Abstract: Recently, Araujo et al. [Manuscript in preparation, 2017] introduced the notion of Cycle Convexity of graphs. In their seminal work, they studied the graph convexity parameter called hull number for this new graph convexity they proposed, and they presented some of its applications in Knot theory. Roughly, the tunnel number of a knot embedded in a plane is upper bounded by the hull number of a corresponding planar 4-regular graph in cycle convexity. In this paper, we go further in the study of this new graph convexity and we study the interval number of a graph in cycle convexity. This parameter is, alongside the hull number, one of the most studied parameters in the literature about graph convexities. Precisely, given a graph G, its interval number in cycle convexity, denoted by in(cc)(G), is the minimum cardinality of a set S subset of V (G) such that every vertex w is an element of E V (G) \ S has two distinct neighbors u, v is an element of S such that u and v lie in same connected component of G[S], i.e. the subgraph of G induced by the vertices in S. In this work, first we provide bounds on in(cc) (G) and its relations to other graph convexity parameters, and explore its behaviour on grids. Then, we present some hardness results by showing that deciding whetherin(cc) (G) <= k is NP-complete, even if G is a split graph or a bounded-degree planar graph, and that the problem is W[2]-hard in bipartite graphs when k is the parameter. As a consequence, we obtain that in(cc) (G) cannot be approximated up to a constant factor in the classes of split graphs and bipartite graphs (unless P = NP). On the positive side, we present polynomial-time algorithms to compute in(cc) (G) for outerplanar graphs, cobipartite graphs and interval graphs. We also present fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithms to compute it for (q, q – 4)-graphs when q is the parameter and for general graphs G when parameterized either by the treewidth or the neighborhood diversity of G. Some of our hardness results and positive results are not known to hold for related graph convexities and domination problems. We hope that the design of our new reductions and polynomial-time algorithms can be helpful in order to advance in the study of related graph problems.

Abstract: This paper investigates the avalanche problem AP for the Kadanoff sandpile model (KSPM). We prove that (a slight restriction of) AP is in NC1 in dimension one, leaving the general case open. Moreover, we prove that AP is P-complete in dimension two. The proof of this latter result is based on a reduction from the monotone circuit value problem by building logic gates and wires which work with an initial sand distribution in KSPM. These results are also related to the known prediction problem for sandpiles which is in NC1 for one-dimensional sandpiles and P-complete for dimension 3 or higher. The computational complexity of the prediction problem remains open for the Bak's model of two-dimensional sandpiles.

Abstract: Given a vertex-weighted tree T, the split of an edge em T is the minimum over the weights of the two trees obtained by removing e from T, where the weight of a tree is the sum of weights of its vertices. Given a set of weighted vertices V and a multiset of integers s, we consider the problem of constructing a tree on V whose splits correspond to s. The problem is known to be NP-complete, even when all vertices have unit weight and the maximum vertex degree of T is required to be at most 4. We show that the problem is strongly NP-complete when T is required to be a path, the problem is NP-complete when all vertices have unit weight and the maximum degree of T is required to be at most 3, and it remains NP-complete when all vertices have unit weight and T is required to be a caterpillar with unbounded hair length and maximum degree at most 3. We also design polynomial time algorithms for the variant where T is required to be a path and the number of distinct vertex weights is constant, and the variant where all vertices have unit weight and T has a constant number of leaves. The latter algorithm is not only polynomial when the number of leaves, k, is a constant, but also is a fixed-parameter algorithm for parameter k. Finally, we shortly discuss the problem when the vertex weights are not given but can be freely chosen by an algorithm. The considered problem is related to building libraries of chemical compounds used for drug design and discovery. In these inverse problems, the goal is to generate chemical compounds having desired structural properties, as there is a strong relation between structural invariants of the particles, such as the Wiener index and, less directly, the problem under consideration here, and physico-chemical properties of the substance. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: We study the complexity of the majority rule on planar automata networks. We reduce a special case of the Monotone Circuit Value Problem to the prediction problem of determining if a vertex of a planar graph will change its state when the network is updated with the majority rule. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Abstract: We perform a numerical exploration of number-conserving cellular automata (NCCA) beyond the class of elementary CAs, in search of examples with high communication complexity. We consider some possible generalizations of the elementary rule 184 (a minimal model of traffic, which is the only non-trivial elementary NCCA). as well as the classes of NCCAs which minimally extend either the radius or the state set (with respect to the 2 states and radius 1 of the elementary case). Both for 3 states and radius 1, and for 2 stales and radius 2, NCCA appear that are conjectured to have maximal (exponential) communication complexity. Examples are given also for (conjectured) linear and quadratic behaviour.

