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#### Detecting and Counting Small Subgraphs, and Evaluating a Parameterized Tutte Polynomial: Lower Bounds via Toroidal Grids and Cayley Graph Expanders

##### MPS-Authors
/persons/resource/persons229250

Wellnitz,  Philip
Algorithms and Complexity, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society;

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##### Fulltext (public)

arXiv:2011.03433.pdf
(Preprint), 2MB

##### Supplementary Material (public)
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##### Citation

Roth, M., Schmitt, J., & Wellnitz, P. (2020). Detecting and Counting Small Subgraphs, and Evaluating a Parameterized Tutte Polynomial: Lower Bounds via Toroidal Grids and Cayley Graph Expanders. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.03433.

Cite as: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0007-8CA1-5
##### Abstract
Given a graph property $\Phi$, we consider the problem $\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$, where the input is a pair of a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, and the task is to decide whether $G$ contains a $k$-edge subgraph that satisfies $\Phi$. Specifically, we study the parameterized complexity of $\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$ and of its counting problem $\#\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$ with respect to both approximate and exact counting. We obtain a complete picture for minor-closed properties $\Phi$: the decision problem $\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$ always admits an FPT algorithm and the counting problem $\#\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$ always admits an FPTRAS. For exact counting, we present an exhaustive and explicit criterion on the property $\Phi$ which, if satisfied, yields fixed-parameter tractability and otherwise $\#\mathsf{W[1]}$-hardness. Additionally, most of our hardness results come with an almost tight conditional lower bound under the so-called Exponential Time Hypothesis, ruling out algorithms for $\#\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$ that run in time $f(k)\cdot|G|^{o(k/\log k)}$ for any computable function $f$. As a main technical result, we gain a complete understanding of the coefficients of toroidal grids and selected Cayley graph expanders in the homomorphism basis of $\#\mathtt{EdgeSub}(\Phi)$. This allows us to establish hardness of exact counting using the Complexity Monotonicity framework due to Curticapean, Dell and Marx (STOC'17). Our methods can also be applied to a parameterized variant of the Tutte Polynomial $T^k_G$ of a graph $G$, to which many known combinatorial interpretations of values of the (classical) Tutte Polynomial can be extended. As an example, $T^k_G(2,1)$ corresponds to the number of $k$-forests in the graph $G$. Our techniques allow us to completely understand the parametrized complexity of computing the evaluation of $T^k_G$ at every pair of rational coordinates $(x,y)$.