arXiv subjects

Nicolas Nisse

Publications and source records attributed to Nicolas Nisse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Backbone colouring of chordal graphs

A proper $k$-colouring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a function $c: V(G)\to \{1,\ldots,k\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for every edge $uv\in E(G)$. The chromatic number $χ(G)$ is the minimum $k$ such that there exists a proper $k$-colouring of $G$. Given a spanning subgraph $H$ of $G$, a $q$-backbone $k$-colouring of $(G,H)$ is a proper $k$-colouring $c$ of $G$ such that $\lvert c(u)-c(v)\rvert \ge q$ for every edge $uv\in E(H)$. The $q$-backbone chromatic number ${\rm BBC}_q(G,H)$ is the smallest $k$ for which there exists a $q$-backbone $k$-colouring of $(G,H)$. In their seminal paper, Broersma et al.~\cite{BFGW07} ask whether, for any chordal graph $G$ and any spanning forest $H$ of $G$, we have that ${\rm BBC}_2(G,H)\leq χ(G)+O(1)$. In this work, we first show that this is true as long as $H$ is bipartite and $G$ is an interval graph in which each vertex belongs to at most two maximal cliques. We then show that this does not extend to bipartite graphs as backbone by exhibiting a family of chordal graphs $G$ with spanning bipartite subgraphs $H$ satisfying ${\rm BBC}_2(G,H)\geq \frac{5χ(G)}{3}$. Then, we show that if $G$ is chordal and $H$ has bounded maximum average degree (in particular, if $H$ is a forest), then ${\rm BBC}_2(G,H)\leq χ(G)+O(\sqrt{χ(G)})$. We finally show that ${\rm BBC}_2(G,H)\leq \frac{3}{2}χ(G)+O(1)$ holds whenever $G$ is chordal and $H$ is $C_4$-free.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

The Graph Coloring Game on $4\times n$-Grids

The graph coloring game is a famous two-player game (re)introduced by Bodlaender in $1991$. Given a graph $G$ and $k \in \mathbb{N}$, Alice and Bob alternately (starting with Alice) color an uncolored vertex with some color in $\{1,\cdots,k\}$ such that no two adjacent vertices receive a same color. If eventually all vertices are colored, then Alice wins and Bob wins otherwise. The game chromatic number $χ_g(G)$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that Alice has a winning strategy with $k$ colors in $G$. It has been recently (2020) shown that, given a graph $G$ and $k\in \mathbb{N}$, deciding whether $χ_g(G)\leq k$ is PSPACE-complete. Surprisingly, this parameter is not well understood even in ``simple" graph classes. Let $P_n$ denote the path with $n\geq 1$ vertices. For instance, in the case of Cartesian grids, it is easy to show that $χ_g(P_m \times P_n) \leq 5$ since $χ_g(G)\leq Δ+1$ for any graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ$. However, the exact value is only known for small values of $m$, namely $χ_g(P_1\times P_n)=3$, $χ_g(P_2\times P_n)=4$ and $χ_g(P_3\times P_n) =4$ for $n\geq 4$ [Raspaud, Wu, 2009]. Here, we prove that, for every $n\geq 18$, $χ_g(P_4\times P_n) =4$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Complexity of Maker-Breaker Games on Edge Sets of Graphs

We study the algorithmic complexity of Maker-Breaker games played on the edge sets of general graphs. We mainly consider the perfect matching game and the $H$-game. Maker wins if she claims the edges of a perfect matching in the first, and a copy of a fixed graph $H$ in the second. We prove that deciding who wins the perfect matching game and the $H$-game is PSPACE-complete, even for the latter in small-diameter graphs if $H$ is a tree. Toward finding the smallest graph $H$ for which the $H$-game is PSPACE-complete, we also prove that such an $H$ of order 51 and size 57 exists. We then give several positive results for the $H$-game. As the $H$-game is already PSPACE-complete when $H$ is a tree, we mainly consider the case where $H$ belongs to a subclass of trees. In particular, we design two linear-time algorithms, both based on structural characterizations, to decide the winners of the $P_4$-game in general graphs and the $K_{1,\ell}$-game in trees. Then, we prove that the $K_{1,\ell}$-game in any graph, and the $H$-game in trees are both FPT parameterized by the length of the game, notably adding to the short list of games with this property, which is of independent interest. Another natural direction to take is to consider the $H$-game when $H$ is a cycle. While we were unable to resolve this case, we prove that the related arboricity-$k$ game is polynomial-time solvable. In particular, when $k=2$, Maker wins this game if she claims the edges of any cycle.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2024

