Approximately coloring graphs without long induced paths

It is an open problem whether the 3-coloring problem can be solved in polynomial time in the class of graphs that do not contain an induced path on $t$ vertices, for fixed $t$. We propose an algorithm that, given a 3-colorable graph without an induced path on $t$ vertices, computes a coloring with $\max\{5,2\lceil{\frac{t-1}{2}}\rceil-2\}$ many colors. If the input graph is triangle-free, we only need $\max\{4,\lceil{\frac{t-1}{2}}\rceil+1\}$ many colors. The running time of our algorithm is $O((3^{t-2}+t^2)m+n)$ if the input graph has $n$ vertices and $m$ edges

Exhaustive generation of kk-critical H\mathcal H-free graphs

We describe an algorithm for generating all $k$-critical $\mathcal H$-free graphs, based on a method of Ho\`{a}ng et al. Using this algorithm, we prove that there are only finitely many $4$-critical $(P_7,C_k)$-free graphs, for both $k=4$ and $k=5$. We also show that there are only finitely many $4$-critical graphs $(P_8,C_4)$-free graphs. For each case of these cases we also give the complete lists of critical graphs and vertex-critical graphs. These results generalize previous work by Hell and Huang, and yield certifying algorithms for the $3$-colorability problem in the respective classes. Moreover, we prove that for every $t$, the class of 4-critical planar $P_t$-free graphs is finite. We also determine all 27 4-critical planar $(P_7,C_6)$-free graphs. We also prove that every $P_{10}$-free graph of girth at least five is 3-colorable, and determine the smallest 4-chromatic $P_{12}$-free graph of girth five. Moreover, we show that every $P_{13}$-free graph of girth at least six and every $P_{16}$-free graph of girth at least seven is 3-colorable. This strengthens results of Golovach et al.Comment: 17 pages, improved girth results. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1504.0697

Deterministic Distributed Edge-Coloring via Hypergraph Maximal Matching

We present a deterministic distributed algorithm that computes a $(2\Delta-1)$-edge-coloring, or even list-edge-coloring, in any $n$-node graph with maximum degree $\Delta$, in $O(\log^7 \Delta \log n)$ rounds. This answers one of the long-standing open questions of \emph{distributed graph algorithms} from the late 1980s, which asked for a polylogarithmic-time algorithm. See, e.g., Open Problem 4 in the Distributed Graph Coloring book of Barenboim and Elkin. The previous best round complexities were $2^{O(\sqrt{\log n})}$ by Panconesi and Srinivasan [STOC'92] and $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{\Delta}) + O(\log^* n)$ by Fraigniaud, Heinrich, and Kosowski [FOCS'16]. A corollary of our deterministic list-edge-coloring also improves the randomized complexity of $(2\Delta-1)$-edge-coloring to poly$(\log\log n)$ rounds. The key technical ingredient is a deterministic distributed algorithm for \emph{hypergraph maximal matching}, which we believe will be of interest beyond this result. In any hypergraph of rank $r$ --- where each hyperedge has at most $r$ vertices --- with $n$ nodes and maximum degree $\Delta$, this algorithm computes a maximal matching in $O(r^5 \log^{6+\log r } \Delta \log n)$ rounds. This hypergraph matching algorithm and its extensions lead to a number of other results. In particular, a polylogarithmic-time deterministic distributed maximal independent set algorithm for graphs with bounded neighborhood independence, hence answering Open Problem 5 of Barenboim and Elkin's book, a $((\log \Delta/\varepsilon)^{O(\log (1/\varepsilon))})$-round deterministic algorithm for $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation of maximum matching, and a quasi-polylogarithmic-time deterministic distributed algorithm for orienting $\lambda$-arboricity graphs with out-degree at most $(1+\varepsilon)\lambda$, for any constant $\varepsilon>0$, hence partially answering Open Problem 10 of Barenboim and Elkin's book

Online Multi-Coloring with Advice

We consider the problem of online graph multi-coloring with advice. Multi-coloring is often used to model frequency allocation in cellular networks. We give several nearly tight upper and lower bounds for the most standard topologies of cellular networks, paths and hexagonal graphs. For the path, negative results trivially carry over to bipartite graphs, and our positive results are also valid for bipartite graphs. The advice given represents information that is likely to be available, studying for instance the data from earlier similar periods of time.Comment: IMADA-preprint-c

Extremal results in sparse pseudorandom graphs

Szemer\'edi's regularity lemma is a fundamental tool in extremal combinatorics. However, the original version is only helpful in studying dense graphs. In the 1990s, Kohayakawa and R\"odl proved an analogue of Szemer\'edi's regularity lemma for sparse graphs as part of a general program toward extending extremal results to sparse graphs. Many of the key applications of Szemer\'edi's regularity lemma use an associated counting lemma. In order to prove extensions of these results which also apply to sparse graphs, it remained a well-known open problem to prove a counting lemma in sparse graphs. The main advance of this paper lies in a new counting lemma, proved following the functional approach of Gowers, which complements the sparse regularity lemma of Kohayakawa and R\"odl, allowing us to count small graphs in regular subgraphs of a sufficiently pseudorandom graph. We use this to prove sparse extensions of several well-known combinatorial theorems, including the removal lemmas for graphs and groups, the Erd\H{o}s-Stone-Simonovits theorem and Ramsey's theorem. These results extend and improve upon a substantial body of previous work.Comment: 70 pages, accepted for publication in Adv. Mat

Glauber Dynamics on Trees and Hyperbolic Graphs

We study continuous time Glauber dynamics for random configurations with local constraints (e.g. proper coloring, Ising and Potts models) on finite graphs with $n$ vertices and of bounded degree. We show that the relaxation time (defined as the reciprocal of the spectral gap $|\lambda_1-\lambda_2|$) for the dynamics on trees and on planar hyperbolic graphs, is polynomial in $n$. For these hyperbolic graphs, this yields a general polynomial sampling algorithm for random configurations. We then show that if the relaxation time $\tau_2$ satisfies $\tau_2=O(1)$, then the correlation coefficient, and the mutual information, between any local function (which depends only on the configuration in a fixed window) and the boundary conditions, decays exponentially in the distance between the window and the boundary. For the Ising model on a regular tree, this condition is sharp.Comment: To appear in Probability Theory and Related Field