On the Parameterized Complexity of $s$-Club Cluster Edge Deletion

Abstract

We study the parameterized and kernelization complexity of the \emph{\textsc{$s$-Club Cluster Edge Deletion}} problem, a distance-bounded generalization of \emph{\textsc{Cluster Edge Deletion}}. Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ and integers $k,s$, the goal is to delete at most $k$ edges so that every resulting connected component has diameter at most $s$. On the structural side, we settle an open question of Montecchiani, Ortali, Piselli, and Tappini (\emph{Theoretical Computer Science}, 2023) by proving W[1]-hardness parameterized by pathwidth plus the maximum number of allowed $s$-clubs, and consequently by treewidth plus this parameter. Thus, the diameter bound $s$ is inecessary for tractability under these parameters. In contrast, we show that dependence on \(s\) is unnecessary for several structural parameters: the problem is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by treedepth, neighborhood diversity, or cluster vertex deletion number, generalizing known results for $s=1.$ We further prove that no polynomial kernel exists when parameterized by vertex cover, even for $s=2$. On the positive side, we present an FPT bicriteria approximation scheme for graphs excluding long induced cycles, running in time $f(k,1/\epsilon )\cdot n^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$ and producing a solution of size at most $k$ whose components have diameter at most $(1+\epsilon )s$. Finally, we initiate the study of the directed variant, \textsc{$s$-Club Cluster Arc Deletion}, and prove that it is W[1]-hard parameterized by $k$, even on directed acyclic graphs.