19 Search Results for "Thomson, Paul"

Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.1
Query Languages for Machine-Learning Models (Invited Talk)

Authors: Martin Grohe

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)

Abstract
In my invited talk and this accompanying paper, I discuss two logics for weighted finite structures: first-order logic with summation (FO(SUM)) and its recursive extension IFP(SUM). These logics originate from foundational work by Grädel, Gurevich, and Meer in the 1990s. In recent joint work with Standke, Steegmans, and Van den Bussche, we have investigated these logics as query languages for machine learning models, specifically neural networks, which are naturally represented as weighted graphs. I present illustrative examples of queries to neural networks that can be expressed in these logics and discuss fundamental results on their expressiveness and computational complexity.
Cite as

Martin Grohe. Query Languages for Machine-Learning Models (Invited Talk). In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 1:1-1:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{grohe:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.1,
  author =	{Grohe, Martin},
  title =	{{Query Languages for Machine-Learning Models}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254904},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Expressive power of query languages, fixed-point logics, weighted structures, neural networks, explainable AI}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.41
Simultaneously Fair Allocation of Indivisible Items Across Multiple Dimensions

Authors: Yasushi Kawase, Bodhayan Roy, and Mohammad Azharuddin Sanpui

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)

Abstract
This paper explores the fair allocation of indivisible items in a multidimensional setting, motivated by the need to address fairness in complex environments where agents assess bundles according to multiple criteria. Such multidimensional settings are not merely of theoretical interest but are central to many real-world applications. For example, cloud computing resources are evaluated based on multiple criteria such as CPU cores, memory, and network bandwidth. In such cases, traditional one-dimensional fairness notions fail to capture fairness across multiple attributes. To address these challenges, we study two relaxed variants of envy-freeness: weak simultaneously envy-free up to c goods (weak sEFc) and strong simultaneously envy-free up to c goods (strong sEFc), which accommodate the multidimensionality of agents’ preferences. Under the weak notion, for every pair of agents and for each dimension, any perceived envy can be eliminated by removing, if necessary, a different set of goods from the envied agent’s allocation. In contrast, the strong version requires selecting a single set of goods whose removal from the envied bundle simultaneously eliminates envy in every dimension. We provide upper and lower bounds on the relaxation parameter c that guarantee the existence of weak or strong sEFc allocations, where these bounds are independent of the total number of items. In addition, we present algorithms for checking whether a weak or strong sEFc allocation exists. Moreover, we establish NP-hardness results for checking the existence of weak sEF1 and strong sEF1 allocations.
Cite as

Yasushi Kawase, Bodhayan Roy, and Mohammad Azharuddin Sanpui. Simultaneously Fair Allocation of Indivisible Items Across Multiple Dimensions. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 41:1-41:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{kawase_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.41,
  author =	{Kawase, Yasushi and Roy, Bodhayan and Sanpui, Mohammad Azharuddin},
  title =	{{Simultaneously Fair Allocation of Indivisible Items Across Multiple Dimensions}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{41:1--41:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.41},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251210},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.41},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fair allocation, Envy-free up to one good, Multi-dimensional criteria, Linear programming, NP-hardness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.GD.2025.9
The Page Number of Monotone Directed Acyclic Outerplanar Graphs Is Four or Five

Authors: Jawaherul Md. Alam, Michael A. Bekos, Martin Gronemann, and Michael Kaufmann

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 357, 33rd International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2025)

Abstract
A k-page book embedding of a directed acyclic graph consists of a topological order of its vertices and a k-coloring of its edges, such that no two edges of the same color cross, that is, their endpoints do not alternate in the order. The minimum value of k for which such an embedding exists is referred to as the page number of the graph. In contrast to general directed acyclic planar graphs, which may have unbounded page number [SIAM J. Comput. 28(5), 1999], it was recently shown that directed acyclic outerplanar graphs have bounded page number. In particular, Jungeblut, Merker and Ueckerdt provided an upper bound of 24,776 on their page number [FOCS 2023: 1937-1952]. In this work, we focus on so-called monotone directed acyclic outerplanar graphs. Starting from a single edge, these graphs are constructed by iteratively connecting a new vertex to the endpoints of an existing edge on the outer face using either two incoming or two outgoing edges incident to it. These graphs have twist-number 4 [GD 2023: 135-151] (i.e., they admit a topological order in which no more than four edges pairwise cross), a property, which was leveraged by Jungeblut, Merker and Ueckerdt to show that their page number is at most 128. We lower this upper bound to 5 and we also provide a lower bound of 4. A notable consequence of our result is a significant improvement of the upper bound on the page number of general directed outerplanar graphs from 24,776 to 1,160.
Cite as

