Multiplicative Parameterization Above a Guarantee

Abstract

Parameterization above a guarantee is a successful paradigm in Parameterized Complexity. To the best of our knowledge, all fixed-parameter tractable problems in this paradigm share an additive form defined as follows. Given an instance ( I,k ) of some (parameterized) problem π with a guarantee g(I) , decide whether I admits a solution of size at least (or at most) k + g(I) . Here, g(I) is usually a lower bound on the minimum size of a solution. Since its introduction in 1999 for M AX SAT and M AX C UT (with g(I) being half the number of clauses and half the number of edges, respectively, in the input), analysis of parameterization above a guarantee has become a very active and fruitful topic of research. We highlight a multiplicative form of parameterization above (or, rather, times) a guarantee: Given an instance ( I,k ) of some (parameterized) problem π with a guarantee g(I) , decide whether I admits a solution of size at least (or at most) k · g(I) . In particular, we study the Long Cycle problem with a multiplicative parameterization above the girth g(I) of the input graph, which is the most natural guarantee for this problem, and provide a fixed-parameter algorithm. Apart from being of independent interest, this exemplifies how parameterization above a multiplicative guarantee can arise naturally. We also show that, for any fixed constant ε > 0, multiplicative parameterization above g(I) 1+ε of Long Cycle yields para-NP-hardness, thus our parameterization is tight in this sense. We complement our main result with the design (or refutation of the existence) of fixed-parameter algorithms as well as kernelization algorithms for additional problems parameterized multiplicatively above girth.