Solving Directed Feedback Vertex Set by Iterative Reduction to Vertex Cover

Sebastian Angrick, Ben Bals, Katrin Casel, Sarel Cohen, Tobias Friedrich, Niko Hastrich, Theresa Hradilak, Davis Issac, Otto Kißig, Jonas Schmidt, Leo Wendt

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In the Directed Feedback Vertex Set (DFVS) problem, one is given a directed graph G = (V,E) and wants to find a minimum cardinality set S V such that G-S is acyclic. DFVS is a fundamental problem in computer science and finds applications in areas such as deadlock detection. The problem was the subject of the 2022 PACE coding challenge. We develop a novel exact algorithm for the problem that is tailored to perform well on instances that are mostly bi-directed. For such instances, we adapt techniques from the well-researched vertex cover problem. Our core idea is an iterative reduction to vertex cover. To this end, we also develop a new reduction rule that reduces the number of not bi-directed edges. With the resulting algorithm, we were able to win third place in the exact track of the PACE challenge. We perform computational experiments and compare the running time to other exact algorithms, in particular to the winning algorithm in PACE. Our experiments show that we outpace the other algorithms on instances that have a low density of uni-directed edges.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication21st International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms, SEA 2023
EditorsLoukas Georgiadis
PublisherSchloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing
ISBN (Electronic)9783959772792
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2023
Externally publishedYes
Event21st International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms, SEA 2023 - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 24 Jul 202326 Jul 2023

Publication series

NameLeibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Volume265
ISSN (Print)1868-8969

Conference

Conference21st International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms, SEA 2023
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period24/07/2326/07/23

Keywords

  • directed feedback vertex set
  • reduction rules
  • vertex cover

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