Jawaherul Md. Alam, Michael A. Bekos, Martin Gronemann, and Michael Kaufmann. The Page Number of Monotone Directed Acyclic Outerplanar Graphs Is Four or Five. In 33rd International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 357, pp. 9:1-9:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{alam_et_al:LIPIcs.GD.2025.9,
  author =	{Alam, Jawaherul Md. and Bekos, Michael A. and Gronemann, Martin and Kaufmann, Michael},
  title =	{{The Page Number of Monotone Directed Acyclic Outerplanar Graphs Is Four or Five}},
  booktitle =	{33rd International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2025)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-403-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{357},
  editor =	{Dujmovi\'{c}, Vida and Montecchiani, Fabrizio},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.GD.2025.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249952},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.GD.2025.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Book embeddings, page number, directed outerplanar graphs}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.59
Testing Tensor Products of Algebraic Codes

Authors: Sumegha Garg, Madhu Sudan, and Gabriel Wu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract
Motivated by recent advances in locally testable codes and quantum LDPCs based on robust testability of tensor product codes, we explore the local testability of tensor products of (an abstraction of) algebraic geometry codes. Such codes are parameterized by, in addition to standard parameters such as block length n and dimension k, their genus g. We show that the tensor product of two algebraic geometry codes is robustly locally testable provided n = Ω((k+g)²). Apart from Reed-Solomon codes, this seems to be the first explicit family of two-wise tensor codes of high dual distance that is robustly locally testable by the natural test that measures the expected distance of a random row/column from the underlying code.
Cite as

Sumegha Garg, Madhu Sudan, and Gabriel Wu. Testing Tensor Products of Algebraic Codes. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 59:1-59:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{garg_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.59,
  author =	{Garg, Sumegha and Sudan, Madhu and Wu, Gabriel},
  title =	{{Testing Tensor Products of Algebraic Codes}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{59:1--59:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.59},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244254},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.59},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algebraic geometry codes, Robust testability, Tensor products of codes}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.6
MetaDORAM: Info-Theoretic Distributed ORAM with Less Communication

Authors: Brett Hemenway Falk, Daniel Noble, and Rafail Ostrovsky

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 343, 6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2025)

Abstract
A Distributed Oblivious RAM is a multi-party protocol that securely implements a RAM functionality on secret-shared inputs and outputs. This paper presents two information-theoretically secure DORAMs whose communication costs are asymptotic improvements over the state of the art. Let n be the number of memory locations and let d be the bit-length of each location. The first, MetaDORAM1, is statistically secure, with n^{-ω(1)} leakage. It has amortized O(log_b(n) d + b ω(1) log(n) + log³(n)/log(log(n))) bits of communication per memory access. Here, b ≥ 2 is a free parameter and ω(1) is any super-constant function (in n). The most communication-efficient prior statistically secure DORAM was that of Abraham et al (PKC 2017), which has cost O(log_b(n) d + b ω(1) log_b(n) log²(n)). MetaDORAM1 is a Θ(ω(1) log(log(n)))-factor improvement over the work of Abraham et al whenever d = O(log²(n)). The second protocol, MetaDORAM2, achieves perfect security. It has amortized communication cost O(log_b(n)d + b log(n) + log³(n)/log(log(n))) where, again, b ≥ 2 is a free parameter. The best prior perfectly secure DORAM is that of Chan et al (ASIACRYPT 2018) which has communication cost O(log(n) d + log³(n)). MetaDORAM2 is therefore a Ω(log(log(n)))-factor improvement over the DORAM of Chan et al under any parameter range (by setting b = log(n)) and is a Θ(log(n))-factor improvement for d = Ω(n^ε) for any constant ε > 0 (by setting b = d/log(n)). Our work is the first perfectly secure DORAM with sub-logarithmic communication overhead. MetaDORAM2 comes at the cost of a once-off (for any given n) setup phase which requires exponential (in n) computation. Both DORAMs are in the 3-party setting with security against 1 semi-honest, static corruption. By a trivial transformation, these can be transformed, respectively, into statistically and perfectly secure active 3-server ORAM protocols secure against 1 corrupt server, with the same communication costs. These multi-server ORAM protocols are likewise asymptotic improvements over the state of the art.
Cite as

