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We study the complexity of testing whether a biconnected graph G = (V , E) is planar with the constraint that some cyclic orders of the edges incident to its vertices are allowed while some others are forbidden. The allowed cyclic orders are described by associating every vertex v of G with a set D (v) of FPQ-trees. Let tw be the treewidth of G and let D max be the maximum number of FPQ-trees per vertex. We show that the problem is FPT when parameterized by tw + D max , paraNP-hard when parameterized by D max , and W[1]-hard when parameterized by tw. We also consider NodeTrix planar representations of clustered graphs, where clusters are adjacency matrices and inter-cluster edges are non-intersecting simple curves. We prove that NodeTrix planarity with fixed sides is FPT when parameterized by the size of clusters plus the treewidth of the graph obtained by collapsing clusters to single vertices, provided that this graph is biconnected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a graph G and an integer b , OrthogonalPlanarity is the problem of testing whether G admits a planar orthogonal drawing with at most b bends. OrthogonalPlanarity is known to be NP -complete. We show that this problem belongs to the XP class when parameterized by treewidth. The proof exploits a fixed-parameter tractable approach that uses two more parameters besides treewidth, namely the natural parameter b and the number of vertices with degree at most two of G. Such approach is based on the new concept of sketched orthogonal representation, which synthetically describes a family of equivalent orthogonal drawings. The approach is general enough to be applicable to other related problems, namely HV-Planarity and FlexDraw. Also, in the special case of series-parallel graphs we obtain that both OrthogonalPlanarity and HV-Planarity can be solved in O (n 3 log ⁡ n) time, which improves on the previous O (n 4) bounds for these two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract An HV-graph is a planar graph with vertex-degree at most four such that each edge is labeled either H (horizontal) or V (vertical). The HV-planarity testing problem asks whether an HV-graph admits an HV-drawing , that is, a planar drawing such that each edge with label H is drawn as a horizontal segment and each edge with label V is drawn as a vertical segment. We prove that the HV-planarity testing problem is NP-complete even for graphs with vertex-degree at most three, which answers an open question posed by both Manuch et al. [30] and Durocher et al. [17]. On the positive side, we prove that the HV-planarity testing problem can be solved in polynomial-time for series-parallel graphs. This result significantly extends a previous result by Durocher et al. about HV-planarity testing of biconnected outerplanar graphs of maximum vertex-degree three. Highlights • HV-planarity testing is NP-complete, even for graphs with vertex-degree at most 3. • Polynomial-time HV-planarity testing for 2-connected series-parallel graphs. • Polynomial-time HV-planarity testing for partial 2-trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: We present a new software system, VisFAN, for the visual analysis of financial activity networks. Methods: We combine enhanced graph drawing techniques to devise novel algorithms and interaction functionalities for the visual exploration of networked data sets, together with tools for SNA and for the automatic generation of reports. Results: An application example constructed on real data is presented. We also report the results of a study aimed at qualitatively understanding the satisfaction level of the analysts when using VisFAN. Conclusion: VisFAN makes a strong use of visual interactive tools, combined with ad-hoc clustering techniques and customizable layout constraints management. Implications: As this system confirms, information visualization can play a crucial role to face the discovery of financial crimes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We propose an approach that allows a user (e.g., an analyst) to explore a layout produced by any graph drawing algorithm, in order to reduce the visual complexity and clarify its presentation. Our approach is based on stratifying the drawing into layers with desired properties; to this aim, heuristics are presented. The produced layers can be explored and combined by the user to gradually acquire details. We present a user study to test the effectiveness of our approach. Furthermore, we performed an experimental analysis on popular force-directed graph drawing algorithms, in order to evaluate what is the algorithm that produces the smallest number of layers and if there is any correlation between the number of crossings and the number of layers of a graph layout. The proposed approach is useful to explore graph layouts, as confirmed by the presented user study. Furthermore, interesting considerations arise from the experimental evaluation, in particular, our results suggest that the number of layers of a graph layout may represent a reliable measure of its visual complexity. The algorithms presented in this paper can be effectively applied to graph layouts with a few hundreds of edges and vertices. For larger drawings that contain lots of crossings, the time complexity of our algorithms grows quadratically in the number of edges and more efficient techniques need to be devised. The proposed approach takes as input a layout produced by any graph drawing algorithm, therefore it can be applied in a variety of application domains. Several research directions can be explored to extend our framework and to devise new visualization paradigms to effectively present stratified drawings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We study the problem of representing a graph as a storyplan, a recently introduced model for dynamic graph visualization. It is based on a sequence of frames, each showing a subset of vertices and a planar drawing of their induced subgraphs, where vertices appear and disappear over time. Namely, in the StoryPlan problem, we are given a graph and we want to decide whether there exists a total vertex appearance order for which a storyplan exists. We prove that the problem is NP -complete, and complement this hardness with two parameterized algorithms, one in the vertex cover number and one in the feedback edge set number of the input graph. We prove that partial 3-trees always admit a storyplan, which can be computed in linear time. Finally, we show that the problem remains NP -complete if the vertex appearance order is given and we have to choose how to draw the frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple topological graph is k -quasiplanar (k ≥ 2) if it contains no k pairwise crossing edges, and k -planar if no edge is crossed more than k times. In this paper, we explore the relationship between k -planarity and k -quasiplanarity to show that, for k ≥ 2 , every k -planar simple topological graph can be transformed into a (k + 1) -quasiplanar simple topological graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A drawing of a graph such that the vertices are drawn as points along a line and each edge is a circular arc in one of the two half-planes defined by this line is called a 2 -page drawing. If all edges are in the same half-plane, the drawing is called a 1 -page drawing. We want to compute 1 -page and 2 -page drawings of planar graphs such that the number of crossings per edge does not depend on the number of vertices. We show that for any constant k , there exist planar graphs that require more than k crossings per edge in both 1 -page and 2 -page drawings. We then prove that if the vertex degree is bounded by Δ , every planar 3-tree has a 2 -page drawing with a number of crossings per edge that only depends on Δ . Finally, we show a similar result for 1 -page drawings of partial 2 -trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]