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In the Tricolored Euclidean Traveling Salesperson problem, we are given~$k=3$ sets of points in the plane and are looking for disjoint tours, each covering one of the sets. Arora (1998) famously gave a PTAS based on ``patching'' for the case $k=1$ and, recently, Dross et al.~(2023) generalized this result to~$k=2$. Our contribution is a $(5/3+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for~$k=3$ that further generalizes Arora's approach. It is believed that patching is generally no longer possible for more than two tours. We circumvent this issue by either applying a conditional patching scheme for three tours or using an alternative approach based on a weighted solution for $k=2$.

In this paper we reassess the parameterized complexity and approximability of the well-studied Steiner Forest problem in several graph classes of bounded width. The problem takes an edge-weighted graph and pairs of vertices as input, and the aim is to find a minimum cost subgraph in which each given vertex pair lies in the same connected component. It is known that this problem is APX-hard in general, and NP-hard on graphs of treewidth 3, treedepth 4, and feedback vertex set size 2. However, Bateni, Hajiaghayi and Marx [JACM, 2011] gave an approximation scheme with a runtime of $n^{O(\frac{k^2}{\varepsilon})}$ on graphs of treewidth $k$. Our main result is a much faster efficient parameterized approximation scheme (EPAS) with a runtime of $2^{O(\frac{k^2}{\varepsilon} \log \frac{k^2}{\varepsilon})} \cdot n^{O(1)}$. If $k$ instead is the vertex cover number of the input graph, we show how to compute the optimum solution in $2^{O(k \log k)} \cdot n^{O(1)}$ time, and we also prove that this runtime dependence on $k$ is asymptotically best possible, under ETH. Furthermore, if $k$ is the size of a feedback edge set, then we obtain a faster $2^{O(k)} \cdot n^{O(1)}$ time algorithm, which again cannot be improved under ETH.

We consider generalizations of the $k$-Center problem in graphs of low doubling and highway dimension. For the Capacitated $k$-Supplier with Outliers (CkSwO) problem, we show an efficient parameterized approximation scheme (EPAS) when the parameters are $k$, the number of outliers and the doubling dimension of the supplier set. On the other hand, we show that for the Capacitated $k$-Center problem, which is a special case of CkSwO, obtaining a parameterized approximation scheme (PAS) is $\mathrm{W[1]}$-hard when the parameters are $k$, and the highway dimension. This is the first known example of a problem for which it is hard to obtain a PAS for highway dimension, while simultaneously admitting an EPAS for doubling dimension., Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures. Accepted to WG 2022

We consider the Sparse Hitting Set (Sparse-HS) problem, where we are given a set system $(V,\mathcal{F},\mathcal{B})$ with two families $\mathcal{F},\mathcal{B}$ of subsets of $V$. The task is to find a hitting set for $\mathcal{F}$ that minimizes the maximum number of elements in any of the sets of $\mathcal{B}$. Our focus is on determining the complexity of some special cases of Sparse-HS with respect to the sparseness $k$, which is the optimum number of hitting set elements in any set of $\mathcal{B}$. For the Sparse Vertex Cover (Sparse-VC) problem, $V$ is given by the vertex set of a graph, and $\mathcal{F}$ is its edge set. We prove NP-hardness for sparseness $k\geq 2$ and polynomial time solvability for $k=1$. We also provide a polynomial-time $2$-approximation for any $k$. A special case of Sparse-VC is Fair Vertex Cover (Fair-VC), where the family $\mathcal{B}$ is given by vertex neighbourhoods. For this problem we prove NP-hardness for constant $k$ and provide a polynomial-time $(2-\frac{1}{k})$-approximation. This is better than any approximation possible for Sparse-VC or Vertex Cover (under UGC). We then consider two problems derived from Sparse-HS related to the highway dimension, a graph parameter modelling transportation networks. Most algorithms for graphs of low highway dimension compute solutions to the $r$-Shortest Path Cover ($r$-SPC) problem, where $r>0$, $\mathcal{F}$ contains all shortest paths of length between $r$ and $2r$, and $\mathcal{B}$ contains all balls of radius $2r$. There is an XP algorithm that computes solutions to $r$-SPC of sparseness at most $h$ if the input graph has highway dimension $h$, but the existence if an FPT algorithm was open. We prove that $r$-SPC and also the related $r$-Highway Dimension ($r$-HD) problem are both W[1]-hard. Furthermore, we prove that $r$-SPC admits a polynomial-time $O(\log n)$-approximation.

