English

On Structural Parameterizations of Star Coloring

Data Structures and Algorithms 2022-11-23 v1

Abstract

A Star Coloring of a graph G is a proper vertex coloring such that every path on four vertices uses at least three distinct colors. The minimum number of colors required for such a star coloring of G is called star chromatic number, denoted by \chi_s(G). Given a graph G and a positive integer k, the STAR COLORING PROBLEM asks whether GG has a star coloring using at most k colors. This problem is NP-complete even on restricted graph classes such as bipartite graphs. In this paper, we initiate a study of STAR COLORING from the parameterized complexity perspective. We show that STAR COLORING is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by (a) neighborhood diversity, (b) twin-cover, and (c) the combined parameters clique-width and the number of colors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2211.12226,
  title  = {On Structural Parameterizations of Star Coloring},
  author = {Sriram Bhyravarapu and I. Vinod Reddy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.12226},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T06:35:02.807Z