Property testing in directed graphs

Yaron Orenstein

Abstract:

The main focus of this talk is on property testing in directed graphs. Property testing problems are relaxations of decision problems. Namely, a property testing algorithm for a graph property $P$ is given query access to a graph $G$ and a distance parameter $\epsilon$. If $G$ has the property $P$, then the algorithm should accept with high constant probability, and if $G$ is $\epsilon$-far from having the property $P$, then the algorithm should reject with high constant probability. Both the types of queries allowed and the distance measure used (which determines when a graphs is $\epsilon$-far from having a property), may vary, depending on the types of graphs considered (e.g., dense, bounded-degree, or sparse and unbounded-degree).
I will survey known results for testing properties of directed graphs, and will present several new results. These include a testing algorithms for Eulerianity in bounded degree graphs and in unbounded-degree sparse graphs, as well as an almost matching lower bound for the latter. If time permits, I will also shortly discuss testing $k$-edge connectivity of directed graphs (both in the bounded-degree case and in the unbounded-degree (sparse) case), and $(k,\ell)$-edge-connectivity orientability (which is a property of undirected graphs that is related to directed graphs).