Three results towards the approximation of special maximum matchings in graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complexity of approximating special maximum matchings in graphs, establishing NP-completeness results for certain decision problems and discussing approximation bounds for related parameters.

Contribution

It introduces the NP-completeness of a decision problem related to maximum matchings and analyzes approximation ratios for parameters ll(G) and L(G).

Findings

Decision problem is NP-complete for certain parameters.

Polynomial algorithms are 2-approximate for ll(G) and 1/2-approximate for L(G).

Inapproximability results are provided for ll(G) and L(G).

Abstract

For a graph $G$ define the parameters $\ell(G)$ and $L(G)$ as the minimum and maximum value of $\nu(G\backslash F)$, where $F$ is a maximum matching of $G$ and $\nu(G)$ is the matching number of $G$. In this paper, we show that there is a small constant $c>0$, such that the following decision problem is NP-complete: given a graph $G$ and $k\leq \frac{|V|}{2}$, check whether there is a maximum matching $F$ in $G$, such that $|\nu(G\backslash F)-k|\leq c\cdot |V|$. Note that when $c=1$, this problem is polynomial time solvable as we observe in the paper. Since in any graph $G$, we have $L(G)\leq 2\ell(G)$, any polynomial time algorithm constructing a maximum matching of a graph is a 2-approximation algorithm for $\ell(G)$ and $\frac{1}{2}$-approximation algorithm for $L(G)$. We complement these observations by presenting two inapproximability results for $\ell(G)$ and $L(G)$.