For the well-known Survivable Network Design Problem (SNDP) we are given an undirected graph $G$ with edge costs, a set $R$ of terminal vertices, and an integer demand $d_{s,t}$ for every terminal pair $s,t\in R$. The task is to compute a subgraph $H$ of $G$ of minimum cost, such that there are at least $d_{s,t}$ disjoint paths between $s$ and $t$ in $H$. If the paths are required to be edge-disjoint we obtain the edge-connectivity variant (EC-SNDP), while internally vertex-disjoint paths result in the vertex-connectivity variant (VC-SNDP). Another important case is the element-connectivity variant (LC-SNDP), where the paths are disjoint on edges and non-terminals. In this work we shed light on the parameterized complexity of the above problems. We consider several natural parameters, which include the solution size $\ell$, the sum of demands $D$, the number of terminals $k$, and the maximum demand $d_\max$. Using simple, elegant arguments, we prove the following results. - We give a complete picture of the parameterized tractability of the three variants w.r.t. parameter $\ell$: both EC-SNDP and LC-SNDP are FPT, while VC-SNDP is W[1]-hard. - We identify some special cases of VC-SNDP that are FPT: * when $d_\max\leq 3$ for parameter $\ell$, * on locally bounded treewidth graphs (e.g., planar graphs) for parameter $\ell$, and * on graphs of treewidth $tw$ for parameter $tw+D$. - The well-known Directed Steiner Tree (DST) problem can be seen as single-source EC-SNDP with $d_\max=1$ on directed graphs, and is FPT parameterized by $k$ [Dreyfus & Wagner 1971]. We show that in contrast, the 2-DST problem, where $d_\max=2$, is W[1]-hard, even when parameterized by $\ell$.

Linear programs (LPs) can be solved by polynomially many moves along the circuit direction improving the objective the most, so-called deepest-descent steps (dd-steps). Computing these steps is NP-hard (De Loera et al., arXiv, 2019), a consequence of the hardness of deciding the existence of an optimal circuit-neighbor (OCNP) on LPs with non-unique optima. We prove OCNP is easy under the promise of unique optima, but already $O(n^{1-\varepsilon})$-approximating dd-steps remains hard even for totally unimodular $n$-dimensional 0/1-LPs with a unique optimum. We provide a matching $n$-approximation.

We study clustering problems such as k-Median, k-Means, and Facility Location in graphs of low highway dimension, which is a graph parameter modeling transportation networks. It was previously shown that approximation schemes for these problems exist, which either run in quasi-polynomial time (assuming constant highway dimension) [Feldmann et al. SICOMP 2018] or run in FPT time (parameterized by the number of clusters $k$, the highway dimension, and the approximation factor) [Becker et al. ESA~2018, Braverman et al. 2020]. In this paper we show that a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) exists (assuming constant highway dimension). We also show that the considered problems are NP-hard on graphs of highway dimension 1.