Abstract: We consider the problem of studying the simulation capabilities of the dynamics of arbitrary networks of finite states machines. In these models, each node of the network takes two states 0 (passive) and 1 (active). The states of the nodes are updated in parallel following a local totalistic rule, i.e., depending only on the sum of active states. Four families of totalistic rules are considered: linear or matrix defined rules (a node takes state 1 if each of its neighbours is in state 1), threshold rules (a node takes state 1 if the sum of its neighbours exceed a threshold), isolated rules (a node takes state 1 if the sum of its neighbours equals to some single number) and interval rule (a node takes state 1 if the sum of its neighbours belong to some discrete interval). We focus in studying the simulation capabilities of the dynamics of each of the latter classes. In particular, we show that totalistic automata networks governed by matrix defined rules can only implement constant functions and other matrix defined functions. In addition, we show that t by threshold rules can generate any monotone Boolean functions. Finally, we show that networks driven by isolated and the interval rules exhibit a very rich spectrum of boolean functions as they can, in fact, implement any arbitrary Boolean functions. We complement this results by studying experimentally the set of different Boolean functions generated by totalistic rules on random graphs.

Abstract: Given an elementary cellular automaton and a cell v, we define the stability decision problem as the determination of whether or not the state of cell v will ever change, at least once, during the time evolution of the rule, over a finite input configuration. Here, we perform the study of the entire elementary cellular automata rule space, for the two possible decision cases of the problem, namely, changes in v from state 0 to 1 (0 -> 1), and the other way round (1 -> 0). Out of the 256 elementary cellular automata, we show that for all of them, at least one of the two decision problems is in the NC complexity class.

Abstract: The notions of universality and completeness are central in the theories of computation and computational complexity. However, proving lower bounds and necessary conditions remains hard in most cases. In this article, we introduce necessary conditions for a cellular automaton to be “universal”, according to a precise notion of simulation, related both to the dynamics of cellular automata and to their computational power. This notion of simulation relies on simple operations of space-time rescaling and it is intrinsic to the model of cellular automata. intrinsic universality, the derived notion, is stronger than Turing universality, but more uniform, and easier to define and study. Our approach builds upon the notion of communication complexity, which was primarily designed to study parallel programs, and thus is, as we show in this article, particulary well suited to the study of cellular automata: it allowed us to show, by studying natural problems on the dynamics of cellular automata, that several classes of cellular automata, as well as many natural (elementary) examples, were not intrinsically universal. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: One third of the elementary cellular automata (CAs) are either number-conserving (NCCAs) or monotone (increasing or decreasing). In this paper we prove that, for all of them, we can find linear or constant communication protocols for the prediction problem. In other words, we are able to give a succinct description for their dynamics. This is not necessarily true for general NCCAs. In fact, we also show how to explicitly construct, from any CA, a new NCCA which preserves the original communication complexity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The article argues that crises are a distinctive feature of complex social systems. A quest for connectivity of communication leads to increase systems' own robustness by constantly producing further connections. When some of these connections have been successful in recent operations, the system tends to reproduce the emergent pattern, thereby engaging in a non-reflexive, repetitive escalation of more of the same communication. This compulsive growth of systemic communication in crisis processes, or logic of excess, resembles the dynamic of self-organized criticality. Accordingly, we first construct the conceptual foundations of our approach. Second, we present three core assumptions related to the generative mechanism of social crises, their temporal transitions (incubation, contagion, restructuring), and the suitable modeling techniques to represent them. Third, we illustrate the conceptual approach with a percolation model of the crisis in Chilean education system. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 13-23, 2016