Note about the complexity of the acyclic orientation with parity constraint problem
Abstract
Let be a connected graph, and let in be a subset of vertices. An orientation of is called -odd if any vertex has odd in-degree if and only if it is in . Finding a T -odd orientation of G can be solved in polynomial time as shown by Chevalier, Jaeger, Payan and Xuong (1983). Since then, -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 -connected -odd orientations and raised questions about acyclic -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 . 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 -odd acyclic orientation on graphs having some directed edges is NP-complete.
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}
}