Redicolouring digraphs: directed treewidth and cycle-degeneracy

Given a digraph $D=(V,A)$ on $n$ vertices and a vertex $v\in V$, the cycle-degree of $v$ is the minimum size of a set $S \subseteq V(D) \setminus \{v\}$ intersecting every directed cycle of $D$ containing $v$. From this definition of cycle-degree, we define the $c$-degeneracy (or cycle-degeneracy) of $D$, which we denote by $δ^*_c(D)$. It appears to be a nice generalisation of the undirected degeneracy. In this work, using this new definition of cycle-degeneracy, we extend several evidences for Cereceda's conjecture to digraphs. The $k$-dicolouring graph of $D$, denoted by $\mathcal{D}_k(D)$, is the undirected graph whose vertices are the $k$-dicolourings of $D$ and in which two $k$-dicolourings are adjacent if they differ on the colour of exactly one vertex. We show that $\mathcal{D}_k(D)$ has diameter at most $O_{δ^*_c(D)}(n^{δ^*_c(D) + 1})$ (respectively $O(n^2)$ and $(δ^*_c(D)+1)n$) when $k$ is at least $δ^*_c(D)+2$ (respectively $\frac{3}{2}(δ^*_c(D)+1)$ and $2(δ^*_c(D)+1)$). This improves known results on digraph redicolouring (Bousquet et al.). Next, we extend a result due to Feghali to digraphs, showing that $\mathcal{D}_{d+1}(D)$ has diameter at most $O_{d,ε}(n(\log n)^{d-1})$ when $D$ has maximum average cycle-degree at most $d-ε$. We then show that two proofs of Bonamy and Bousquet for undirected graphs can be extended to digraphs. The first one uses the digrundy number of a digraph and the second one uses the $\mathscr{D}$-width. Finally, we give a general theorem which makes a connection between the recolourability of a digraph $D$ and the recolourability of its underlying graph $UG(D)$. This result directly extends a number of results on planar graph recolouring to planar digraph redicolouring.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

The Maker-Breaker Largest Connected Subgraph Game

Given a graph $G$ and $k \in \mathbb{N}$, we introduce the following game played in $G$. Each round, Alice colours an uncoloured vertex of $G$ red, and then Bob colours one blue (if any remain). Once every vertex is coloured, Alice wins if there is a connected red component of order at least $k$, and otherwise, Bob wins. This is a Maker-Breaker version of the Largest Connected Subgraph game introduced in [Bensmail et al. The Largest Connected Subgraph Game. {\it Algorithmica}, 84(9):2533--2555, 2022]. We want to compute $c_g(G)$, which is the maximum $k$ such that Alice wins in $G$, regardless of Bob's strategy. Given a graph $G$ and $k\in \mathbb{N}$, we prove that deciding whether $c_g(G)\geq k$ is PSPACE-complete, even if $G$ is a bipartite, split, or planar graph. To better understand the Largest Connected Subgraph game, we then focus on {\it A-perfect} graphs, which are the graphs $G$ for which $c_g(G)=\lceil|V(G)|/2\rceil$, {\it i.e.}, those in which Alice can ensure that the red subgraph is connected. We give sufficient conditions, in terms of the minimum and maximum degrees or the number of edges, for a graph to be A-perfect. Also, we show that, for any $d \geq 4$, there are arbitrarily large A-perfect $d$-regular graphs, but no cubic graph with order at least $18$ is A-perfect. Lastly, we show that $c_g(G)$ is computable in linear time when $G$ is a $P_4$-sparse graph (a superclass of cographs).

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Digraph redicolouring

Given two $k$-dicolourings of a digraph $D$, we prove that it is PSPACE-complete to decide whether we can transform one into the other by recolouring one vertex at each step while maintaining a dicolouring at any step even for $k=2$ and for digraphs with maximum degree $5$ or oriented planar graphs with maximum degree $6$. A digraph is said to be $k$-mixing if there exists a transformation between any pair of $k$-colourings. We show that every digraph $D$ is $k$-mixing for all $k\geq δ^*_{\min}(D)+2$, generalizing a result due to Dyer et al. We also prove that every oriented graph $\vec{G}$ is $k$-mixing for all $k\geq δ^*_{\max}(\vec{G}) +1$ and for all $k\geq δ^*_{\rm avg}(\vec{G})+1$. We conjecture that, for every digraph $D$, the dicolouring graph of $D$ on $k\geq δ_{\min}^*(D)+2$ colours has diameter at most $O(|V(D)|^2)$ and give some evidences. We first prove that the dicolouring graph of any digraph $D$ on $k\geq 2δ_{\min}^*(D) + 2$ colours has linear diameter, extending a result from Bousquet and Perarnau. We also prove that the conjecture is true when $k\geq \frac{3}{2}(δ_{\min}^*(D)+1)$. Restricted to the special case of oriented graphs, we prove that the dicolouring graph of any subcubic oriented graph on $k\geq 2$ colours is connected and has diameter at most $2n$. We conjecture that every non $2$-mixing oriented graph has maximum average degree at least $4$, and we provide some support for this conjecture by proving it on the special case of $2$-freezable oriented graphs. More generally, we show that every $k$-freezable oriented graph on $n$ vertices must contain at least $kn + k(k-2)$ arcs, and we give a family of $k$-freezable oriented graphs that reach this bound. In the general case, we prove as a partial result that every non $2$-mixing oriented graph has maximum average degree at least $\frac{7}{2}$.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2023

