A dominating set of a graph G = (V,E) is a set of vertices D ⊆ V whose closed neighborhood is V, i.e., N[D] = V. We view a dominating set as a collection of tokens placed on the vertices of D. In the token sliding variant of the Dominating Set Reconfiguration problem (TS-DSR), we seek to transform a source dominating set into a target dominating set in G by sliding tokens along edges, and while maintaining a dominating set all along the transformation. TS-DSR is known to be PSPACE-complete even restricted to graphs of pathwidth w, for some non-explicit constant w and to be XL-complete parameterized by the size k of the solution. The first contribution of this article consists in using a novel approach to provide the first explicit constant for which the TS-DSR problem is PSPACE-complete, a question that was left open in the literature. From a parameterized complexity perspective, the token jumping variant of DSR, i.e., where tokens can jump to arbitrary vertices, is known to be FPT when parameterized by the size of the dominating sets on nowhere dense classes of graphs. But, in contrast, no non-trivial result was known about TS-DSR. We prove that DSR is actually much harder in the sliding model since it is XL-complete when restricted to bounded pathwidth graphs and even when parameterized by k plus the feedback vertex set number of the graph. This gives, for the first time, a difference of behavior between the complexity under token sliding and token jumping for some problem on graphs of bounded treewidth. All our results are obtained using a brand new method, based on the hardness of the so-called Tape Reconfiguration problem, a problem we believe to be of independent interest. We complement these hardness results with a positive result showing that DSR (parameterized by k) in the sliding model is FPT on planar graphs, also answering an open problem from the literature.

A non-crossing spanning tree of a set of points in the plane is a spanning tree whose edges pairwise do not cross. Avis and Fukuda in 1996 proved that there always exists a flip sequence of length at most $2n-4$ between any pair of non-crossing spanning trees (where $n$ denotes the number of points). Hernando et al. proved that the length of a minimal flip sequence can be of length at least $\frac 32 n$. Two recent results of Aichholzer et al. and Bousquet et al. improved the Avis and Fukuda upper bound by proving that there always exists a flip sequence of length respectively at most $2n - \log n$ and $2n - \sqrt{n}$. We improve the upper bound by a linear factor for the first time in 25 years by proving that there always exists a flip sequence between any pair of non-crossing spanning trees $T_1,T_2$ of length at most $c n$ where $c \approx 1.95$. Our result is actually stronger since we prove that, for any two trees $T_1,T_2$, there exists a flip sequence from $T_1$ to $T_2$ of length at most $c |T_1 \setminus T_2|$. We also improve the best lower bound in terms of the symmetric difference by proving that there exists a pair of trees $T_1,T_2$ such that a minimal flip sequence has length $\frac 53 |T_1 \setminus T_2|$, improving the lower bound of Hernando et al. by considering the symmetric difference instead of the number of vertices. We generalize this lower bound construction to non-crossing flips (where we close the gap between upper and lower bounds) and rotations.

In this paper, we investigate how local rules enforced at every node can influence the topology of a network. More precisely, we establish several results on the diameter of trees as a function of the number of nodes, as listed below. These results have important consequences on the landscape of locally checkable labelings (LCL) on unbounded degree graphs, a case in which our lack of knowledge is in striking contrast with that of bounded degree graphs, that has been intensively studied recently. First, we show that the diameter of a tree can be controlled very precisely by a local checker (that is, a distributed decision algorithm that accepts a graph iff all nodes accept locally), granted that its checkability radius is at least 2 (and that the target diameter is not too close to n). As a corollary, we prove that the gaps in the landscape of LCLs (in bounded-degree graphs) basically disappear in unbounded degree graphs. Second, we prove that for checkers at distance 1, the maximum diameter can only be trivial (constant or linear), while the minimum diameter can in addition be Θ(log n) and Θ(n^(1/k)) for k ∈ ℕ. These functions interestingly coincide with the known regimes for LCLs. Third, we explore computational restrictions of local checkers. In particular, we introduce a class of checkers, that we call degree-myopic, that cannot distinguish perfectly the degrees of their neighbors. With these checkers, we show that the maximum diameter can only be O(1), Θ(√n), Θ((log n)/(log log n)), Θ(log n), or Ω(n). Since gaps do appear in the maximum diameter, one can hope that an interesting LCL landscape exists for restricted local checkers. In addition to the LCL motivation, we hope that our distributed lenses can help give a new point of view on how global structures, such as living beings, can be maintained by local phenomena; understanding the trade-off between the power of the checking and the possible resulting shapes.

Abstract. The discharging method is a powerful proof technique, especially for graph coloring problems. Its major downside is that it often requires lengthy case analyses, which are sometimes given to a computer for verification. However, it is much less common to use a computer to actively look for a discharging proof. In this paper, we use a linear programming approach to automatically look for a discharging proof. While our system is not entirely autonomous, we manage to make some progress toward Wegner’s conjecture for distance-2 coloring of planar graphs by showing that 12 colors are sufficient to color at distance 2 every planar graph with maximum degree 4.

