Skip to main content

Tree Spanners on Chordal Graphs: Complexity, Algorithms, Open Problems

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2518))

Abstract

A tree t-spanner T in a graph G is a spanning tree of G such that the distance in T between every pair of vertices is at most t times their distance in G. The Tree t-Spanner problem asks whether a graph admits a tree t-spanner, given t. We substantially strengthen the hardness result of Cai and Corneil [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 8 (1995) 359–387] by showing that, for any t ≥ 4, Treet-Spanner is NP-complete even on chordal graphs of diameter at most t+1 (if t is even), respectively, at most t + 2 (if t is odd). Then we point out that every chordal graph of diameter at most t - 1 (respectively, t - 2) admits a tree t-spanner whenever t ≥ 2 is even (respectively, t ≥ 3 is odd), and such a tree spanner can be constructed in linear time.

The complexity status of Tree 3-Spanner still remains open for chordal graphs, even on the subclass of undirected path graphs that are strongly chordal as well. For other important subclasses of chordal graphs, such as very strongly chordal graphs (containing all interval graphs), 1-split graphs (containing all split graphs) and chordal graphs of diameter at most 2, we are able to decide Tree 3-Spanner efficiently.

Research of this author was supported by DFG, Project no. Br1446-4/1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. B. Awerbuch, A. Baratz, D. Peleg, Efficient broadcast and light-weighted spanners, manuscript, 1992

    Google Scholar 

  2. H.-J. Bandelt, A. Dress, Reconstructing the shape of a tree from observed dissimilarity data, Adv. Appl. Math. 7 (1986) 309–343

    Google Scholar 

  3. A. Brandstädt, V. Chepoi, F. Dragan, Distance approximating trees for chordal and dually chordal graphs, J. Algorithms 30 (1999) 166–184

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. A. Brandstädt, V.B. Le, J. Spinrad, Graph Classes: A Survey, SIAM Monographs on Discrete Math. Appl., (SIAM, Philadelphia, 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  5. L. Cai, Tree spanners: Spanning trees that approximate the distances, Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1992

    Google Scholar 

  6. L. Cai, D.G. Corneil, Tree spanners, SIAM J. Discrete. Math. 8 (1995) 359–387

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. L. Cai, D.G. Corneil, Tree spanners: An overview, Congressus Numer. 88 (1992) 65–76

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. G.J. Chang, G.L. Nemhauser, The k-domination and k-stability problems on sun-free chordal graphs, SIAM. J. Alg. Disc. Meth. 5 (1984) 332–345

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. V.D. Chepoi, Centers of triangulated graphs, Math. Notes 43 (1988) 82–86

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. V.D. Chepoi, F.F. Dragan, Linear-time algorithm for finding a center vertex of a chordal graph, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 855 (1994) 159–170

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. M. Farber, Characterizations of strongly chordal graphs, Discrete Math. 43 (1983) 173–189

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. S.P. Fekete, J. Kremer, Tree spanners in planar graphs, Discrete Appl. Math. 108 (2001) 85–103

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. F. Gavril, The intersection graphs of subtrees in trees are exatly the chordal graphs, J. Combin. Theory (B) 16 (1974) 47–56

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. M.C. Golumbic, Algorithmic Graph Theory and Perfect Graphs (Academic Press, New York, 1980)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. E. Howorka, A characterization of ptolemaic graphs, J. Graph Theory 5 (1981) 323–331

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  16. Hoàng-Oanh Le, Effiziente Algorithmen für Baumspanner in chordalen Graphen, Diploma thesis, Dept. of mathematics, technical university of Berlin, 1994

    Google Scholar 

  17. H.-O Le, V.B. Le, Optimal tree 3-spanners in directed path graphs, Networks 34 (1999) 81–87

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. M.S. Madanlal, G. Venkatesan, C. Pandu Rangan, Tree 3-spanners on interval, permutation and regular bipartite graphs, Inform. Process. Lett. 59 (1996) 97–102

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. I.E. Papoutsakis, Two structure theorems on tree spanners, M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  20. I.E. Papoutsakis, On the union of two tree spanners of a graph, Preprint, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  21. D. Peleg, Distributed Computing: A Locality-Sensitive Approach, SIAM Monographs on Discrete Math. Appl., (SIAM, Philadelphia, 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  22. D. Peleg, A. Schaeffer, Graph spanners, J. Graph Theory 13 (1989) 99–116

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. E. Prisner, Distance approximating spanning trees, in: Proc. STACS’97, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 1200 (Springer, Berlin, 1997) 499–510

    Google Scholar 

  24. J. Soares, Graph spanners: A survey, Congressus Numer. 89 (1992) 225–238

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  25. G. Venkatesan, U. Rotics, M.S. Madanlal, J.A. Makowsky, C. Pandu Ragan, Restrictions of minimum spanner problems, Information and Computation 136 (1997) 143–164

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Brandstädt, A., Dragan, F., Le, HO., Le, V. (2002). Tree Spanners on Chordal Graphs: Complexity, Algorithms, Open Problems. In: Bose, P., Morin, P. (eds) Algorithms and Computation. ISAAC 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2518. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36136-7_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36136-7_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00142-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36136-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics