Variations on the Roy-Gallai theorem

Abstract.: A generalization of the Roy-Gallai Theorem on the chromatic number of a graph is derived which is also an extension of several other results of Berge and of Li. A simple inductive proof is given which provides a direct way of deriving the Theorem of Li. We also show that some classical results valid for optimal colorings cannot be transposed to suboptimal colorings. We finally investigate some elementary properties which are also valid in suboptimal coloring

On the use of graphs in discrete tomography

In this tutorial paper, we consider the basic image reconstruction problem which stems from discrete tomography. We derive a graph theoretical model and we explore some variations and extensions of this model. This allows us to establish connections with scheduling and timetabling applications. The complexity status of these problems is studied and we exhibit some polynomially solvable cases. We show how various classical techniques of operations research like matching, 2-SAT, network flows are applied to derive some of these result

On two coloring problems in mixed graphs

We are interested in coloring the vertices of a mixed graph, i.e., a graph containing edges and arcs. We consider two different coloring problems: in the first one, we want adjacent vertices to have different colors and the tail of an arc to get a color strictly less than a color of the head of this arc; in the second problem, we also allow vertices linked by an arc to have the same color. For both cases, we present bounds on the mixed chromatic number and we give some complexity results which strengthen earlier results given in [B. Ries, Coloring some classes of mixed graphs, Discrete Applied Mathematics 155 (2007) 1–6]

Split-critical and uniquely split-colorable graphs

The split-coloring problem is a generalized vertex coloring problem where we partition the vertices into a minimum number of split graphs. In this paper, we study some notions which are extensively studied for the usual vertex coloring and the cocoloring problem from the point of view of split-coloring, such as criticality and the uniqueness of the minimum split-coloring. We discuss some properties of split-critical and uniquely split-colorable graphs. We describe constructions of such graphs with some additional properties. We also study the effect of the addition and the removal of some edge sets on the value of the split-chromatic number. All these results are compared with their cochromatic counterparts. We conclude with several research directions on the topic

Preemptive open shop scheduling with multiprocessors: polynomial cases and applications

This paper addresses a multiprocessor generalization of the preemptive open-shop scheduling problem. The set of processors is partitioned into two groups and the operations of the jobs may require either single processors in either group or simultaneously all processors from the same group. We consider two variants depending on whether preemptions are allowed at any fractional time point or only at integral time points. We shall show that the former problem can be solved in polynomial time, and provide sufficient conditions under which the latter problem is tractable. Applications to course scheduling and hypergraph edge coloring are also discussed

A User’s Guide to Tabu Search

We describe the main features of tabu search, emphasizing a perspective for guiding a user to widerstand basic implementation principles for solving combinatorial or nonlinear problems. We also identify recent developments and extensions that have contributed to increasing the efficiency of the method. One of the useful aspects of tabu search is the ability to adapt a rudimentary prototype implementation to encompass additional model elements, such as new types of constraints and objective functions. Similarly, the method itself can be evolved to varying levels of sophistication. We provide several examples of discrete optimization problems to illustrate the strategic concerns of tabu search, and to show how they may be exploited in various contexts. Our presentation is motivated by the emergence of an extensive literature of computational results, which demonstrates that a well-lWled implementation makes it possible to obtain solutions of high quality for difficult problems, yielding outcomes in some settings that have not been matched by other known techniques

A note on chromatic properties of threshold graphs

In threshold graphs one may find weights for the vertices and a threshold value t such that for any subset S of vertices, the sum of the weights is at most the threshold t if and only if the set S is a stable (independent) set. In this note we ask a similar question about vertex colorings: given an integer p, when is it possible to find weights (in general depending on p) for the vertices and a threshold value tp such that for any subset S of vertices the sum of the weights is at most tp if and only if S generates a subgraph with chromatic number at most p − 1? We show that threshold graphs do have this property and we show that one can even find weights which are valid for all values of p simultaneously

Letter graphs and geometric grid classes of permutations: Characterization and recognition.

In this paper, we reveal an intriguing relationship between two seemingly unrelated notions: letter graphs and geometric grid classes of permutations. An important property common for both of them is well-quasi-orderability, implying, in a non-constructive way, a polynomial-time recognition of geometric grid classes of permutations and -letter graphs for a fixed . However, explicit algorithms are available only for . In this paper, we present the first explicit polynomial-time algorithm for the recognition of 3-letter graphs over a cyclic decoder. It is based on a structural characterization of graphs in this clas