We study the Independent Set (IS) problem in $H$-free graphs, i.e., graphs excluding some fixed graph $H$ as an induced subgraph. We prove several inapproximability results both for polynomial-time and parameterized algorithms. Halld\'orsson [SODA 1995] showed that for every $\delta>0$ IS has a polynomial-time $(\frac{d-1}{2}+\delta)$-approximation in $K_{1,d}$-free graphs. We extend this result by showing that $K_{a,b}$-free graphs admit a polynomial-time $O(\alpha(G)^{1-1/a})$-approximation, where $\alpha(G)$ is the size of a maximum independent set in $G$. Furthermore, we complement the result of Halld\'orsson by showing that for some $\gamma=\Theta(d/\log d),$ there is no polynomial-time $\gamma$-approximation for these graphs, unless NP = ZPP. Bonnet et al. [IPEC 2018] showed that IS parameterized by the size $k$ of the independent set is W[1]-hard on graphs which do not contain (1) a cycle of constant length at least $4$, (2) the star $K_{1,4}$, and (3) any tree with two vertices of degree at least $3$ at constant distance. We strengthen this result by proving three inapproximability results under different complexity assumptions for almost the same class of graphs (we weaken condition (2) that $G$ does not contain $K_{1,5}$). First, under the ETH, there is no $f(k)\cdot n^{o(k/\log k)}$ algorithm for any computable function $f$. Then, under the deterministic Gap-ETH, there is a constant $\delta>0$ such that no $\delta$-approximation can be computed in $f(k) \cdot n^{O(1)}$ time. Also, under the stronger randomized Gap-ETH there is no such approximation algorithm with runtime $f(k)\cdot n^{o(\sqrt{k})}$. Finally, we consider the parameterization by the excluded graph $H$, and show that under the ETH, IS has no $n^{o(\alpha(H))}$ algorithm in $H$-free graphs and under Gap-ETH there is no $d/k^{o(1)}$-approximation for $K_{1,d}$-free graphs with runtime $f(d,k) n^{O(1)}$., Comment: Preliminary version of the paper in WG 2020 proceedings

Parameterization and approximation are two popular ways of coping with NP-hard problems. More recently, the two have also been combined to derive many interesting results. We survey developments in the area both from the algorithmic and hardness perspectives, with emphasis on new techniques and potential future research directions.

We present a data structure that in a dynamic graph of treedepth at most $d$, which is modified over time by edge insertions and deletions, maintains an optimum-height elimination forest. The data structure achieves worst-case update time $2^{{\cal O}(d^2)}$, which matches the best known parameter dependency in the running time of a static fpt algorithm for computing the treedepth of a graph. This improves a result of Dvo\v{r}\'ak et al. [ESA 2014], who for the same problem achieved update time $f(d)$ for some non-elementary (i.e. tower-exponential) function $f$. As a by-product, we improve known upper bounds on the sizes of minimal obstructions for having treedepth $d$ from doubly-exponential in $d$ to $d^{{\cal O}(d)}$. As applications, we design new fully dynamic parameterized data structures for detecting long paths and cycles in general graphs. More precisely, for a fixed parameter $k$ and a dynamic graph $G$, modified over time by edge insertions and deletions, our data structures maintain answers to the following queries: - Does $G$ contain a simple path on $k$ vertices? - Does $G$ contain a simple cycle on at least $k$ vertices? In the first case, the data structure achieves amortized update time $2^{{\cal O}(k^2)}$. In the second case, the amortized update time is $2^{{\cal O}(k^4)} + {\cal O}(k \log n)$. In both cases we assume access to a dictionary on the edges of $G$., Comment: 74 pages, 5 figures

We develop an FPT algorithm and a bi-kernel for the Weighted Edge Clique Partition (WECP) problem, where a graph with $n$ vertices and integer edge weights is given together with an integer $k$, and the aim is to find $k$ cliques, such that every edge appears in exactly as many cliques as its weight. The problem has been previously only studied in the unweighted version called Edge Clique Partition (ECP), where the edges need to be partitioned into $k$ cliques. It was shown that ECP admits a kernel with~$k^2$ vertices [Mujuni and Rosamond, 2008], but this kernel does not extend to WECP. The previously fastest algorithm known for ECP has a runtime of $2^{\mathcal{O}(k^2)}n^{O(1)}$ [Issac, 2019]. For WECP we develop a bi-kernel with $4^k$ vertices, and an algorithm with runtime $2^{\mathcal{O}(k^{3/2}w^{1/2}\log(k/w))}n^{O(1)}$, where $w$ is the maximum edge weight. The latter in particular improves the runtime for ECP to~$2^{\mathcal{O}(k^{3/2}\log k)}n^{O(1)}$.

