All Questions
71 questions
47
votes
7
answers
5k
views
Is it easy to produce hard-to-color graphs?
This question arises from my recent visit to my daughter's second-grade class, where I led some discussion and activities on graph coloring (see Math for seven-year-olds). In one such activity, each ...
- 236k
46
votes
8
answers
5k
views
Can a problem be simultaneously polynomial time and undecidable?
The Robertson-Seymour theorem on graph minors leads to some interesting conundrums.
The theorem states that any minor-closed class of graphs can be described by a finite number of excluded minors. As ...
- 12.7k
30
votes
1
answer
3k
views
An edge partitioning problem on cubic graphs
Hello everyone,
I already asked this question on the TCS Stack Exchange, but it has not been resolved yet. Maybe readers of this forum will have other ideas or information, although I suspect that ...
- 1,164
25
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Who first dubbed them "expander graphs"?
Expander graphs
("sparse graphs that have strong connectivity properties")
burst onto the mathematical scene around the millennium, but I have not
been successful in tracing the origin of
(a) the ...
- 151k
24
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Can one measure the infeasibility of four color proofs?
Terms like "impractical" and "unfeasible" are used to say the Robertson, Sanders, Seymour, and Thomas proof of the four color theorem needs computer assistance. Obviously no precise measure is ...
- 11.1k
21
votes
0
answers
441
views
Straight-line drawing of regular polyhedra
Find the minimum number of straight lines needed to cover a crossing-free straight-line drawing of the icosahedron $(13\dots 15)$ and of the dodecahedron $(9\dots 10)$ (in the plane).
For example, ...
- 4,535
19
votes
3
answers
2k
views
A generalization of the triangle counting problem for simple weighted graphs
One nice identity is that $$\operatorname{tr}(A^3)/6$$ counts the number of triangles of a graph with adjacency matrix $A$. It also implies that triangle counting in a graph can be performed in sub-...
- 3,463
15
votes
7
answers
3k
views
Compressing Graphs (Kolmogorov complexity of graphs)
What is known about compressing graphs? Here, with "compressing", I mean something like "putting a graph into a zip program"; or with a more technical expression, what is know about the Kolmogorov ...
user3409
11
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Do you know a faster algorithm to color planar graphs?
while studying the four color theorem, I implemented an algorithm (in Python and Sage) that can color planar graphs much faster than the implementations I found around on internet.
The program can be ...
- 351
10
votes
1
answer
385
views
Do sparse DAGs can have large min-cuts?
For a graph $G$, let $e(G)$ denote the number of its edges, and $c_k(G)$ the smallest number
of edges that must be removed in order to destroy all paths of length $\geq k+1$.
Note that $c_1(G)\geq c_2(...
- 213
10
votes
1
answer
910
views
Finding Two Rainbow Spanning Trees
Suppose we have a graph whose edges are coloured. It's not necessarily a proper colouring: a given node may have 0, 1, or several incident edges of a given colour.
Is the following problem NP-...
- 1,288
9
votes
1
answer
424
views
Hamiltonian circuit
Let us consider a disk with one labelled point on the boundary and $n$ labelled points in the interior.
Let T be a triangulation of the whole disk with vertices on the labelled points such that T ...
- 828
8
votes
1
answer
418
views
A combinatorial problem concerned with logic circuits
Consider a logic circuit with two-bit gates only. The length of each gate is the number of bit lines that the gate crosses. How hard is to compute the maximum length for a given circuit? Notice that ...
user3409
7
votes
1
answer
484
views
Seeming contradiction about P vs NP between graphclasses.org and at least two papers about clique in even-hole-free graphs
I believe correctness about clique in even-hole-free graphs
of graphclasses.org
and the paper Vertex elimination orderings for hereditary graph classes, Pierre Aboulker, Pierre Charbit, Nicolas ...
- 25.4k
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How unhelpful is graph minors theorem?
A very interesting Robertson-Seymour (graphs minors) theorem says:
Any infinite collection of graphs $C$ with the property that if $G\in C $ then its minors also are has the form $\{$graphs $G$ ...
- 15.1k
7
votes
1
answer
805
views
Counting Eulerian Orientation in a 4-regular undirected graph
We would like to know how hard it is to count Eulerian orientation in an undirected 4-regular graph. For a given edge orientation to be Eulerian, we mean that every vertex has 2 in-edges and 2 out-...
7
votes
2
answers
324
views
Graph isomorphism problem for minimally strongly connected digraphs
A minimally strongly connected digraph (MSC) is strongly connected (SC), while removal of any arc destroys this. That is, between any two vertices a, b there exists a directed path from a to b, while ...
