Invitation to Fixed-Parameter Algorithms

This research-level text is an application-oriented introduction to the growing and highly topical area of the development and analysis of efficient fixed-parameter algorithms for optimally solving computationally hard combinatorial problems.The book is divided into three parts: a broad introduction that provides the general philosophy and motivation; followed by coverage of algorithmic methods developed over the years in fixed-parameter algorithmics forming the core of the book; and a discussion of the essentials from parameterized hardness theory with a focus on W[1]-hardness which parallels