On the Descriptive Complexity of Vertex Deletion Problems

Vertex deletion problems for graphs are studied intensely in classical and parameterized complexity theory. They ask whether we can delete at most k vertices from an input graph such that the resulting graph has a certain property. Regarding k as the parameter, a dichotomy was recently shown based on the number of quantifier alternations of first-order formulas that describe the property. In this paper, we refine this classification by moving from quantifier alternations to individual quantifier patterns and from a dichotomy to a trichotomy, resulting in a complete classification of the complexity of vertex deletion problems based on their quantifier pattern. The more fine-grained approach uncovers new tractable fragments, which we show to not only lie in FPT, but even in parameterized constant-depth circuit complexity classes. On the other hand, we show that vertex deletion becomes intractable already for just one quantifier per alternation, that is, there is a formula of the form {\forall}x{\exists}y{\forall}z({\psi}), with {\psi} quantifier-free, for which the vertex deletion problem is W[1]-hard. The fine-grained analysis also allows us to uncover differences in the complexity landscape when we consider different kinds of graphs and more general structures: While basic graphs (undirected graphs without self-loops), undirected graphs, and directed graphs each have a different frontier of tractability, the frontier for arbitrary logical structures coincides with that of directed graphs.