TY - GEN
T1 - Planar Disjoint Paths, Treewidth, and Kernels
AU - Wlodarczyk, Michal
AU - Zehavi, Meirav
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 IEEE.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - In the PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS problem, one is given an undirected planar graph with a set of k vertex pairs (s_i, t_i) and the task is to find k pairwise vertex-disjoint paths such that the i-th path connects s_i to t_i. We study the problem through the lens of kernelization, aiming at efficiently reducing the input size in terms of a parameter. We show that PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS does not admit a polynomial kernel when parameterized by k unless coNP ⊆ NP / poly, resolving an open problem by [Bodlaender, Thomassé, Yeo, ESA'09]. Moreover, we rule out the existence of a polynomial Turing kernel unless the WKhierarchy collapses. Our reduction carries over to the setting of edge-disjoint paths, where the kernelization status remained open even in general graphs. On the positive side, we present a polynomial kernel for PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS parameterized by k+tw, where tw denotes the treewidth of the input graph. As a consequence of both our results, we rule out the possibility of a polynomialtime (Turing) treewidth reduction to t w=kO(1) under the same assumptions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first hardness result of this kind. Finally, combining our kernel with the known techniques [Adler, Kolliopoulos, Krause, Lokshtanov, Saurabh, Thilikos, JCTB'17; Schrijver, SICOMP'94] yields an alternative (and arguably simpler) proof that PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS can be solved in time 2O(k2) · nO(1), matching the result of [Lokshtanov, Misra, Pilipczuk, Saurabh, Zehavi, STOC'20].
AB - In the PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS problem, one is given an undirected planar graph with a set of k vertex pairs (s_i, t_i) and the task is to find k pairwise vertex-disjoint paths such that the i-th path connects s_i to t_i. We study the problem through the lens of kernelization, aiming at efficiently reducing the input size in terms of a parameter. We show that PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS does not admit a polynomial kernel when parameterized by k unless coNP ⊆ NP / poly, resolving an open problem by [Bodlaender, Thomassé, Yeo, ESA'09]. Moreover, we rule out the existence of a polynomial Turing kernel unless the WKhierarchy collapses. Our reduction carries over to the setting of edge-disjoint paths, where the kernelization status remained open even in general graphs. On the positive side, we present a polynomial kernel for PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS parameterized by k+tw, where tw denotes the treewidth of the input graph. As a consequence of both our results, we rule out the possibility of a polynomialtime (Turing) treewidth reduction to t w=kO(1) under the same assumptions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first hardness result of this kind. Finally, combining our kernel with the known techniques [Adler, Kolliopoulos, Krause, Lokshtanov, Saurabh, Thilikos, JCTB'17; Schrijver, SICOMP'94] yields an alternative (and arguably simpler) proof that PLANAR DISJOINT PATHS can be solved in time 2O(k2) · nO(1), matching the result of [Lokshtanov, Misra, Pilipczuk, Saurabh, Zehavi, STOC'20].
KW - disjoint paths
KW - kernelization
KW - parameterized complexity
KW - planar graphs
KW - treewidth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176456795&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1109/FOCS57990.2023.00044
DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/FOCS57990.2023.00044
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - Proceedings - Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, FOCS
SP - 649
EP - 662
BT - Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 64th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, FOCS 2023
T2 - 64th IEEE Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, FOCS 2023
Y2 - 6 November 2023 through 9 November 2023
ER -