No Arabic abstract
In the Maximum Common Induced Subgraph problem (henceforth MCIS), given two graphs $G_1$ and $G_2$, one looks for a graph with the maximum number of vertices being both an induced subgraph of $G_1$ and $G_2$. MCIS is among the most studied classical NP-hard problems. It remains NP-hard on many graph classes including forests. In this paper, we study the parameterized complexity of MCIS. As a generalization of textsc{Clique}, it is W[1]-hard parameterized by the size of the solution. Being NP-hard even on forests, most structural parameterizations are intractable. One has to go as far as parameterizing by the size of the minimum vertex cover to get some tractability. Indeed, when parameterized by $k := text{vc}(G_1)+text{vc}(G_2)$ the sum of the vertex cover number of the two input graphs, the problem was shown to be fixed-parameter tractable, with an algorithm running in time $2^{O(k log k)}$. We complement this result by showing that, unless the ETH fails, it cannot be solved in time $2^{o(k log k)}$. This kind of tight lower bound has been shown for a few problems and parameters but, to the best of our knowledge, not for the vertex cover number. We also show that MCIS does not have a polynomial kernel when parameterized by $k$, unless $NP subseteq mathsf{coNP}/poly$. Finally, we study MCIS and its connected variant MCCIS on some special graph classes and with respect to other structural parameters.
Given a graph $F$, let $I(F)$ be the class of graphs containing $F$ as an induced subgraph. Let $W[F]$ denote the minimum $k$ such that $I(F)$ is definable in $k$-variable first-order logic. The recognition problem of $I(F)$, known as Induced Subgraph Isomorphism (for the pattern graph $F$), is solvable in time $O(n^{W[F]})$. Motivated by this fact, we are interested in determining or estimating the value of $W[F]$. Using Olarius characterization of paw-free graphs, we show that $I(K_3+e)$ is definable by a first-order sentence of quantifier depth 3, where $K_3+e$ denotes the paw graph. This provides an example of a graph $F$ with $W[F]$ strictly less than the number of vertices in $F$. On the other hand, we prove that $W[F]=4$ for all $F$ on 4 vertices except the paw graph and its complement. If $F$ is a graph on $t$ vertices, we prove a general lower bound $W[F]>(1/2-o(1))t$, where the function in the little-o notation approaches 0 as $t$ inreases. This bound holds true even for a related parameter $W^*[F]le W[F]$, which is defined as the minimum $k$ such that $I(F)$ is definable in the infinitary logic $L^k_{inftyomega}$. We show that $W^*[F]$ can be strictly less than $W[F]$. Specifically, $W^*[P_4]=3$ for $P_4$ being the path graph on 4 vertices. Using the lower bound for $W[F]$, we also obtain a succintness result for existential monadic second-order logic: A usage of just one monadic quantifier sometimes reduces the first-order quantifier depth at a super-recursive rate.
Let $v(F)$ denote the number of vertices in a fixed connected pattern graph $F$. We show an infinite family of patterns $F$ such that the existence of a subgraph isomorphic to $F$ is expressible by a first-order sentence of quantifier depth $frac23,v(F)+1$, assuming that the host graph is sufficiently large and connected. On the other hand, this is impossible for any $F$ with using less than $frac23,v(F)-2$ first-order variables.
Let $F$ be a connected graph with $ell$ vertices. The existence of a subgraph isomorphic to $F$ can be defined in first-order logic with quantifier depth no better than $ell$, simply because no first-order formula of smaller quantifier depth can distinguish between the complete graphs $K_ell$ and $K_{ell-1}$. We show that, for some $F$, the existence of an $F$ subgraph in emph{sufficiently large} connected graphs is definable with quantifier depth $ell-3$. On the other hand, this is never possible with quantifier depth better than $ell/2$. If we, however, consider definitions over connected graphs with sufficiently large treewidth, the quantifier depth can for some $F$ be arbitrarily small comparing to $ell$ but never smaller than the treewidth of $F$. Moreover, the definitions over highly connected graphs require quantifier depth strictly more than the density of $F$. Finally, we determine the exact values of these descriptive complexity parameters for all connected pattern graphs $F$ on 4 vertices.
The complexity of the maximum common connected subgraph problem in partial $k$-trees is still not fully understood. Polynomial-time solutions are known for degree-bounded outerplanar graphs, a subclass of the partial $2$-trees. On the other hand, the problem is known to be ${bf NP}$-hard in vertex-labeled partial $11$-trees of bounded degree. We consider series-parallel graphs, i.e., partial $2$-trees. We show that the problem remains ${bf NP}$-hard in biconnected series-parallel graphs with all but one vertex of degree $3$ or less. A positive complexity result is presented for a related problem of high practical relevance which asks for a maximum common connected subgraph that preserves blocks and bridges of the input graphs. We present a polynomial time algorithm for this problem in series-parallel graphs, which utilizes a combination of BC- and SP-tree data structures to decompose both graphs.
We propose a weighted common subgraph (WCS) matching algorithm to find the most similar subgraphs in two labeled weighted graphs. WCS matching, as a natural generalization of the equal-sized graph matching or subgraph matching, finds wide applications in many computer vision and machine learning tasks. In this paper, the WCS matching is first formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem over the set of partial permutation matrices. Then it is approximately solved by a recently proposed combinatorial optimization framework - Graduated NonConvexity and Concavity Procedure (GNCCP). Experimental comparisons on both synthetic graphs and real world images validate its robustness against noise level, problem size, outlier number, and edge density.