Combining Networks using Cherry Picking Sequences

Abstract

Phylogenetic networks are important for the study of evolution. The number of methods to find such networks is increasing, but most such methods can only reconstruct small networks. To find bigger networks, one can attempt to combine small networks. In this paper, we study the {\sc Network Hybridization} problem, a problem of combining networks into another network with low complexity. We characterize this complexity via a restricted problem, {\sc Tree-child Network Hybridization}, and we present an FPT algorithm to efficiently solve this restricted problem.