The P versus NP–complete dichotomy of some challenging problems in graph theory

Abstract

The Clay Mathematics Institute has selected seven Millennium Problems to motivate research on important classic questions that have resisted solution over the years. Among them is the central problem in theoretical computer science: the P versus NP problem, which aims to classify the possible existence of efficient solutions to combinatorial and optimization problems. The main goal is to determine whether there are questions whose answer can be quickly checked, but which require an impossibly long time to solve by any direct procedure. In this context, it is important to determine precisely what facet of a problem makes it NP–complete. We shall discuss classes of problems for which dichotomy results do exist: every problem in the class is classified into polynomial or NP–complete. We shall discuss our contribution through the classification of some long-standing problems in important areas of graph theory: perfect graphs, intersection graphs, and structural characterization of graph classes. More precisely, we have shown that Chvátal’s skew partition is polynomial and that Roberts–Spencer’s clique graph is NP–complete. We have also solved the dichotomy for Golumbic–Kaplan–Shamir’s sandwich problem. We shall describe two examples where we can determine the full dichotomy: the edge-colouring problem for graphs with no cycle with a unique chord and the three nonempty part sandwich problem. Some open problems are discussed: the stubborn problem for list partition, the chromatic index of chordal graphs, and the recognition of split clique graphs.