We provide a polynomial-time algorithm for b-Coloring on graphs of constant clique-width. This unifies and extends nearly all previously known polynomial time results on graph classes, and answers open questions posed by Campos and Silva [Algorithmica, 2018] and Bonomo et al. [Graphs Combin., 2009]. This constitutes the first result concerning structural parameterizations of this problem. We show that the problem is FPT when parameterized by the vertex cover number on general graphs, and on chordal graphs when parameterized by the number of colors. Additionally, we observe that our algorithm for graphs of bounded clique-width can be adapted to solve the Fall Coloring problem within the same runtime bound. The running times of the clique-width based algorithms for b-Coloring and Fall Coloring are tight under the Exponential Time Hypothesis.
In this paper, we study several coloring problems on graphs from the viewpoint of parameterized complexity. We show that Precoloring Extension is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) parameterized by distance to clique and Equitable Coloring is FPT parameterized by the distance to threshold graphs. We also study the List k-Coloring and show that the problem is NP-complete on split graphs and it is FPT parameterized by solution size on split graphs.
Given an undirected graph $G = (V,E)$ with a set $V$ of vertices and a set $E$ of edges, the minimum sum coloring problem (MSCP) is to find a legal vertex coloring of $G$, using colors represented by natural numbers $1, 2, . . .$ such that the total sum of the colors assigned to the vertices is minimized. This paper describes an approach based on the decomposition of the original graph into disjoint cliques for computing lower bounds for the MSCP. Basically, the proposed approach identifies and removes at each extraction iteration a maximum number of cliques of the same size (the largest possi…
Maximum Clique Problem(MCP) is one of the 21 original NP--complete problems enumerated by Karp in 1972. In recent years a large number of exact methods to solve MCP have been appeared(Babel, Wood, Kumlander, Fahle, Li, Tomita and etc). Most of them are branch and bound algorithms that use branching rule introduced by Balas and Yu and based on coloring heuristics to establish an upper bound on the clique number. They differ from each other primarily in vertex preordering and vertex coloring methods. Current methods of worst case running time analysis for branch and bound algorithms do not allow…
A clique coloring of a graph is an assignment of colors to its vertices such that no maximal clique is monochromatic. We initiate the study of structural parameterizations of the Clique Coloring problem which asks whether a given graph has a clique coloring with $q$ colors. For fixed $q \ge 2$, we give an $\mathcal{O}^{\star}(q^{tw})$-time algorithm when the input graph is given together with one of its tree decompositions of width $tw$. We complement this result with a matching lower bound under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis. We furthermore show that (when the number of colors is unb…
We investigate a variation of the graph coloring game, as studied in [2]. In the original coloring game, two players, Alice and Bob, alternate coloring vertices on a graph with legal colors from a fixed color set, where a color α is legal for a vertex if said vertex has no neighbors colored α. Other variations of the game change this definition of a legal color. For a fixed color set, Alice wins the game if all vertices are colored when the game ends, while Bob wins if there is a point in the game in which a vertex cannot be assigned a legal color. The least number of colors needed for Alice t…
In this paper, we present improved algorithms for the $(Δ+1)$ (vertex) coloring problem in the Congested-Clique model of distributed computing. In this model, the input is a graph on $n$ nodes, initially each node knows only its incident edges, and per round each two nodes can exchange $O(\log n)$ bits of information. Our key result is a randomized $(Δ+1)$ vertex coloring algorithm that works in $O(\log\log Δ\cdot \log^* Δ)$-rounds. This is achieved by combining the recent breakthrough result of [Chang-Li-Pettie, STOC'18] in the \local\ model and a degree reduction technique. We also get the f…
Motivated by the definition of linear coloring on simplicial complexes, recently introduced in the context of algebraic topology \cite{Civan}, and the framework through which it was studied, we introduce the linear coloring on graphs. We provide an upper bound for the chromatic number $χ(G)$, for any graph $G$, and show that $G$ can be linearly colored in polynomial time by proposing a simple linear coloring algorithm. Based on these results, we define a new class of perfect graphs, which we call co-linear graphs, and study their complement graphs, namely linear graphs. The linear coloring of …
An $n$-vertex graph is equitably $k$-colorable if there is a proper coloring of its vertices such that each color is used either $\left\lfloor n/k \right\rfloor$ or $\left\lceil n/k \right\rceil$ times. While classic Vertex Coloring is fixed parameter tractable under well established parameters such as pathwidth and feedback vertex set, Equitable Coloring is $\mathsf{W}[1]$-$\mathsf{hard}$. We present an extensive study of structural parameterizations of Equitable Coloring, tackling both tractability and kernelization questions. We begin by showing that the problem is fixed parameter tractable…
Golovach, Paulusma and Song (Inf. Comput. 2014) asked to determine the parameterized complexity of the following problems parameterized by $k$: (1) Given a graph $G$, a clique modulator $D$ (a clique modulator is a set of vertices, whose removal results in a clique) of size $k$ for $G$, and a list $L(v)$ of colors for every $v\in V(G)$, decide whether $G$ has a proper list coloring; (2) Given a graph $G$, a clique modulator $D$ of size $k$ for $G$, and a pre-coloring $λ_P: X \rightarrow Q$ for $X \subseteq V(G),$ decide whether $λ_P$ can be extended to a proper coloring of $G$ using only color…
We investigate the parameterized complexity of the following edge coloring problem motivated by the problem of channel assignment in wireless networks. For an integer q>1 and a graph G, the goal is to find a coloring of the edges of G with the maximum number of colors such that every vertex of the graph sees at most q colors. This problem is NP-hard for q>1, and has been well-studied from the point of view of approximation. Our main focus is the case when q=2, which is already theoretically intricate and practically relevant. We show fixed-parameter tractable algorithms for both the standard a…
Let $G$ be a graph such that each vertex has its list of available colors, and assume that each list is a subset of the common set consisting of $k$ colors. For two given list colorings of $G$, we study the problem of transforming one into the other by changing only one vertex color assignment at a time, while at all times maintaining a list coloring. This problem is known to be PSPACE-complete even for bounded bandwidth graphs and a fixed constant $k$. In this paper, we study the fixed-parameter tractability of the problem when parameterized by several graph parameters. We first give a fixed-…
We present new randomized algorithms that improve the complexity of the classic $(Δ+1)$-coloring problem, and its generalization $(Δ+1)$-list-coloring, in three well-studied models of distributed, parallel, and centralized computation: Distributed Congested Clique: We present an $O(1)$-round randomized algorithm for $(Δ+1)$-list coloring in the congested clique model of distributed computing. This settles the asymptotic complexity of this problem. It moreover improves upon the $O(\log^\ast Δ)$-round randomized algorithms of Parter and Su [DISC'18] and $O((\log\log Δ)\cdot \log^\ast Δ)$-round r…
We revisit the complexity of the classical $k$-Coloring problem parameterized by clique-width. This is a very well-studied problem that becomes highly intractable when the number of colors $k$ is large. However, much less is known on its complexity for small, concrete values of $k$. In this paper, we completely determine the complexity of $k$-Coloring parameterized by clique-width for any fixed $k$, under the SETH. Specifically, we show that for all $k\ge 3,ε>0$, $k$-Coloring cannot be solved in time $O^*((2^k-2-ε)^{cw})$, and give an algorithm running in time $O^*((2^k-2)^{cw})$. Thus, if the…
We show that the $b$-Coloring problem is complete for the class XNLP when parameterized by the pathwidth of the input graph. Besides determining the precise parameterized complexity of this problem, this implies that b-Coloring parameterized by pathwidth is $W[t]$-hard for all $t$, and resolves the parameterized complexity of $b$-Coloring parameterized by treewidth.
