The d-precoloring problem for k-degenerate graphs∗ Janka Chleb´ıkov´a† Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics Comenius University, 842 48 Bratislava, Slovakia [email protected] and Klaus Jansen Institut f¨urInformatik und Praktische Mathematik Christian-Albrechts-Universit¨at zu Kiel Olshausenstr. 40, D-24098 Kiel, Germany [email protected] Abstract In this paper we deal with the d-Precoloring Extension problem, (d-PrExt), in various classes of graphs. The d-PrExt problem is the special case of precoloring extension problem where, for a fixed constant d, input instances are restricted to contain at most d precolored vertices for every available color. The goal is to decide if there exists an extension of given precoloring using only available colors or to find it. We present a linear time algorithm for both, the decision and the search version of d-PrExt, in the following cases: (i) restricted to the class of k-degenerate graphs (hence also planar graphs) and with sufficiently large set S of available colors, and (ii) restricted to the class of partial k-trees (without any size restriction on S). We also study the following problem related to d-PrExt: given an instance of the d-PrExt problem which is extendable by colors of S, what is the minimum number of colors of S sufficient to use for precolorless vertices over all such extensions? We establish lower and upper bounds on this value for k-degenerate graphs and its various subclasses (e.g., planar graphs, outerplanar graphs) and prove tight results for the class of trees. ∗The work was supported by EU-Project ARACNE, HPRN-CT-1999-00112 and VEGA grant no. 1/3106/06. †Part of this work was done while the author was working at the CAU University of Kiel. 1 1 Introduction Let G = (V,E) be a finite simple graph. For a set S of colors, a proper coloring (or S-coloring) of G is a mapping f : V → S such that f(u) 6= f(v) whenever {u,v} ∈ E. An S-precoloring f ′ of G is any proper coloring f ′ : C → S of the subgraph of G induced by C ⊆ V . An S-precoloring of G is called a (d, S)-precoloring, if each color of S is used for at most d vertices. We say that an S-coloring f of G is an extension of an S-precoloring f ′ : C → S, if f(v)= f ′(v) for each vertex v ∈ C. The subset C ⊆ V is the set of precolored vertices and V \ C is the set of precolorless vertices. The admissible set of colors for a precolorless vertex v is the set of all colors of S which do not occur on precolored neighbors of v. A graph G is k-degenerate if every subgraph of G has a vertex of degree at most k. We can define the class of k-degenerate graphs also inductively as follows: a graph with at most (k +1) vertices is a k-degenerate graph and recursively a k-degenerate graph with (n + 1) vertices can be obtained from a k-degenerate graph with n vertices by adding a new vertex adjacent to at most k vertices. If we start with a (k + 1)-clique and every new vertex has to be adjacent to all vertices of a k-clique, we obtain a k-tree introduced in [1]. A partial k-tree is a subgraph of a k-tree. In this article we investigate the following problem: d-Precoloring Extension Problem (d-PrExt), d is a fixed nonnegative integer Instance: A set S of colors, a graph G, and a (d, S)-precoloring of G. Question (decision): Is there an extension of the (d, S)-precoloring to the entire graph G (using only colors of S)? Task (search): Find an extension to the entire graph G, if there is any. The d-PrExt problem is a subproblem of the Precoloring Extension problem (PrExt). In the PrExt problem there is no restriction on the number of precolored vertices for any color of S. PrExt and d-PrExt arise in practical applications such as scheduling or VLSI-layout and were initiated in [2]. Obviously, 0-PrExt is the problem to decide whether the chromatic number χ(G) is at most |S|. Hence the Graph Coloring problem, which is NP-complete for general graphs ([8]), is a subproblem of the d-PrExt problem. However d-PrExt is NP-complete even for very restricted graph classes: e.g., 1-PrExt problem for bipartite graphs (and |S| = 3) [3], 1-PrExt problem for permutation graphs [12], and 2-PrExt problem for interval graphs [2]. On the other hand, PrExt can be solved in polynomial time for (a) split graphs, (b) complements of bipartite graphs [9], (c) for partial k-trees [11], [13] (if |S| is a constant, in linear time [11]), and in linear time also for trees. Further research was continued in a series of papers, see [10], [14], and also [16] for a survey and references therein. 