2018

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  Göbel, Andreas; Lagodzinski, J. A. Gregor; Seidel, Karen Counting Homomorphisms to Trees Modulo a Prime. International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2018: 49:1-49:13
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ Download ]
   
  Many important graph theoretic notions can be encoded as counting graph homomorphism problems, such as partition functions in statistical physics, in particular independent sets and colourings. In this article we study the complexity of~\($\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$\), the problem of counting graph homomorphisms from an input graph to a graph \($H$\) modulo a prime number~\($p$\). Dyer and Greenhill proved a dichotomy stating that the tractability of non-modular counting graph homomorphisms depends on the structure of the target graph. Many intractable cases in non-modular counting become tractable in modular counting due to the common phenomenon of cancellation. In subsequent studies on counting modulo~\($2$\), however, the influence of the structure of~\($H$\) on the tractability was shown to persist, which yields similar dichotomies. Our main result states that for every tree~\($H$\) and every prime~\($p$\) the problem \($\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$\) is either polynomial time computable or \($\#_p\mathsf{P}$\)-complete. This relates to the conjecture of Faben and Jerrum stating that this dichotomy holds for every graph \($H$\) when counting modulo~2. In contrast to previous results on modular counting, the tractable cases of \($\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$\) are essentially the same for all values of the modulo when \($H$\) is a tree. To prove this result, we study the structural properties of a homomorphism. As an important interim result, our study yields a dichotomy for the problem of counting weighted independent sets in a bipartite graph modulo some prime~\($p$\). These results are the first suggesting that such dichotomies hold not only for the one-bit functions of the modulo~2 case but also for the modular counting functions of all primes~\($p$\).
  @inproceedings{gobel2018counting, abstract = {Many important graph theoretic notions can be encoded as counting graph homomorphism problems, such as partition functions in statistical physics, in particular independent sets and colourings. In this article we study the complexity of~$\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$, the problem of counting graph homomorphisms from an input graph to a graph $H$ modulo a prime number~$p$. Dyer and Greenhill proved a dichotomy stating that the tractability of non-modular counting graph homomorphisms depends on the structure of the target graph. Many intractable cases in non-modular counting become tractable in modular counting due to the common phenomenon of cancellation. In subsequent studies on counting modulo~$2$, however, the influence of the structure of~$H$ on the tractability was shown to persist, which yields similar dichotomies. Our main result states that for every tree~$H$ and every prime~$p$ the problem $\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$ is either polynomial time computable or $\#_p\mathsf{P}$-complete. This relates to the conjecture of Faben and Jerrum stating that this dichotomy holds for every graph $H$ when counting modulo~2. In contrast to previous results on modular counting, the tractable cases of $\#_p\textsc{HomsTo}H$ are essentially the same for all values of the modulo when $H$ is a tree. To prove this result, we study the structural properties of a homomorphism. As an important interim result, our study yields a dichotomy for the problem of counting weighted independent sets in a bipartite graph modulo some prime~$p$. These results are the first suggesting that such dichotomies hold not only for the one-bit functions of the modulo~2 case but also for the modular counting functions of all primes~$p$.}, author = {Göbel, Andreas and Lagodzinski, J. A. Gregor and Seidel, Karen}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, editor = {Potapov, Igor and Spirakis, Paul and Worrell, James}, keywords = {andreasgoebel gregorlagodzinski karenseidel mfcs year2018}, pages = {49:1-49:13}, publisher = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, title = {Counting Homomorphisms to Trees Modulo a Prime}, volume = 117, year = 2018 }

2017

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  Casel, Katrin; Fernau, Henning; Grigoriev, Alexander; Schmid, Markus L.; Whitesides, Sue Combinatorial Properties and Recognition of Unit Square Visibility Graphs. International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2017: 30:1-30:15
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  Unit square (grid) visibility graphs (USV and USGV, resp.) are described by axis-parallel visibility between unit squares placed (on integer grid coordinates) in the plane. We investigate combinatorial properties of these graph classes and the hardness of variants of the recognition problem, i.e., the problem of representing USGV with fixed visibilities within small area and, for USV, the general recognition problem.
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/mfcs/CaselFGSW17, abstract = {Unit square (grid) visibility graphs (USV and USGV, resp.) are described by axis-parallel visibility between unit squares placed (on integer grid coordinates) in the plane. We investigate combinatorial properties of these graph classes and the hardness of variants of the recognition problem, i.e., the problem of representing USGV with fixed visibilities within small area and, for USV, the general recognition problem.}, author = {Casel, Katrin and Fernau, Henning and Grigoriev, Alexander and Schmid, Markus L. and Whitesides, Sue}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, editor = {Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean{-}Fran{\c{c}}ois}, keywords = {katrincasel mfcs year2017}, pages = {30:1-30:15}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik}, series = {LIPIcs}, title = {Combinatorial Properties and Recognition of Unit Square Visibility Graphs}, volume = 83, year = 2017 }

