English

The proper conflict-free $k$-coloring problem and the odd $k$-coloring problem are NP-complete on bipartite graphs

Computational Complexity 2025-08-15 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

A proper coloring of a graph is \emph{proper conflict-free} if every non-isolated vertex vv has a neighbor whose color is unique in the neighborhood of vv. A proper coloring of a graph is \emph{odd} if for every non-isolated vertex vv, there is a color appearing an odd number of times in the neighborhood of vv. For an integer kk, the \textsc{PCF kk-Coloring} problem asks whether an input graph admits a proper conflict-free kk-coloring and the \textsc{Odd kk-Coloring} asks whether an input graph admits an odd kk-coloring. We show that for every integer k3k\geq3, both problems are NP-complete, even if the input graph is bipartite. Furthermore, we show that the \textsc{PCF 44-Coloring} problem is NP-complete when the input graph is planar.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.08330,
  title  = {The proper conflict-free $k$-coloring problem and the odd $k$-coloring problem are NP-complete on bipartite graphs},
  author = {Jungho Ahn and Seonghyuk Im and Sang-il Oum},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.08330},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

13 pages, 2 figures