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The {\it partially disjoint paths problem} is: {\it given:} a directed graph, vertices $r_1,s_1,\ldots,r_k,s_k$, and a set $F$ of pairs $\{i,j\}$ from $\{1,\ldots,k\}$, {\it find:} for each $i=1,\ldots,k$ a directed $r_i-s_i$ path $P_i$…
Paths $P_1,\ldots,P_k$ in a graph $G=(V,E)$ are mutually induced if any two distinct $P_i$ and $P_j$ have neither common vertices nor adjacent vertices (except perhaps their end-vertices). The Induced Disjoint Paths problem is to decide if…
Given $k$ pairs of terminals $\{(s_{1}, t_{1}), \ldots, (s_{k}, t_{k})\}$ in a graph $G$, the min-sum $k$ vertex-disjoint paths problem is to find a collection $\{Q_{1}, Q_{2}, \ldots, Q_{k}\}$ of vertex-disjoint paths with minimum total…
Given an edge-weighted undirected graph and a list of k source-sink pairs of vertices, the well-known minimum multicut problem consists in selecting a minimum-weight set of edges whose removal leaves no path between every source and its…
The canonical tree-decomposition theorem, given by Robertson and Seymour in their seminal graph minors series, turns out to be one of the most important tool in structural and algorithmic graph theory. In this paper, we provide the…
Paths $P^1,\ldots,P^k$ in a graph $G=(V,E)$ are mutually induced if any two distinct $P^i$ and $P^j$ have neither common vertices nor adjacent vertices. For a fixed integer $k$, the $k$-Induced Disjoint Paths problem is to decide if a graph…
The well-known Disjoint Paths problem is to decide if a graph contains k pairwise disjoint paths, each connecting a different terminal pair from a set of k distinct pairs. We determine, with an exception of two cases, the complexity of the…
The $k$ disjoint shortest paths problem ($k$-DSPP) on a graph with $k$ source-sink pairs $(s_i, t_i)$ asks for the existence of $k$ pairwise edge- or vertex-disjoint shortest $s_i$-$t_i$-paths. It is known to be NP-complete if $k$ is part…
Finding a simple path of even length between two designated vertices in a directed graph is a fundamental NP-complete problem known as the EvenPath problem. Nedev proved in 1999, that for directed planar graphs, the problem can be solved in…
In this paper, we study the \textsf{Planar Disjoint Paths} problem: Given an undirected planar graph $G$ with $n$ vertices and a set $T$ of $k$ pairs $(s_i,t_i)_{i=1}^k$ of vertices, the goal is to find a set $\mathcal P$ of $k$ pairwise…
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)\;(1\le i\le k)$ of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k = 2$,…
Given a graph G and k pairs of vertices (s_1,t_1), ..., (s_k,t_k), the k-Vertex-Disjoint Paths problem asks for pairwise vertex-disjoint paths P_1, ..., P_k such that P_i goes from s_i to t_i. Schrijver [SICOMP'94] proved that the…
We initiate the study of a fundamental combinatorial problem: Given a capacitated graph $G=(V,E)$, find a shortest walk ("route") from a source $s\in V$ to a destination $t\in V$ that includes all vertices specified by a set…
We develop two different methods to achieve subexponential time parameterized algorithms for problems on sparse directed graphs. We exemplify our approaches with two well studied problems. For the first problem, {\sc $k$-Leaf…
Paths P1,...,Pk in a graph G=(V,E) are said to be mutually induced if for any 1 <= i < j <= k, Pi and Pj have neither common vertices nor adjacent vertices (except perhaps their end-vertices). The Induced Disjoint Paths problem is to test…
Given a graph and a pair of terminals $s$, $t$, the next-to-shortest path problem asks for an $s\!\to \!t$ (simple) path that is shortest among all not shortest $s\!\to \!t$ paths (if one exists). This problem was introduced in 1996, and…
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)$, $1\le i\le k$, of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist $k$ vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k =…
In the Disjoint Paths problem, the input is an undirected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices and a set of $k$ vertex pairs, $\{s_i,t_i\}_{i=1}^k$, and the task is to find $k$ pairwise vertex-disjoint paths connecting $s_i$ to $t_i$. The problem was…
It is well-known and easy to show that even the following version of the directed travelling salesman problem is NP-complete: Given a strongly connected complete digraph $D=(V,A)$, a cost function $w: A\rightarrow \{0,1\}$ and a natural…
We study the version of the $k$-disjoint paths problem where $k$ demand pairs $(s_1,t_1)$, $\dots$, $(s_k,t_k)$ are specified in the input and the paths in the solution are allowed to intersect, but such that no vertex is on more than $c$…