arXiv subjects

L. Sunil Chandran

Publications and source records attributed to L. Sunil Chandran.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Two Results on LPT: A Near-Linear Time Algorithm and Parcel Delivery using Drones

The focus of this paper is to increase our understanding of the Longest Processing Time First (LPT) heuristic. LPT is a classical heuristic for the fundamental problem of uniform machine scheduling. For different machine speeds, LPT was first considered by Gonzalez et al (SIAM J. Computing, 1977). Since then, extensive work has been done to improve the approximation factor of the LPT heuristic. However, all known implementations of the LPT heuristic take $O(mn)$ time, where $m$ is the number of machines and $n$ is the number of jobs. In this work, we come up with the first near-linear time implementation for LPT. Specifically, the running time is $O((n+m)(\log^2{m}+\log{n}))$. Somewhat surprisingly, the result is obtained by mapping the problem to dynamic maintenance of lower envelope of lines, which has been well studied in the computational geometry community. Our second contribution is to analyze the performance of LPT for the Drones Warehouse Problem (DWP), which is a natural generalization of the uniform machine scheduling problem motivated by drone-based parcel delivery from a warehouse. In this problem, a warehouse has multiple drones and wants to deliver parcels to several customers. Each drone picks a parcel from the warehouse, delivers it, and returns to the warehouse (where it can also get charged). The speeds and battery lives of the drones could be different, and due to the limited battery life, each drone has a bounded range in which it can deliver parcels. The goal is to assign parcels to the drones so that the time taken to deliver all the parcels is minimized. We prove that the natural approach of solving this problem via the LPT heuristic has an approximation factor of $ϕ$, where $ϕ\approx 1.62$ is the golden ratio.

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arXiv2024

Graph-theoretic insights on the constructability of complex entangled states

The most efficient automated way to construct a large class of quantum photonic experiments is via abstract representation of graphs with certain properties. While new directions were explored using Artificial intelligence and SAT solvers to find such graphs, it becomes computationally infeasible to do so as the size of the graph increases. So, we take an analytical approach and introduce the technique of local sparsification on experiment graphs, using which we answer a crucial open question in experimental quantum optics, namely whether certain complex entangled quantum states can be constructed. This provides us with more insights into quantum resource theory, the limitation of specific quantum photonic systems and initiates the use of graph-theoretic techniques for designing quantum physics experiments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Krenn-Gu conjecture for sparse graphs

Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states are quantum states involving at least three entangled particles. They are of fundamental interest in quantum information theory, and the construction of such states of high dimension has various applications in quantum communication and cryptography. They are of fundamental interest in quantum information theory, and the construction of such states of high dimension has various applications in quantum communication and cryptography. Krenn, Gu and Zeilinger discovered a correspondence between a large class of quantum optical experiments which produce GHZ states and edge-weighted edge-coloured multi-graphs with some special properties called the \emph{GHZ graphs}. On such GHZ graphs, a graph parameter called \emph{dimension} can be defined, which is the same as the dimension of the GHZ state produced by the corresponding experiment. Krenn and Gu conjectured that the dimension of any GHZ graph with more than $4$ vertices is at most $2$. An affirmative resolution of the Krenn-Gu conjecture has implications for quantum resource theory. On the other hand, the construction of a GHZ graph on a large number of vertices with a high dimension would lead to breakthrough results. In this paper, we study the existence of GHZ graphs from the perspective of the Krenn-Gu conjecture and show that the conjecture is true for graphs of vertex connectivity at most 2 and for cubic graphs. We also show that the minimal counterexample to the conjecture should be $4$-connected. Such information could be of great help in the search for GHZ graphs using existing tools like PyTheus. While the impact of the work is in quantum physics, the techniques in this paper are purely combinatorial, and no background in quantum physics is required to understand them.

