Coloring Algorithms for Graphs and Hypergraphs with Forbidden Substructures

Abstract

This thesis mainly focus on complexity results of the generalized version of the $r$-Coloring Problem, the $r$-Pre-Coloring Extension Problem and the List $r$-Coloring Problem restricted to hypergraphs and ordered graphs with forbidden substructures.

In the context of forbidding non-induced substructure in hypergraphs, we obtain complete complexity dichotomies of the $r$-Coloring Problem and the $r$-Pre-Coloring Extension Problem in hypergraphs with bounded edge size and bounded matching number, as well as the $r$-Pre-Coloring Extension Problem in hypergraphs with uniform edge size and bounded matching number. We also get partial complexity result of the $r$-Coloring Problem in hypergraphs with uniform edge size and bounded matching number. Additionally, we study the Maximum Stable Set Problem and the Maximum Weight Stable Set Problem in hypergraphs. We obtain complexity dichotomies of these problems in hypergraphs with uniform edge size and bounded matching number.

We then give a polynomial-time algorithm of the 2-Coloring Problem restricted to the class of 3-uniform hypergraphs excluding a fixed one-edge induced subhypergraph. We also consider linear hypergraphs and show that 3-Coloring in linear 3-uniform hypergraphs with either bounded matching size or bounded induced matching size is NP-hard if the bound is a large enough constant.

This thesis also contains a near-dichotomy of complexity results for ordered graphs. We prove that the List-3-Coloring Problem in ordered graphs with a forbidden induced ordered subgraph is polynomial-time solvable if the ordered subgraph contains only one edge, or it is isomorphic to some fixed ordered 3-vertex path plus isolated vertices. On the other hand, it is NP-hard if the ordered subgraph contains at least three edges, or contains a vertex of degree two and does not satisfy the polynomial-time case mentioned before, or contains two non-adjacent edges with a specific ordering. The complexity result when forbidding a few ordered subgraphs with exactly two edges is still unknown.