Brett Hemenway Falk, Daniel Noble, and Rafail Ostrovsky. MetaDORAM: Info-Theoretic Distributed ORAM with Less Communication. In 6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 343, pp. 6:1-6:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{falk_et_al:LIPIcs.ITC.2025.6,
  author =	{Falk, Brett Hemenway and Noble, Daniel and Ostrovsky, Rafail},
  title =	{{MetaDORAM: Info-Theoretic Distributed ORAM with Less Communication}},
  booktitle =	{6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2025)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-385-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{343},
  editor =	{Gilboa, Niv},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243560},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: ORAM, MPC, DORAM, multi-server ORAM, active ORAM}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.8
On the Definition of Malicious Private Information Retrieval

Authors: Bar Alon and Amos Beimel

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 343, 6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2025)

Abstract
A multi-server private information retrieval (PIR) protocol allows a client to obtain an entry of its choice from a database, held by one or more servers, while hiding the identity of the entry from small enough coalitions of servers. In this paper, we study PIR protocols in which some of the servers are malicious and may not send messages according to the pre-described protocol. In previous papers, such protocols were defined by requiring that they are correct, private, and robust to malicious servers, i.e., by listing 3 properties that they should satisfy. However, 40 years of experience in studying secure multiparty protocols taught us that defining the security of protocols by a list of required properties is problematic. In this paper, we rectify this situation and define the security of PIR protocols with malicious servers using the real vs. ideal paradigm. We study the relationship between the property-based definition of PIR protocols and the real vs. ideal definition, showing the following results: - We prove that if we require full security from PIR protocols, e.g., the client outputs the correct value of the database entry with high probability even if a minority of the servers are malicious, then the two definitions are equivalent. This implies that constructions of such protocols that were proven secure using the property-based definition are actually secure under the "correct" definition of security. - We show that if we require security-with-abort from PIR protocols (called PIR protocols with error-detection in previous papers), i.e., protocols in which the user either outputs the correct value or an abort symbol, then there are protocols that are secure under the property-based definition; however, they do not satisfy the real vs. ideal definition, that is, they can be attacked allowing selective abort. This shows that the property-based definition of PIR protocols with security-with-abort is problematic. - We consider the compiler of Eriguchi et al. (TCC 22) that starts with a PIR protocol that is secure against semi-honest servers and constructs a PIR protocol with security-with-abort; this compiler implies the best-known PIR protocols with security-with-abort. We show that applying this compiler does not result in PIR protocols that are secure according to the real vs. ideal definition. However, we prove that a simple modification of this compiler results in PIR protocols that are secure according to the real vs. ideal definition.
Cite as

Bar Alon and Amos Beimel. On the Definition of Malicious Private Information Retrieval. In 6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 343, pp. 8:1-8:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{alon_et_al:LIPIcs.ITC.2025.8,
  author =	{Alon, Bar and Beimel, Amos},
  title =	{{On the Definition of Malicious Private Information Retrieval}},
  booktitle =	{6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2025)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-385-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{343},
  editor =	{Gilboa, Niv},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243581},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Private information retrieval, secure multiparty computation}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.29
Linear Layouts of Graphs with Priority Queues

Authors: Emilio Di Giacomo, Walter Didimo, Henry Förster, Torsten Ueckerdt, and Johannes Zink

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 349, 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)

Abstract
A linear layout of a graph consists of a linear ordering of its vertices and a partition of its edges into pages such that the edges assigned to the same page obey some constraint. The two most prominent and widely studied types of linear layouts are stack and queue layouts, in which any two edges assigned to the same page are forbidden to cross and nest, respectively. The names of these two layouts derive from the fact that, when parsing the graph according to the linear vertex ordering, the edges in a single page can be stored using a single stack or queue, respectively. Recently, the concepts of stack and queue layouts have been extended by using a double-ended queue or a restricted-input queue for storing the edges of a page. We extend this line of study to edge-weighted graphs by introducing priority queue layouts, that is, the edges on each page are stored in a priority queue whose keys are the edge weights. First, we show that there are edge-weighted graphs that require a linear number of priority queues. Second, we characterize the graphs that admit a priority queue layout with a single queue, regardless of the edge-weight function, and we provide an efficient recognition algorithm. Third, we show that the number of priority queues required independently of the edge-weight function is bounded by the pathwidth of the graph, but can be arbitrarily large already for graphs of treewidth two. Finally, we prove that determining the minimum number of priority queues is NP-complete if the linear ordering of the vertices is fixed.
Cite as