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arXiv2024

Variants of the Gyàrfàs-Sumner Conjecture: Oriented Trees and Rainbow Paths

Given a finite family $\mathcal{F}$ of graphs, we say that a graph $G$ is "$\mathcal{F}$-free" if $G$ does not contain any graph in $\mathcal{F}$ as a subgraph. A vertex-colored graph $H$ is called "rainbow" if no two vertices of $H$ have the same color. Given an integer $s$ and a finite family of graphs $\mathcal{F}$, let $\ell(s,\mathcal{F})$ denote the smallest integer such that any properly vertex-colored $\mathcal{F}$-free graph $G$ having $χ(G)\geq\ell(s,\mathcal{F})$ contains an induced rainbow path on $s$ vertices. Scott and Seymour showed that $\ell(s,K)$ exists for every complete graph $K$. A conjecture of N. R. Aravind states that $\ell(s,C_3)=s$. The upper bound on $\ell(s,C_3)$ that can be obtained using the methods of Scott and Seymour setting $K=C_3$ are, however, super-exponential. Gyárfás and Sárközy showed that $\ell(s,\{C_3,C_4\})=\mathcal{O}\big((2s)^{2s}\big)$. For $r\geq 2$, we show that $\ell(s,K_{2,r})\leq (r-1)(s-1)(s-2)/2+s$ and therefore, $\ell(s,C_4)\leq\frac{s^2-s+2}{2}$. This significantly improves Gyárfás and Sárközy's bound and also covers a bigger class of graphs. We adapt our proof to achieve much stronger upper bounds for graphs of higher girth: we prove that $\ell(s,\{C_3,C_4,\ldots,C_{g-1}\})\leq s^{1+\frac{4}{g-4}}$, where $g\geq 5$. Moreover, in each case, our results imply the existence of at least $s!/2$ distinct induced rainbow paths on $s$ vertices. Along the way, we obtain some results on related problems on oriented graphs. For $r\geq 2$, let $\mathcal{B}_r$ denote the orientations of $K_{2,r}$ in which one vertex has out-degree or in-degree $r$. We show that every $\mathcal{B}_r$-free oriented graph $G$ having $χ(G)\geq (r-1)(s-1)(s-2)+2s+1$ and every bikernel-perfect oriented graph $G$ with girth $g\geq 5$ having $χ(G)\geq 2s^{1+\frac{4}{g-4}}$ contains every $s$ vertex oriented tree as an induced subgraph.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

$χ$-binding functions for squares of bipartite graphs and its subclasses

A class of graphs $\mathcal{G}$ is $χ$-bounded if there exists a function $f$ such that $χ(G) \leq f(ω(G))$ for each graph $G \in \mathcal{G}$, where $χ(G)$ and $ω(G)$ are the chromatic and clique number of $G$, respectively. The square of a graph $G$, denoted as $G^2$, is the graph with the same vertex set as $G$ in which two vertices are adjacent when they are at a distance at most two in $G$. In this paper, we study the $χ$-boundedness of squares of bipartite graphs and its subclasses. Note that the class of squares of graphs, in general, admit a quadratic $χ$-binding function. Moreover there exist bipartite graphs $B$ for which $χ\left(B^2\right)$ is $Ω\left(\frac{\left(ω\left(B^2\right)\right)^2 }{\log ω\left(B^2\right)}\right)$. We first ask the following question: "What sub-classes of bipartite graphs have a linear $χ$-binding function?" We focus on the class of convex bipartite graphs and prove the following result: for any convex bipartite graph $G$, $χ\left(G^2\right) \leq \frac{3 ω\left(G^2\right)}{2}$. Our proof also yields a polynomial-time $3/2$-approximation algorithm for coloring squares of convex bipartite graphs. We then introduce a notion called "partite testable properties" for the squares of bipartite graphs. We say that a graph property $P$ is partite testable for the squares of bipartite graphs if for a bipartite graph $G=(A,B,E)$, whenever the induced subgraphs $G^2[A]$ and $G^2[B]$ satisfies the property $P$ then $G^2$ also satisfies the property $P$. Here, we discuss whether some of the well-known graph properties like perfectness, chordality, (anti-hole)-freeness, etc. are partite testable or not. As a consequence, we prove that the squares of biconvex bipartite graphs are perfect.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2023

Edge-coloured graphs with only monochromatic perfect matchings and their connection to quantum physics