(see paper for full abstract) Given a vertex-weighted directed graph $G=(V,E)$ and a set $T=\{t_1, t_2, \ldots t_k\}$ of $k$ terminals, the objective of the SCSS problem is to find a vertex set $H\subseteq V$ of minimum weight such that $G[H]$ contains a $t_{i}\rightarrow t_j$ path for each $i\neq j$. The problem is NP-hard, but Feldman and Ruhl [FOCS '99; SICOMP '06] gave a novel $n^{O(k)}$ algorithm for the SCSS problem, where $n$ is the number of vertices in the graph and $k$ is the number of terminals. We explore how much easier the problem becomes on planar directed graphs: - Our main algorithmic result is a $2^{O(k)}\cdot n^{O(\sqrt{k})}$ algorithm for planar SCSS, which is an improvement of a factor of $O(\sqrt{k})$ in the exponent over the algorithm of Feldman and Ruhl. - Our main hardness result is a matching lower bound for our algorithm: we show that planar SCSS does not have an $f(k)\cdot n^{o(\sqrt{k})}$ algorithm for any computable function $f$, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH) fails. The following additional results put our upper and lower bounds in context: - In general graphs, we cannot hope for such a dramatic improvement over the $n^{O(k)}$ algorithm of Feldman and Ruhl: assuming ETH, SCSS in general graphs does not have an $f(k)\cdot n^{o(k/\log k)}$ algorithm for any computable function $f$. - Feldman and Ruhl generalized their $n^{O(k)}$ algorithm to the more general Directed Steiner Network (DSN) problem; here the task is to find a subgraph of minimum weight such that for every source $s_i$ there is a path to the corresponding terminal $t_i$. We show that, assuming ETH, there is no $f(k)\cdot n^{o(k)}$ time algorithm for DSN on acyclic planar graphs., Comment: To appear in SICOMP. Extended abstract in SODA 2014. This version has a new author (Andreas Emil Feldmann), and the algorithm is faster and considerably simplified as compared to conference version

(see paper for full abstract) Cut problems and connectivity problems on digraphs are two well-studied classes of problems from the viewpoint of parameterized complexity. After a series of papers over the last decade, we now have (almost) tight bounds for the running time of several standard variants of these problems parameterized by two parameters: the number $k$ of terminals and the size $p$ of the solution. When there is evidence of FPT intractability, then the next natural alternative is to consider FPT approximations. In this paper, we show two types of results for several directed cut and connectivity problems, building on existing results from the literature: first is to circumvent the hardness results for these problems by designing FPT approximation algorithms, or alternatively strengthen the existing hardness results by creating "gap-instances" under stronger hypotheses such as the (Gap-)Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH)., Comment: Extended abstract in IPEC 2019. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1707.06499

We study the Travelling Salesperson (TSP) and the Steiner Tree problem (STP) in graphs of low highway dimension. This graph parameter was introduced by Abraham et al. [SODA 2010] as a model for transportation networks, on which TSP and STP naturally occur for various applications in logistics. It was previously shown [Feldmann et al. ICALP 2015] that these problems admit a quasi-polynomial time approximation scheme (QPTAS) on graphs of constant highway dimension. We demonstrate that a significant improvement is possible in the special case when the highway dimension is 1, for which we present a fully-polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS). We also prove that STP is weakly NP-hard for these restricted graphs. For TSP we show NP-hardness for graphs of highway dimension 6, which answers an open problem posed in [Feldmann et al. ICALP 2015].

We consider the classic Facility Location, $k$-Median, and $k$-Means problems in metric spaces of doubling dimension $d$. We give nearly linear-time approximation schemes for each problem. The complexity of our algorithms is $2^{(\log(1/\eps)/\eps)^{O(d^2)}} n \log^4 n + 2^{O(d)} n \log^9 n$, making a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art algorithms which run in time $n^{(d/\eps)^{O(d)}}$. Moreover, we show how to extend the techniques used to get the first efficient approximation schemes for the problems of prize-collecting $k$-Medians and $k$-Means, and efficient bicriteria approximation schemes for $k$-Medians with outliers, $k$-Means with outliers and $k$-Center.

