n (\log \log n) \log ^* n$$ c k n ( log log n ) log ∗ n time using O(n) bits for some constant $$c > 0$$ c > 0 . Together with the result of Banerjee et al. (Proceedings of 21st international conference on computing and combinatorics (COCOON 2015). LNCS, vol 9198, Springer, pp 349–360, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21398-9_28 ) we are able to compute a solution for all monadic-second-order problems (MSO) with $$O(n + \tau (k) \cdot p (\log _{p} n) \log n)$$ O ( n + τ ( k ) · p ( log p n ) log n ) bits in $$O(\tau (k) \cdot n^{2 + (2/\log p)})$$ O ( τ ( k ) · n 2 + ( 2 / log p ) ) time where k is the treewidth of the given graph, p is some arbitrary parameter with $$2 \le p \le n$$ 2 ≤ p ≤ n and $$\tau $$ τ is some function depending on the MSO formula. We finally use the tree decomposition obtained by our algorithm to solve Vertex Cover, Independent Set, Dominating Set, MaxCut and q-Coloring by using polynomial time and O(n) bits as long as the treewidth of the graph is smaller than $$c' \log n$$ c ′ log n for some problem dependent constant $$0< c' < 1$$ 0 < c ′ < 1 .