549 research outputs found
Solving Hard Computational Problems Efficiently: Asymptotic Parametric Complexity 3-Coloring Algorithm
Many practical problems in almost all scientific and technological
disciplines have been classified as computationally hard (NP-hard or even
NP-complete). In life sciences, combinatorial optimization problems frequently
arise in molecular biology, e.g., genome sequencing; global alignment of
multiple genomes; identifying siblings or discovery of dysregulated pathways.In
almost all of these problems, there is the need for proving a hypothesis about
certain property of an object that can be present only when it adopts some
particular admissible structure (an NP-certificate) or be absent (no admissible
structure), however, none of the standard approaches can discard the hypothesis
when no solution can be found, since none can provide a proof that there is no
admissible structure. This article presents an algorithm that introduces a
novel type of solution method to "efficiently" solve the graph 3-coloring
problem; an NP-complete problem. The proposed method provides certificates
(proofs) in both cases: present or absent, so it is possible to accept or
reject the hypothesis on the basis of a rigorous proof. It provides exact
solutions and is polynomial-time (i.e., efficient) however parametric. The only
requirement is sufficient computational power, which is controlled by the
parameter . Nevertheless, here it is proved that the
probability of requiring a value of to obtain a solution for a
random graph decreases exponentially: , making
tractable almost all problem instances. Thorough experimental analyses were
performed. The algorithm was tested on random graphs, planar graphs and
4-regular planar graphs. The obtained experimental results are in accordance
with the theoretical expected results.Comment: Working pape
Planar graph coloring avoiding monochromatic subgraphs: trees and paths make things difficult
We consider the problem of coloring a planar graph with the minimum number of colors such that each color class avoids one or more forbidden graphs as subgraphs. We perform a detailed study of the computational complexity of this problem
-WORM colorings of graphs: Lower chromatic number and gaps in the chromatic spectrum
A -WORM coloring of a graph is an assignment of colors to the
vertices in such a way that the vertices of each -subgraph of get
precisely two colors. We study graphs which admit at least one such
coloring. We disprove a conjecture of Goddard et al. [Congr. Numer., 219 (2014)
161--173] who asked whether every such graph has a -WORM coloring with two
colors. In fact for every integer there exists a -WORM colorable
graph in which the minimum number of colors is exactly . There also exist
-WORM colorable graphs which have a -WORM coloring with two colors
and also with colors but no coloring with any of colors. We
also prove that it is NP-hard to determine the minimum number of colors and
NP-complete to decide -colorability for every (and remains
intractable even for graphs of maximum degree 9 if ). On the other hand,
we prove positive results for -degenerate graphs with small , also
including planar graphs. Moreover we point out a fundamental connection with
the theory of the colorings of mixed hypergraphs. We list many open problems at
the end.Comment: 18 page
Exhaustive generation of -critical -free graphs
We describe an algorithm for generating all -critical -free
graphs, based on a method of Ho\`{a}ng et al. Using this algorithm, we prove
that there are only finitely many -critical -free graphs, for
both and . We also show that there are only finitely many
-critical graphs -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 -colorability problem in the respective classes.
Moreover, we prove that for every , the class of 4-critical planar
-free graphs is finite. We also determine all 27 4-critical planar
-free graphs.
We also prove that every -free graph of girth at least five is
3-colorable, and determine the smallest 4-chromatic -free graph of
girth five. Moreover, we show that every -free graph of girth at least
six and every -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
Conflict-Free Coloring of Planar Graphs
A conflict-free k-coloring of a graph assigns one of k different colors to
some of the vertices such that, for every vertex v, there is a color that is
assigned to exactly one vertex among v and v's neighbors. Such colorings have
applications in wireless networking, robotics, and geometry, and are
well-studied in graph theory. Here we study the natural problem of the
conflict-free chromatic number chi_CF(G) (the smallest k for which
conflict-free k-colorings exist). We provide results both for closed
neighborhoods N[v], for which a vertex v is a member of its neighborhood, and
for open neighborhoods N(v), for which vertex v is not a member of its
neighborhood.
For closed neighborhoods, we prove the conflict-free variant of the famous
Hadwiger Conjecture: If an arbitrary graph G does not contain K_{k+1} as a
minor, then chi_CF(G) <= k. For planar graphs, we obtain a tight worst-case
bound: three colors are sometimes necessary and always sufficient. We also give
a complete characterization of the computational complexity of conflict-free
coloring. Deciding whether chi_CF(G)<= 1 is NP-complete for planar graphs G,
but polynomial for outerplanar graphs. Furthermore, deciding whether
chi_CF(G)<= 2 is NP-complete for planar graphs G, but always true for
outerplanar graphs. For the bicriteria problem of minimizing the number of
colored vertices subject to a given bound k on the number of colors, we give a
full algorithmic characterization in terms of complexity and approximation for
outerplanar and planar graphs.
For open neighborhoods, we show that every planar bipartite graph has a
conflict-free coloring with at most four colors; on the other hand, we prove
that for k in {1,2,3}, it is NP-complete to decide whether a planar bipartite
graph has a conflict-free k-coloring. Moreover, we establish that any general}
planar graph has a conflict-free coloring with at most eight colors.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures; full version (to appear in SIAM Journal on
Discrete Mathematics) of extended abstract that appears in Proceeedings of
the Twenty-Eighth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA
2017), pp. 1951-196
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