Emilio Di Giacomo, Walter Didimo, Henry Förster, Torsten Ueckerdt, and Johannes Zink. Linear Layouts of Graphs with Priority Queues. In 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 349, pp. 29:1-29:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{digiacomo_et_al:LIPIcs.WADS.2025.29,
  author =	{Di Giacomo, Emilio and Didimo, Walter and F\"{o}rster, Henry and Ueckerdt, Torsten and Zink, Johannes},
  title =	{{Linear Layouts of Graphs with Priority Queues}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)},
  pages =	{29:1--29:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-398-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{349},
  editor =	{Morin, Pat and Oh, Eunjin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.29},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242602},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.29},
  annote =	{Keywords: linear layouts, recognition and characterization, priority queue layouts}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.93
Improved Approximation Algorithms for Capacitated Vehicle Routing with Fixed Capacity

Authors: Jingyang Zhao and Mingyu Xiao

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)

Abstract
The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) is one of the most extensively studied problems in combinatorial optimization. Based on customer demand, we distinguish three variants of CVRP: unit-demand, splittable, and unsplittable. In this paper, we consider k-CVRP in general metrics and on general graphs, where k is the vehicle capacity. All three versions are APX-hard for any fixed k ≥ 3. Assume that the approximation ratio of metric TSP is 3/2. We present a (5/2 - Θ(√{1/k}))-approximation algorithm for the splittable and unit-demand cases, and a (5/2 + ln 2 - Θ(√{1/k}))-approximation algorithm for the unsplittable case. Our approximation ratio is better than the previous results when k is less than a sufficiently large value, approximately 1.7 x 10⁷. For small values of k, we design independent and elegant algorithms with further improvements. For the splittable and unit-demand cases, we improve the approximation ratio from 1.792 to 1.500 for k = 3, and from 1.750 to 1.500 for k = 4. For the unsplittable case, we improve the approximation ratio from 1.792 to 1.500 for k = 3, from 2.051 to 1.750 for k = 4, and from 2.249 to 2.157 for k = 5. The approximation ratio for k = 3 surprisingly achieves the same value as in the splittable case. Our techniques, such as EX-ITP - an extension of the classic ITP method, have the potential to improve algorithms for other routing problems as well.
Cite as

Jingyang Zhao and Mingyu Xiao. Improved Approximation Algorithms for Capacitated Vehicle Routing with Fixed Capacity. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 93:1-93:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{zhao_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.93,
  author =	{Zhao, Jingyang and Xiao, Mingyu},
  title =	{{Improved Approximation Algorithms for Capacitated Vehicle Routing with Fixed Capacity}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{93:1--93:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.93},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242008},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.93},
  annote =	{Keywords: Combinatorial Optimization, Capacitated Vehicle Routing, Approximation Algorithms, Graph Algorithms}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.2
We Are What We Index; a Primer for the Wheeler Graph Era (Invited Talk)

Authors: Ben Langmead

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 344, 25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025)

Abstract
Since the arrival of second-generation sequencing, we have needed to build indexes over reference sequences - e.g. genomes and transcriptomes - in order to solve read alignment and classification problems efficiently [Langmead et al., 2009; Li and Durbin, 2009; Li et al., 2009]. The rule has been: what we can index determines what we can do. When indexing strings, we can use methods like suffix arrays [Manber and Myers, 1993], the Burrows-Wheeler Transform (BWT) [Burrows and Wheeler, 1994] / FM Index [Ferragina and Manzini, 2000], or k-mer indexes [Marchet et al., 2021]. What if we want to index objects more complex than strings? A pangenome, for example, is a large collection of similar strings, e.g. the hundreds of assemblies that make up the Human Pangenome Reference [Liao et al., 2023] or all the bacteria in the Refseq database [Goldfarb et al., 2025]. We may wish to combine these strings into a multiple sequence alignment (MSA) or a graph first. Can we index those efficiently? In many useful cases the answer is "yes," but in others the answer is "no." The story of how we learned exactly when the answer is "yes" versus "no" unfolded through a sequence of insights. Here we review this story, eventually arriving at the definition of Wheeler graphs as discovered and formalized by Gagie, Manzini and Sirén [Gagie et al., 2017]. We will focus on indexes based on the BWT, since these (a) are lossless full-text indexes, (b) are widely used in practice [Langmead et al., 2009; Li and Durbin, 2009], and (c) form the theoretical throughline for all the indexing strategies on the path to Wheeler graphs. We will trace the BWT-based indexing story from the early days of the FM Index, though its step-by-step gobbling up of trees (XBW-transform [Ferragina et al., 2005]) and de Bruijn Graphs (BOSS representation [Bowe et al., 2012]), and to the eventual formalization of Wheeler graphs [Gagie et al., 2017]. Along the way, we will define and update our notions of what it means to track a consecutive range of elements in the structure, and what it means for an index to be efficient. We will also connect these notions to automata [Sipser, 1996], noting how the indexability of Wheeler graphs (also called Wheeler automata) is connected to the mechanics of how to efficiently represent and simulate a finite automaton [Alanko et al., 2021]. With this context, we can imagine improved indexes for the future of genomics and pangenomics. De Bruijn are extremely practical and are the most widely used among the non-string data structures that are also Wheeler graphs. But we might prefer other options. For example, de Bruijn graphs have the undesirable property that they usually encode not only the true longer-than-k substrings of the original text, but also "false" substrings that span repeats. Related to this, paths through the de Bruijn graph can "glue" substrings together that are horizontally distant in the MSA. Could other Wheeler graphs be practical alternatives to de Bruijn graphs? For instance, the original GCSA study by Sirén, Välimäki and Mäkinen proposed a way to convert a multiple alignment into an automaton that either is a Wheeler graph or can be made into one [Sirén et al., 2014]. This warrants further exploration, possibly with the help of improved tools for solving the NP-complete problem of recognizing whether a graph is a Wheeler graph [Chao et al., 2023]. The notion of BWT tunnels [Baier, 2018] gives another route: we can begin with a concatenated pangenome strings and compress it by identifying and collapsing BWT tunnels. This yields a Wheeler graph that is compressed like the de Bruijn graph, but without departing from the exact contents or coordinate systems of the original genomes. The future might need us to explore all these Wheeler-graph indexes, along with the also highly practical and always-improving world of indexes buiover collections of strings [Gagie et al., 2018].
Cite as