An acyclic r-coloring of a directed graph G=(V,E) is a partition of the vertex set V into r acyclic sets. The dichromatic number of a directed graph G is the smallest r such that G allows an acyclic r-coloring. For symmetric digraphs the dichromatic number equals the well-known chromatic number of the underlying undirected graph. This allows us to carry over the W[1]-hardness and lower bounds for running times of the chromatic number problem parameterized by clique-width to the dichromatic number problem parameterized by directed clique-width. We introduce the first polynomial-time algorithm f…
Let $c, k$ be two positive integers and let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph. The $(c,k)$-Load Coloring Problem (denoted $(c,k)$-LCP) asks whether there is a $c$-coloring $φ: V \rightarrow [c]$ such that for every $i \in [c]$, there are at least $k$ edges with both endvertices colored $i$. Gutin and Jones (IPL 2014) studied this problem with $c=2$. They showed $(2,k)$-LCP to be fixed parameter tractable (FPT) with parameter $k$ by obtaining a kernel with at most $7k$ vertices. In this paper, we extend the study to any fixed $c$ by giving both a linear-vertex and a linear-edge kernel. In the particular cas…
We present a new combinatorial model for identifying regulatory modules in gene co-expression data using a decomposition into weighted cliques. To capture complex interaction effects, we generalize the previously-studied weighted edge clique partition problem. As a first step, we restrict ourselves to the noise-free setting, and show that the problem is fixed parameter tractable when parameterized by the number of modules (cliques). We present two new algorithms for finding these decompositions, using linear programming and integer partitioning to determine the clique weights. Further, we impl…
We consider problems that can be formulated as a task of finding an optimal triangulation of a graph w.r.t. some notion of optimality. We present algorithms parameterized by the size of a minimum edge clique cover ($cc$) to such problems. This parameterization occurs naturally in many problems in this setting, e.g., in the perfect phylogeny problem $cc$ is at most the number of taxa, in fractional hypertreewidth $cc$ is at most the number of hyperedges, and in treewidth of Bayesian networks $cc$ is at most the number of non-root nodes. We show that the number of minimal separators of graphs is…
We continue the study initiated by Bonomo-Braberman and Gonzalez in 2020 on $r$-locally checkable problems. We propose a dynamic programming algorithm that takes as input a graph with an associated clique-width expression and solves a $1$-locally checkable problem under certain restrictions. We show that it runs in polynomial time in graphs of bounded clique-width, when the number of colors of the locally checkable problem is fixed. Furthermore, we present a first extension of our framework to global properties by taking into account the sizes of the color classes, and consequently enlarge the…
In this paper, we study the conflict-free coloring of graphs induced by neighborhoods. A coloring of a graph is conflict-free if every vertex has a uniquely colored vertex in its neighborhood. The conflict-free coloring problem is to color the vertices of a graph using the minimum number of colors such that the coloring is conflict-free. We consider both closed neighborhoods, where the neighborhood of a vertex includes itself, and open neighborhoods, where a vertex does not included in its neighborhood. We study the parameterized complexity of conflict-free closed neighborhood coloring and con…
The k-Clique problem is a fundamental combinatorial problem that plays a prominent role in classical as well as in parameterized complexity theory. It is among the most well-known NP-complete and W[1]-complete problems. Moreover, its average-case complexity analysis has created a long thread of research already since the 1970s. Here, we continue this line of research by studying the dependence of the average-case complexity of the k-Clique problem on the parameter k. To this end, we define two natural parameterized analogs of efficient average-case algorithms. We then show that k-Clique admits…
We study the weighted improper coloring problem, a generalization of defective coloring. We present some hardness results and in particular we show that weighted improper coloring is not fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by pathwidth. We generalize bounds for defective coloring to weighted improper coloring and give a bound for weighted improper coloring in terms of the sum of edge weights. Finally we give fixed-parameter algorithms for weighted improper coloring both when parameterized by treewidth and maximum degree and when parameterized by treewidth and precision of edge weights…
