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Abstract

Given a digraph $G = (V,E)$ with a set $U$ of vertices marked ``interesting,'' we want to find a smaller digraph $\RS{} = (V',E')$ with $V' \supseteq U$ in such a way that the reachabilities amongst those interesting vertices in $G$ and \RS{} are the same. So with respect to the reachability relations within $U$, the digraph \RS{} is a substitute for $G$. We show that while almost all graphs do not have reachability substitutes smaller than $\Ohmega(|U|^2/\log |U|)$, every planar graph has a reachability substitute of size $\Oh(|U| \log^2 |U|)$. Our result rests on two new structural results for planar dags, a separation procedure and a reachability theorem, which might be of independent interest.