KAIST Discrete Math Seminar

A b-coloring of a graph G is a proper coloring of its vertices such that each color class contains a vertex that has at least one neighbor in all the other color classes. The b-Coloring problem asks whether a graph G has a b-coloring with k colors.The b-chromatic number of a graph G, denoted by χ_b(G), is the maximum number k such that G admits a b-coloring with k colors. We consider the complexity of the b-Coloring problem, whenever the value of k is close to one of two upper bounds on χ_b(G): The maximum degree Δ(G) plus one, and the m-degree, denoted by m(G), which is defined as the maximum number i such that G has i vertices of degree at least i−1. We obtain a dichotomy result stating that for fixed k∈{Δ(G)+1−p,m(G)−p}, the problem is polynomial-time solvable whenever p∈{0,1} and, even when k=3, it is NP-complete whenever p≥2.
We furthermore consider parameterizations of the b-Coloring problem that involve the maximum degree Δ(G) of the input graph G and give two FPT-algorithms. First, we show that deciding whether a graph G has a b-coloring with m(G) colors is FPT parameterized by Δ(G). Second, we show that b-Coloring is FPT parameterized by Δ(G)+ℓ_k(G), where ℓ_k(G) denotes the number of vertices of degree at least k.
This is joint work with Paloma T. Lima.