The Rainbow k-Coloring problem asks whether the edges of a given graph can be colored in $k$ colors so that every pair of vertices is connected by a rainbow path, i.e., a path with all edges of different colors. Our main result states that for any $k\ge 2$, there is no algorithm for Rainbow k-Coloring running in time $2^{o(n^{3/2})}$, unless ETH fails. Motivated by this negative result we consider two parameterized variants of the problem. In Subset Rainbow k-Coloring problem, introduced by Chakraborty et al. [STACS 2009, J. Comb. Opt. 2009], we are additionally given a set $S$ of pairs of ver…
We study the computational complexity of two related problems: recovering a planted $q$-coloring in $G(n,1/2)$, and finding efficiently verifiable witnesses of non-$q$-colorability (a.k.a. refutations) in $G(n,1/2)$. Our main results show hardness for both these problems in a restricted-but-powerful class of algorithms based on computing low-degree polynomials in the inputs. The problem of recovering a planted $q$-coloring is equivalent to recovering $q$ disjoint planted cliques that cover all the vertices -- a potentially easier variant of the well-studied planted clique problem. Our first re…
We settle the complexity of the $(Δ+1)$-coloring and $(Δ+1)$-list coloring problems in the CONGESTED CLIQUE model by presenting a simple deterministic algorithm for both problems running in a constant number of rounds. This matches the complexity of the recent breakthrough randomized constant-round $(Δ+1)$-list coloring algorithm due to Chang et al. (PODC'19), and significantly improves upon the state-of-the-art $O(\log Δ)$-round deterministic $(Δ+1)$-coloring bound of Parter (ICALP'18). A remarkable property of our algorithm is its simplicity. Whereas the state-of-the-art randomized algorithm…
In this paper, we obtain polynomial time algorithms to determine the acyclic chromatic number, the star chromatic number, the Thue chromatic number, the harmonious chromatic number and the clique chromatic number of $P_4$-tidy graphs and $(q,q-4)$-graphs, for every fixed $q$. These classes include cographs, $P_4$-sparse and $P_4$-lite graphs. All these coloring problems are known to be NP-hard for general graphs. These algorithms are fixed parameter tractable on the parameter $q(G)$, which is the minimum $q$ such that $G$ is a $(q,q-4)$-graph. We also prove that every connected $(q,q-4)$-graph…
We show that a graph with $n$ vertices and vertex cover of size $k$ has at most $4^k + n$ potential maximal cliques. We also show that for each positive integer $k$, there exists a graph with vertex cover of size $k$, $O(k^2)$ vertices, and $Ω(4^k)$ potential maximal cliques. Our results extend the results of Fomin, Liedloff, Montealegre, and Todinca [Algorithmica, 80(4):1146--1169, 2018], who proved an upper bound of $poly(n) 4^k$, but left the lower bound as an open problem.
Many NP-hard problems, such as Dominating Set, are FPT parameterized by clique-width. For graphs of clique-width $k$ given with a $k$-expression, Dominating Set can be solved in $4^k n^{O(1)}$ time. However, no FPT algorithm is known for computing an optimal $k$-expression. For a graph of clique-width $k$, if we rely on known algorithms to compute a $(2^{3k}-1)$-expression via rank-width and then solving Dominating Set using the $(2^{3k}-1)$-expression, the above algorithm will only give a runtime of $4^{2^{3k}} n^{O(1)}$. There have been results which overcome this exponential jump; the best …
The complexity of problems involving global constraints is usually much more difficult to understand than the complexity of problems only involving local constraints. A natural form of global constraints are connectivity constraints. We study connectivity problems from a fine-grained parameterized perspective. In a breakthrough, Cygan et al. (TALG 2022) first obtained algorithms with single-exponential running time c^{tw} n^O(1) for connectivity problems parameterized by treewidth by introducing the cut-and-count-technique. Furthermore, the obtained bases c were shown to be optimal under the S…