Krenn, Gu and Zeilinger initiated the study of PMValid edge-colourings because of its connection to a problem from quantum physics. A graph is defined to have a PMValid $k$-edge-colouring if it admits a $k$-edge-colouring (i.e. an edge colouring with $k$-colours) with the property that all perfect matchings are monochromatic and each of the $k$ colour classes contain at least one perfect matching. The matching index of a graph $G$, $μ(G)$ is defined as the maximum value of $k$ for which $G$ admits a PMValid $k$-edge-colouring. It is easy to see that $μ(G)\geq 1$ if and only if $G$ has a perfect matching (due to the trivial $1$-edge-colouring which is PMValid). Bogdanov observed that for all graphs non-isomorphic to $K_4$, $μ(G)\leq 2$ and $μ(K_4)=3$. However, the characterisation of graphs for which $μ(G)=1$ and $μ(G)=2$ is not known. In this work, we answer this question. Using this characterisation, we also give a fast algorithm to compute $μ(G)$ of a graph $G$. In view of our work, the structure of PMValid $k$-edge-colourable graphs is now fully understood for all $k$. Our characterisation, also has an implication to the aforementioned quantum physics problem. In particular, it settles a conjecture of Krenn and Gu for a sub-class of graphs.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2023

New bounds on the anti-Ramsey numbers of star graphs

The anti-Ramsey number $ar(G,H)$ with input graph $G$ and pattern graph $H$, is the maximum positive integer $k$ such that there exists an edge coloring of $G$ using $k$ colors, in which there are no rainbow subgraphs isomorphic to $H$ in $G$. ($H$ is rainbow if all its edges get distinct colors). The concept of anti-Ramsey number was introduced by Erdös, Simanovitz, and Sós in 1973. Thereafter several researchers investigated this concept in the combinatorial setting. Recently, Feng et al. revisited the anti-Ramsey problem for the pattern graph $K_{1,t}$ (for $t \geq 3$) purely from an algorithmic point of view due to its applications in interference modeling of wireless networks. They posed it as an optimization problem, the maximum edge $q$-coloring problem. For a graph $G$ and an integer $q\geq 2$, an edge $q$-coloring of $G$ is an assignment of colors to edges of $G$, such that edges incident on a vertex span at most $q$ distinct colors. The maximum edge $q$-coloring problem seeks to maximize the number of colors in an edge $q$-coloring of the graph $G$. Note that the optimum value of the edge $q$-coloring problem of $G$ equals $ar(G,K_{1,q+1})$. In this paper, we study $ar(G,K_{1,t})$, the anti-Ramsey number of stars, for each fixed integer $t\geq 3$, both from combinatorial and algorithmic point of view. The first of our main results presents an upper bound for $ar(G,K_{1,q+1})$, in terms of number of vertices and the minimum degree of $G$. The second one improves this result for the case of triangle-free input graphs. For a positive integer $t$, let $H_t$ denote a subgraph of $G$ with maximum number of possible edges and maximum degree $t$. Our third main result presents an upper bound for $ar(G,K_{1,q+1})$ in terms of $|E(H_{q-1})|$. All our results have algorithmic consequences.

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arXiv2022

List recoloring of planar graphs

A list assignment $L$ of a graph $G$ is a function that assigns to every vertex $v$ of $G$ a set $L(v)$ of colors. A proper coloring $α$ of $G$ is called an $L$-coloring of $G$ if $α(v)\in L(v)$ for every $v\in V(G)$. For a list assignment $L$ of $G$, the $L$-recoloring graph $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ of $G$ is a graph whose vertices correspond to the $L$-colorings of $G$ and two vertices of $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ are adjacent if their corresponding $L$-colorings differ at exactly one vertex of $G$. A $d$-face in a plane graph is a face of length $d$. Dvořák and Feghali conjectured for a planar graph $G$ and a list assignment $L$ of $G$, that: (i) If $|L(v)|\geq 10$ for every $v\in V(G)$, then the diameter of $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ is $O(|V(G)|)$. (ii) If $G$ is triangle-free and $|L(v)|\geq 7$ for every $v\in V(G)$, then the diameter of $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ is $O(|V(G)|)$. In a recent paper, Cranston (European J. Combin. (2022)) has proved (ii). In this paper, we prove the following results. Let $G$ be a plane graph and $L$ be a list assignment of $G$. $\bullet$ If for every $3$-face of $G$, there are at most two $3$-faces adjacent to it and $|L(v)|\geq 10$ for every $v\in V(G)$, then the diameter of $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ is at most $190|V(G)|$. $\bullet$ If for every $3$-face of $G$, there is at most one $3$-face adjacent to it and $|L(v)|\geq 9$ for every $v\in V(G)$, then the diameter of $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ is at most $13|V(G)|$. $\bullet$ If the faces adjacent to any $3$-face have length at least $6$ and $|L(v)|\geq 7$ for every $v\in V(G)$, then the diameter of $\mathcal{G}(G,L)$ is at most $242|V(G)|$. This result strengthens the Cranston's result on (ii).

