The popular neighbor-joining (NJ) algorithm used in phylogenetics is a greedy algorithm for finding the balanced minimum evolution (BME) tree associated to a dissimilarity map. From this point of view, NJ is "optimal" when the algorithm outputs the tree which minimizes the balanced minimum evolution criterion. We use the fact that the NJ tree topology and the BME tree topology are determined by polyhedral subdivisions of the spaces of dissimilarity maps to study the optimality of the neighbor-joining algorithm. In particular, we investigate and compare the polyhedral subdivisions for n ≤ 8. This requires the measurement of volumes of spherical polytopes in high dimension, which we obtain using a combination of Monte Carlo methods and polyhedral algorithms. Our results include a demonstration that highly unrelated trees can be co-optimal in BME reconstruction, and that NJ regions are not convex. We obtain the l 2 radius for neighborjoining for n = 5 and we conjecture that the ability of the neighbor-joining algorithm to recover the BME tree depends on the diameter of the BME tree.
We introduce the family of k-gap-planar graphs for k ≥ 0, i.e., graphs that have a drawing in which each crossing is assigned to one of the two involved edges and each edge is assigned at most k of its crossings. This definition is motivated by applications in edge casing, as a k-gap-planar graph can be drawn crossing-free after introducing at most k local gaps per edge. We present results on the maximum density of k-gap-planar graphs, their relationship to other classes of beyond-planar graphs, characterization of k-gap-planar complete graphs, and the computational complexity of recognizing kgap-planar graphs.
Abstract. In parameterized complexity there are three natural definitions of fixed-parameter tractability called strongly uniform, weakly uniform and nonuniform fpt. Similarly, there are three notions of subexponential time, yielding three flavours of the exponential time hypothesis (ETH) stating that 3Sat is not solvable in subexponential time. It is known that ETH implies that p-Clique is not fixed-parameter tractable if both are taken to be strongly uniform or both are taken to be uniform, and we extend this to the nonuniform case. We also show that even the containment of weakly uniform subexponential time in nonuniform subexponential time is strict. Furthermore, we deduce from nonuniform ETH that no single exponent d allows for arbitrarily good fpt-approximations of clique.
Abstract-Model checking problems for first-and monadic second-order logic on graphs have received considerable attention in the past, not the least due to their connections to problems in algorithmic graph structure theory. While the model checking problem for these logics on general graphs is computationally intractable, it becomes tractable on important classes of graphs such as those of bounded tree-width, planar graphs or more generally, classes of graphs excluding a fixed minor.It is well known that allowing an order relation or successor function can greatly increase the expressive power of the respective logics. This remains true even in cases where we require the formulas to be order-or successor-invariant, that is, while they can use an order relation, their truth in a given graph must not depend on the particular ordering or successor function chosen.Naturally, the question arises whether this increase in expressive power comes at a cost in terms of tractability on specific classes of graphs. In LICS 2012, Engelmann et al. studied this problem and showed that order-invariant monadic second-order logic (MSO) remains tractable on the same classes of graphs than MSO without an ordering. That is, adding order-invariance to MSO essentially comes at no extra cost in terms of model checking complexity. For successor-invariant first-order logic something similar should be true. However, they only managed to show that successor-invariant first-order logic is tractable on the class of planar graphs which is very far from the best tractability results currently known for first-order logic.In this paper we significantly improve the latter result and show that successor-invariant first-order logic is tractable on any class of graphs excluding a fixed minor. This is much closer to the best results known for FO without an ordering. The proof relies on the construction of k-walks in suitable supergraphs of the input graphs, i.e., walks which visit every vertex at least once and at most k times, for some k depending on the excluded minor H. The supergraphs may in general contain H minors, but they still exclude some possible larger minor H , so by results of Flum and Grohe [20] model checking on these graphs is still fixed-parameter tractable.
We prove that the weighted monotone circuit satisfiability problem has no fixed-parameter tractable approximation algorithm with constant or polylogarithmic approximation ratio unless FPT = W[P]. Our result answers a question of Alekhnovich and Razborov [2], who proved that the weighted monotone circuit satisfiability problem has no fixed-parameter tractable 2-approximation algorithm unless every problem in W[P] can be solved by a randomized fpt algorithm and asked whether their result can be derandomized. Alekhnovich and Razborov used their inapproximability result as a lemma for proving that resolution is not automatizable unless W[P] is contained in randomized FPT. It is an immediate consequence of our result that the complexity theoretic assumption can be weakened to W[P] = FPT.The decision version of the monotone circuit satisfiability problem is known to be complete for the class W[P]. By reducing them to the monotone circuit satisfiability problem with suitable approximation preserving reductions, we prove similar inapproximability results for all other natural minimisation problems known to be W[P]-complete.
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