A Multivariate Framework for Weighted FPT Algorithms

TL;DR

This paper presents a multivariate framework that significantly improves the efficiency of algorithms for weighted graph problems by leveraging the minimum solution size, achieving near-unweighted running times.

Contribution

The authors introduce a novel multivariate approach that refines weighted parameterized algorithms, reducing their running times to depend on the minimal solution size rather than the weight parameter.

Findings

Improved algorithms for weighted Vertex Cover, 3-Hitting Set, Edge Dominating Set, and Max Internal Out-Branching.

Running times depend on the minimal solution size s, often much smaller than W.

Algorithms match the efficiency of unweighted variants for weighted problems.

Abstract

We introduce a novel multivariate approach for solving weighted parameterized problems. In our model, given an instance of size $n$ of a minimization (maximization) problem, and a parameter $W \geq 1$, we seek a solution of weight at most (or at least) $W$. We use our general framework to obtain efficient algorithms for such fundamental graph problems as Vertex Cover, 3-Hitting Set, Edge Dominating Set and Max Internal Out-Branching. The best known algorithms for these problems admit running times of the form $c^W n^{O(1)}$, for some constant $c>1$. We improve these running times to $c^s n^{O(1)}$, where $s\leq W$ is the minimum size of a solution of weight at most (at least) $W$. If no such solution exists, $s=\min\{W,m\}$, where $m$ is the maximum size of a solution. Clearly, $s$ can be substantially smaller than $W$. In particular, the running times of our algorithms are (almost) the same as the best known $O^*$ running times for the unweighted variants. Thus, we solve the weighted versions of * Vertex Cover in $1.381^s n^{O(1)}$ time and $n^{O(1)}$ space. * 3-Hitting Set in $2.168^s n^{O(1)}$ time and $n^{O(1)}$ space. * Edge Dominating Set in $2.315^s n^{O(1)}$ time and $n^{O(1)}$ space. * Max Internal Out-Branching in $6.855^s n^{O(1)}$ time and space. We further show that Weighted Vertex Cover and Weighted Edge Dominating Set admit fast algorithms whose running times are of the form $c^t n^{O(1)}$, where $t \leq s$ is the minimum size of a solution.