Parameterized Complexity of Equitable Coloring

A graph on $n$ vertices is equitably $k$-colorable if it is $k$-colorable and every color is used either $\left\lfloor n/k \right\rfloor$ or $\left\lceil n/k \right\rceil$ times. Such a problem appears to be considerably harder than vertex coloring, being $\mathsf{NP\text{-}Complete}$ even for cographs and interval graphs. In this work, we prove that it is $\mathsf{W[1]\text{-}Hard}$ for block graphs and for disjoint union of split graphs when parameterized by the number of colors; and $\mathsf{W[1]\text{-}Hard}$ for $K_{1,4}$-free interval graphs when parameterized by treewidth, number of colors and maximum degree, generalizing a result by Fellows et al. (2014) through a much simpler reduction. Using a previous result due to Dominique de Werra (1985), we establish a dichotomy for the complexity of equitable coloring of chordal graphs based on the size of the largest induced star. Finally, we show that \textsc{equitable coloring} is $\mathsf{FPT}$ when parameterized by the treewidth of the complement graph

Parameterized complexity of coloring problems: Treewidth versus vertex cover

AbstractWe compare the fixed parameter complexity of various variants of coloring problems (including List Coloring, Precoloring Extension, Equitable Coloring, L(p,1)-Labeling and Channel Assignment) when parameterized by treewidth and by vertex cover number. In most (but not all) cases we conclude that parametrization by the vertex cover number provides a significant drop in the complexity of the problems

On the complexity of some colorful problems parameterized by treewidth

In this paper,we study the complexity of several coloring problems on graphs, parameterizedby the treewidth of the graph.1. The List Coloring problem takes as input a graph G, togetherwith an assignment to each vertex v of a set of colors Cv. The problem is to determinewhether it is possible to choose a color for vertex v from the set of permitted colors Cv, for each vertex, so that the obtained coloring of G is proper. We show that this problem is W[1]-hard, parameterized by the treewidth of G. The closely related Precoloring Extension problem is also shown to be W[1]-hard, parameterized by treewidth.2. An equitable coloring of a graph G is a proper coloring of the verticeswhere the numbers of vertices having any two distinct colors differs by at most one.We show that the problem is hard forW[1], parameterized by the treewidth plus the number of colors.We also show that a list-based variation, List Equitable Coloring is W[1]-hard for forests, parameterizedby the number of colors on the lists.3. The list chromatic number χl(G) of a graph G is defined to be the smallest positive integer r, such that for every assignment to the vertices v of G, of a list Lv of colors, where each list has length at least r, there is a choice of one color fromeach vertex list Lv yielding a proper coloring of G. We show that the problem of determining whether χl(G) ≤ r, the ListChromatic Number problem, is solvable in linear time on graphs of constant treewidth