Hardness of Computing Clique Number and Chromatic Number For Cayley Graphs

Computing the clique number and chromatic number of a general graph are well-known NP-Hard problems. Codenotti et al. (Bruno Codenotti, Ivan Gerace, and Sebastiano Vigna. Hardness results and spectral techniques for combinatorial problems on circulant graphs. \emph{Linear Algebra Appl.}, 285(1-3): 123--142, 1998) showed that computing clique number and chromatic number are still NP-Hard problems for the class of circulant graphs. We show that computing clique number is NP-Hard for the class of Cayley graphs for the groups $G^n$, where $G$ is any fixed finite group (e.g., cubelike graphs). We also show that computing chromatic number cannot be done in polynomial time (under the assumption $\text{P}\neq \text{NP}$) for the same class of graphs. Our presentation uses free Cayley graphs. The proof combines free Cayley graphs with quotient graphs and Goppa codes.Comment: 27 page

On free products of graphs

We define a free product of connected simple graphs that is equivalent to several existing definitions when the graphs are vertex-transitive but differs otherwise. The new definition is designed for the automorphism group of the free product to be as large as possible, and we give sufficient criteria for it to be non-discrete. Finally, we transfer Tits' classification of automorphisms of trees and simplicity criterion to free products of graphs.Comment: 18 page