Further results on the Hunters and Rabbit game through monotonicity

Hunters and Rabbit game is played on a graph $G$ where the Hunter player shoots at $k$ vertices in every round while the Rabbit player occupies an unknown vertex and, if not shot, must move to a neighbouring vertex after each round. The Rabbit player wins if it can ensure that its position is never shot. The Hunter player wins otherwise. The hunter number $h(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum integer $k$ such that the Hunter player has a winning strategy (i.e., allowing him to win whatever be the strategy of the Rabbit player). This game has been studied in several graph classes, in particular in bipartite graphs (grids, trees, hypercubes...), but the computational complexity of computing $h(G)$ remains open in general graphs and even in trees. To progress further, we propose a notion of monotonicity for the Hunters and Rabbit game imposing that, roughly, a vertex that has already been shot ``must not host the rabbit anymore''. This allows us to obtain new results in various graph classes. Let the monotone hunter number be denoted by $mh(G)$. We show that $pw(G) \leq mh(G) \leq pw(G)+1$ for any graph $G$ with pathwidth $pw(G)$, implying that computing $mh(G)$, or even approximating $mh(G)$ up to an additive constant, is NP-hard. Then, we show that $mh(G)$ can be computed in polynomial time in split graphs, interval graphs, cographs and trees. These results go through structural characterisations which allow us to relate the monotone hunter number with the pathwidth in some of these graph classes. In all cases, this allows us to specify the hunter number or to show that there may be an arbitrary gap between $h$ and $mh$, i.e., that monotonicity does not help. In particular, we show that, for every $k\geq 3$, there exists a tree $T$ with $h(T)=2$ and $mh(T)=k$. We conclude by proving that computing $h$ (resp., $mh$) is FPT parameterised by the minimum size of a vertex cover.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2023

Weakly synchronous systems with three machines are Turing powerful

Communicating finite-state machines (CFMs) are a Turing powerful model of asynchronous message-passing distributed systems. In weakly synchronous systems, processes communicate through phases in which messages are first sent and then received, for each process. Such systems enjoy a limited form of synchronization, and for some communication models, this restriction is enough to make the reachability problem decidable. In particular, we explore the intriguing case of p2p (FIFO) communication, for which the reachability problem is known to be undecidable for four processes, but decidable for two. We show that the configuration reachability problem for weakly synchronous systems of three processes is undecidable. This result is heavily inspired by our study on the treewidth of the Message Sequence Charts (MSCs) that might be generated by such systems. In this sense, the main contribution of this work is a weakly synchronous system with three processes that generates MSCs of arbitrarily large treewidth.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2023

Preferential attachment hypergraph with vertex deactivation

In the field of complex networks, hypergraph models have so far received significantly less attention than graphs. However, many real-life networks feature multiary relations (co-authorship, protein reactions) may therefore be modeled way better by hypergraphs. Also, a recent study by Broido and Clauset suggests that a power-law degree distribution is not as ubiquitous in the natural systems as it was thought so far. They experimentally confirm that a majority of networks (56% of around 1000 networks that undergone the test) favor a power-law with an exponential cutoff over other distributions. We address the two above observations by introducing a preferential attachment hypergraph model which allows for vertex deactivations. The phenomenon of vertex deactivations is rare in existing theoretical models and omnipresent in real-life scenarios (social network accounts which are not maintained forever, collaboration networks in which people retire, technological networks in which devices break down). We prove that the degree distribution of the proposed model follows a power-law with an exponential cutoff. We also check experimentally that a Scopus collaboration network has the same characteristic. We believe that our model will predict well the behavior of systems from a variety of domains.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2022

