Avoidance Games Are PSPACE-Complete

Avoidance games are games in which two players claim vertices of a hypergraph and try to avoid some structures. These games are studied since the introduction of the game of SIM in 1968, but only few complexity results are known on them. In 2001, Slany proved some partial results on Avoider-Avoider games complexity, and in 2017 Bonnet et al. proved that short Avoider-Enforcer games are Co-W[1]-hard. More recently, in 2022, Miltzow and Stojakovi\'c proved that these games are NP-hard. As these games corresponds to the mis\`ere version of the well-known Maker-Breaker games, introduced in 1963 and proven PSPACE-complete in 1978, one could expect these games to be PSPACE-complete too, but the question remained open since then. We prove here that both Avoider-Avoider and Avoider-Enforcer conventions are PSPACE-complete, and as a consequence of it that some particular Avoider-Enforcer games also are

The Maker-Maker domination game in forests

We study the Maker-Maker version of the domination game introduced in 2018 by Duch\^ene et al. Given a graph, two players alternately claim vertices. The first player to claim a dominating set of the graph wins. As the Maker-Breaker version, this game is PSPACE-complete on split and bipartite graphs. Our main result is a linear time algorithm to solve this game in forests. We also give a characterization of the cycles where the first player has a winning strategy

Incidence, a Scoring Positional Game on Graphs

Positional games have been introduced by Hales and Jewett in 1963 and have been extensively investigated in the literature since then. These games are played on a hypergraph where two players alternately select an unclaimed vertex of it. In the Maker-Breaker convention, if Maker manages to fully take a hyperedge, she wins, otherwise, Breaker is the winner. In the Maker-Maker convention, the first player to take a hyperedge wins. In both cases, the game stops as soon as Maker has taken a hyperedge. By definition, this family of games does not handle scores and cannot represent games in which players want to maximize a quantity. In this work, we introduce scoring positional games, that consist in playing on a hypergraph until all the vertices are claimed, and by defining the score as the number of hyperedges a player has fully taken. We focus here on Incidence, a scoring positional game played on a 2-uniform hypergraph, i.e. an undirected graph. In this game, two players alternately claim the vertices of a graph and score the number of edges for which they own both end vertices. In the Maker-Breaker version, Maker aims at maximizing the number of edges she owns, while Breaker aims at minimizing it. In the Maker-Maker version, both players try to take more edges than their opponent. We first give some general results on scoring positional games such that their membership in Milnor's universe and some general bounds on the score. We prove that, surprisingly, computing the score in the Maker-Breaker version of Incidence is PSPACE-complete whereas in the Maker-Maker convention, the relative score can be obtained in polynomial time. In addition, for the Maker-Breaker convention, we give a formula for the score on paths by using some equivalences due to Milnor's universe. This result implies that the score on cycles can also be computed in polynomial time

On the parameterized complexity of non-hereditary relaxations of clique

We investigate the parameterized complexity of several problems formalizing cluster identification in graphs. In other words we ask whether a graph contains a large enough and sufficiently connected subgraph. We study here three relaxations of Clique: s-Club and s-Clique, in which the relaxation is focused on the distances in respectively the cluster and the original graph, and γ-Complete Subgraph in which the relaxation is made on the minimal degree in the cluster. As these three problems are known to be NP-hard, we study here their parameterized complexities. We prove that s-Club and s-Clique are NP-hard even restricted to graphs of degeneracy ≤ 3 whenever s ≥ 3, and to graphs of degeneracy ≤ 2 whenever s ≥ 5, which is a strictly stronger result than its W[1]-hardness parameterized by the degeneracy. We also obtain that these problems are solvable in polynomial time on graphs of degeneracy 1. Concerning γ-Complete Subgraph, we prove that it is W[1]-hard parameterized by both the degeneracy, which implies the W[1]-hardness parameterized by the number of vertices in the γ-complete-subgraph, and the number of elements outside the γ-complete subgraph

Complexity and algorithms for Arc-Kayles and Non-Disconnecting Arc-Kayles

Arc-Kayles is a game where two players alternate removing two adjacent vertices until no move is left. Introduced in 1978, its computational complexity is still open. More recently, subtraction games, where the players cannot disconnect the graph while removing vertices, were introduced. In particular, Arc-Kayles admits a non-disconnecting variant that is a subtraction game. We study the computational complexity of subtraction games on graphs, proving that they are PSPACE-complete even on very structured graph classes (split, bipartite of any even girth). We prove that Non-Disconnecting Arc-Kayles can be solved in polynomial-time on unicyclic graphs, clique trees, and subclasses of threshold graphs. We also show that a sufficient condition for a second player-win on Arc-Kayles is equivalent to the graph isomorphism problem

