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In this paper, we study the NP-complete colorful variant of the classical Matching problem, namely, the Rainbow Matching problem. Given an edge-colored graph G and a positive integer k, this problem asks whether there exists a matching of size at least k such that all the edges in the matching have distinct colors. We first develop a deterministic algorithm that solves Rainbow Matching on paths in time O*(((1+\sqrt{5})/2)^k) and polynomial space. This algorithm is based on a curious combination of the method of bounded search trees and a "divide-and-conquer-like" approach, where the branching process is guided by the maintenance of an auxiliary bipartite graph where one side captures "divided-and-conquered" pieces of the path. Our second result is a randomized algorithm that solves Rainbow Matching on general graphs in time O*(2^k) and polynomial space. Here, we show how a result by Björklund et al. [JCSS, 2017] can be invoked as a black box, wrapped by a probability-based analysis tailored to our problem. We also complement our two main results by designing kernels for Rainbow Matching on general and bounded-degree graphs.
@InProceedings{gupta_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.71,
author = {Gupta, Sushmita and Roy, Sanjukta and Saurabh, Saket and Zehavi, Meirav},
title = {{Parameterized Algorithms and Kernels for Rainbow Matching}},
booktitle = {42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)},
pages = {71:1--71:13},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-046-0},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2017},
volume = {83},
editor = {Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean-Francois},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.71},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-81245},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.71},
annote = {Keywords: Rainbow Matching, Parameterized Algorithm, Bounded Search Trees, Divide-and-Conquer, 3-Set Packing, 3-Dimensional Matching}
}