How to Secure Matchings Against Edge Failures

Abstract: Suppose we are given a bipartite graph that admits a perfect matching and an adversary may delete any edge from the graph with the intention of destroying all perfect matchings. We consider the task of adding a minimum cost edge-set to the graph, such that the adversary never wins. We provide efficient exact and approximation algorithms. In particular, for the unit-cost problem, we provide a $\log_2 n$-factor approximation algorithm and a polynomial-time algorithm for chordal-bipartite graphs. Furthermore, we give a fixed parameter algorithm for the problem parameterized by the treewidth of the input graph. For general non-negative weights we settle the approximability of the problem and show a close relation to the Directed Steiner Forest Problem. Additionally we prove a dichotomy theorem characterizing minor-closed graph classes which allow for a polynomial-time algorithm. Our methods rely on a close relationship to the classical strong connectivity augmentation problem and directed Steiner problems.