On the complexity of the flow coloring problem

We consider two generalizations of the edge coloring problem in bipartite graphs. The first problem we consider is the weighted bipartite edge coloring problem where we are given an edge-weighted bipartite graph G = (V,E) with weights w:E→[0,1]. The task is to find a proper weighted coloring of the edges with as few colors as possible. An edge coloring of the weighted graph is called a proper weighted coloring if the sum of the weights of the edges incident to a vertex of any color is at most one. We give a polynomial time algorithm for the weighted bipartite edge coloring problem which returns a proper weighted coloring using at most ⌈2.25 n⌉ colors where n is the maximum total weight incident at any vertex. This improves on the previous best bound of Correa and Goemans [5] which returned a coloring using 2.557n + o(n) colors. The second problem we consider is the Balanced Decomposition of Bipartite graphs problem where we are given a bipartite graph G = (V,E) and α 1,...,α k ∈ (0,1) summing to one. The task is to find a partition E 1,..., E k of E such that \(deg_{E_i}(v)\) is close to α i deg E (v) for each 1 ≤ i ≤ k and v ∈ V. We give an alternate proof of the result of Correa and Goemans [5] that there is a decomposition such that \(\lfloor\alpha_i deg_E(v) \rfloor -2 \leq deg_{E_i}(v) \leq \lceil \alpha_i deg_E(v) \rceil +2\) for each v ∈ V and 1 ≤ i ≤ k. Moreover, we show that the additive error can be improved from two to one if only upper bounds or only lower bounds on the degree are present. All our results hold also for bipartite multigraphs, and the decomposition results hold also for general graphs.KeywordsBipartite GraphWeight GraphEdge IncidentGeneral GraphEdge ColoringThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

For any positive integer k, the total k-domatic partition problem is to partition the vertices of a graph G into k pairwise disjoint total dominating sets. In this paper, we study the problem for planar graphs, chordal bipartite graphs, convex bipartite graphs, and bipartite permutation graphs. We show that the total 3-domatic partition problem on planar graphs is NP-complete. Moreover, we give an alternative algorithm to solve the total k-domatic partition problem for chordal bipartite graphs with weak elimination orderings, and adapt it to solve the problem in linear time for bipartite permutation graphs and convex bipartite graphs even if Gamma-free forms of the adjacency matrices of the considered graphs are not given.

A k-colouring of a graph G with colours 1 , 2 , … , k is canonical with respect to an ordering π = v 1 , v 2 , … , v n of the vertices of G if adjacent vertices are assigned different colours and, for 1 ≤ c ≤ k , whenever colour c is assigned to a vertex v i , each colour less than c has been assigned to a vertex that precedes v i in π . The canonical k-colouring graph of G with respect to π is the graph Can k π ( G ) with vertex set equal to the set of canonical k-colourings of G with respect to π , with two of these being adjacent if and only if they differ in the colour assigned to exactly one vertex. Connectivity and Hamiltonicity of canonical colouring graphs of bipartite and complete multipartite graphs is studied. It is shown that for complete multipartite graphs, and bipartite graphs there exists a vertex ordering π such that Can k π ( G ) is connected for large enough values of k. It is proved that a canonical colouring graph of a complete multipartite graph usually does not have a Hamilton cycle, and that there exists a vertex ordering π such that Can k π ( K m , n ) has a Hamilton path for all k ≥ 3 . The paper concludes with a detailed consideration of Can k π ( K 2 , 2 , … , 2 ) . For each k ≥ χ and all vertex orderings π , it is proved that Can k π ( K 2 , 2 , … , 2 ) is either disconnected or isomorphic to a particular tree.

Tip decomposition has a pivotal role in mining cohesive subgraphs in bipartite graphs by computing the tip number of each vertex in accordance with the non-trivial motif butterfly ((2,2)-biclique). It has been a popular research topic with applications in document clustering, spam group detection, and analysis of affiliation networks. In such applications, the graphs are not only large, but they evolve quickly with new edges being continuously added/deleted. While existing centralized techniques could solve the tip decomposition problem for static bipartite graphs, they are not efficient for maintaining the tip numbers of vertices on large-scale graphs. In this paper, we study butterfly analysis problems on bipartite graphs in a distributed environment with the vertex-centric model. We first extend a centralized butterfly counting algorithm to a distributed version, called DBCA. An ingenious message aggregation strategy is designed to reduce massive redundant messaging and avoid the memory overflow problem while processing large-scale graphs. Based on the results of DBCA, we develop a distributed tip decomposition algorithm (DTDA) to get the tip number of each vertex in parallel. Finally, to maintain the tip numbers of vertices efficiently while graphs evolve over time, we explore a distributed tip maintenance algorithm (DTMA) along with a novel task-split strategy. Specifically, for an updated edge (insertion/deletion), several sub-tasks will be generated in line with the topology structure of the original bipartite graph. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to process the butterfly analysis problems in a distributed environment. In addition, comprehensive experiments have been conducted on real-world bipartite graphs. The experiment results demonstrate that our proposed algorithms are efficient and scalable.