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

s-Club Cluster Vertex Deletion on Interval and Well-Partitioned Chordal Graphs

In this paper, we study the computational complexity of \textsc{$s$-Club Cluster Vertex Deletion}. Given a graph, \textsc{$s$-Club Cluster Vertex Deletion ($s$-CVD)} aims to delete the minimum number of vertices from the graph so that each connected component of the resulting graph has a diameter at most $s$. When $s=1$, the corresponding problem is popularly known as \sloppy \textsc{Cluster Vertex Deletion (CVD)}. We provide a faster algorithm for \textsc{$s$-CVD} on \emph{interval graphs}. For each $s\geq 1$, we give an $O(n(n+m))$-time algorithm for \textsc{$s$-CVD} on interval graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. In the case of $s=1$, our algorithm is a slight improvement over the $O(n^3)$-time algorithm of Cao \etal (Theor. Comput. Sci., 2018) and for $s \geq 2$, it significantly improves the state-of-the-art running time $\left(O\left(n^4\right)\right)$. We also give a polynomial-time algorithm to solve \textsc{CVD} on \emph{well-partitioned chordal graphs}, a graph class introduced by Ahn \etal (\textsc{WG 2020}) as a tool for narrowing down complexity gaps for problems that are hard on chordal graphs, and easy on split graphs. Our algorithm relies on a characterisation of the optimal solution and on solving polynomially many instances of the \textsc{Weighted Bipartite Vertex Cover}. This generalises a result of Cao \etal (Theor. Comput. Sci., 2018) on split graphs. We also show that for any even integer $s\geq 2$, \textsc{$s$-CVD} is NP-hard on well-partitioned chordal graphs.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2022

Weakening Total Coloring Conjecture: Weak TCC and Hadwiger's Conjecture on Total Graphs

Hadwiger's conjecture is one of the most important and long-standing conjectures in graph theory. Reed and Seymour showed in 2004 that Hadwiger's conjecture is true for line graphs. We investigate this conjecture on the closely related class of total graphs. The total graph of $G$, denoted by $T(G)$, is defined on the vertex set $V(G)\sqcup E(G)$ with $c_1,c_2\in V(G)\sqcup E(G)$ adjacent whenever $c_1$ and $c_2$ are adjacent to or incident on each other in $G$. We first show that there exists a constant $C$ such that, if the connectivity of $G$ is at least $C$, then Hadwiger's conjecture is true for $T(G)$. The total chromatic number $χ"(G)$ of a graph $G$ is defined to be equal to the chromatic number of its total graph. That is, $χ"(G)=χ(T(G))$. Another well-known conjecture in graph theory, the total coloring conjecture or TCC, states that for every graph $G$, $χ"(G)\leqΔ(G)+2$, where $Δ(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$. We show that if a weaker version of the total coloring conjecture (weak TCC) namely, $χ"(G)\leqΔ(G)+3$, is true for a class of graphs $\mathcal{F}$ that is closed under the operation of taking subgraphs, then Hadwiger's conjecture is true for the class of total graphs of graphs in $\mathcal{F}$. This motivated us to look for classes of graphs that satisfy weak TCC. It may be noted that a complete proof of TCC for even 4-colorable graphs (in fact even for planar graphs) has remained elusive even after decades of effort; but weak TCC can be proved easily for 4-colorable graphs. We noticed that in spite of the interest in studying $χ"(G)$ in terms of $χ(G)$ right from the initial days, weak TCC is not proven to be true for $k$-colorable graphs even for $k=5$. In the second half of the paper, we make a contribution to the literature on total coloring by proving that $χ"(G)\leqΔ(G)+3$ for every 5-colorable graph $G$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Upper Bounding Rainbow Connection Number by Forest Number

