English

A half-integral Erd\H{o}s-P\'osa theorem for directed odd cycles

Combinatorics 2024-12-30 v3

Abstract

We prove that there exists a function f:NRf:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \mathbb{R} such that every directed graph GG contains either kk directed odd cycles where every vertex of GG is contained in at most two of them, or a set of at most f(k)f(k) vertices meeting all directed odd cycles. We also give a polynomial-time algorithm for fixed kk which outputs one of the two outcomes. Using this algorithmic result, we give a polynomial-time algorithm for fixed kk to decide whether such kk directed odd cycles exist, or there are no kk vertex-disjoint directed odd cycles. This extends the half-integral Erd\H{o}s-P\'osa theorem for undirected odd cycles by Reed [Combinatorica 1999] to directed graphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2007.12257,
  title  = {A half-integral Erd\H{o}s-P\'osa theorem for directed odd cycles},
  author = {Ken-ichi Kawarabayashi and Stephan Kreutzer and O-joung Kwon and Qiqin Xie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.12257},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

23 pages, 10 figures