We obtain several new dynamic algorithms for maintaining the transitive closure of a directed graph, and several other algorithms for answering reachability queries without explicitly maintaining a transitive closure matrix. Among our algorithms are: (i) A decremental algorithm for maintaining the transitive closure of a directed graph, through an arbitrary sequence of edge deletions, in O(mn) total expected time, essentially the time needed for computing the transitive closure of the initial graph. Such a result was previously known only for acyclic graphs.

We study novel combinatorial properties of graphs that allow us to devise a completely new approach to dynamic all pairs shortest paths problems. Our approach yields a fully dynamic algorithm for general directed graphs with non-negative realvalued edge weights that supports any sequence of operations in O(n time per update and unit worst-case time per distance query, where n is the number of vertices. We can also report shortest paths in optimal worst-case time. These bounds improve substantially over previous results and solve a long-standing open problem. Our