In this paper we study the hardness of the $k$-Center problem on inputs that model transportation networks. For the problem, a graph $G=(V,E)$ with edge lengths and an integer $k$ are given and a center set $C\subseteq V$ needs to be chosen such that $|C|\leq k$. The aim is to minimize the maximum distance of any vertex in the graph to the closest center. This problem arises in many applications of logistics, and thus it is natural to consider inputs that model transportation networks. Such inputs are often assumed to be planar graphs, low doubling metrics, or bounded highway dimension graphs. For each of these models, parameterized approximation algorithms have been shown to exist. We complement these results by proving that the $k$-Center problem is W[1]-hard on planar graphs of constant doubling dimension, where the parameter is the combination of the number of centers $k$, the highway dimension $h$, and the pathwidth $p$. Moreover, under the Exponential Time Hypothesis there is no $f(k,p,h)\cdot n^{o(p+\sqrt{k+h})}$ time algorithm for any computable function $f$. Thus it is unlikely that the optimum solution to $k$-Center can be found efficiently, even when assuming that the input graph abides to all of the above models for transportation networks at once! Additionally we give a simple parameterized $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm for inputs of doubling dimension $d$ with runtime $(k^k/\varepsilon^{O(kd)})\cdot n^{O(1)}$. This generalizes a previous result, which considered inputs in $D$-dimensional $L_q$ metrics.

We study the Steiner Tree problem, in which a set of terminal vertices needs to be connected in the cheapest possible way in an edge-weighted graph. This problem has been extensively studied from the viewpoint of approximation and also parametrization. In particular, on one hand Steiner Tree is known to be APX-hard, and W[2]-hard on the other, if parameterized by the number of non-terminals (Steiner vertices) in the optimum solution. In contrast to this we give an efficient parameterized approximation scheme (EPAS), which circumvents both hardness results. Moreover, our methods imply the existence of a polynomial size approximate kernelization scheme (PSAKS) for the considered parameter. We further study the parameterized approximability of other variants of Steiner Tree, such as Directed Steiner Tree and Steiner Forest. For neither of these an EPAS is likely to exist for the studied parameter: for Steiner Forest an easy observation shows that the problem is APX-hard, even if the input graph contains no Steiner vertices. For Directed Steiner Tree we prove that approximating within any function of the studied parameter is W[1]-hard. Nevertheless, we show that an EPAS exists for Unweighted Directed Steiner Tree, but a PSAKS does not. We also prove that there is an EPAS and a PSAKS for Steiner Forest if in addition to the number of Steiner vertices, the number of connected components of an optimal solution is considered to be a parameter., Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures An extended abstract appeared in proceedings of STACS 2018

Given a directed graph $G$ and a list $(s_1,t_1),\dots,(s_d,t_d)$ of terminal pairs, the Directed Steiner Network problem asks for a minimum-cost subgraph of $G$ that contains a directed $s_i\to t_i$ path for every $1\le i \le k$. The special case Directed Steiner Tree (when we ask for paths from a root $r$ to terminals $t_1,\dots,t_d$) is known to be fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by the number of terminals, while the special case Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph (when we ask for a path from every $t_i$ to every other $t_j$) is known to be W[1]-hard. We systematically explore the complexity landscape of directed Steiner problems to fully understand which other special cases are FPT or W[1]-hard. Formally, if $\mathcal{H}$ is a class of directed graphs, then we look at the special case of Directed Steiner Network where the list $(s_1,t_1),\dots,(s_d,t_d)$ of requests form a directed graph that is a member of $\mathcal{H}$. Our main result is a complete characterization of the classes $\mathcal{H}$ resulting in fixed-parameter tractable special cases: we show that if every pattern in $\mathcal{H}$ has the combinatorial property of being "transitively equivalent to a bounded-length caterpillar with a bounded number of extra edges," then the problem is FPT, and it is W[1]-hard for every recursively enumerable $\mathcal{H}$ not having this property. This complete dichotomy unifies and generalizes the known results showing that Directed Steiner Tree is FPT [Dreyfus and Wagner, Networks 1971], $q$-Root Steiner Tree is FPT for constant $q$ [Such\'y, WG 2016], Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph is W[1]-hard [Guo et al., SIAM J. Discrete Math. 2011], and Directed Steiner Network is solvable in polynomial-time for constant number of terminals [Feldman and Ruhl, SIAM J. Comput. 2006], and moreover reveals a large continent of tractable cases that were not known before., Comment: Appeared at the 43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016)

