Exploiting a hypergraph model for finding golomb rulers

Abstract

Golomb rulers are special rulers where for any two marks it holds that the distance between them is unique. They find applications in positioning of radio channels, radio astronomy, communication networks, and bioinformatics. An important subproblem in constructing "compact" Golomb rulers is Golomb Subruler (GSR), which asks whether it is possible to make a given ruler Golomb by removing at most k marks. We initiate a study of GSR from a parameterized complexity perspective. In particular, we develop a hypergraph characterization of rulers and consider the construction and structure of the corresponding hypergraphs. We exploit their properties to derive polynomial-time data reduction rules that lead to a problem kernel for GSR with O(k 3) marks. Finally, we provide a simplified NP-hardness construction for GSR. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.