Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1910.01099

Graph modification for edge-coloured and signed graph homomorphism problems: parameterized and classical complexity

Florent Foucaud·Hervé Hocquard·Dimitri Lajou·Valia Mitsou·Théo Pierron
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We study the complexity of graph modification problems with respect to homomorphism-based colouring properties of edge-coloured graphs. A homomorphism from edge-coloured graph $G$ to 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 $H$. The question we are interested in is: 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 VD-$H$-COLOURING, ED-$H$-COLOURING and SW-$H$-COLOURING. These problems generalise $H$-COLOURING (to decide if an input graph admits a homomorphism to a fixed target $H$). Our main focus is when $H$ is an edge-coloured graph with at most two vertices, a case that is already interesting as it includes problems such as VERTEX COVER, ODD CYCLE RANSVERSAL and EDGE BIPARTIZATION. For such a graph $H$, we give a P/NP-c complexity dichotomy for VD-$H$-COLOURING, ED-$H$-COLOURING and SW-$H$-COLOURING. We then address their parameterized complexity. We show that VD-$H$-COLOURING and ED-$H$-COLOURING for all such $H$ are FPT. In contrast, already for some $H$ of order 3, unless P=NP, none of the three problems is in XP, since 3-COLOURING is NP-c. We show that SW-$H$-COLOURING is different: there are three 2-edge-coloured graphs $H$ of order 2 for which SW-$H$-COLOURING is W-hard, and assuming the ETH, admits no algorithm in time $f(k)n^{o(k)}$. For the other cases, SW-$H$-COLOURING is FPT.

Explore related subjects

cs.DScs.DM

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Florent Foucaud, Hervé Hocquard, Dimitri Lajou, Valia Mitsou, Théo Pierron. 2019-10-02. Graph modification for edge-coloured and signed graph homomorphism problems: parameterized and classical complexity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00453-021-00918-4

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Quasi-Monte Carlo Beyond Hardy-Krause II: $(1 + \varepsilon)n$ Samples Suffice

Numerical integration studies how well one can estimate the integral of a function $f$ over $[0,1)^d$ using $n$ sample points. The two classical methods, Monte Carlo (MC) and quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC), have complementary strengths and weaknesses, and a fundamental question is to design an approach that combines the benefits of both. Recently, building on the transference principle in discrepancy theory, Bansal and Jiang~\cite{BJ25a} gave a randomized QMC method that bridges MC and QMC guarantees using only i.i.d.\ samples. Their method also goes beyond the classical Koksma--Hlawka inequality: it achieves integration error $\widetilde{O}_d(\sigma_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)/n)$, where the smoothed-out variation $\sigma_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)$ can be substantially smaller than the Hardy--Krause variation that governs the classical bound. However, their algorithm requires $n^2$ i.i.d.\ samples as input, and this quadratic blowup is inherent to any method based on the transference principle. In this work, we bypass the quadratic blowup: for any constant $\varepsilon > 0$, we show that $(1+\varepsilon)n$ i.i.d.\ samples suffice to both obtain the beyond-Hardy--Krause guarantee of~\cite{BJ25a}, resolving an open problem posed there, and to produce low-discrepancy point sequences. Our algorithms are variants of the online Haar-thinning method of Dwivedi, Feldheim, Gurel-Gurevich, and Ramdas~\cite{DFG+19}.

cs.DS↗
arXiv2026

Single-Exponential Algorithms and a Polynomial Kernel for Strong Connectivity Augmentation

Strong Connectivity Augmentation (SCA) asks whether a directed acyclic graph can be made strongly connected by adding at most $k$ prescribed links whose total weight is within a given budget. Klinkby, Misra, and Saurabh (SODA 2021) gave an $O^*(2^{O(k\log k)})$-time algorithm and asked whether the problem admits a single-exponential parameterized algorithm and a polynomial kernel. We answer both questions affirmatively: SCA can be solved in $O^*(9^k)$ time and admits a polynomial kernel with $O(k^4)$ vertices and $O(k^{16})$ bits. For unweighted SCA, we obtain $O^*(4^k)$ time and a kernel with $O(k^3)$ vertices. Our algorithms are based on a particularly simple reduction to Strongly Connected Spanning Subgraph with two edge costs.

cs.DS↗