Building large k-cores from sparse graphs
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A popular model to measure network stability is the k-core, that is the maximal induced subgraph in which every vertex has degree at least k. For example, k-cores are commonly used to model the unraveling phenomena in social networks. In this model, users having less than k connections within the network leave it, so the remaining users form exactly the k-core. In this paper we study the question whether it is possible to make the network more robust by spending only a limited amount of resources on new connections. A mathematical model for the k-core construction problem is the following Edge k-Core optimization problem. We are given a graph G and integers k, b and p. The task is to ensure that the k-core of G has at least p vertices by adding at most b edges. The previous studies on Edge k-Core demonstrate that the problem is computationally challenging. In particular, it is NP-hard when k=3, W[1]-hard being parameterized by k+b+p (Chitnis and Talmon, 2018), and APX-hard (Zhou et al, 2019). Nevertheless, we show that there are efficient algorithms with provable guarantee when the k-core has to be constructed from a sparse graph with some additional structural properties. Our results are 1) When the input graph is a forest, Edge k-Core is solvable in polynomial time; 2) Edge k-Core is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) being parameterized by the minimum size of a vertex cover in the input graph. On the other hand, with such parameterization, the problem does not admit a polynomial kernel subject to a widely-believed assumption from complexity theory; 3) Edge k-Core is FPT parameterized by tw+k. This improves upon the result of Chitnis and Talmon by not requiring b to be small. Each of our algorithms is built upon a new graph-theoretical result interesting in its own.
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