New upper bounds on the decomposability of planar graphs and fixed parameter algorithms

It is known that a planar graph on n vertices has branch-width/tree-width bounded by alphasqrt{n}. In many algorithmic applications it is useful to have a small bound on the constant alpha. We give a proof of the best, so far, upper bound for the constant alpha. In particular, for the case of tree-w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fomin, Fedor V., Thilikos Touloupas, Dimitrios
Tipo de recurso: informe técnico
Fecha de publicación:2002
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/97430
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/97430
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Planar graphs
Decomposability
Fixed parameter algorithms
Tree-width
Branch-width
Separation theorems
Vertex cover
Dominating set
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica
Descripción
Sumario:It is known that a planar graph on n vertices has branch-width/tree-width bounded by alphasqrt{n}. In many algorithmic applications it is useful to have a small bound on the constant alpha. We give a proof of the best, so far, upper bound for the constant alpha. In particular, for the case of tree-width, alpha<3.182 and for the case of branch-width, alpha<2.122. Our proof is based on the planar separation theorem of Alon, Seymour & Thomas and some min-max theorem of the graph minors series. Based on these bounds we introduce a new method for solving different fixed parameter problems on planar graphs. We prove that our method provides the best so far exponential speed-up for fundamental problems on planar graphs like Vertex Cover, Dominating Set, Independent Set and many others.