Abstract. For a positive integer [Formula: see text], the [Formula: see text]-recoloring graph of a graph [Formula: see text] has as vertex set all proper [Formula: see text]-colorings of [Formula: see text] with two [Formula: see text]-colorings being adjacent if they differ by the color of exactly one vertex. A result of Dyer et al. regarding graphs of bounded degeneracy implies that the 7-recoloring graphs of planar graphs, the 5-recoloring graphs of triangle-free planar graphs and the 4-recoloring graphs planar graphs of girth at least six are connected. On the other hand, there are planar graphs whose 6-recoloring graph is disconnected, triangle-free planar graphs whose 4-recoloring graph is disconnected, and planar graphs of any given girth whose 3-recoloring graph is disconnected. The main result of this paper consists in showing, via a novel application of the discharging method, that the 4-recoloring graph of every planar graph of girth five is connected. This completes the classification of the connectedness of the recoloring graph for planar graphs of given girth. We also prove some theorems regarding the diameter of the recoloring graph of planar graphs.

Abstract. For an integer [Formula: see text] and a graph [Formula: see text], let [Formula: see text] be the graph that has vertex set all proper [Formula: see text]-colorings of [Formula: see text], and an edge between two vertices [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] whenever the coloring [Formula: see text] can be obtained from [Formula: see text] by a single Kempe change. A theorem of Meyniel from 1978 states that [Formula: see text] is connected with diameter [Formula: see text] for every planar graph [Formula: see text]. We significantly strengthen this result by showing that there is a positive constant [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] has diameter [Formula: see text] for every planar graph [Formula: see text].

Local certification consists in assigning labels (called certificates) to the nodes of a network to certify a property of the network or the correctness of a data structure distributed on the network. The verification of this certification must be local: a node typically sees only its neighbors in the network. The main measure of performance of a certification is the size of its certificates.

This document describes our exact Cluster Editing solver, PaSTEC, which got the third place in the 2021 PACE Challenge.

International audience

Local certification consists in assigning labels to the nodes of a network to certify that some given property is satisfied, in such a way that the labels can be checked locally. In the last few years, certification of graph classes received a considerable attention. The goal is to certify that a graph G belongs to a given graph class 𝒢. Such certifications with labels of size O(log n) (where n is the size of the network) exist for trees, planar graphs and graphs embedded on surfaces. Feuilloley et al. ask if this can be extended to any class of graphs defined by a finite set of forbidden minors. In this paper, we develop new decomposition tools for graph certification, and apply them to show that for every small enough minor H, H-minor-free graphs can indeed be certified with labels of size O(log n). We also show matching lower bounds with a new simple proof technique.

Abstract We resolve the computational complexity of Graph Isomorphism for classes of graphs characterized by two forbidden induced subgraphs $$ H_{1} $$ H 1 and $$H_2$$ H 2 for all but six pairs $$(H_1,H_2)$$ ( H 1 , H 2 ) . Schweitzer had previously shown that the number of open cases was finite, but without specifying the open cases. Grohe and Schweitzer proved that Graph Isomorphism is polynomial-time solvable on graph classes of bounded clique-width. Our work combines known results such as these with new results. By exploiting a relationship between Graph Isomorphism and clique-width, we simultaneously reduce the number of open cases for boundedness of clique-width for $$(H_1,H_2)$$ ( H 1 , H 2 ) -free graphs to five.

We study the complexity of graph modification problems with respect to homomorphism-based colouring properties of edge-coloured graphs. A homomorphism from an edge-coloured graph G to an edge-coloured graph H is a vertex-mapping from G to H that preserves adjacencies and edge-colours. We consider the property of having a homomorphism to a fixed edge-coloured graph H, which generalises the classic vertex-colourability property. The question we are interested in is the following: given an edge-coloured graph G, can we perform k graph operations so that the resulting graph admits a homomorphism to H? The operations we consider are vertex-deletion, edge-deletion and switching (an operation that permutes the colours of the edges incident to a given vertex). Switching plays an important role in the theory of signed graphs, that are 2-edge-coloured graphs whose colours are the signs + and -. We denote the corresponding problems (parameterized by k) by Vertex Deletion-H-Colouring, Edge Deletion-H-Colouring and Switching-H-Colouring. These problems generalise the extensively studied H-Colouring problem (where one has to decide if an input graph admits a homomorphism to a fixed target H). For 2-edge-coloured H, it is known that H-Colouring already captures the complexity of all fixed-target Constraint Satisfaction Problems. Our main focus is on the case where H is an edge-coloured graph of order at most 2, a case that is already interesting since it includes standard problems such as Vertex Cover, Odd Cycle Transversal and Edge Bipartization. For such a graph H, we give a PTime/NP-complete complexity dichotomy for all three Vertex Deletion-H-Colouring, Edge Deletion-H-Colouring and Switching-H-Colouring problems. Then, we address their parameterized complexity. We show that all Vertex Deletion-H-Colouring and Edge Deletion-H-Colouring problems for such H are FPT. This is in contrast with the fact that already for some H of order 3, unless PTime = NP, none of the three considered problems is in XP, since 3-Colouring is NP-complete. We show that the situation is different for Switching-H-Colouring: there are three 2-edge-coloured graphs H of order 2 for which Switching-H-Colouring is W[1]-hard, and assuming the ETH, admits no algorithm in time f(k)n^{o(k)} for inputs of size n and for any computable function f. For the other cases, Switching-H-Colouring is FPT.