On the Complexity of Making a Distinguished Vertex Minimum or Maximum Degree by Vertex Deletion

In this paper, we investigate the approximability of two node deletion problems. Given a vertex weighted graph $G=(V,E)$ and a specified, or "distinguished" vertex $p \in V$, MDD(min) is the problem of finding a minimum weight vertex set $S \subseteq V\setminus \{p\}$ such that $p$ becomes the minimum degree vertex in $G[V \setminus S]$; and MDD(max) is the problem of finding a minimum weight vertex set $S \subseteq V\setminus \{p\}$ such that $p$ becomes the maximum degree vertex in $G[V \setminus S]$. These are known $NP$-complete problems and have been studied from the parameterized complexity point of view in previous work. Here, we prove that for any $\epsilon > 0$, both the problems cannot be approximated within a factor $(1 - \epsilon)\log n$, unless $NP \subseteq DTIME(n^{\log\log n})$. We also show that for any $\epsilon > 0$, MDD(min) cannot be approximated within a factor $(1 -\epsilon)\log n$ on bipartite graphs, unless $NP \subseteq DTIME(n^{\log\log n})$, and that for any $\epsilon > 0$, MDD(max) cannot be approximated within a factor $(1/2 - \epsilon)\log n$ on bipartite graphs, unless $NP \subseteq DTIME(n^{\log\log n})$. We give an $O(\log n)$ factor approximation algorithm for MDD(max) on general graphs, provided the degree of $p$ is $O(\log n)$. We then show that if the degree of $p$ is $n-O(\log n)$, a similar result holds for MDD(min). We prove that MDD(max) is $APX$-complete on 3-regular unweighted graphs and provide an approximation algorithm with ratio $1.583$ when $G$ is a 3-regular unweighted graph. In addition, we show that MDD(min) can be solved in polynomial time when $G$ is a regular graph of constant degree.