The main results of this paper are (I) a simulation algorithm which, under quite general constraints, transforms algorithms running on the Congested Clique into algorithms running in the MapReduce model, and (II) a distributed $O(Δ)$-coloring algorithm running on the Congested Clique which has an expected running time of (i) $O(1)$ rounds, if $Δ\geq Θ(\log^4 n)$; and (ii) $O(\log \log n)$ rounds otherwise. Applying the simulation theorem to the Congested-Clique $O(Δ)$-coloring algorithm yields an $O(1)$-round $O(Δ)$-coloring algorithm in the MapReduce model. Our simulation algorithm illustrate…
In this paper we give upper bounds on the number of minimal separators and potential maximal cliques of graphs w.r.t. two graph parameters, namely vertex cover ($\operatorname{vc}$) and modular width ($\operatorname{mw}$). We prove that for any graph, the number of minimal separators is $\mathcal{O}^*(3^{\operatorname{vc}})$ and $\mathcal{O}^*(1.6181^{\operatorname{mw}})$, and the number of potential maximal cliques is $\mathcal{O}^*(4^{\operatorname{vc}})$ and $\mathcal{O}^*(1.7347^{\operatorname{mw}})$, and these objects can be listed within the same running times. (The $\mathcal{O}^*$ notat…
The field of kernelization studies polynomial-time preprocessing routines for hard problems in the framework of parameterized complexity. Although a framework for proving kernelization lower bounds has been discovered in 2008 and successfully applied multiple times over the last three years, establishing kernelization complexity of many important problems remains open. In this paper we show that, unless NP is a subset of coNP/poly and the polynomial hierarchy collapses up to its third level, the following parameterized problems do not admit a polynomial-time preprocessing algorithm that reduce…
We study the parameterized complexity of the classical Edge Hamiltonian Path problem and give several fixed-parameter tractability results. First, we settle an open question of Demaine et al. by showing that Edge Hamiltonian Path is FPT parameterized by vertex cover, and that it also admits a cubic kernel. We then show fixed-parameter tractability even for a generalization of the problem to arbitrary hypergraphs, parameterized by the size of a (supplied) hitting set. We also consider the problem parameterized by treewidth or clique-width. Surprisingly, we show that the problem is FPT for both …
The main goal of this paper is to formalize and explore a connection between chromatic properties of graphs with geometric representations and competitive analysis of on-line algorithms, which became apparent after the recent construction of triangle-free geometric intersection graphs with arbitrarily large chromatic number due to Pawlik et al. We show that on-line graph coloring problems give rise to classes of game graphs with a natural geometric interpretation. We use this concept to estimate the chromatic number of graphs with geometric representations by finding, for appropriate simpler g…
Consider a graph $G = (V,E)$ and a coloring $c$ of vertices with colors from $[\ell]$. A vertex $v$ is said to be happy with respect to $c$ if $c(v) = c(u)$ for all neighbors $u$ of $v$. Further, an edge $(u,v)$ is happy if $c(u) = c(v)$. Given a partial coloring $c$ of $V$, the Maximum Happy Vertex (Edge) problem asks for a total coloring of $V$ extending $c$ to all vertices of $V$ that maximises the number of happy vertices (edges). Both problems are known to be NP-hard in general even when $\ell = 3$, and is polynomially solvable when $\ell = 2$. In [IWOCA 2016] it was shown that both probl…
Given a graph G, a q-open neighborhood conflict-free coloring or q-ONCF-coloring is a vertex coloring $c:V(G) \rightarrow \{1,2,\ldots,q\}$ such that for each vertex $v \in V(G)$ there is a vertex in $N(v)$ that is uniquely colored from the rest of the vertices in $N(v)$. When we replace $N(v)$ by the closed neighborhood $N[v]$, then we call such a coloring a q-closed neighborhood conflict-free coloring or simply q-CNCF-coloring. In this paper, we study the NP-hard decision questions of whether for a constant q an input graph has a q-ONCF-coloring or a q-CNCF-coloring. We will study these two …
Treewidth is an important graph invariant, relevant for both structural and algorithmic reasons. A necessary condition for a graph class to have bounded treewidth is the absence of large cliques. We study graph classes closed under taking induced subgraphs in which this condition is also sufficient, which we call $(tw,ω)$-bounded. Such graph classes are known to have useful algorithmic applications related to variants of the clique and $k$-coloring problems. We consider six well-known graph containment relations: the minor, topological minor, subgraph, induced minor, induced topological minor,…
