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Home > Events > Invited Talks > 2025 > Timeline Cover in Temporal Graphs: Exact and Approximation Algorithms

Alexandru Popa

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

11:00 302-Mountain View and Zoom3 (https://zoom.us/j/3911012202, password:@s3)

Alexandru Popa, Professor, University of Bucharest

Timeline Cover in Temporal Graphs: Exact and Approximation Algorithms

Abstract:

In this talk we present a variant of vertex cover on temporal graphs that has been recently introduced for timeline activities summarization in social networks. The problem has been proved to be NP-hard, even in restricted cases. We present algorithmic contributions for the problem. First, we present an approximation algorithm of factor O(T log n), on a temporal graph of T timestamps and n vertices. Then, we consider the restriction where at most one temporal edge is defined in each timestamp. For this restriction, which has been recently shown to be NP-hard, we present a 4(T-1) approximation algorithm and a parameterized algorithm when the parameter is the cost (called span) of the solution.Joint work with Riccardo Dondi