Proximity Search For Maximal Subgraph Enumeration
This paper considers the subgraphs of an input graph that satisfy a given property and are maximal under inclusion. The main result is a seemingly novel technique, proximity search, to list these subgraphs in polynomial delay each. These include Maximal Bipartite Subgraphs, Maximal k-Degenerate Subgraphs (for bounded k), Maximal Induced Chordal Subgraphs, and Maximal Induced Trees. Using known techniques, such as reverse search, the space of sought solutions induces an implicit directed graph called “solution graph”: however, the latter can give rise to exponential out-degree, thus preventing polynomial delay. The novelty of our algorithm in this paper consists in providing a technique for generating a better solution graph, significantly reducing the out-degree with respect to existing approaches, so that it still remains strongly connected and guarantees that all solutions can be reported with polynomial delay by a suitable traversal. While traversing the solution graph incur in space proportional to the number of solutions to keep track of visited ones, we further propose a technique to induce a parent-child relationship and achieve polynomial space when suitable conditions are met.
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