2016

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  Friedrich, Tobias Scale-Free Networks, Hyperbolic Geometry, and Efficient Algorithms. Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2016: 4:1-4:3

  Invited Talk
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  The node degrees of large real-world networks often follow a power-law distribution. Such scale-free networks can be social networks, internet topologies, the web graph, power grids, or many other networks from literally hundreds of domains. The talk will introduce several mathematical models of scale-free networks (e.g. preferential attachment graphs, Chung-Lu graphs, hyperbolic random graphs) and analyze some of their properties (e.g. diameter, average distance, clustering). We then present several algorithms and distributed processes on and for these network models (e.g. rumor spreading, load balancing, de-anonymization, embedding) and discuss a number of open problems. The talk assumes no prior knowledge about scale-free networks, distributed computing or hyperbolic geometry.
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/mfcs/Friedrich16, abstract = {The node degrees of large real-world networks often follow a power-law distribution. Such scale-free networks can be social networks, internet topologies, the web graph, power grids, or many other networks from literally hundreds of domains. The talk will introduce several mathematical models of scale-free networks (e.g. preferential attachment graphs, Chung-Lu graphs, hyperbolic random graphs) and analyze some of their properties (e.g. diameter, average distance, clustering). We then present several algorithms and distributed processes on and for these network models (e.g. rumor spreading, load balancing, de-anonymization, embedding) and discuss a number of open problems. The talk assumes no prior knowledge about scale-free networks, distributed computing or hyperbolic geometry.}, author = {Friedrich, Tobias}, booktitle = {Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, keywords = {mfcs tobiasfriedrich year2016}, note = {Invited Talk}, pages = {4:1-4:3}, title = {Scale-Free Networks, Hyperbolic Geometry, and Efficient Algorithms}, year = 2016 }

2015

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  Cord-Landwehr, Andreas; Lenzner, Pascal Network Creation Games: Think Global - Act Local. Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS) 2015: 248-260
  [ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
   
  We investigate a non-cooperative game-theoretic model for the formation of communication networks by selfish agents. Each agent aims for a central position at minimum cost for creating edges. In particular, the general model (Fabrikant et al., PODC'03) became popular for studying the structure of the Internet or social networks. Despite its significance, locality in this game was first studied only recently (Bilo et al., SPAA'14), where a worst case locality model was presented, which came with a high efficiency loss in terms of quality of equilibria. Our main contribution is a new and more optimistic view on locality: agents are limited in their knowledge and actions to their local view ranges, but can probe different strategies and finally choose the best. We study the influence of our locality notion on the hardness of computing best responses, convergence to equilibria, and quality of equilibria. Moreover, we compare the strength of local versus non-local strategy changes. Our results address the gap between the original model and the worst case locality variant. On the bright side, our efficiency results are in line with observations from the original model, yet we have a non-constant lower bound on the Price of Anarchy.
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/mfcs/Cord-LandwehrL15, abstract = {We investigate a non-cooperative game-theoretic model for the formation of communication networks by selfish agents. Each agent aims for a central position at minimum cost for creating edges. In particular, the general model (Fabrikant et al., PODC'03) became popular for studying the structure of the Internet or social networks. Despite its significance, locality in this game was first studied only recently (Bilo et al., SPAA'14), where a worst case locality model was presented, which came with a high efficiency loss in terms of quality of equilibria. Our main contribution is a new and more optimistic view on locality: agents are limited in their knowledge and actions to their local view ranges, but can probe different strategies and finally choose the best. We study the influence of our locality notion on the hardness of computing best responses, convergence to equilibria, and quality of equilibria. Moreover, we compare the strength of local versus non-local strategy changes. Our results address the gap between the original model and the worst case locality variant. On the bright side, our efficiency results are in line with observations from the original model, yet we have a non-constant lower bound on the Price of Anarchy.}, author = {Cord-Landwehr, Andreas and Lenzner, Pascal}, booktitle = {Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS)}, keywords = {imported mfcs pascal pascallenzner year2015}, pages = {248-260}, publisher = {Springer}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, title = {Network Creation Games: Think Global - Act Local}, volume = 9235, year = 2015 }