Unified almost linear kernels for generalized covering and packing problems on nowhere dense classes

TL;DR

This paper introduces almost linear kernels for generalized covering and packing problems on nowhere dense graph classes, extending previous kernelization results to broader classes of problems and graphs.

Contribution

It provides the first almost linear kernels for these problems on nowhere dense classes, with linear kernels on classes with bounded expansion, generalizing prior work.

Findings

Almost linear kernels for covering and packing problems on nowhere dense classes.

Linear kernels for these problems on classes with bounded expansion.

Extensions of previous kernelization results for distance-based problems.

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a family of graphs, and let $p,r$ be nonnegative integers. The \textsc{$(p,r,\mathcal{F})$-Covering} problem asks whether for a graph $G$ and an integer $k$, there exists a set $D$ of at most $k$ vertices in $G$ such that $G^p\setminus N_G^r[D]$ has no induced subgraph isomorphic to a graph in $\mathcal{F}$, where $G^p$ is the $p$-th power of $G$. The \textsc{$(p,r,\mathcal{F})$-Packing} problem asks whether for a graph $G$ and an integer $k$, $G^p$ has $k$ induced subgraphs $H_1,\ldots,H_k$ such that each $H_i$ is isomorphic to a graph in $\mathcal{F}$, and for distinct $i,j\in \{1, \ldots, k\}$, the distance between $V(H_i)$ and $V(H_j)$ in $G$ is larger than $r$. We show that for every fixed nonnegative integers $p,r$ and every fixed nonempty finite family $\mathcal{F}$ of connected graphs, the \textsc{$(p,r,\mathcal{F})$-Covering} problem with $p\leq2r+1$ and the \textsc{$(p,r,\mathcal{F})$-Packing} problem with $p\leq2\lfloor r/2\rfloor+1$ admit almost linear kernels on every nowhere dense class of graphs, and admit linear kernels on every class of graphs with bounded expansion, parameterized by the solution size $k$. We obtain the same kernels for their annotated variants. As corollaries, we prove that \textsc{Distance-$r$ Vertex Cover}, \textsc{Distance-$r$ Matching}, \textsc{$\mathcal{F}$-Free Vertex Deletion}, and \textsc{Induced-$\mathcal{F}$-Packing} for any fixed finite family $\mathcal{F}$ of connected graphs admit almost linear kernels on every nowhere dense class of graphs and linear kernels on every class of graphs with bounded expansion. Our results extend the results for \textsc{Distance-$r$ Dominating Set} by Drange et al. (STACS 2016) and Eickmeyer et al. (ICALP 2017), and the result for \textsc{Distance-$r$ Independent Set} by Pilipczuk and Siebertz (EJC 2021).