A path in an edge-colored graph is rainbow if no two edges of it are colored the same, and the graph is rainbow-connected if there is a rainbow path between each pair of its vertices. The minimum number of colors needed to rainbow-connect a graph $G$ is the rainbow connection number of $G$, denoted by $\text{rc}(G)$. A simple way to rainbow-connect a graph $G$ is to color the edges of a spanning tree with distinct colors and then re-use any of these colors to color the remaining edges of $G$. This proves that $\text{rc}(G) \le |V(G)|-1$. We ask whether there is a stronger connection between tree-like structures and rainbow coloring than that is implied by the above trivial argument. For instance, is it possible to find an upper bound of $t(G) -1$ for $\text{rc}(G)$, where $t(G)$ is the number of vertices in the largest induced tree of $G$? The answer turns out to be negative, as there are counter-examples that show that even $c\cdot t(G)$ is not an upper bound for $\text{rc}(G))$ for any given constant $c$. In this work we show that if we consider the forest number $f(G)$, the number of vertices in a maximum induced forest of $G$, instead of $t(G)$, then surprisingly we do get an upper bound. More specifically, we prove that $\text{rc}(G) \leq f(G) + 2$. Our result indicates a stronger connection between rainbow connection and tree-like structures than that was suggested by the simple spanning tree based upper bound.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Combinatorial lower bounds for 3-query LDCs

A code is called a $q$-query locally decodable code (LDC) if there is a randomized decoding algorithm that, given an index $i$ and a received word $w$ close to an encoding of a message $x$, outputs $x_i$ by querying only at most $q$ coordinates of $w$. Understanding the tradeoffs between the dimension, length and query complexity of LDCs is a fascinating and unresolved research challenge. In particular, for $3$-query binary LDCs of dimension $k$ and length $n$, the best known bounds are: $2^{k^{o(1)}} \geq n \geq \tildeΩ(k^2)$. In this work, we take a second look at binary $3$-query LDCs. We investigate a class of 3-uniform hypergraphs that are equivalent to strong binary 3-query LDCs. We prove an upper bound on the number of edges in these hypergraphs, reproducing the known lower bound of $\tildeΩ(k^2)$ for the length of strong $3$-query LDCs. In contrast to previous work, our techniques are purely combinatorial and do not rely on a direct reduction to $2$-query LDCs, opening up a potentially different approach to analyzing 3-query LDCs.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2019

Hadwiger's Conjecture for squares of 2-Trees

Hadwiger's conjecture asserts that any graph contains a clique minor with order no less than the chromatic number of the graph. We prove that this well-known conjecture is true for all graphs if and only if it is true for squares of split graphs. This observation implies that Hadwiger's conjecture for squares of chordal graphs is as difficult as the general case, since chordal graphs are a superclass of split graphs. Then we consider 2-trees which are a subclass of each of planar graphs, 2-degenerate graphs and chordal graphs. We prove that Hadwiger's conjecture is true for squares of $2$-trees. We achieve this by proving the following stronger result: for any $2$-tree $T$, its square $T^2$ has a clique minor of order $χ(T^2)$ for which each branch set induces a path, where $χ(T^2)$ is the chromatic number of $T^2$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

On Graphs whose Eternal Vertex Cover Number and Vertex Cover Number Coincide

The eternal vertex cover problem is a variant of the classical vertex cover problem where a set of guards on the vertices have to be dynamically reconfigured from one vertex cover to another in every round of an attacker-defender game. The minimum number of guards required to protect a graph $G$ from an infinite sequence of attacks is the eternal vertex cover number of $G$, denoted by $evc(G)$. It is known that, given a graph $G$ and an integer $k$, checking whether $evc(G) \le k$ is NP-hard. However, it is unknown whether this problem is in NP or not. Precise value of eternal vertex cover number is known only for certain very basic graph classes like trees, cycles and grids. For any graph $G$, it is known that $mvc(G) \le evc(G) \le 2 mvc(G)$, where $mvc(G)$ is the minimum vertex cover number of $G$. Though a characterization is known for graphs for which $evc(G) = 2 mvc(G)$, a characterization of graphs for which $evc(G) = mvc(G)$ remained open. Here, we achieve such a characterization for a class of graphs that includes chordal graphs and internally triangulated planar graphs. For some graph classes including biconnected chordal graphs, our characterization leads to a polynomial time algorithm to precisely determine $evc(G)$ and to determine a safe strategy of guard movement in each round of the game with $evc(G)$ guards. The characterization also leads to NP-completeness results for the eternal vertex cover problem for some graph classes including biconnected internally triangulated planar graphs. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first NP-completeness results known for the problem for any graph class.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2019