7
votes
0
answers
203
views
Upper bound on the number of perfect matchings in $K_{3,3}$-free graphs
Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph with an even number of vertices $|V|=2n$. Assume that $G$ is $K_{3,3}$-free i.e. it does not contain a graph isomorphic to biclique $K_{3,3}$. A perfect matching of $G$ is a ...
- 965
7
votes
0
answers
93
views
Combinatorial region-halfplane incidence structures
I've seen a bunch of similar MO questions, yet hopefully this is not a complete duplicate.
Consider $n$ halfplanes in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with their borders in general position, that is, no point of $\...
- 5,590
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Finding a cycle of fixed length in a bipartite graph
Is finding a cycle of fixed even length in a bipartite graph any easier than finding a cycle of fixed even length in a general graph? This question is related to the question on Finding a cycle of ...
- 784
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How can I prove that these two graph coloring problems are polynomial time equivalent?
Given a graph $G(V,E)$. The standard $k$-coloring problem consists in finding a feasible coloring (no two adjacent nodes share the same color) of the nodes with $k$ colors. Let this problem be $P_1$.
...
- 225
6
votes
0
answers
154
views
Complexity of finding three perfect matchings with no edge in common in a bridgeless cubic graph
According to a conjecture:
Conjecture (Fan & Raspaud, 1994) Every bridgeless cubic graph contains three perfect matchings with no edge in common.
Equivalent statement here
Main question:
...
- 25.4k
5
votes
1
answer
291
views
Minimum number of edges to remove to have low degree
I have the following problem, where $k$ is a fixed integer.
Input: Graph $G$.
Output: Minimum number of edges to remove from $G$ to obtain a graph such that every node has degree at most $k$.
Do ...
- 613
5
votes
2
answers
413
views
An interesting variant on the maximum independent set problem.
Suppose i have a graph $G=(V,E)$ with $|V|=n$. Furthermore suppose i give you a maximum independent set $\mathcal{I}$ in $G$. Now suppose i obtain a new graph $G'$ from $G$ by removing a single vertex ...
- 213
5
votes
1
answer
214
views
Graphs with Hermitian Unitary Edge Weights
Very recently, Hao Huang proved the Sensitivity Conjecture, which had been open for 30 years or so. Huang's proof is surprisingly short and easy. Here is Huang's preprint, a discussion on Scott ...
5
votes
1
answer
301
views
NP-hardness of sparsest cut
Consider bipartitioning the vertices of a graph $(V,E)$ into $V = P \cup Q$ to minimize $$\frac{|E(P,Q)|}{|P| |Q|},$$ where $E(P,Q)$ denotes the set of edges in the cut. The usual citation for NP-...
- 51
4
votes
0
answers
84
views
Complexity of counting colorings of co-bipartite graphs?
A graph is co-bipartite if it is the complement of bipartite graph.
What is the complexity of counting colorings of co-bipartite graphs?
Unlike split graphs, the chromatic polynomial isn't of ...
- 25.4k
4
votes
0
answers
175
views
What is known about the complexity of this covering problem?
Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph. A vertex set $X\subseteq V$ is called critical if $X\neq\emptyset$ and no vertex in $V\setminus X$ is adjacent to exactly one vertex in $X$. The problem is to find a vertex ...
- 2,966
4
votes
0
answers
73
views
Is the $d$-dimensional Arrangement of Trees still $NP$-hard?
The $d$-dimensional Arrangement Problem for general graphs is known to be $NP$-hard since the special case $d=1$ (OLA) already is (Garey et al, [1976]). For Trees however, the one dimensional case can ...
- 41
3
votes
2
answers
420
views
Making a graph claw-free by adding as few edges as possible
Independent set is polynomial in claw-free graphs,
so I am wondering if this can approximate independent set.
By adding enough edges to $G$ and gets claw-free $G'$.
IS in $G'$ is IS in $G$, so this ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
2
answers
362
views
Sparse graphs that are hard to color
I am interested in knowing if there are any types of graphs that are very sparse, perhaps consisting of just connections between paths and cycles, and for which $k$-coloring is $\mathsf{NP}$-hard for ...
- 213
3
votes
1
answer
215
views
Construction of planar embedding
I'm reading the following paper on universality considerations in VLSI circuits
http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/tc/1981/02/06312176.pdf
In Theorem 2 On the second page it states there exists ...
- 903
3
votes
1
answer
277
views
Theorems about the directed bandwidth of a rooted tree?
Let $T$ be a rooted tree with root $r$. Say an ordering $v_1,\ldots,v_n$ of the vertices of $T$ is a search order if $v_1=r$ and for all $2 \leq i \leq n$, there is $j < i$ such that $v_j$ is the ...
- 4,922
3
votes
1
answer
182
views
Edge coloring graphs is in P?
It is known that there exist polynomial time algorithm to approximate the Lovasz number or the supremum of Shannon capacity of graphs.
