2025/06/12 by Gima, Tatsuya, Kobayashi, Yasuaki, Okada, Yuto
#Data Structures and Algorithms (cs.DS) #FOS: Computer and information sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.10717
The concept of k-planarity is extensively studied in the context of Beyond Planarity. A graph is k-planar if it admits a drawing in the plane in which each edge is crossed at most k times. The local crossing number of a graph is the minimum integer k such that it is k-planar. The problem of determining whether an input graph is 1-planar is known to be NP-complete even for near-planar graphs [Cabello and Mohar, SIAM J. Comput. 2013], that is, the graphs obtained from planar graphs by adding a single edge. Moreover, the local crossing number is hard to approximate within a factor 2 - ε for any ε > 0 [Urschel and Wellens, IPL 2021]. To address this computational intractability, Bannister, Cabello, and Eppstein [JGAA 2018] investigated the parameterized complexity of the case of k = 1, particularly focusing on structural parameterizations on input graphs, such as treedepth, vertex cover number, and feedback edge number. In this paper, we extend their approach by considering the general case k ≥ 1 and give (tight) parameterized upper and lower bound results. In particular, we strengthen the aforementioned lower bound results to subclasses of constant-treewidth graphs: we show that testing 1-planarity is NP-complete even for near-planar graphs with feedback vertex set number at most 3 and pathwidth at most 4, and the local crossing number is hard to approximate within any constant factor for graphs with feedback vertex set number at most 2.