Abstract Given a graph $$G = (V,E)$$ G = ( V , E ) , $$A \subseteq V$$ A ⊆ V , and integers k and $$\ell $$ ℓ , the $$(A,\ell )$$ ( A , ℓ ) -Path Packing problem asks to find k vertex-disjoint paths of length exactly $$\ell $$ ℓ that have endpoints in A and internal points in $$V{\setminus }A$$ V \ A . We study the parameterized complexity of this problem with parameters |A|, $$\ell $$ ℓ , k, treewidth, pathwidth, and their combinations. We present sharp complexity contrasts with respect to these parameters. Among other results, we show that the problem is polynomial-time solvable when $$\ell \le 3$$ ℓ ≤ 3 , while it is NP-complete for constant $$\ell \ge 4$$ ℓ ≥ 4 . We also show that the problem is W[1]-hard parameterized by pathwidth $${}+|A|$$ + | A | , while it is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by treewidth $${}+\ell $$ + ℓ . Additionally, we study a variant called Short A-Path Packing that asks to find k vertex-disjoint paths of length at most $$\ell $$ ℓ . We show that all our positive results on the exact-length version can be translated to this version and show the hardness of the cases where |A| or $$\ell $$ ℓ is a constant.

Structural graph parameters, such as treewidth, pathwidth, and clique-width, are a central topic of study in parameterized complexity. A main aim of research in this area is to understand the “price of generality” of these widths: as we transition from more restrictive to more general notions, which are the problems that see their complexity status deteriorate from fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) to intractable? This type of question is by now very well studied, but somewhat strikingly, the algorithmic frontier between the two (arguably) most central width notions, treewidth and pathwidth, is still not understood: currently, no natural graph problem is known to be W-hard for one but FPT for the other. Indeed, a surprising development of the last few years has been the observation that, for many of the most paradigmatic problems, their complexities for the two parameters actually coincide exactly, despite the fact that treewidth is a much more general parameter. It would thus appear that the extra generality of treewidth over pathwidth often comes “for free.” Our main contribution in this paper is to uncover the first natural example where this generality comes with a high price. We consider Grundy Coloring, a variation of coloring where one seeks to calculate the worst possible coloring that could be assigned to a graph by a greedy first-fit algorithm. We show that this well-studied problem is FPT parameterized by pathwidth; however, it becomes significantly harder (W[1]-hard) when parameterized by treewidth. Furthermore, we show that Grundy Coloring makes a second complexity jump for more general widths, as it becomes para-NP--hard for clique-width. Hence, Grundy Coloring nicely captures the complexity trade-offs between the three most well-studied parameters. Completing the picture, we show that Grundy Coloring is FPT parameterized by modular-width.

Structural graph parameters, such as treewidth, pathwidth, and clique-width, are a central topic of study in parameterized complexity. A main aim of research in this area is to understand the "price of generality" of these widths: as we transition from more restrictive to more general notions, which are the problems that see their complexity status deteriorate from fixed-parameter tractable to intractable? This type of question is by now very well-studied, but, somewhat strikingly, the algorithmic frontier between the two (arguably) most central width notions, treewidth and pathwidth, is still not understood: currently, no natural graph problem is known to be W-hard for one but FPT for the other. Indeed, a surprising development of the last few years has been the observation that for many of the most paradigmatic problems, their complexities for the two parameters actually coincide exactly, despite the fact that treewidth is a much more general parameter. It would thus appear that the extra generality of treewidth over pathwidth often comes "for free". Our main contribution in this paper is to uncover the first natural example where this generality comes with a high price. We consider Grundy Coloring, a variation of coloring where one seeks to calculate the worst possible coloring that could be assigned to a graph by a greedy First-Fit algorithm. We show that this well-studied problem is FPT parameterized by pathwidth; however, it becomes significantly harder (W[1]-hard) when parameterized by treewidth. Furthermore, we show that Grundy Coloring makes a second complexity jump for more general widths, as it becomes para-NP-hard for clique-width. Hence, Grundy Coloring nicely captures the complexity trade-offs between the three most well-studied parameters. Completing the picture, we show that Grundy Coloring is FPT parameterized by modular-width.

In Defective Coloring we are given a graph $G=(V,E)$ and two integers ${\chi_d},\Delta^*$ and are asked if we can partition $V$ into ${\chi_d}$ color classes, so that each class induces a graph of maximum degree $\Delta^*$. We investigate the complexity of this generalization of Coloring with respect to several well-studied graph parameters and show that the problem is W-hard parameterized by treewidth, pathwidth, tree-depth, or feedback vertex set if ${\chi_d}=2$. As expected, this hardness can be extended to larger values of ${\chi_d}$ for most of these parameters, with one surprising exception: we show that the problem is fixed parameter tractable (FPT) and parameterized by feedback vertex set for any ${\chi_d}\neq 2$, and hence 2-coloring is the only hard case for this parameter. In addition to the above, we give an exponential time hypothesis-based lower bound for treewidth and pathwidth, showing that no algorithm can solve the problem in $n^{o({{pw}})}$, essentially matching the complexity of an algorithm obtained with standard techniques. We complement these results by considering the problem's approximability and show that, with respect to $\Delta^*$, the problem admits an algorithm which for any $\epsilon>0$ runs in time $({{tw}}/\epsilon)^{O({{tw}})}$ and returns a solution with exactly the desired number of colors that approximates the optimal $\Delta^*$ within $(1+\epsilon)$. We also give a $({{tw}})^{O({{tw}})}$ algorithm which achieves the desired $\Delta^*$ exactly while 2-approximating the minimum value of ${\chi_d}$. We show that this is close to optimal, by establishing that no FPT algorithm can (under standard assumptions) achieve a better than 3/2-approximation to ${\chi_d}$, even when an extra constant additive error is also allowed.

