- Series
- Graph Theory Seminar
- Time
- Tuesday, October 20, 2026 - 3:45pm for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
- Location
- Skiles 005
- Speaker
- Caleb McFarland – Georgia Tech – https://sites.google.com/view/caleb-mcfarland/
- Organizer
- Rose McCarty
We give a polynomial-time algorithm for finding a maximum weight independent set in a graph embedded in a surface of bounded genus and with a bounded number of vertex-disjoint odd faces. In particular, we obtain an algorithm for graphs with an even-faced embedding in the torus and for planar graphs with a bounded number of odd faces, answering a question of Thomassé (2018) and a question of Choi, Gorsky, Kim, McFarland, and Wiederrecht (2025) respectively. We reduce the original problem to finding a minimum cost non-negative integer circulation with homology constraints in a bidirected dual of the original graph. Joint work with Samuel Fiorini and Stefan Kober.