FPT Approximation of Generalised Hypertree Width for Bounded Intersection Hypergraphs

Generalised hypertree width (ghw) is a hypergraph parameter that is central to the tractability of many prominent problems with natural hypergraph structure. Computing ghw of a hypergraph is notoriously hard. The decision version of the problem, checking whether ghw(H) ≤ k, is paraNP-hard when parameterised by k. Furthermore, approximation of ghw is at least as hard as approximation of Set-Cover, which is known to not admit any FPT approximation algorithms. Research in the computation of ghw so far has focused on identifying structural restrictions to hypergraphs - such as bounds on the size of edge intersections - that permit XP algorithms for ghw. Yet, even under these restrictions that problem has so far evaded any kind of FPT algorithm. In this paper we make the first step towards FPT algorithms for ghw by showing that the parameter can be approximated in FPT time for graphs of bounded edge intersection size. In concrete terms we show that there exists an FPT algorithm, parameterised by k and d, that for input hypergraph H with maximal cardinality of edge intersections d and integer k either outputs a tree decomposition with ghw(H) ≤ 4k(k+d+1)(2k-1), or rejects, in which case it is guaranteed that ghw(H) > k. Thus, in the special case of hypergraphs of bounded edge intersection, we obtain an FPT O(k³)-approximation algorithm for ghw.