Twin-width IV: low complexity matrices
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We establish a list of characterizations of bounded twin-width for hereditary, totally ordered binary structures. This has several consequences. First, it allows us to show that a (hereditary) class of matrices on a finite alphabet either contains at least n! matrices of size n × n, or at most c^n for some constant c. This generalizes the celebrated Stanley-Wilf conjecture/Marcus-Tardos theorem from permutation classes to any matrix class on a finite alphabet, answers our small conjecture [SODA '21] in the case of ordered graphs, and with more work, settles a question first asked by Balogh, Bollobás, and Morris [Eur. J. Comb. '06] on the growth of hereditary classes of ordered graphs. Second, it gives a fixed-parameter approximation algorithm for twin-width on ordered graphs. Third, it yields a full classification of fixed-parameter tractable first-order model checking on hereditary classes of ordered binary structures. Fourth, it provides an alternative proof to a model-theoretic characterization of classes with bounded twin-width announced by Simon and Toruńczyk.
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