Reconfiguring Independent Sets on Interval Graphs

Abstract

We study reconfiguration of independent sets in interval graphs under the token sliding rule. We show that if two independent sets of size k are reconfigurable in an n-vertex interval graph, then there is a reconfiguration sequence of length 𝒪(k⋅ n²). We also provide a construction in which the shortest reconfiguration sequence is of length Ω(k²⋅ n). As a counterpart to these results, we also establish that Independent Set Reconfiguration is PSPACE-hard on incomparability graphs, of which interval graphs are a special case.