Related papers: Elementary first-order model checking for sparse g…

Frick and Grohe [J. ACM 48 (2006), 1184-1206] introduced a notion of graph classes with locally bounded tree-width and established that every first order logic property can be decided in almost linear time in such a graph class. Here, we…

We present a linear-time algorithm for deciding first-order (FO) properties in classes of graphs with bounded expansion, a notion recently introduced by Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez. This generalizes several results from the literature,…

Graph-modification problems, where we modify a graph by adding or deleting vertices or edges or contracting edges to obtain a graph in a {\it simpler} class, is a well-studied optimization problem in all algorithmic paradigms including…

The first-order (FO) model checking problem asks, given an FO sentence $\phi$ and a graph $G$, whether $G$ is a model of $\phi$. This problem is known to be $\mathsf{AW[*]}$-hard when parameterized by the quantifier rank of the formula. A…

A class of graphs is nowhere dense if for every integer r there is a finite upper bound on the size of cliques that occur as (topological) r-minors. We observe that this tameness notion from algorithmic graph theory is essentially the…

For any particular class of graphs, algorithms for computational problems restricted to the class often rely on structural properties that depend on the specific problem at hand. This begs the question if a large set of such results can be…

Nowhere dense classes of graphs are classes of sparse graphs with rich structural and algorithmic properties, however, they fail to capture even simple classes of dense graphs. Monadically stable classes, originating from model theory,…

We introduce regular graph constraints and explore their decidability properties. The motivation for regular graph constraints is 1) type checking of changing types of objects in the presence of linked data structures, 2) shape analysis…

Exact pattern matching in labeled graphs is the problem of searching paths of a graph $G=(V,E)$ that spell the same string as the pattern $P[1..m]$. This basic problem can be found at the heart of more complex operations on variation graphs…

Limits of graphs were initiated recently in the two extreme contexts of dense and bounded degree graphs. This led to elegant limiting structures called graphons and graphings. These approach have been unified and generalized by authors in a…

For any finite set $\mathcal{H} = \{H_1,\ldots,H_p\}$ of graphs, a graph is $\mathcal{H}$-subgraph-free if it does not contain any of $H_1,\ldots,H_p$ as a subgraph. In recent work, meta-classifications have been studied: these show that if…

We introduce the concept of a class of graphs, or more generally, relational structures, being locally tree-decomposable. There are numerous examples of locally tree-decomposable classes, among them the class of planar graphs and all…

The independence number of a tree decomposition is the size of a largest independent set contained in a single bag. The tree-independence number of a graph $G$ is the minimum independence number of a tree decomposition of $G$. As shown…

Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez introduced the notion of first order convergence as an attempt to unify the notions of convergence for sparse and dense graphs. It is known that there exist first order convergent sequences of graphs with no…

The computational complexity of the graph isomorphism problem is considered to be a major open problem in theoretical computer science. It is known that testing isomorphism of chordal graphs is polynomial-time equivalent to the general…

The causal graph of a planning instance is an important tool for planning both in practice and in theory. The theoretical studies of causal graphs have largely analysed the computational complexity of planning for instances where the causal…

For some geometric graph classes, tractability of testing first-order formulas is precisely characterised by the graph parameter twin-width. This was first proved for interval graphs among others in [BCKKLT, IPEC '22], where the equivalence…

Tree decompositions of graphs are of fundamental importance in structural and algorithmic graph theory. Planar decompositions generalise tree decompositions by allowing an arbitrary planar graph to index the decomposition. We prove that…

Constructing a spanning tree of a graph is one of the most basic tasks in graph theory. We consider a relaxed version of this problem in the setting of local algorithms. The relaxation is that the constructed subgraph is a sparse spanning…

Let $\mathcal{Q}$ be a vertex subset problem on graphs. In a reconfiguration variant of $\mathcal{Q}$ we are given a graph $G$ and two feasible solutions $S_s, S_t\subseteq V(G)$ of $\mathcal{Q}$ with $|S_s|=|S_t|=k$. The problem is to…