Ben Langmead. We Are What We Index; a Primer for the Wheeler Graph Era (Invited Talk). In 25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 344, pp. 2:1-2:2, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{langmead:LIPIcs.WABI.2025.2,
  author =	{Langmead, Ben},
  title =	{{We Are What We Index; a Primer for the Wheeler Graph Era}},
  booktitle =	{25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:2},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-386-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{344},
  editor =	{Brejov\'{a}, Bro\v{n}a and Patro, Rob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-239288},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Indexing, Burrows-Wheeler Transform}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.6
Fast Pseudoalignment Queries on Compressed Colored de Bruijn Graphs

Authors: Alessio Campanelli, Giulio Ermanno Pibiri, and Rob Patro

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 344, 25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025)

Abstract
Motivation. Indexes for the colored de Bruijn graph (c-dBG) play a crucial role in computational biology by facilitating complex tasks such as read mapping and assembly. These indexes map k-mers (substrings of length k) appearing in a large collection of reference strings to the set of identifiers of the strings where they appear. These sets, colloquially referred to as color sets, tend to occupy large quantities of memory, especially for large pangenomes. Our previous work thus focused on leveraging the repetitiveness of the color sets to improve the space effectiveness of the resulting index. As a matter of fact, repetition-aware indexes can be up to one order of magnitude smaller on large pangenomes compared to indexes that do not exploit such repetitiveness. Such improved space effectiveness, on the other hand, imposes an overhead at query time when performing tasks such as pseudoalignment that require the collection and processing of multiple related color sets. Methods. In this paper, we show how to avoid this overhead. We devise novel query algorithms tailored for the specific repetition-aware representations adopted by the Fulgor index, a state-of-the-art c-dBG index, to significantly improve its pseudoalignment efficiency and without consuming additional space. Results. Our results indicate that with increasing redundancy in the pangenomes, the compression factor provided by the Fulgor index increases, while the relative query time actually reduces. For example, while the space of the Fulgor index improves by 2.5× with repetition-aware compression and its query time improves by 1.6× on a collection of 5,000 Salmonella Enterica genomes, these factors become (6.1×,2.8×) and (11.2×,3.2×) for 50,000 and 150,000 genomes respectively. For an even larger collection of 300,000 genomes, we obtained an index that is 22.3× smaller and 2.2× faster.
Cite as

Alessio Campanelli, Giulio Ermanno Pibiri, and Rob Patro. Fast Pseudoalignment Queries on Compressed Colored de Bruijn Graphs. In 25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 344, pp. 6:1-6:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{campanelli_et_al:LIPIcs.WABI.2025.6,
  author =	{Campanelli, Alessio and Pibiri, Giulio Ermanno and Patro, Rob},
  title =	{{Fast Pseudoalignment Queries on Compressed Colored de Bruijn Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{25th International Conference on Algorithms for Bioinformatics (WABI 2025)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-386-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{344},
  editor =	{Brejov\'{a}, Bro\v{n}a and Patro, Rob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-239327},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WABI.2025.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Colored de Bruijn graphs, Pseudoalignment, Repetition-aware compression}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.27
Minimum+1 Steiner Cut and Dual Edge Sensitivity Oracle: Bridging Gap between Global and (s,t)-cut