The Directed Steiner Network (DSN) problem takes as input a directed edge-weighted graph $G=(V,E)$ and a set $\mathcal{D}\subseteq V\times V$ of $k$ demand pairs. The aim is to compute the cheapest network $N\subseteq G$ for which there is an $s\to t$ path for each $(s,t)\in\mathcal{D}$. It is known that this problem is notoriously hard as there is no $k^{1/4-o(1)}$-approximation algorithm under Gap-ETH, even when parametrizing the runtime by $k$ [Dinur & Manurangsi, ITCS 2018]. In light of this, we systematically study several special cases of DSN and determine their parameterized approximability for the parameter $k$. For the bi-DSN$_\text{Planar}$ problem, the aim is to compute a solution $N\subseteq G$ whose cost is at most that of an optimum planar solution in a bidirected graph $G$, i.e., for every edge $uv$ of $G$ the reverse edge $vu$ exists and has the same weight. This problem is a generalization of several well-studied special cases. Our main result is that this problem admits a parameterized approximation scheme (PAS) for $k$. We also prove that our result is tight in the sense that (a) the runtime of our PAS cannot be significantly improved, and (b) it is unlikely that a PAS exists for any generalization of bi-DSN$_\text{Planar}$, unless FPT=W[1]. One important special case of DSN is the Strongly Connected Steiner Subgraph (SCSS) problem, for which the solution network $N\subseteq G$ needs to strongly connect a given set of $k$ terminals. It has been observed before that for SCSS a parameterized $2$-approximation exists when parameterized by $k$ [Chitnis et al., IPEC 2013]. We give a tight inapproximability result by showing that for $k$ no parameterized $(2-\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm exists under Gap-ETH. Additionally we show that when restricting the input of SCSS to bidirected graphs, the problem remains NP-hard but becomes FPT for $k$.

We consider the $k$-Center problem and some generalizations. For $k$-Center a set of $k$ center vertices needs to be found in a graph $G$ with edge lengths, such that the distance from any vertex of $G$ to its nearest center is minimized. This problem naturally occurs in transportation networks, and therefore we model the inputs as graphs with bounded highway dimension, as proposed by Abraham et al. [SODA 2010]. We show both approximation and fixed-parameter hardness results, and how to overcome them using fixed-parameter approximations, where the two paradigms are combined. In particular, we prove that for any $\varepsilon>0$ computing a $(2-\varepsilon)$-approximation is W[2]-hard for parameter $k$ and NP-hard for graphs with highway dimension $O(\log^2 n)$. The latter does not rule out fixed-parameter $(2-\varepsilon)$-approximations for the highway dimension parameter $h$, but implies that such an algorithm must have at least doubly exponential running time in $h$ if it exists, unless the ETH fails. On the positive side, we show how to get below the approximation factor of $2$ by combining the parameters $k$ and $h$: we develop a fixed-parameter $3/2$-approximation with running time $2^{O(kh\log h)}\cdot n^{O(1)}$. Additionally we prove that, unless P=NP, our techniques cannot be used to compute fixed-parameter $(2-\varepsilon)$-approximations for only the parameter $h$. We also provide similar fixed-parameter approximations for the weighted $k$-Center and $(k,\mathcal{F})$-Partition problems, which generalize $k$-Center., Comment: A preliminary version appeared at the 42nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2015)

In a standard $f$-connectivity network design problem, we are given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$, a cut-requirement function $f:2^V \rightarrow {\mathbb{N}}$, and non-negative costs $c(e)$ for all $e \in E$. We are then asked to find a minimum-cost vector $x \in {\mathbb{N}}^E$ such that $x(\delta(S)) \geq f(S)$ for all $S \subseteq V$. We focus on the class of such problems where $f$ is a proper function. This encodes many well-studied NP-hard problems such as the generalized survivable network design problem. In this paper we present the first strongly polynomial time FPTAS for solving the LP relaxation of the standard IP formulation of the $f$-connectivity problem with general proper functions $f$. Implementing Jain's algorithm, this yields a strongly polynomial time $(2+\epsilon)$-approximation for the generalized survivable network design problem (where we consider rounding up of rationals an arithmetic operation).

