Independent Feedback Vertex Set for $P_5$-free Graphs

Marthe Bonamy; Konrad K. Dabrowski; Carl Feghali; Matthew Johnson; Daniel Paulusma

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arXiv · 1707.09402

Independent Feedback Vertex Set for $P_5$-free Graphs

Marthe Bonamy·Konrad K. Dabrowski·Carl Feghali·Matthew Johnson·Daniel Paulusma

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Abstract

The NP-complete problem Feedback Vertex Set is that of deciding whether or not it is possible, for a given integer $k\geq 0$, to delete at most $k$ vertices from a given graph so that what remains is a forest. The variant in which the deleted vertices must form an independent set is called Independent Feedback Vertex Set and is also NP-complete. In fact, even deciding if an independent feedback vertex set exists is NP-complete and this problem is closely related to the $3$-Colouring problem, or equivalently, to the problem of deciding whether or not a graph has an independent odd cycle transversal, that is, an independent set of vertices whose deletion makes the graph bipartite. We initiate a systematic study of the complexity of Independent Feedback Vertex Set for $H$-free graphs. We prove that it is NP-complete if $H$ contains a claw or cycle. Tamura, Ito and Zhou proved that it is polynomial-time solvable for $P_4$-free graphs. We show that it remains polynomial-time solvable for $P_5$-free graphs. We prove analogous results for the Independent Odd Cycle Transversal problem, which asks whether or not a graph has an independent odd cycle transversal of size at most $k$ for a given integer $k\geq 0$. Finally, in line with our underlying research aim, we compare the complexity of Independent Feedback Vertex Set for $H$-free graphs with the complexity of $3$-Colouring, Independent Odd Cycle Transversal and other related problems.

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Marthe Bonamy, Konrad K. Dabrowski, Carl Feghali, Matthew Johnson, Daniel Paulusma. 2017-07-28. Independent Feedback Vertex Set for $P_5$-free Graphs. https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.09402

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