Authors: Koustav Bhanja

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
Let G = (V,E) be an undirected multi-graph on n = |V| vertices and S ⊆ V be a Steiner set in G. Steiner cut is a fundamental concept; moreover, global cut (|S| = n), as well as (s,t)-cut (|S| = 2), is just a special case of Steiner cut. We study Steiner cuts of capacity minimum+1, and as an important application, we provide a dual edge Sensitivity Oracle for Steiner mincut - a compact data structure for efficiently reporting a Steiner mincut after failure/insertion of any pair of edges. A compact data structure for cuts of capacity minimum+1 has been designed for both global cuts [Dinitz and Nutov, STOC 1995] and (s,t)-cuts [Baswana, Bhanja, and Pandey, ICALP 2022 & TALG 2023]. Moreover, both data structures are also used crucially to design a dual edge Sensitivity Oracle for their respective mincuts. Unfortunately, except for these two extreme scenarios of Steiner cuts, no generalization of these results is known. Therefore, to address this gap, we present the following first results on Steiner cuts for any S satisfying 2 ≤ |S| ≤ n. 1) Data Structure for Minimum+1 Steiner Cut: There is an {O}(n(n-|S|+1)) space data structure that, given any pair of vertices u,v, can determine in {O}(1) time whether the Steiner cut of the least capacity separating u and v has capacity minimum+1. It can report such a cut, if it exists, in {O}(n) time, which is worst-case optimal. 2) Dual Edge Sensitivity Oracle: We design the following pair of data structures. (a) There is an {O}(n(n-|S|+1)) space data structure that, after the failure or insertion of any pair of edges in G, can report the capacity of Steiner mincut in {O}(1) time and a Steiner mincut in {O}(n) time, which is worst-case optimal. (b) If we are interested in reporting only the capacity of Steiner mincut, there is a more compact data structure that occupies {O}((n-|S|)²+n) space and can report the capacity of Steiner mincut in {O}(1) time after the failure or insertion of any pair of edges. 3) Lower Bound for Sensitivity Oracle: For undirected multi-graphs, for any Steiner set S ⊆ V, any data structure that, after the failure or insertion of any pair of edges, can report the capacity of Steiner mincut must occupy Ω((n-|S|)²) bits of space in the worst case, irrespective of the query time. To arrive at our results, we provide several techniques, especially a generalization of the 3-Star Lemma given by Dinitz and Vainshtein [SICOMP 2000], which is of independent interest. Our results achieve the same space and time bounds of the existing results for the two extreme scenarios of Steiner cuts - global and (s,t)-cut. In addition, the space occupied by our data structures in (1) and (2) reduces as |S| tends to n. Also, they occupy subquadratic space if |S| is close to n.
Cite as

Koustav Bhanja. Minimum+1 Steiner Cut and Dual Edge Sensitivity Oracle: Bridging Gap between Global and (s,t)-cut. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 27:1-27:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{bhanja:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.27,
  author =	{Bhanja, Koustav},
  title =	{{Minimum+1 Steiner Cut and Dual Edge Sensitivity Oracle: Bridging Gap between Global and (s,t)-cut}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234040},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: cut, mincut, minimum+1, steiner, edge fault, sensitivity oracle, dual edges}
}
Document
Experience Paper
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39
WebGlitch: A Randomised Testing Tool for the WebGPU API (Experience Paper)

Authors: Matthew K. L. Wong and Alastair F. Donaldson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
We report on our experience designing a new technique and tool for fuzzing implementations of WebGPU, a W3C standard JavaScript API for in-browser GPU computing. We also report on our experience using our WebGlitch tool to test industrial-strength implementations of WebGPU, leading to the discovery of numerous bugs. WebGPU enables programmatic access to a device’s graphics processing unit (GPU) for in-browser GPU computing, and is being implemented by Google, Mozilla and Apple for inclusion in all of the major web browsers. Guaranteeing the security and reliability of WebGPU is crucial to avoid wide-reaching browser security vulnerabilities and to facilitate portability by ensuring uniform behaviour across different platforms. To that end - inspired by randomised compiler testing techniques - our approach to fuzzing creates random, valid-by-construction programs by continuously selecting a WebGPU API function, then recursively generating all requirements necessary for that API call to be valid based on careful modelling of the API specification. This is implemented as a new open source tool, WebGlitch, which we designed in consultation with engineers at Google who work on the Chrome WebGPU implementation. WebGlitch identifies bugs through sanitiser-boosted crash oracles, differential testing, and by identifying cases where valid-by-construction API calls lead to runtime errors. We present an evaluation showing that WebGlitch can find bugs missed by an existing WebGPU fuzzer, wg-fuzz, and across the broader WebGPU ecosystem: to date, WebGlitch has found 24 previously-unknown bugs (15 fixed so far in response to our reports). Among these, 17 bugs affected WebGPU implementations from Google, Mozilla, and the Deno project. WebGlitch found an additional 4 bugs in the shader compilers used by the graphics APIs that WebGPU interfaces with. The remaining 3 bugs affect the widely-used JavaScript runtimes Node.js and Deno. Fuzzing with WebGlitch also led us to identify an ambiguity in the specification of the WebGPU shading language, for which we proposed an amendment that was accepted by W3C and which has been adopted in the latest version of the specification. Analysing the line coverage of a WebGPU implementation by WebGlitch-generated programs revealed that WebGlitch covers code missed by wg-fuzz and the official conformance test suite. Our hope is that this report on the design of WebGlitch and its deployment in practice will be useful for practitioners and researchers interested in using API fuzzing to improve the reliability of industrial codebases.
Cite as

