English

Note about the complexity of the acyclic orientation with parity constraint problem

Discrete Mathematics 2025-11-25 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let G=(V,E)G = (V, E) be a connected graph, and let TT in VV be a subset of vertices. An orientation of GG is called TT-odd if any vertex vVv \in V has odd in-degree if and only if it is in TT. Finding a T -odd orientation of G can be solved in polynomial time as shown by Chevalier, Jaeger, Payan and Xuong (1983). Since then, TT-odd orientations have continued to attract interest, particularly in the context of global constraints on the orientation. For instance, Frank and Kir\'aly (2002) investigated kk-connected TT-odd orientations and raised questions about acyclic TT-odd orientations. This problem is now recognized as an Egres problem and is known as the "Acyclic orientation with parity constraints" problem. Szegedy ( 005) proposed a randomized polynomial algorithm to address this problem. An easy consequence of his work provides a polynomial time algorithm for planar graphs whenever T=V1|T | = |V | - 1. Nevertheless, it remains unknown whether it exists in general. In this paper we contribute to the understanding of the complexity of this problem by studying a more general one. We prove that finding a TT-odd acyclic orientation on graphs having some directed edges is NP-complete.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.20935,
  title  = {Note about the complexity of the acyclic orientation with parity constraint problem},
  author = {Sylvain Gravier and Matthieu Petiteau and Isabelle Sivignon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.20935},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:15:39.417Z