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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.33

Coloring Reconfiguration Under Color Swapping

Authors: Janosch Fuchs, Rin Saito, Tatsuhiro Suga, Takahiro Suzuki, and Yuma Tamura

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract

In the Coloring Reconfiguration problem, we are given two proper k-colorings of a graph and asked to decide whether one can be transformed into the other by repeatedly applying a specified recoloring rule, while maintaining a proper coloring throughout. For this problem, two recoloring rules have been widely studied: single-vertex recoloring and Kempe chain recoloring. In this paper, we introduce a new rule, called color swapping, where two adjacent vertices may exchange their colors, so that the resulting coloring remains proper, and study the computational complexity of the problem under this rule. We first establish a complexity dichotomy with respect to k: the problem is solvable in polynomial time for k ≤ 2, and is PSPACE-complete for k ≥ 3. We further show that the problem remains PSPACE-complete even on restricted graph classes, including bipartite graphs, split graphs, and planar graphs of bounded degree. In contrast, we present polynomial-time algorithms for several graph classes: for paths when k = 3, for split graphs when k is fixed, and for cographs when k is arbitrary.

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Janosch Fuchs, Rin Saito, Tatsuhiro Suga, Takahiro Suzuki, and Yuma Tamura. Coloring Reconfiguration Under Color Swapping. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 33:1-33:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{fuchs_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.33,
  author =	{Fuchs, Janosch and Saito, Rin and Suga, Tatsuhiro and Suzuki, Takahiro and Tamura, Yuma},
  title =	{{Coloring Reconfiguration Under Color Swapping}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249411},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: Combinatorial reconfiguration, graph coloring, PSPACE-complete, graph algorithm}
}

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Coloring Reconfiguration Under Color Swapping

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