One way to state the Load Coloring Problem (LCP) is as follows. Let $G=(V,E)$ be graph and let $f:V\rightarrow \{{\rm red}, {\rm blue}\}$ be a 2-coloring. An edge $e\in E$ is called red (blue) if both end-vertices of $e$ are red (blue). For a 2-coloring $f$, let $r'_f$ and $b'_f$ be the number of red and blue edges and let $μ_f(G)=\min\{r'_f,b'_f\}$. Let $μ(G)$ be the maximum of $μ_f(G)$ over all 2-colorings. We introduce the parameterized problem $k$-LCP of deciding whether $μ(G)\ge k$, where $k$ is the parameter. We prove that this problem admits a kernel with at most $7k$. Ahuja et al. (200…
It is known that a number of natural graph problems which are FPT parameterized by treewidth become W-hard when parameterized by clique-width. It is therefore desirable to find a different structural graph parameter which is as general as possible, covers dense graphs but does not incur such a heavy algorithmic penalty. The main contribution of this paper is to consider a parameter called modular-width, defined using the well-known notion of modular decompositions. Using a combination of ILPs and dynamic programming we manage to design FPT algorithms for Coloring and Partitioning into paths (a…
The $q$-Coloring problem asks whether the vertices of a graph can be properly colored with $q$ colors. Lokshtanov et al. [SODA 2011] showed that $q$-Coloring on graphs with a feedback vertex set of size $k$ cannot be solved in time $\mathcal{O}^*((q-\varepsilon)^k)$, for any $\varepsilon > 0$, unless the Strong Exponential-Time Hypothesis (SETH) fails. In this paper we perform a fine-grained analysis of the complexity of $q$-Coloring with respect to a hierarchy of parameters. We show that even when parameterized by the vertex cover number, $q$ must appear in the base of the exponent: Unless ET…
Many hard graph problems can be solved efficiently when restricted to graphs of bounded treewidth, and more generally to graphs of bounded clique-width. But there is a price to be paid for this generality, exemplified by the four problems MaxCut, Graph Coloring, Hamiltonian Cycle and Edge Dominating Set that are all FPT parameterized by treewidth but none of which can be FPT parameterized by clique-width unless FPT = W[1], as shown by Fomin et al [7, 8]. We therefore seek a structural graph parameter that shares some of the generality of clique-width without paying this price. Based on splits,…
A Star Coloring of a graph G is a proper vertex coloring such that every path on four vertices uses at least three distinct colors. The minimum number of colors required for such a star coloring of G is called star chromatic number, denoted by χ_s(G). Given a graph G and a positive integer k, the STAR COLORING PROBLEM asks whether $G$ has a star coloring using at most k colors. This problem is NP-complete even on restricted graph classes such as bipartite graphs. In this paper, we initiate a study of STAR COLORING from the parameterized complexity perspective. We show that STAR COLORING is fix…
In Raman (2007), using a column construction technique it is proved that every interval graph can be colored online with First Fit with at most $8w(G)$ colors, where $w(G)$ is the size of the maximum clique of $G$. Since the column construction can not be adapted to circular arc graphs we give a different proof to establish an upper bound of $9w(G)$ for online coloring a circular arc graph $G$ with the First Fit algorithm.
Kierstead and Trotter (Congressus Numerantium 33, 1981) proved that their algorithm is an optimal online algorithm for the online interval coloring problem. In this paper, for online unit interval coloring, we show that the number of colors used by the Kierstead-Trotter algorithm is at most $3 ω(G) - 3$, where $ω(G)$ is the size of the maximum clique in a given graph $G$, and it is the best possible.
In this paper we study a problem of vertex two-coloring of undirected graph such that there is no monochromatic cycle of given length. We show that this problem is hard to solve. We give a proof by presenting a reduction from variation of satisfiability (SAT) problem. We show nice properties of coloring cliques with two colors which plays pivotal role in the reduction construction.
The maximum edge-weight clique problem is to find a clique whose sum of edge-weight is the maximum for a given edge-weighted undirected graph. The problem is NP-hard and some branch-and-bound algorithms have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a new exact algorithm based on branch-and-bound. It assigns edge-weights to vertices and calculates upper bounds using vertex coloring. By some computational experiments, we confirmed our algorithm is faster than previous algorithms.