By Vizing's theorem, the graph $G$ has only two chromatic ...
- 2,089
3
votes
2
answers
235
views
Strong chromatic index of some cubic graphs
Edit 2019 June 26 New computer evidence forces us to revise our guesses relating strong chromatic index and girth
Edit 2019 June 25 Some mistakes have been corrected. Question 2 has changed.
...
- 1,018
3
votes
1
answer
497
views
Which is the most time efficient algorithm for having a Tait Coloring (edge-3-coloring) of planar cubic graphs?
Crossposted from: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1964486/which-is-the-most-time-efficient-algorithm-for-having-a-tait-coloring-edge
I wasn't able to find an efficient algorithm nor an ...
- 351
3
votes
2
answers
404
views
A natural problem on "cartesian union" of set families (hypergraphs). Are there NP-complete problems related to the notion of cartesian product?
I'm curious whether the problem below is NP-complete.
I provide two simple definitions and one example at first.
Definition 1.
Let $\langle \cal S_i\rangle\substack{i\in I}$ and $\langle \cal S_j \...
- 41
3
votes
0
answers
98
views
Is the Graph Isomorphism problem in βP class?
βP is the limited nondeterminism NP, cf. https://complexityzoo.uwaterloo.ca/Complexity_Zoo:B#betap
Last year Laslo Babai proved that the GI problem can be solved in (deterministic) time
$\exp(\log^c(...
- 193
3
votes
0
answers
181
views
Hypergraph edge colouring
I'm interested in knowing if finding the edge-chromatic number of a $k$-uniform $k$-partite hypergraph is NP-hard for $k\geq 3$ Could anyone provide a reference for the result? By edge-chromatic ...
- 903
2
votes
1
answer
183
views
Is the domination number NP for non-bipartite graphs?
Calculating the domination number is an NP-Hard problem. Does it remain NP-Hard if we restrict it to non-bipartite graphs?
- 6,962
2
votes
2
answers
837
views
Enumerating all Hamiltonian Cycles in a Bipartite Vertex Transitive Graph
Hi everyone!
This is my first post, apologies if I made any mistakes anywhere.
Here goes the question:
Consider all length 7 binary sequences.
Let $X$ be the set of sequences with hamming weight 3 ...
- 360
2
votes
1
answer
93
views
Directed edge-colouring
I'm interested to know whether the following problem is NP-complete or if there is an algorithm to solve it.
Suppose we are given a directed graph $G=(V,E^{\rightarrow})$ and we want to colour the ...
- 903
2
votes
1
answer
320
views
NP hard problems on UD graphs
I'm reading up on NP hard problems in Unit Disk graphs. I'd like to point out i'm fairly new to this NP hard stuff so i'm trying to get around how to prove something is NP hard.
http://ac.els-cdn....
- 903
2
votes
0
answers
91
views
Blind construction of planar graph with additive spanning tree count
Suppose we have two planar graphs $G_1$ and $G_2$ with number of spanning tree count $P_1$ and $P_2$ respectively then there is an easy construction which gives a planar graph with spanning tree count ...
- 13.9k
2
votes
0
answers
70
views
Isomorphism preserving transformation graph to graph of logarithmic boolean width and bounded degeneracy
The paper On graph classes with logarithmic boolean-width
claims that some graph problems are fixed parameter tractable with parameter
the boolean width.
In particular, boolean-width of the complement ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
0
answers
254
views
maximum independent set in d-regular graphs
Does anyone know whether the maximum independent set problem is NP-hard in triangle free d-regular graphs and if it's NP-hard for all d larger than some threshold t? Can anyone provide a reference ...
- 213
2
votes
0
answers
350
views
NP hard problems on geometric graphs
I have posted this question before but i don't feel i expressed my confusion clearly enough. So i would like to try and explain again. This is a proof of the minimum vertex cover for unit disk graphs ...
- 903
2
votes
0
answers
642
views
Hamiltonian paths in subgraphs of rectangular lattice graphs
Is following decision problem NP-hard / NP-complete:
Having vertex-induced subgraph of rectangular lattice graph determine if any Hamiltonian path exists
Having vertex-induced subgraph of rectangular ...
1
vote
1
answer
332
views
Graph colouring for bounded degree graphs
I'm fairly new to colourings on bounded degree graphs i'm interested in the following questions,
For planar graphs with bounded degree $4$ is finding the colouring number $NP$-hard? So is ...
- 903
1
vote
1
answer
218
views
What is this invariant graph?
Let $G$ be a simple graph (finite or infinite), $[n]\mathrel{:=}\{1,...,n\}$. Define the function:
$$\varepsilon_n(G)\mathrel{:=}\min_\phi{\lvert{\operatorname{dom} (\phi)}\rvert},$$
where $\phi$ is ...
- 107