We consider a generalization of edge coloring bipartite graphs in which every edge has a weight in [0,1] and the coloring of the edges must satisfy that the sum of the weights of the edges incident to a vertex v of any color must be at most 1. For unit weights, König's theorem says that the number of colors needed is exactly the maximum degree. For this generalization, we show that 2. 557 n + o(n) colors are sufficient where n is the maximum total weight adjacent to any vertex, improving the previously best bound of 2. 833n+O(1) due to Du et al. This question is motivated by the question of the rearrangeability of 3-stage Clos networks. In that context, the corresponding parameter n of interest in the edge coloring problem is the maximum over all vertices of the number of unit-sized bins needed to pack the weights of the incident edges. In that setting, we are able to improve the bound to 2. 5480 n + o(n), also improving a bound of 2. 5625n+O(1) of Du et al. Our analysis is interesting in its own and involves a novel decomposition result for bipartite graphs and the introduction of an associated continuous one-dimensional bin packing instance which we can prove allows perfect packing.

Cyclability and pancyclability in bipartite graphs

In 1971, Tutte wrote in an article that it is tempting to conjecture that every 3-connected bipartite cubic graph is hamiltonian . Motivated by this remark, Horton constructed a counterexample on 96 96 vertices. In a sequence of articles by different authors several smaller counterexamples were presented. The smallest of these graphs is a graph on 50 vertices which was discovered independently by Georges and Kelmans. In this article we show that there is no smaller counterexample. As all non-hamiltonian 3-connected bipartite cubic graphs in the literature have cyclic 4-cuts—even if they have girth 6—it is natural to ask whether this is a necessary prerequisite. In this article we answer this question in the negative and give a construction of an infinite family of non-hamiltonian cyclically 5-connected bipartite cubic graphs. In 1969 Barnette gave a weaker version of the conjecture stating that 3-connected planar bipartite cubic graphs are hamiltonian. We show that Barnette’s conjecture is true up to at least 90 vertices. We also report that a search of small non-hamiltonian 3-connected bipartite cubic graphs did not find any with genus less than 4.

A proper k-coloring of a graph is an assignment of colors from the set $$\{1,2,\ldots ,k\}$$ to the vertices of the graph such that no two adjacent vertices receive the same color. Given a graph $$G=(V,E)$$ , the Dynamic Coloring problem asks to find a proper k-coloring of G such that for every vertex $$v\in V(G)$$ of degree at least two, there exists at least two distinct colors appearing in the neighborhood of v. The minimum integer k such that there is a dynamic coloring of G using k colors is called the dynamic chromatic number of G and is denoted by $$\chi _d(G)$$ . The problem is NP-complete in general, but solvable in polynomial time on several restricted families of graphs. In this paper, we study the problem on restricted classes of graphs. We show that the problem can be solved in polynomial time on chordal graphs and biconvex bipartite graphs. On the other hand, we show that it is NP-complete on star-convex bipartite graphs, comb-convex bipartite graphs and perfect elimination bipartite graphs. Next, we initiate the study on Dynamic Coloring from the parameterized complexity perspective. First, we show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by neighborhood diversity or twin-cover. Then, we show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the combined parameters clique-width and the number of colors.

The Clar number of a (hydro)carbon molecule, introduced by Clar (The aromatic sextet, 1972), is the maximum number of mutually disjoint resonant hexagons in the molecule. Calculating the Clar number can be formulated as an optimization problem on 2-connected plane graphs. Namely, it is the maximum number of mutually disjoint even faces a perfect matching can simultaneously alternate on. It was proved by Abeledo and Atkinson (Linear Algebra Appl 420(2):441–448, 2007) that the Clar number can be computed in polynomial time if the plane graph has even faces only. We prove that calculating the Clar number in general 2-connected plane graphs is \(\mathsf {NP}\)-hard. We also prove \(\mathsf {NP}\)-hardness of the maximum independent set problem for 2-connected plane graphs with odd faces only, which may be of independent interest. Finally, we give an exact algorithm that determines the Clar number of a given 2-connected plane graph. The algorithm has a polynomial running time if the length of the shortest odd join in the planar dual graph is fixed, which gives an efficient algorithm for some fullerene classes, such as carbon nanotubes.

