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Beyond Max-Cut: λ-Extendible Properties Parameterized Above the Poljak-Turzík Bound

Poljak and Turzík (Discrete Math. 1986) introduced the notion of λ-extendible properties of graphs as a generalization of the property of being bipartite. They showed that for any 0<λ<1 and λ-extendible property Π, any connected graph G on n vertices and m edges contains a subgraph H \in Π with at least λm+ (1-λ)/2 (n-1) edges. The property of being bipartite is 1/2-extendible, and thus this bound generalizes the Edwards-Erdős bound for Max-Cut. We define a variant, namely strong λ-extendibility, to which the bound applies. For a strongly λ-extendible graph property Π, we define the parameterized Above Poljak- Turzík (APT) (Π) problem as follows: Given a connected graph G on n vertices and m edges and an integer parameter k, does there exist a spanning subgraph H of G such that H \in Π and H has at least λm + (1-λ)/2 (n - 1) + k edges? The parameter is k, the surplus over the number of edges guaranteed by the Poljak-Turzík bound. We consider properties Π for which APT (Π) is fixed- parameter tractable (FPT) on graphs which are O(k) vertices away from being a graph in which each block is a clique. We show that for all such properties, APT (Π) is FPT for all 0<λ<1. Our results hold for properties of oriented graphs and graphs with edge labels. Our results generalize the result of Crowston et al. (ICALP 2012) on Max-Cut parameterized above the Edwards-Erdős bound, and yield FPT algorithms for several graph problems parameterized above lower bounds, e.g., Max q-Colorable Subgraph problem. Our results also imply that the parameterized above-guarantee Oriented Max Acyclic Digraph problem is FPT, thus solving an open question of Raman and Saurabh (Theor. Comput. Sci. 2006).