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  • © 2012

Sparsity

Graphs, Structures, and Algorithms

  • One of the first textbooks on the topic of sparsity - a core area of current discrete mathematics
  • Extremely useful to both mathematicians and computer scientists
  • Pedagogically excellent

Part of the book series: Algorithms and Combinatorics (AC, volume 28)

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
  2. Presentation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Introduction

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 3-5
    3. A Few Problems

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 7-17
  3. The Theory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
    2. Prolegomena

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 21-60
    3. Measuring Sparsity

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 61-88
    4. Classes and Their Classification

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 89-114
    5. Bounded Height Trees and Tree-Depth

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 115-144
    6. Decomposition

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 145-174
    7. Independence

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 175-194
    8. First-Order Constraint Satisfaction Problems, Limits and Homomorphism Dualities

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 195-226
    9. Preservation Theorems

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 227-252
    10. Restricted Homomorphism Dualities

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 253-275
    11. Counting

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 277-297
    12. Back to Classes

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 299-309
  4. Applications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 311-311
    2. Classes with Bounded Expansion – Examples

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 313-338
    3. Some Applications

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 339-361
    4. Property Testing, Hyperfiniteness and Separators

      • Jaroslav Nešetřil, Patrice Ossona de Mendez
      Pages 363-379

About this book

This is the first book devoted to the systematic study of sparse graphs and sparse finite structures. Although the notion of sparsity appears in various contexts and is a typical example of a hard to define notion, the authors devised an unifying classification of general classes of structures. This approach is very robust and it has many remarkable properties. For example the classification is expressible in many different ways involving most extremal combinatorial invariants.

This study of sparse structures found applications in such diverse areas as algorithmic graph theory, complexity of algorithms, property testing, descriptive complexity and mathematical logic (homomorphism preservation,fixed parameter tractability and constraint satisfaction problems). It should be stressed that despite of its generality this approach leads to linear (and nearly linear) algorithms.

Jaroslav Nešetřil is a professor at Charles University, Prague; Patrice Ossona de Mendez is a CNRS researcher et EHESS, Paris.

This book is related to the material presented by the first author at ICM 2010.

Reviews

From the reviews:

“This well-crafted and well-written work … brings the authors’ vast knowledge, expertise, taste, and judgment to bear on an increasingly important and mainstream subject. … This is a much-needed book devoted to the systematic study of sparse graphs and sparse classes of structures. … This is an important and useful book. It contains a wealth of up-to-date material, some of which is not readily available in research papers. … A researcher in graph theory or related fields will find this an excellent reference work.” (József Balogh, Mathematical Reviews, March, 2013)

“This is an excellent and useful book for all researchers in mathematics, computer science, logic, and even in any field in physical science, who seek the tools available for analysis of the properties of discrete structures, and particularly, sparse structures.” (Tadashi Sakuma, zbMATH, Vol. 1268, 2013)

“The book is very well written and diagrammed to beautifully present the theory supporting the study of sparse and dense objects. … the book contains up-to-date research topics laid out in an amazing chain of thoughts. Almost every chapter ends with exercises, aiding professors in advanced graduate courses. The extensive list of references, together with conjectures and open problems, offers professors, students, and researchers … profound knowledge on the sparsity of graphs, all in one great book.” (Andre Maximo, Computing Reviews, October, 2012)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Applied Mathematics, Charles University Department of Applied Mathematics, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Nešetřil

  • Mathématique Sociales (UMR 8557), CNRS Centre d'Analyse et de, Paris, France

    Patrice Ossona de Mendez

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access