We consider the complexity of the Independent Set Reconfiguration problem under the Token Sliding rule. In this problem we are given two independent sets of a graph and are asked if we can transform one to the other by repeatedly exchanging a vertex that is currently in the set with one of its neighbors, while maintaining the set independent. Our main result is to show that this problem is PSPACE-complete on split graphs (and hence also on chordal graphs), thus resolving an open problem in this area. We then go on to consider the c-Colorable Reconfiguration problem under the same rule, where the constraint is now to maintain the set c-colorable at all times. As one may expect, a simple modification of our reduction shows that this more general problem is PSPACE-complete for all fixed c >= 1 on chordal graphs. Somewhat surprisingly, we show that the same cannot be said for split graphs: we give a polynomial time (n^{O(c)}) algorithm for all fixed values of c, except c=1, for which the problem is PSPACE-complete. We complement our algorithm with a lower bound showing that c-Colorable Reconfiguration is W[2]-hard on split graphs parameterized by c and the length of the solution, as well as a tight ETH-based lower bound for both parameters.

We study a family of generalizations of Edge Dominating Set on directed graphs called Directed (p,q)-Edge Dominating Set. In this problem an arc (u,v) is said to dominate itself, as well as all arcs which are at distance at most q from v, or at distance at most p to u. First, we give significantly improved FPT algorithms for the two most important cases of the problem, (0,1)-dEDS and (1,1)-dEDS (that correspond to versions of Dominating Set on line graphs), as well as polynomial kernels. We also improve the best-known approximation for these cases from logarithmic to constant. In addition, we show that (p,q)-dEDS is FPT parameterized by p+q+tw, but W-hard parameterized just by tw, where tw is the treewidth of the underlying graph of the input. We then go on to focus on the complexity of the problem on tournaments. Here, we provide a complete classification for every possible fixed value of p,q, which shows that the problem exhibits a surprising behavior, including cases which are in P; cases which are solvable in quasi-polynomial time but not in P; and a single case (p=q=1) which is NP-hard (under randomized reductions) and cannot be solved in sub-exponential time, under standard assumptions.

In Defective Coloring we are given a graph G and two integers $$\mathrm {\chi _d},\varDelta ^*$$ and are asked if we can $$\mathrm {\chi _d}$$ -color G so that the maximum degree induced by any color class is at most $$\varDelta ^*$$ . We show that this natural generalization of Coloring is much harder on several basic graph classes. In particular, we show that it is NP-hard on split graphs, even when one of the two parameters $$\mathrm {\chi _d},\varDelta ^*$$ is set to the smallest possible fixed value that does not trivialize the problem ( $$\mathrm {\chi _d}=2$$ or $$\varDelta ^*=1$$ ). Together with a simple treewidth-based DP algorithm this completely determines the complexity of the problem also on chordal graphs. We then consider the case of cographs and show that, somewhat surprisingly, Defective Coloring turns out to be one of the few natural problems which are NP-hard on this class. We complement this negative result by showing that Defective Coloring is in P for cographs if either $$\mathrm {\chi _d}$$ or $$\varDelta ^*$$ is fixed; that it is in P for trivially perfect graphs; and that it admits a sub-exponential time algorithm for cographs when both $$\mathrm {\chi _d}$$ and $$\varDelta ^*$$ are unbounded.

The notion of resolving sets in a graph was introduced by Slater [Proceedings of the Sixth Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing, Util. Math., Winnipeg, 1975, pp. 549--559] and Harary and Melter [Ars Combin., 2 (1976), pp. 191--195] as a way of uniquely identifying every vertex in a graph. A set of vertices in a graph is a resolving set if for any pair of vertices $x$ and $y$ there is a vertex in the set which has distinct distances to $x$ and $y$. A smallest resolving set in a graph is called a metric basis and its size, the metric dimension of the graph. The problem of computing the metric dimension of a graph is a well-known NP-hard problem and while it was known to be polynomial time solvable on trees, it is only recently that efforts have been made to understand its computational complexity on various restricted graph classes. In recent work, Foucaud [Algorithmica, 2016, pp. 1--31] showed that this problem is NP-complete even on interval graphs. They complemented this result by also showing that it is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) parameterized by the metric dimension of the graph. In this work, we show that this FPT result can in fact be extended to all graphs of bounded tree-length. This includes well-known classes like chordal graphs, AT-free graphs, and permutation graphs. We also show that this problem is FPT parameterized by the modular-width of the input graph.