Abstract: A set of autonomous robots have to collaborate in order to accomplish a common task in a ring-topology where neither nodes nor edges are labeled (that is, the ring is anonymous). We present a unified approach to solve three important problems: the exclusive perpetual exploration, the exclusive perpetual clearing, and the gathering problems. In the first problem, each robot aims at visiting each node infinitely often while avoiding that two robots occupy a same node (exclusivity property); in exclusive perpetual clearing (also known as graph searching), the team of robots aims at clearing the whole ring infinitely often (an edge is cleared if it is traversed by a robot or if both its endpoints are occupied); and in the gathering problem, all robots must eventually occupy the same node. We investigate these tasks in the Look-Compute-Move model where the robots cannot communicate but can perceive the positions of other robots. Each robot is equipped with visibility sensors and motion actuators, and it operates in asynchronous cycles. In each cycle, a robot takes a snapshot of the current global configuration (Look), then, based on the perceived configuration, takes a decision to stay idle or to move to one of its adjacent nodes (Compute), and in the latter case it eventually moves to this neighbor (Move). Moreover, robots are endowed with very weak capabilities. Namely, they are anonymous, asynchronous, oblivious, uniform (execute the same algorithm) and have no common sense of orientation. In this setting, we devise algorithms that, starting from an exclusive and rigid (i.e. aperiodic and asymmetric) configuration, solve the three above problems in anonymous ring-topologies.

Abstract: Distributed certification, whether it be proof-labeling schemes, locally checkable proofs, etc., deals with the issue of certifying the legality of a distributed system with respect to a given boolean predicate. A certificate is assigned to each process in the system by a non-trustable oracle, and the processes are in charge of verifying these certificates, so that two properties are satisfied: completeness, i.e., for every legal instance, there is a certificate assignment leading all processes to accept, and soundness, i.e., for every illegal instance, and for every certificate assignment, at least one process rejects. The verification of the certificates must be fast, and the certificates themselves must be small. A large quantity of results have been produced in this framework, each aiming at designing a distributed certification mechanism for specific boolean predicates. This paper presents a “meta-theorem”, applying to many boolean predicates at once. Specifically, we prove that, for every boolean predicate on graphs definable in the monadic second-order (MSO) logic of graphs, there exists a distributed certification mechanism using certificates on O(log(2) n) bits in n-node graphs of bounded treewidth, with a verification protocol involving a single round of communication between neighbors

Abstract: Let P(G,X) be a property associating a boolean value to each pair (G,X) where G is a graph and X is a vertex subset. Assume that P is expressible in counting monadic second order logic (CMSO) and let t be an integer constant. We consider the following optimization problem: given an input graph G=(V,E), find subsets XFV such that the treewidth of G[F] is at most t, property P(G[F],X) is true and X is of maximum size under these conditions. The problem generalizes many classical algorithmic questions, e.g., Longest Induced Path, Maximum Induced Forest, IndependentH-Packing, etc. Fomin et al. (SIAM J Comput 44(1):54-87, 2015) proved that the problem is polynomial on the class of graph Gpoly, i.e. the graphs having at most poly(n) minimal separators for some polynomial poly. Here we consider the class Gpoly+kv, formed by graphs of Gpoly to which we add a set of at most k vertices with arbitrary adjacencies, called modulator. We prove that the generic optimization problem is fixed parameter tractable on Gpoly+kv, with parameter k, if the modulator is also part of the input.