Problems, proofs, and disproofs on the inversion number

The {\it inversion} of a set $X$ of vertices in a digraph $D$ consists in reversing the direction of all arcs of $D\langle X\rangle$. The {\it inversion number} of an oriented graph $D$, denoted by ${\rm inv}(D)$, is the minimum number of inversions needed to transform $D$ into an acyclic oriented graph. In this paper, we study a number of problems involving the inversion number of oriented graphs. Firstly, we give bounds on ${\rm inv}(n)$, the maximum of the inversion numbers of the oriented graphs of order $n$. We show $n - \mathcal{O}(\sqrt{n\log n}) \ \leq \ {\rm inv}(n) \ \leq \ n - \lceil \log (n+1) \rceil$. Secondly, we disprove a conjecture of Bang-Jensen et al. asserting that, for every pair of oriented graphs $L$ and $R$, we have ${\rm inv}(L\Rightarrow R) ={\rm inv}(L) + {\rm inv}(R)$, where $L\Rightarrow R$ is the oriented graph obtained from the disjoint union of $L$ and $R$ by adding all arcs from $L$ to $R$. Finally, we investigate whether, for all pairs of positive integers $k_1,k_2$, there exists an integer $f(k_1,k_2)$ such that if $D$ is an oriented graph with ${\rm inv}(D) \geq f(k_1,k_2)$ then there is a partition $(V_1, V_2)$ of $V(D)$ such that ${\rm inv}(D\langle V_i\rangle) \geq k_i$ for $i=1,2$. We show that $f(1,k)$ exists and $f(1,k)\leq k+10$ for all positive integers $k$. Further, we show that $f(k_1,k_2)$ exists for all pairs of positive integers $k_1,k_2$ when the oriented graphs in consideration are restricted to be tournaments.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Preferential attachment hypergraph with high modularity

Numerous works have been proposed to generate random graphs preserving the same properties as real-life large scale networks. However, many real networks are better represented by hypergraphs. Few models for generating random hypergraphs exist and no general model allows to both preserve a power-law degree distribution and a high modularity indicating the presence of communities. We present a dynamic preferential attachment hypergraph model which features partition into communities. We prove that its degree distribution follows a power-law and we give theoretical lower bounds for its modularity. We compare its characteristics with a real-life co-authorship network and show that our model achieves good performances. We believe that our hypergraph model will be an interesting tool that may be used in many research domains in order to reflect better real-life phenomena.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2018

Centroidal localization game

One important problem in a network is to locate an (invisible) moving entity by using distance-detectors placed at strategical locations. For instance, the metric dimension of a graph $G$ is the minimum number $k$ of detectors placed in some vertices $\{v_1,\cdots,v_k\}$ such that the vector $(d_1,\cdots,d_k)$ of the distances $d(v_i,r)$ between the detectors and the entity's location $r$ allows to uniquely determine $r \in V(G)$. In a more realistic setting, instead of getting the exact distance information, given devices placed in $\{v_1,\cdots,v_k\}$, we get only relative distances between the entity's location $r$ and the devices (for every $1\leq i,j\leq k$, it is provided whether $d(v_i,r) >$, $<$, or $=$ to $d(v_j,r)$). The centroidal dimension of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of devices required to locate the entity in this setting. We consider the natural generalization of the latter problem, where vertices may be probed sequentially until the moving entity is located. At every turn, a set $\{v_1,\cdots,v_k\}$ of vertices is probed and then the relative distances between the vertices $v_i$ and the current location $r$ of the entity are given. If not located, the moving entity may move along one edge. Let $ζ^* (G)$ be the minimum $k$ such that the entity is eventually located, whatever it does, in the graph $G$. We prove that $ζ^* (T)\leq 2$ for every tree $T$ and give an upper bound on $ζ^*(G\square H)$ in cartesian product of graphs $G$ and $H$. Our main result is that $ζ^* (G)\leq 3$ for any outerplanar graph $G$. We then prove that $ζ^* (G)$ is bounded by the pathwidth of $G$ plus 1 and that the optimization problem of determining $ζ^* (G)$ is NP-hard in general graphs. Finally, we show that approximating (up to any constant distance) the entity's location in the Euclidean plane requires at most two vertices per turn.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Computing metric hulls in graphs