Matthew K. L. Wong and Alastair F. Donaldson. WebGlitch: A Randomised Testing Tool for the WebGPU API (Experience Paper). In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 39:1-39:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{wong_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39,
  author =	{Wong, Matthew K. L. and Donaldson, Alastair F.},
  title =	{{WebGlitch: A Randomised Testing Tool for the WebGPU API}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233313},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fuzzing, WebGPU, WGSL, API, shaders}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13
FuzzFlesh: Randomised Testing of Decompilers via Control Flow Graph-Based Program Generation

Authors: Amber Gorzynski and Alastair F. Donaldson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
Decompilation is the process of translating compiled code into high-level code. Control flow recovery is a challenging part of the process. "Misdecompilations" can occur, whereby the decompiled code does not accurately represent the semantics of the compiled code, despite it being syntactically valid. This is problematic because it can mislead users who are trying to reason about the program. We present CFG-based program generation: a novel approach to randomised testing that aims to improve the control flow recovery of decompilers. CFG-based program generation involves randomly generating control flow graphs (CFGs) and paths through each graph. Inspired by prior work in the domain of GPU computing, (CFG, path) pairs are "fleshed" into test programs. Each program is decompiled and recompiled. The test oracle verifies whether the actual runtime path through the graph matches the expected path. Any difference in the execution paths after recompilation indicates a possible misdecompilation. A key benefit of this approach is that it is largely independent of the source and target languages in question because it is focused on control flow. The approach is therefore applicable to numerous decompilation settings. The trade-off resulting from the focus on control flow is that misdecompilation bugs that do not relate to control flow (e.g. bugs that involve specific arithmetic operations) are out of scope. We have implemented this approach in FuzzFlesh, an open-source randomised testing tool. FuzzFlesh can be easily configured to target a variety of low-level languages and decompiler toolchains because most of the CFG and path generation process is language-independent. At present, FuzzFlesh supports testing decompilation of Java bytecode, .NET assembly and x86 machine code. In addition to program generation, FuzzFlesh also includes an automated test-case reducer that operates on the CFG rather than the low-level program, which means that it can be applied to any of the target languages. We present a large experimental campaign applying FuzzFlesh to a variety of decompilers, leading to the discovery of 12 previously-unknown bugs across two language formats, six of which have been fixed. We present experiments comparing our generic FuzzFlesh tool to two state-of-the-art decompiler testing tools targeted at specific languages. As expected, the coverage our generic FuzzFlesh tool achieves on a given decompiler is lower than the coverage achieved by a tool specifically designed for the input format of that decompiler. However, due to its focus on control flow, FuzzFlesh is able to cover sections of control flow recovery code that the targeted tools cannot reach, and identify control flow related bugs that the targeted tools miss.
Cite as

Amber Gorzynski and Alastair F. Donaldson. FuzzFlesh: Randomised Testing of Decompilers via Control Flow Graph-Based Program Generation. In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 13:1-13:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{gorzynski_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13,
  author =	{Gorzynski, Amber and Donaldson, Alastair F.},
  title =	{{FuzzFlesh: Randomised Testing of Decompilers via Control Flow Graph-Based Program Generation}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233062},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: Decompiler, Reverse Engineering, Control Flow, Software Testing, Fuzzing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.6
String Problems in the Congested Clique Model

Authors: Shay Golan and Matan Kraus

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 331, 36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025)

