Related papers: Complexity Thresholds for the Constrained Colored …
We consider a puzzle such that a set of colored cubes is given as an instance. Each cube has unit length on each edge and its surface is colored so that what we call the Surface Color Condition is satisfied. Given a palette of six colors,…
We consider a graph with colored edges. A trail (vertices may repeat but not edges) is called \emph{alternating} when successive edges have different colors. Given a set of vertices called \emph{terminals}, the \emph{alternating…
The notion of forbidden-transition graphs allows for a robust generalization of walks in graphs. In a forbidden-transition graph, every pair of edges incident to a common vertex is permitted or forbidden; a walk is compatible if all pairs…
We study the \emph{maximum differential coloring problem}, where the vertices of an $n$-vertex graph must be labeled with distinct numbers ranging from $1$ to $n$, so that the minimum absolute difference between two labels of any two…
We analyze Solo Chess puzzles, where the input is an $n \times n$ board containing some standard Chess pieces of the same color, and the goal is to make a sequence of capture moves to reduce down to a single piece. Prior work analyzes this…
We study the problem of exchange when 1) agents are endowed with heterogeneous indivisible objects, and 2) there is no money. In general, no rule satisfies the three central properties Pareto-efficiency, individual rationality, and…
The Generalized Sliding-Tile Puzzle (GSTP), allowing many square tiles on a board to move in parallel while enforcing natural geometric collision constraints on the movement of neighboring tiles, provide a high-fidelity mathematical model…
We study colored coverage and clustering problems. Here, we are given a colored point set where the points are covered by (unknown) $k$ clusters, which are monochromatic (i.e., all the points covered by the same cluster, have the same…
A square coloring of a graph $G$ is a coloring of the square $G^2$ of $G$, that is, a coloring of the vertices of $G$ such that any two vertices that are at distance at most $2$ in $G$ receive different colors. We investigate the complexity…
Arrangements of pseudolines are a widely studied generalization of line arrangements. They are defined as a finite family of infinite curves in the Euclidean plane, any two of which intersect at exactly one point. One can state various…
For a family of geometric objects in the plane $\mathcal{F}=\{S_1,\ldots,S_n\}$, define $\chi(\mathcal{F})$ as the least integer $\ell$ such that the elements of $\mathcal{F}$ can be colored with $\ell$ colors, in such a way that any two…
We study in this paper the structure of solutions in the random hypergraph coloring problem and the phase transitions they undergo when the density of constraints is varied. Hypergraph coloring is a constraint satisfaction problem where…
The Soft Happy Colouring (SHC) problem, a mathematical framework for identifying homophilic network structures, seeks to maximise the number of $\rho$-happy vertices, i.e. vertices with at least a proportion $\rho$ of neighbours that share…
We study the token swapping problem, in which we are given a graph with an initial assignment of one distinct token to each vertex, and a final desired assignment (again with one token per vertex). The goal is to find the minimum length…
Sudoku is a widely popular $\mathcal{NP}$-Complete combinatorial puzzle whose prospects for studying human computation have recently received attention, but the algorithmic hardness of Sudoku solving is yet largely unexplored. In this…
Genome rearrangements are events in which large blocks of DNA exchange pieces during evolution. The analysis of such events is a tool for understanding evolutionary genomics, based on finding the minimum number of rearrangements to…
In the Colored Bin Packing problem a set of items with varying weights and colors must be packed into bins of uniform weight limit such that no two items of the same color may be packed adjacently within a bin. We solve this problem for the…
The list coloring problem is a variation of the classical vertex coloring problem, extensively studied in recent years, where each vertex has a restricted list of allowed colors, and having some variations as the $(\gamma,\mu)$-coloring,…
We consider the complexity of problems related to the combinatorial game Free-Flood-It, in which players aim to make a coloured graph monochromatic with the minimum possible number of flooding operations. Our main result is that computing…
Colouring sparse graphs under various restrictions is a theoretical problem of significant practical relevance. Here we consider the problem of maximizing the number of different colours available at the nodes and their neighbourhoods,…