English

Induced packing treewidth

Combinatorics 2026-07-08 v1 Discrete Mathematics Data Structures and Algorithms

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a framework that aims to unify classes defined by forbidden induced subgraphs or induced minors with classes defined by the existence of certain structured tree decompositions. Let H\mathcal{H} be a fixed family of graphs. We define \emph{induced-H\mathcal{H}-packing treewidth}, a tree-decomposition-based graph parameter that, for each bag, measures the maximum number of pairwise anticomplete induced copies of graphs from H\mathcal{H} intersecting that bag. This notion generalizes some previously studied parameters: when H={P1}\mathcal{H}=\{P_1\}, it is equivalent to tree-independence number, and when H={P2}\mathcal{H}=\{P_2\}, it is equivalent to induced matching treewidth. We show that bounded induced-H\mathcal{H}-packing treewidth yields new algorithmic consequences for a range of choices of H\mathcal{H}. In particular, we prove the following results for graphs of bounded induced-H\mathcal{H}-packing treewidth. Our results partially answer and substantially extend a question of Bodlaender, Fomin, and Korhonen [SODA~2026] on the tractability of \textsc{MWIS} for graphs of bounded induced-H\mathcal{H}-packing treewidth for H={P3}\mathcal{H}=\{P_3\} and for H\mathcal{H} equal to the family of all cycles.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.07595,
  title  = {Induced packing treewidth},
  author = {Amir Nikabadi and Paweł Rzążewski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.07595},
  year   = {2026}
}