On the parameterized complexity of non-hereditary relaxations of clique

We investigate the parameterized complexity of several problems formalizing cluster identification in graphs. In other words we ask whether a graph contains a large enough and sufficiently connected subgraph. We study here three relaxations of Clique: s-Club and s-Clique, in which the relaxation is focused on the distances in respectively the cluster and the original graph, and γ-Complete Subgraph in which the relaxation is made on the minimal degree in the cluster. As these three problems are known to be NP-hard, we study here their parameterized complexities. We prove that s-Club and s-Clique are NP-hard even restricted to graphs of degeneracy ≤ 3 whenever s ≥ 3, and to graphs of degeneracy ≤ 2 whenever s ≥ 5, which is a strictly stronger result than its W[1]-hardness parameterized by the degeneracy. We also obtain that these problems are solvable in polynomial time on graphs of degeneracy 1. Concerning γ-Complete Subgraph, we prove that it is W[1]-hard parameterized by both the degeneracy, which implies the W[1]-hardness parameterized by the number of vertices in the γ-complete-subgraph, and the number of elements outside the γ-complete subgraph

Bipartite instances of INFLUENCE

The game influence is a scoring combinatorial game that has been introduced in 2020 by Duchene et al [DGP + 21]. It is a good representative of Milnor's universe of scoring games, i.e. games where it is never interesting for a player to miss his turn. New general results are first given for this universe, by transposing the notions of mean and temperature derived from non-scoring combinatorial games. Such results are then applied to influence to refine the case of unions of segments started in [DGP + 21]. The computational complexity of the score of the game is also solved and proved to be PSPACE-complete. We finally focus on some specific cases of influence when the graph is bipartite, by giving explicit strategies and bounds on the optimal score on structures like grids, hypercubes or torus

Generalising the achromatic number to Zaslavsky's colourings of signed graphs

International audienceThe chromatic number, which refers to the minimum number of colours required to colour the vertices of graphs properly, is one of the most central notions of the graph chromatic theory. Several of its aspects of interest have been investigated in the literature, including variants for modifications of proper colourings. These variants include, notably, the achromatic number of graphs, which is the maximum number of colours required to colour the vertices of graphs properly so that each possible combination of distinct colours is assigned along some edge. The behaviours of this parameter have led to many investigations of interest, bringing to light both similarities and discrepancies with the chromatic number. This work takes place in a recent trend aiming at extending the chromatic theory of graphs to the realm of signed graphs, and, in particular, at investigating how classic results adapt to the signed context. Most of the works done in that line to date are with respect to two main generalisations of proper colourings of signed graphs, attributed to Zaslavsky and Guenin. Generalising the achromatic number to signed graphs was initiated recently by Lajou, his investigations being related to Guenin's colourings. We here pursue this line of research, but with taking Zaslavsky's colourings as our notion of proper colourings. We study the general behaviour of our resulting variant of the achromatic number, mainly by investigating how known results on the classic achromatic number generalise to our context. Our results cover, notably, bounds, standard operations on graphs, and complexity aspects

Generalising the achromatic number to Zaslavsky's colourings of signed graphs

International audienceThe chromatic number, which refers to the minimum number of colours required to colour the vertices of graphs properly, is one of the most central notions of the graph chromatic theory. Several of its aspects of interest have been investigated in the literature, including variants for modifications of proper colourings. These variants include, notably, the achromatic number of graphs, which is the maximum number of colours required to colour the vertices of graphs properly so that each possible combination of distinct colours is assigned along some edge. The behaviours of this parameter have led to many investigations of interest, bringing to light both similarities and discrepancies with the chromatic number. This work takes place in a recent trend aiming at extending the chromatic theory of graphs to the realm of signed graphs, and, in particular, at investigating how classic results adapt to the signed context. Most of the works done in that line to date are with respect to two main generalisations of proper colourings of signed graphs, attributed to Zaslavsky and Guenin. Generalising the achromatic number to signed graphs was initiated recently by Lajou, his investigations being related to Guenin's colourings. We here pursue this line of research, but with taking Zaslavsky's colourings as our notion of proper colourings. We study the general behaviour of our resulting variant of the achromatic number, mainly by investigating how known results on the classic achromatic number generalise to our context. Our results cover, notably, bounds, standard operations on graphs, and complexity aspects