Compression-based fixed-parameter algorithms for feedback vertex set and edge bipartization

Jiong Guo, Jens Gramm, Falk Hüffner, Rolf Niedermeier, Sebastian Wernicke

Abstract: We show that the NP-complete Feedback Vertex Set problem, which asks for the smallest set of vertices to remove from a graph to destroy all cycles, is deterministically solvable in O(ck⋅m) time. Here, m denotes the number of graph edges, k denotes the size of the feedback vertex set searched for, and c is a constant. We extend this to an algorithm enumerating all solutions in O(dk⋅m) time for a (larger) constant d. As a further result, we present a fixed-parameter algorithm with runtime O(2k⋅m2) for the NP-complete Edge Bipartization problem, which asks for at most k edges to remove from a graph to make it bipartite.