English

Complexity Classification of Colouring Problems with Parity Constraints

Data Structures and Algorithms 2026-07-18 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

We study variants of graph colouring with parity constraints. More specifically, we consider qq-colourings c ⁣:V(G){1,,q}c\colon V(G)\rightarrow \{1,\dots,q\} of a graph GG where, for every vertex vV(G)v\in V(G), the number of neighbours ww of vv with c(w)=c(v)c(w)=c(v) is restricted to be odd, even, positive, zero or a combination thereof. For every colour ic(v)i\neq c(v) the number of neighbours ww of vv with c(w)=ic(w)=i is restricted by a constraint of similar type. Many known colouring problems such as proper colouring, defective colouring, exact defective colouring, odd colouring, and strong odd colouring can be described within this framework of constraining graph colourings, and therefore considering variants constitutes a natural generalisation of known colouring problems. We provide a comprehensive study of the computational complexity of different combinations of constraints involving parity.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.16879,
  title  = {Complexity Classification of Colouring Problems with Parity Constraints},
  author = {Rémy Belmonte and Juan Pablo Bravo and Noleen Köhler and Haiko Müller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.16879},
  year   = {2026}
}