English

Recoloring via modular decomposition

Combinatorics 2026-02-19 v2 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

The reconfiguration graph of the kk-colorings of a graph GG, denoted Rk(G)R_{k}(G), is the graph whose vertices are the kk-colorings of GG and two colorings are adjacent in Rk(G)R_{k}(G) if they differ in color on exactly one vertex. A graph GG is said to be recolorable if R(G)R_{\ell}(G) is connected for all χ(G)\ell \geq \chi(G)+1. We demonstrate how to use the modular decomposition of a graph class to prove that the graphs in the class are recolorable. In particular, we prove that every (P5P_5, diamond)-free graph, every (P5P_5, house, bull)-free graph, and every (P5P_5, C5C_5, co-fork)-free graph is recolorable. A graph is prime if it cannot be decomposed by modular decomposition except into single vertices. For a prime graph HH, we study the complexity of deciding if HH is kk-colorable and the complexity of deciding if there exists a path between two given kk-colorings in Rk(H)R_{k}(H). Suppose G\mathcal{G} is a hereditary class of graphs. We prove that if every blowup of every prime graph in G\mathcal{G} is recolorable, then every graph in G\mathcal{G} is recolorable.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.06446,
  title  = {Recoloring via modular decomposition},
  author = {Manoj Belavadi and Kathie Cameron and Ni Luh Dewi Sintiari},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.06446},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:23:11.719Z