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Limits of Structural Tractability

Project description

A closer look at graph tractability

In theoretical computer science, understanding the efficiency of algorithms for different graph classes is a major challenge. While significant progress has been made with sparse graphs (like planar graphs), many other graph classes remain difficult to characterise. The frontier of algorithmic tractability is well-defined for sparse and ordered graphs, but the question of tractability for non-sparse graphs remains unresolved. This gap limits the development of efficient algorithms for a broader range of graph types. The ERC-funded BUKA project addresses this problem by seeking to characterise all tractable graph classes. It will explore the logical structures underlying algorithmic tractability, using advanced methods from graph structure theory and stability theory. The project’s findings will have foundational importance for computer scientists, graph theorists, and logicians.

Objective

The combination of methods from logic and graph theory has been extremely successful in the design of algorithms, in complexity theory, and other areas of theoretical computer science. A success story exemplifying the power of this approach is the recent development in the algorithmic structure theory of sparse graphs. In this line of research, structural results stemming from Robertson and Seymour’s graph minor theory, and the more recent sparsity theory of Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez, were com- bined with logical methods in order to obtain a systematic understanding of tractability. An example result in this area states that every graph property definable in first order logic can be decided in linear time, for all planar graphs. Culminating a long line of research, Grohe, Kreutzer, and Siebertz gener- alized this result to all nowhere dense graph classes. Those are very general classes of sparse graphs, which include the class of planar graphs, classes of bounded maximum degree, or classes excluding a fixed minor. Moreover, this result completely delimits the tractability frontier for sparse graph classes. However, many classes are tractable, but not sparse. The recent twin-width theory, drawing on deep connections between logic and enumerative combinatorics, achieves an analogue of the result of Grohe et al. for all ordered graphs. Thus, algorithmic tractability is now understood in two contexts: of sparse graphs, and of ordered graphs. This project sets out to characterize all tractable graph classes. This requires developing a systematic understanding of the logical structure underlying algorithmic tractability. The tools I intend to apply and develop originate from graph structure theory, and from stability theory, one of the most successful areas in logic recently. The expected results will be of foundational nature, and of interest primarily to theoretical computer scientists, graph theorists, and logicians.

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG

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Host institution

UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 935 074,00
Address
KRAKOWSKIE PRZEDMIESCIE 26/28
00-927 WARSZAWA
Poland

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 935 074,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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