Finding sparse induced subgraphs on graphs of bounded induced matching treewidth

Abstract: The induced matching width of a tree decomposition of a graph $G$ is the cardinality of a largest induced matching $M$ of $G$, such that there exists a bag that intersects every edge in $M$. The induced matching treewidth of a graph $G$, denoted by $\mathsf{tree-}\mu(G)$, is the minimum induced matching width of a tree decomposition of $G$. The parameter $\mathsf{tree-}\mu$ was introduced by Yolov [SODA '18], who showed that, for example, Maximum-Weight Independent Set can be solved in polynomial-time on graphs of bounded $\mathsf{tree-}\mu$. Lima, Milani\v{c}, Mur\v{s}i\v{c}, Okrasa, Rz\k{a}.zewski, and \v{S}torgel [ESA '24] conjectured that this algorithm can be generalized to a meta-problem called Maximum-Weight Induced Subgraph of Bounded Treewidth, where we are given a vertex-weighted graph $G$, an integer $w$, and a $\mathsf{CMSO}_2$-sentence $\Phi$, and are asked to find a maximum-weight set $X \subseteq V(G)$ so that $G[X]$ has treewidth at most $w$ and satisfies $\Phi$. They proved the conjecture for some special cases, such as for the problem Maximum-Weight Induced Forest. In this paper, we prove the general case of the conjecture. In particular, we show that Maximum-Weight Induced Subgraph of Bounded Treewidth is polynomial-time solvable when $\mathsf{tree-}\mu(G)$, $w$, and $|\Phi|$ are bounded. The running time of our algorithm for $n$-vertex graphs $G$ with $\mathsf{tree} - \mu(G) \le k$ is $f(k, w, |\Phi|) \cdot n^{O(k w^2)}$ for a computable function $f$.