Graphs with bounded highway dimension were introduced by Abraham et al. [SODA 2010] as a model of transportation networks. We show that any such graph can be embedded into a distribution over bounded treewidth graphs with arbitrarily small distortion. More concretely, given a weighted graph G = (V, E) of constant highway dimension, we show how to randomly compute a weighted graph H = (V, E') that distorts shortest path distances of G by at most a 1 + ${\varepsilon}$ factor in expectation, and whose treewidth is polylogarithmic in the aspect ratio of G. Our probabilistic embedding implies quasi-polynomial time approximation schemes for a number of optimization problems that naturally arise in transportation networks, including Travelling Salesman, Steiner Tree, and Facility Location. To construct our embedding for low highway dimension graphs we extend Talwar's [STOC 2004] embedding of low doubling dimension metrics into bounded treewidth graphs, which generalizes known results for Euclidean metrics. We add several non-trivial ingredients to Talwar's techniques, and in particular thoroughly analyse the structure of low highway dimension graphs. Thus we demonstrate that the geometric toolkit used for Euclidean metrics extends beyond the class of low doubling metrics., Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of the 42nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP), 2015

A balanced partition is a clustering of a graph into a given number of equal-sized parts. For instance, the Bisection problem asks to remove at most k edges in order to partition the vertices into two equal-sized parts. We prove that Bisection is FPT for the distance to constant cliquewidth if we are given the deletion set. This implies FPT algorithms for some well-studied parameters such as cluster vertex deletion number and feedback vertex set. However, we show that Bisection does not admit polynomial-size kernels for these parameters. For the Vertex Bisection problem, vertices need to be removed in order to obtain two equal-sized parts. We show that this problem is FPT for the number of removed vertices k if the solution cuts the graph into a constant number c of connected components. The latter condition is unavoidable, since we also prove that Vertex Bisection is W[1]-hard w.r.t. (k,c). Our algorithms for finding bisections can easily be adapted to finding partitions into d equal-sized parts, which entails additional running time factors of n^{O(d)}. We show that a substantial speed-up is unlikely since the corresponding task is W[1]-hard w.r.t. d, even on forests of maximum degree two. We can, however, show that it is FPT for the vertex cover number., Comment: This version of the article is to appear in Theory of Computing Systems

In this paper we show that the price of stability of Shapley network design games on undirected graphs with k players is at most (k^3(k+1)/2-k^2) / (1+k^3(k+1)/2-k^2) H_k = (1 - \Theta(1/k^4)) H_k, where H_k denotes the k-th harmonic number. This improves on the known upper bound of H_k, which is also valid for directed graphs but for these, in contrast, is tight. Hence, we give the first non-trivial upper bound on the price of stability for undirected Shapley network design games that is valid for an arbitrary number of players. Our bound is proved by analyzing the price of stability restricted to Nash equilibria that minimize the potential function of the game. We also present a game with k=3 players in which such a restricted price of stability is 1.634. This shows that the analysis of Bil\`o and Bove (Journal of Interconnection Networks, Volume 12, 2011) is tight. In addition, we give an example for three players that improves the lower bound on the (unrestricted) price of stability to 1.571., Comment: 14 pages

Two kinds of approximation algorithms exist for the k-BALANCED PARTITIONING problem: those that are fast but compute unsatisfying approximation ratios, and those that guarantee high quality ratios but are slow. In this paper we prove that this tradeoff between runtime and solution quality is necessary. For the problem a minimum number of edges in a graph need to be found that, when cut, partition the vertices into k equal-sized sets. We develop a reduction framework which identifies some necessary conditions on the considered graph class in order to prove the hardness of the problem. We focus on two combinatorially simple but very different classes, namely trees and solid grid graphs. The latter are finite connected subgraphs of the infinite 2D grid without holes. First we use the framework to show that for solid grid graphs it is NP-hard to approximate the optimum number of cut edges within any satisfying ratio. Then we consider solutions in which the sets may deviate from being equal-sized. Our framework is used on grids and trees to prove that no fully polynomial time algorithm exists that computes solutions in which the sets are arbitrarily close to equal-sized. This is true even if the number of edges cut is allowed to increase the more stringent the limit on the set sizes is. These are the first bicriteria inapproximability results for the problem.