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The Complexity of Graph Contractions

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Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science (WG 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2880))

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Abstract

For a fixed pattern graph H, let H-CONTRACTIBILITY denote the problem of deciding whether a given input graph is contractible to H. We continue a line of research that was started in 1987 by Brouwer & Veldman, and we determine the computational complexity of H-CONTRACTIBILITY for certain classes of pattern graphs. In particular, we pin-point the complexity for all graphs H with five vertices.

Interestingly, in all cases that are known to be polynomially solvable, the pattern graph H has a dominating vertex, whereas in all cases that are known to be NP-complete, the pattern graph H does not have a dominating vertex.

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References

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Levin, A., Paulusma, D., Woeginger, G.J. (2003). The Complexity of Graph Contractions. In: Bodlaender, H.L. (eds) Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science. WG 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2880. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39890-5_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39890-5_28

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20452-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39890-5

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