We prove that, given a closure function the smallest preimage of a closed set can be calculated in polynomial time in the number of closed sets. This confirms a conjecture of Albenque and Knauer and implies that there is a polynomial time algorithm to compute the convex hull-number of a graph, when all its convex subgraphs are given as input. We then show that computing if the smallest preimage of a closed set is logarithmic in the size of the ground set is LOGSNP-complete if only the ground set is given. A special instance of this problem is computing the dimension of a poset given its linear extension graph, that was conjectured to be in P. The intent to show that the latter problem is LOGSNP-complete leads to several interesting questions and to the definition of the isometric hull, i.e., a smallest isometric subgraph containing a given set of vertices $S$. While for $|S|=2$ an isometric hull is just a shortest path, we show that computing the isometric hull of a set of vertices is NP-complete even if $|S|=3$. Finally, we consider the problem of computing the isometric hull-number of a graph and show that computing it is $Σ^P_2$ complete.

math.CO↗

arXiv2017

Localization game on geometric and planar graphs

The main topic of this paper is motivated by a localization problem in cellular networks. Given a graph $G$ we want to localize a walking agent by checking his distance to as few vertices as possible. The model we introduce is based on a pursuit graph game that resembles the famous Cops and Robbers game. It can be considered as a game theoretic variant of the \emph{metric dimension} of a graph. We provide upper bounds on the related graph invariant $ζ(G)$, defined as the least number of cops needed to localize the robber on a graph $G$, for several classes of graphs (trees, bipartite graphs, etc). Our main result is that, surprisingly, there exists planar graphs of treewidth $2$ and unbounded $ζ(G)$. On a positive side, we prove that $ζ(G)$ is bounded by the pathwidth of $G$. We then show that the algorithmic problem of determining $ζ(G)$ is NP-hard in graphs with diameter at most $2$. Finally, we show that at most one cop can approximate (arbitrary close) the location of the robber in the Euclidean plane.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Progressive Tree-like Curvilinear Structure Reconstruction with Structured Ranking Learning and Graph Algorithm

We propose a novel tree-like curvilinear structure reconstruction algorithm based on supervised learning and graph theory. In this work we analyze image patches to obtain the local major orientations and the rankings that correspond to the curvilinear structure. To extract local curvilinear features, we compute oriented gradient information using steerable filters. We then employ Structured Support Vector Machine for ordinal regression of the input image patches, where the ordering is determined by shape similarity to latent curvilinear structure. Finally, we progressively reconstruct the curvilinear structure by looking for geodesic paths connecting remote vertices in the graph built on the structured output rankings. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm faithfully provides topological features of the curvilinear structures using minimal pixels for various datasets.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2016

Subdivisions of oriented cycles in digraphs with large chromatic number

An oriented cycle is an orientation of a undirected cycle. We first show that for any oriented cycle $C$, there are digraphs containing no subdivision of $C$ (as a subdigraph) and arbitrarily large chromatic number. In contrast, we show that for any $C$ a cycle with two blocks, every strongly connected digraph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains a subdivision of $C$. We prove a similar result for the antidirected cycle on four vertices (in which two vertices have out-degree $2$ and two vertices have in-degree $2$).

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

On computing tree and path decompositions with metric constraints on the bags

We here investigate on the complexity of computing the \emph{tree-length} and the \emph{tree-breadth} of any graph $G$, that are respectively the best possible upper-bounds on the diameter and the radius of the bags in a tree decomposition of $G$. \emph{Path-length} and \emph{path-breadth} are similarly defined and studied for path decompositions. So far, it was already known that tree-length is NP-hard to compute. We here prove it is also the case for tree-breadth, path-length and path-breadth. Furthermore, we provide a more detailed analysis on the complexity of computing the tree-breadth. In particular, we show that graphs with tree-breadth one are in some sense the hardest instances for the problem of computing the tree-breadth. We give new properties of graphs with tree-breadth one. Then we use these properties in order to recognize in polynomial-time all graphs with tree-breadth one that are planar or bipartite graphs. On the way, we relate tree-breadth with the notion of \emph{$k$-good} tree decompositions (for $k=1$), that have been introduced in former work for routing. As a byproduct of the above relation, we prove that deciding on the existence of a $k$-good tree decomposition is NP-complete (even if $k=1$). All this answers open questions from the literature.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2011

Interconnection network with a shared whiteboard: Impact of (a)synchronicity on computing power

In this work we study the computational power of graph-based models of distributed computing in which each node additionally has access to a global whiteboard. A node can read the contents of the whiteboard and, when activated, can write one message of O(log n) bits on it. When the protocol terminates, each node computes the output based on the final contents of the whiteboard. We consider several scheduling schemes for nodes, providing a strict ordering of their power in terms of the problems which can be solved with exactly one activation per node. The problems used to separate the models are related to Maximal Independent Set, detection of cycles of length 4, and BFS spanning tree constructions.

cs.DC↗