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In this paper, we give an algorithm that, given an undirected graph G of m edges and an integer k, computes a graph G' and an integer k' in O(k^4 m) time such that (1) the size of the graph G' is O(k^2), (2) k' \leq k, and (3) G has a feedback vertex set of size at most k if and only if G' has a feedback vertex set of size at most k'. This is the first linear-time polynomial-size kernel for Feedback Vertex Set. The size of our kernel is 2k^2+k vertices and 4k^2 edges, which is smaller than the previous best of 4k^2 vertices and 8k^2 edges. Thus, we improve the size and the running time simultaneously. We note that under the assumption of NP \not\subseteq coNP/poly, Feedback Vertex Set does not admit an O(k^{2-\epsilon})-size kernel for any \epsilon>0.
Our kernel exploits k-submodular relaxation, which is a recently developed technique for obtaining efficient FPT algorithms for various problems. The dual of k-submodular relaxation of Feedback Vertex Set can be seen as a half-integral variant of A-path packing, and to obtain the linear-time complexity, we give an efficient augmenting-path algorithm for this problem. We believe that this combinatorial algorithm is of independent interest.
A solver based on the proposed method won first place in the 1st Parameterized Algorithms and Computational Experiments (PACE) challenge.
@InProceedings{iwata:LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.68,
author = {Iwata, Yoichi},
title = {{Linear-Time Kernelization for Feedback Vertex Set}},
booktitle = {44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017)},
pages = {68:1--68:14},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-041-5},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2017},
volume = {80},
editor = {Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Indyk, Piotr and Kuhn, Fabian and Muscholl, Anca},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.68},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-74301},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.68},
annote = {Keywords: FPT Algorithms, Kernelization, Path Packing, Half-integrality}
}