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On the phase transitions of graph coloring and independent sets
We study combinatorial indicators related to the characteristic phase
transitions associated with coloring a graph optimally and finding a maximum
independent set. In particular, we investigate the role of the acyclic
orientations of the graph in the hardness of finding the graph's chromatic
number and independence number. We provide empirical evidence that, along a
sequence of increasingly denser random graphs, the fraction of acyclic
orientations that are `shortest' peaks when the chromatic number increases, and
that such maxima tend to coincide with locally easiest instances of the
problem. Similar evidence is provided concerning the `widest' acyclic
orientations and the independence number
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