5,435 research outputs found
Complexity of colouring problems restricted to unichord-free and \{square,unichord\}-free graphs
A \emph{unichord} in a graph is an edge that is the unique chord of a cycle.
A \emph{square} is an induced cycle on four vertices. A graph is
\emph{unichord-free} if none of its edges is a unichord. We give a slight
restatement of a known structure theorem for unichord-free graphs and use it to
show that, with the only exception of the complete graph , every
square-free, unichord-free graph of maximum degree~3 can be total-coloured with
four colours. Our proof can be turned into a polynomial time algorithm that
actually outputs the colouring. This settles the class of square-free,
unichord-free graphs as a class for which edge-colouring is NP-complete but
total-colouring is polynomial
The Complexity of Change
Many combinatorial problems can be formulated as "Can I transform
configuration 1 into configuration 2, if certain transformations only are
allowed?". An example of such a question is: given two k-colourings of a graph,
can I transform the first k-colouring into the second one, by recolouring one
vertex at a time, and always maintaining a proper k-colouring? Another example
is: given two solutions of a SAT-instance, can I transform the first solution
into the second one, by changing the truth value one variable at a time, and
always maintaining a solution of the SAT-instance? Other examples can be found
in many classical puzzles, such as the 15-Puzzle and Rubik's Cube.
In this survey we shall give an overview of some older and more recent work
on this type of problem. The emphasis will be on the computational complexity
of the problems: how hard is it to decide if a certain transformation is
possible or not?Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure
Track Layouts of Graphs
A \emph{-track layout} of a graph consists of a (proper) vertex
-colouring of , a total order of each vertex colour class, and a
(non-proper) edge -colouring such that between each pair of colour classes
no two monochromatic edges cross. This structure has recently arisen in the
study of three-dimensional graph drawings. This paper presents the beginnings
of a theory of track layouts. First we determine the maximum number of edges in
a -track layout, and show how to colour the edges given fixed linear
orderings of the vertex colour classes. We then describe methods for the
manipulation of track layouts. For example, we show how to decrease the number
of edge colours in a track layout at the expense of increasing the number of
tracks, and vice versa. We then study the relationship between track layouts
and other models of graph layout, namely stack and queue layouts, and geometric
thickness. One of our principle results is that the queue-number and
track-number of a graph are tied, in the sense that one is bounded by a
function of the other. As corollaries we prove that acyclic chromatic number is
bounded by both queue-number and stack-number. Finally we consider track
layouts of planar graphs. While it is an open problem whether planar graphs
have bounded track-number, we prove bounds on the track-number of outerplanar
graphs, and give the best known lower bound on the track-number of planar
graphs.Comment: The paper is submitted for publication. Preliminary draft appeared as
Technical Report TR-2003-07, School of Computer Science, Carleton University,
Ottawa, Canad
On embeddings of CAT(0) cube complexes into products of trees
We prove that the contact graph of a 2-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex of maximum degree can be coloured with at most
colours, for a fixed constant . This implies
that (and the associated median graph) isometrically embeds in the
Cartesian product of at most trees, and that the event
structure whose domain is admits a nice labeling with
labels. On the other hand, we present an example of a
5-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex with uniformly bounded degrees of 0-cubes
which cannot be embedded into a Cartesian product of a finite number of trees.
This answers in the negative a question raised independently by F. Haglund, G.
Niblo, M. Sageev, and the first author of this paper.Comment: Some small corrections; main change is a correction of the
computation of the bounds in Theorem 1. Some figures repaire
Mixing graph colourings
This thesis investigates some problems related to graph colouring, or, more precisely, graph re-colouring. Informally, the basic question addressed can be phrased as follows. Suppose one is given a graph G whose vertices can be properly k-coloured, for some k ≥ 2. Is it possible to transform any k-colouring of G into any other by recolouring vertices of G one at a time, making sure a proper k-colouring of G is always maintained? If the answer is in the affirmative, G is said to be k-mixing. The related problem of deciding whether, given two k-colourings of G, it is possible to transform one into the other by recolouring vertices one at a time, always maintaining a proper k-colouring of G, is also considered.
These questions can be considered as having a bearing on certain mathematical and ‘real-world’ problems. In particular, being able to recolour any colouring of a given graph to any other colouring is a necessary pre-requisite for the method of sampling colourings known as Glauber dynamics. The results presented in this thesis may also find application in the context of frequency reassignment: given that the problem of assigning radio frequencies in a wireless communications network is often modelled as a graph colouring problem, the task of re-assigning frequencies in such a network can be thought of as a graph recolouring problem.
Throughout the thesis, the emphasis is on the algorithmic aspects and the computational complexity of the questions described above. In other words, how easily, in terms of computational resources used, can they be answered? Strong results are obtained for the k = 3 case of the first question, where a characterisation theorem for 3-mixing graphs is given. For the second question, a dichotomy theorem for the complexity of the problem is proved: the problem is solvable in polynomial time for k ≤ 3 and PSPACE-complete for k ≥ 4. In addition, the possible length of a shortest sequence of recolourings between two colourings is investigated, and an interesting connection between the tractability of the problem and its underlying structure is established. Some variants of the above problems are also explored
Thoughts on Barnette's Conjecture
We prove a new sufficient condition for a cubic 3-connected planar graph to
be Hamiltonian. This condition is most easily described as a property of the
dual graph. Let be a planar triangulation. Then the dual is a cubic
3-connected planar graph, and is bipartite if and only if is
Eulerian. We prove that if the vertices of are (improperly) coloured blue
and red, such that the blue vertices cover the faces of , there is no blue
cycle, and every red cycle contains a vertex of degree at most 4, then is
Hamiltonian.
This result implies the following special case of Barnette's Conjecture: if
is an Eulerian planar triangulation, whose vertices are properly coloured
blue, red and green, such that every red-green cycle contains a vertex of
degree 4, then is Hamiltonian. Our final result highlights the
limitations of using a proper colouring of as a starting point for proving
Barnette's Conjecture. We also explain related results on Barnette's Conjecture
that were obtained by Kelmans and for which detailed self-contained proofs have
not been published.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
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