On the Complexity of the Storyplan Problem

Abstract

AbstractMotivated by dynamic graph visualization, we study the problem of representing a graph G in the form of a storyplan, that is, a sequence of frames with the following properties. Each frame is a planar drawing of the subgraph of G induced by a suitably defined subset of its vertices. Between two consecutive frames, a new vertex appears while some other vertices may disappear, namely those whose incident edges have already been drawn in at least one frame. In a storyplan, each vertex appears and disappears exactly once. For a vertex (edge) visible in a sequence of consecutive frames, the point (curve) representing it does not change throughout the sequence.Note that the order in which the vertices of G appear in the sequence of frames is a total order. In the StoryPlan problem, we are given a graph and we want to decide whether there exists a total order of its vertices for which a storyplan exists. We prove that the problem is NP-complete, and complement this hardness with two parameterized algorithms, one in the vertex cover number and one in the feedback edge set number of G. Also, we prove that partial 3-trees always admit a storyplan, which can be computed in linear time. Finally, we show that the problem remains NP-complete in the case in which the total order of the vertices is given as part of the input and we have to choose how to draw the frames.KeywordsDynamic graph drawingNP-hardnessParameterized analysisPathwidth