On Induced Colourful Paths in Triangle-free Graphs

Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ whose vertices have been properly coloured, we say that a path in $G$ is "colourful" if no two vertices in the path have the same colour. It is a corollary of the Gallai-Roy-Vitaver Theorem that every properly coloured graph contains a colourful path on $χ(G)$ vertices. We explore a conjecture that states that every properly coloured triangle-free graph $G$ contains an induced colourful path on $χ(G)$ vertices and prove its correctness when the girth of $G$ is at least $χ(G)$. Recent work on this conjecture by Gyárfás and Sárközy, and Scott and Seymour has shown the existence of a function $f$ such that if $χ(G)\geq f(k)$, then an induced colourful path on $k$ vertices is guaranteed to exist in any properly coloured triangle-free graph $G$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

On Eulerian orientations of even-degree hypercubes

It is well known that \textit{every} Eulerian orientation of an Eulerian $2k$-edge connected (undirected) graph is strongly $k$-edge connected. An important goal in the area is to obtain analogous results for other types of connectivity, such as node connectivity and element connectivity. We show that \textit{every} Eulerian orientation of the hypercube of degree $2k$ is strongly $k$-node connected.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Spanning Tree Congestion and Computation of Generalized Győri-Lovász Partition

We study a natural problem in graph sparsification, the Spanning Tree Congestion (\STC) problem. Informally, the \STC problem seeks a spanning tree with no tree-edge \emph{routing} too many of the original edges. The root of this problem dates back to at least 30 years ago, motivated by applications in network design, parallel computing and circuit design. Variants of the problem have also seen algorithmic applications as a preprocessing step of several important graph algorithms. For any general connected graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, we show that its STC is at most $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{mn})$, which is asymptotically optimal since we also demonstrate graphs with STC at least $Ω(\sqrt{mn})$. We present a polynomial-time algorithm which computes a spanning tree with congestion $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{mn}\cdot \log n)$. We also present another algorithm for computing a spanning tree with congestion $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{mn})$; this algorithm runs in sub-exponential time when $m = ω(n \log^2 n)$. For achieving the above results, an important intermediate theorem is \emph{generalized Győri-Lovász theorem}, for which Chen et al. gave a non-constructive proof. We give the first elementary and constructive proof by providing a local search algorithm with running time $\mathcal{O}^*\left( 4^n \right)$, which is a key ingredient of the above-mentioned sub-exponential time algorithm. We discuss a few consequences of the theorem concerning graph partitioning, which might be of independent interest. We also show that for any graph which satisfies certain \emph{expanding properties}, its STC is at most $\mathcal{O}(n)$, and a corresponding spanning tree can be computed in polynomial time. We then use this to show that a random graph has STC $Θ(n)$ with high probability.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2018

Algorithms and Bounds for Very Strong Rainbow Coloring

A well-studied coloring problem is to assign colors to the edges of a graph $G$ so that, for every pair of vertices, all edges of at least one shortest path between them receive different colors. The minimum number of colors necessary in such a coloring is the strong rainbow connection number ($\src(G)$) of the graph. When proving upper bounds on $\src(G)$, it is natural to prove that a coloring exists where, for \emph{every} shortest path between every pair of vertices in the graph, all edges of the path receive different colors. Therefore, we introduce and formally define this more restricted edge coloring number, which we call \emph{very strong rainbow connection number} ($\vsrc(G)$). In this paper, we give upper bounds on $\vsrc(G)$ for several graph classes, some of which are tight. These immediately imply new upper bounds on $\src(G)$ for these classes, showing that the study of $\vsrc(G)$ enables meaningful progress on bounding $\src(G)$. Then we study the complexity of the problem to compute $\vsrc(G)$, particularly for graphs of bounded treewidth, and show this is an interesting problem in its own right. We prove that $\vsrc(G)$ can be computed in polynomial time on cactus graphs; in contrast, this question is still open for $\src(G)$. We also observe that deciding whether $\vsrc(G) = k$ is fixed-parameter tractable in $k$ and the treewidth of $G$. Finally, on general graphs, we prove that there is no polynomial-time algorithm to decide whether $\vsrc(G) \leq 3$ nor to approximate $\vsrc(G)$ within a factor $n^{1-\varepsilon}$, unless P$=$NP.

cs.DS↗