2 Summary of Results In this paper we consider some combinatorial and algorithmic aspects of the d-PrExt problem restricted to the subclasses of k-degenerate graphs. They include some well studied classes of graphs such as partial k-trees, planar graphs (for k = 5), and outerplanar graphs (for k = 2). In Section 2 we prove that if the answer to the d-PrExt problem for a k-degenerate graph is affirmative then there exists also an extension that uses at most k(d + 2) colors for all precolorless vertices independently of the size of S. On the other hand, we present (d, S)-precolored k-degenerate graphs that require to use at least k(d + 1) + 1 colors of S to extend the precoloring. The similar bounds are presented also for various subclasses of k-degenerate graphs (e.g., planar graphs, outerplanar graphs), with tight bounds for the class of trees. In Section 3 we present a linear time algorithm for both, the decision and the search version of the d-PrExt problem in the following cases: (i) for k-degenerate graphs, if |S| ≥ 2k + 1, (ii) for planar graphs, if |S| ≥ 7, (iii) for partial k-trees without any size restriction on S. The last result improves on the best known result for the d-PrExt problem restricted to the class of partial k-trees, with running time O(|V ||S|k+1) ([11]). 2 Structural Results An interesting combinatorial question relevant to d-PrExt is the following: if there is an extension for every extendable (d, S)-precoloring to the entire graph G (using only colors of S), how many colors of S are necessary to the precolorless vertices of G? Definition. Define the d-chromatic number of a graph G, χd(G), as the minimum number m such that for every set of colors S and every extendable (d, S)-precoloring of G, there is an extension to the entire graph G that uses at most m colors of S for the precolorless vertices. For a class of graphs G, let χd = supG∈G χd(G) (+∞, if χd(G) is unbounded). Firstly, we present the following lemma that expresses a property of k-degenerate graphs. Lemma 1 Let k ≥ 1, M > k be fixed integers. Then every nonempty k-degenerate graph nk with n vertices contains less than M−k vertices with degree at least M. Proof. Due to the fact that any k-degenerate graph is a subgraph of a k-degenerate graph on the same vertex set with all vertices of degree at least k, it is sufficient to prove lemma for k-degenerate graphs with minimum degree k. 3 Let G = (V,E) be a k-degenerate graph with n vertices and minimum degree k. If at nk least M−k vertices have degree at least M in G, then nk nk (1) dG(v) ≥ · M + n − k = 2kn. M − k µ M − k ¶ vX∈V But the sum of vertex degrees in a k-degenerate graph G is bounded by (2) dG(v)= k(k + 1) + 2k(n − k − 1) < 2kn, vX∈V using the inductive construction of k-degenerate graphs. Combining (1) and (2) we obtain a contradiction. ¤ Remark 1 For a planar graph G = (V,E) the inequality |E| ≤ 3|V | − 6 is well known. From this one can prove better upper bound for the number of large degree vertices in planar graphs as follows from Lemma 1 for 5-degenerate graphs (hence also planar graphs). More 3(|V |−4) precisely, a planar graph G contains at most M−3 vertices of degree at least M, M ≥ 4. In the following theorem we prove that for the class of k-degenerate graphs, the value χd can be bounded by a function of d and k. Note that, e.g., for the class of bipartite graphs, χd is unbounded. Theorem 1 Let k ≥ 1, d > 0 be fixed integers. For any (d, S)-precoloring of a k- degenerate graph if there is an extension to the entire graph, then there is also an extension which uses at most k(d + 2) colors of S, i.e., χd ≤ k(d + 2) for the class of k-degenerate graphs. Proof. Suppose to the contrary that the theorem does not hold. The size of a (d, S)-precolored k-degenerate graph G = (V,E) is defined as |V | + |S|. Let G with a (d, S)-precoloring g be a fixed counterexample of smallest size. Then using Lemma 1 it follows that |V | (3) less than d+1 vertices have degree ≥ k(d + 2).