Abstract

This paper reviews structural problem decomposition methods, such as tree and path decompositions. It is argued that these notions can be applied in two distinct ways: Either to show that a problem is efficiently solvable when a width parameter is fixed, or to prove that the unrestricted (or some width-parameter free) version of a problem is tractable by using a width-notion as a mathematical tool for directly solving the problem at hand. Examples are given for both cases. As a new showcase for the latter usage, we report some recent results on the Partner Units Problem, a form of configuration problem arising in an industrial context. We use the notion of a path decomposition to identify and solve a tractable class of instances of this problem with practical relevance.

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