Abstract
In this paper we present algorithms for several string problems in the Congested Clique model. In the Congested Clique model, n nodes (computers) are used to solve some problem. The input to the problem is distributed among the nodes, and the communication between the nodes is conducted in rounds. In each round, every node is allowed to send an O(log n)-bit message to every other node in the network. We consider three fundamental string problems in the Congested Clique model. First, we present an O(1) rounds algorithm for string sorting that supports strings of arbitrary length. Second, we present an O(1) rounds combinatorial pattern matching algorithm. Finally, we present an O(log log n) rounds algorithm for the computation of the suffix array and the corresponding Longest Common Prefix array of a given string.
Cite as

Shay Golan and Matan Kraus. String Problems in the Congested Clique Model. In 36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 331, pp. 6:1-6:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{golan_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2025.6,
  author =	{Golan, Shay and Kraus, Matan},
  title =	{{String Problems in the Congested Clique Model}},
  booktitle =	{36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-369-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{331},
  editor =	{Bonizzoni, Paola and M\"{a}kinen, Veli},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231003},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: String Sorting, Pattern Matching, Suffix Array, Congested Clique, Sorting}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.28
Can You Link Up With Treewidth?

Authors: Radu Curticapean, Simon Döring, Daniel Neuen, and Jiaheng Wang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 327, 42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025)

Abstract
A central result by Marx [ToC '10] constructs k-vertex graphs H of maximum degree 3 such that n^o(k/log k) time algorithms for detecting colorful H-subgraphs would refute the Exponential-Time Hypothesis (ETH). This result is widely used to obtain almost-tight conditional lower bounds for parameterized problems under ETH. Our first contribution is a new and fully self-contained proof of this result that further simplifies a recent work by Karthik et al. [SOSA 2024]. In our proof, we introduce a novel graph parameter of independent interest, the linkage capacity γ(H), and show that detecting colorful H-subgraphs in time n^o(γ(H)) refutes ETH. Then, we use a simple construction of communication networks credited to Beneš to obtain k-vertex graphs of maximum degree 3 and linkage capacity Ω(k/log k), avoiding arguments involving expander graphs, which were required in previous papers. We also show that every graph H of treewidth t has linkage capacity Ω(t/log t), thus recovering a stronger result shown by Marx [ToC '10] with a simplified proof. Additionally, we obtain new tight lower bounds on the complexity of subgraph detection for certain types of patterns by analyzing their linkage capacity: We prove that almost all k-vertex graphs of polynomial average degree Ω(k^β) for β > 0 have linkage capacity Θ(k), which implies tight lower bounds for finding such patterns H. As an application of these results, we also obtain tight lower bounds for counting small induced subgraphs having a fixed property Φ, improving bounds from, e.g., [Roth et al., FOCS 2020].
Cite as

Radu Curticapean, Simon Döring, Daniel Neuen, and Jiaheng Wang. Can You Link Up With Treewidth?. In 42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 327, pp. 28:1-28:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{curticapean_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2025.28,
  author =	{Curticapean, Radu and D\"{o}ring, Simon and Neuen, Daniel and Wang, Jiaheng},
  title =	{{Can You Link Up With Treewidth?}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-365-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{327},
  editor =	{Beyersdorff, Olaf and Pilipczuk, Micha{\l} and Pimentel, Elaine and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-228534},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: subgraph isomorphism, constraint satisfaction problems, linkage capacity, exponential-time hypothesis, parameterized complexity, counting complexity}
}
  • Refine by Type
  • 19 Document/PDF
  • 16 Document/HTML

  • Refine by Publication Year
  • 1 2026
  • 16 2025
  • 2 2020

  • Refine by Author
  • 4 Donaldson, Alastair F.
  • 2 Evrard, Hugues
  • 2 Kaufmann, Michael
  • 2 Thomson, Paul
  • 2 Ueckerdt, Torsten
  • Show More...

  • Refine by Series/Journal
  • 18 LIPIcs
  • 1 DARTS

  • Refine by Classification
  • 4 Mathematics of computing → Graph theory
  • 4 Software and its engineering → Software testing and debugging
  • 3 Software and its engineering → Compilers
  • 2 Mathematics of computing → Graph algorithms
  • 2 Theory of computation → Problems, reductions and completeness
  • Show More...

  • Refine by Keyword
  • 2 3D graphics
  • 2 Compilers
  • 2 Fuzzing
  • 2 experience report
  • 2 metamorphic testing
  • Show More...

Any Issues?
X

Feedback on the Current Page

CAPTCHA

Thanks for your feedback!

Feedback submitted to Dagstuhl Publishing

Could not send message

Please try again later or send an E-mail
© 2023-2026 Schloss Dagstuhl – LZI GmbH Schloss Dagstuhl – LZI GmbH About DROPS Imprint Privacy Contact