Finding Paths between graph colourings: PSPACE-completeness and superpolynomial distances

This paper studies the semidefinite programming SDP problem, i.e., the optimization problem of a linear function of a symmetric matrix subject to linear equality constraints and the additional condition that the matrix be positive semidefinite. First the classical cone duality is reviewed as it is specialized to SDP is reviewed. Next an interior point algorithm is presented that converges to the optimal solution in polynomial time. The approach is a direct extension of Ye’s projective method for linear programming. It is also argued that many known interior point methods for linear programs can be transformed in a mechanical way to algorithms for SDP with proofs of convergence and polynomial time complexity carrying over in a similar fashion. Finally, the significance of these results is studied in a variety of combinatorial optimization problems including the general 0-1 integer programs, the maximum clique and maximum stable set problems in perfect graphs, the maximum k-partite subgraph problem in graph...

A bipartite graph G(X, Y) whose vertex set is partitioned into X and Y is a convex bipartite graph, if there is an ordering of $$X=(x_1,\ldots ,x_m)$$ such that for all $$y \in Y$$ , $$N_G(y)$$ is consecutive with respect to the ordering of X, and G is said to have convexity with respect to X. A k-star caterpillar is a tree with a collection of stars with each star having k vertices of degree one whose roots are joined by a path. For a bipartite graph with partitions X and Y, we associate a k-star caterpillar on X such that for each vertex in Y, its neighborhood induces a tree. The minimum Steiner tree problem (STREE) is defined as follows: given a connected graph $$G=(V,E)$$ and a subset of vertices $$R \subseteq V(G)$$ , the objective is to find a minimum cardinality set $$S \subseteq V(G)$$ such that the set $$R \cup S$$ induces a connected subgraph. In this paper, we present the following dichotomy result: we show that STREE is NP-complete for 1-star caterpillar convex bipartite graphs and polynomial-time solvable for 0-star caterpillar convex bipartite graphs (also known as convex bipartite graphs). We also strengthen the well-known result of Müller and Brandstädt (Theoret Comput Sci 53(2-3):257-265, 1987), which says STREE in chordal bipartite graphs is NP-complete (reduction instances are 3-star caterpillar convex bipartite graphs). As an application, we use our STREE results to solve: (i) the classical dominating set problem in convex bipartite graphs, (ii) STREE on interval graphs, linear time.

A pair of nonnegative integer sequences {D1, D2} with D1 = (d1,1, d1,2, …, dnD2= (d2,1, d2,2, …, dna bipartite graphical sequence, if there is a bipartite graph G with degrees{D1, D2} (i.e., G has two independent vertex sets V1 = {v1,1, v1,2, …, vnV2 = {v2,1, v2,2, …, vnsuch that di,ji the degree of vertex vi,jiG for each i = 1, 2 and ji = 1, 2, …, ni). In other words,{D1, D2} is a bipartite graphical sequence if and only if there is an n1× n2 matrix of 0's and 1's havingdjj1 and djj2. The connectivity κ({D1, D2}) of a bipartite graphical sequence{D1, D2} is defined to be the maximum integer k such that there is a k-connected bipartite graph with degrees {D1, D2}. In this paper, we present a characterization of a k-connected bipartite graphical sequence and an O(n log log n) time algorithm, for a given bipartite graphical sequence {D1, D2}, to construct a κ({D1, D2})-connected bipartite graph with degrees {D1, D2} (n = n1+n2). © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edge‐coloring of a graph G with colors is called an interval t‐coloring if all colors are used, and the colors of edges incident to any vertex of G are distinct and form an interval of integers. In 1991, Erdős constructed a bipartite graph with 27 vertices and maximum degree 13 that has no interval coloring. Erdős's counterexample is the smallest (in a sense of maximum degree) known bipartite graph that is not interval colorable. On the other hand, in 1992, Hansen showed that all bipartite graphs with maximum degree at most 3 have an interval coloring. In this article, we give some methods for constructing of interval non‐edge‐colorable bipartite graphs. In particular, by these methods, we construct three bipartite graphs that have no interval coloring, contain 20, 19, 21 vertices and have maximum degree 11, 12, 13, respectively. This partially answers a question that arose in [T.R. Jensen, B. Toft, Graph coloring problems, Wiley Interscience Series in Discrete Mathematics and Optimization, 1995, p. 204]. We also consider similar problems for bipartite multigraphs.

Super-pancyclic hypergraphs and bipartite graphs