Exponential Time Complexity of the Permanent and the Tutte Polynomial

We show conditional lower bounds for well-studied #P-hard problems: (a) The number of satisfying assignments of a 2-CNF formula with n variables cannot be counted in time exp(o(n)), and the same is true for computing the number of all independent sets in an n-vertex graph. (b) The permanent of an n x n matrix with entries 0 and 1 cannot be computed in time exp(o(n)). (c) The Tutte polynomial of an n-vertex multigraph cannot be computed in time exp(o(n)) at most evaluation points (x,y) in the case of multigraphs, and it cannot be computed in time exp(o(n/polylog n)) in the case of simple graphs. Our lower bounds are relative to (variants of) the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), which says that the satisfiability of n-variable 3-CNF formulas cannot be decided in time exp(o(n)). We relax this hypothesis by introducing its counting version #ETH, namely that the satisfying assignments cannot be counted in time exp(o(n)). In order to use #ETH for our lower bounds, we transfer the sparsification lemma for d-CNF formulas to the counting setting

Parallel O(log(n)) time edge-colouring of trees and Halin graphs

We present parallel O(log(n))-time algorithms for optimal edge colouring of trees and Halin graphs with n processors on a a parallel random access machine without write conflicts (P-RAM). In the case of Halin graphs with a maximum degree of three, the colouring algorithm automatically finds every Hamiltonian cycle of the graph

Edge-colouring graphs with local list sizes

The famous List Colouring Conjecture from the 1970s states that for every graph $G$ the chromatic index of $G$ is equal to its list chromatic index. In 1996 in a seminal paper, Kahn proved that the List Colouring Conjecture holds asymptotically. Our main result is a local generalization of Kahn's theorem. More precisely, we show that, for a graph $G$ with sufficiently large maximum degree $\Delta$ and minimum degree $\delta \geq \ln^{25} \Delta$, the following holds: for every assignment of lists of colours to the edges of $G$, such that $|L(e)| \geq (1+o(1)) \cdot \max\left\{\rm{deg}(u),\rm{deg}(v)\right\}$ for each edge $e=uv$, there is an $L$-edge-colouring of $G$. Furthermore, Kahn showed that the List Colouring Conjecture holds asymptotically for linear, $k$-uniform hypergraphs, and recently Molloy generalized Kahn's original result to correspondence colouring as well as its hypergraph generalization. We prove local versions of all of these generalizations by showing a weighted version that simultaneously implies all of our results.Comment: 22 page

Transversal polynomial of r-fold covers

We construct a cover of a graph $X$ by blowing up each vertex to a set of $r$ vertices and joining each pair of sets corresponding to adjacent vertices by a matching with $r$ edges. To each cover $Y$ of $X$ we associate a polynomial $\xi(Y,t)$, called the transversal polynomial. The coefficient $t^k$ of $\xi(Y,t)$ is the number of $k$-edge induced subgraphs of $Y$ whose vertex set is a transversal of the set system given by the blown-up vertices. We show that $\xi(Y,t)$ satisfies a contraction-deletion formula, and that if $n=|V(X)|$ and the cover has index $r$, then $\xi(Y,-(r-1)) \equiv 0 \mod r^n$. We see that $\xi(Y,t)$ has interesting connections to unique label covers and correspondence colouring.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Optimally edge-colouring outerplanar graphs is in NC

We prove that every outerplanar graph can be optimally edge-coloured in polylogarithmic time using a polynomial number of processors on a parallel random access machine without write conflicts (P-RAM)

Defective and Clustered Graph Colouring

Consider the following two ways to colour the vertices of a graph where the requirement that adjacent vertices get distinct colours is relaxed. A colouring has "defect" $d$ if each monochromatic component has maximum degree at most $d$. A colouring has "clustering" $c$ if each monochromatic component has at most $c$ vertices. This paper surveys research on these types of colourings, where the first priority is to minimise the number of colours, with small defect or small clustering as a secondary goal. List colouring variants are also considered. The following graph classes are studied: outerplanar graphs, planar graphs, graphs embeddable in surfaces, graphs with given maximum degree, graphs with given maximum average degree, graphs excluding a given subgraph, graphs with linear crossing number, linklessly or knotlessly embeddable graphs, graphs with given Colin de Verdi\`ere parameter, graphs with given circumference, graphs excluding a fixed graph as an immersion, graphs with given thickness, graphs with given stack- or queue-number, graphs excluding $K_t$ as a minor, graphs excluding $K_{s,t}$ as a minor, and graphs excluding an arbitrary graph $H$ as a minor. Several open problems are discussed.Comment: This is a preliminary version of a dynamic survey to be published in the Electronic Journal of Combinatoric