A DSATUR-based algorithm for the Equitable Coloring Problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new exact algorithm for the Equitable Coloring Problem, extending DSatur with a novel pruning criterion to efficiently find equitable colorings, demonstrated through computational experiments.

Contribution

It proposes a DSatur-based exact algorithm with a new pruning criterion tailored for the Equitable Coloring Problem, enhancing solution efficiency.

Findings

The algorithm performs well on random instances.

It effectively solves benchmark instances.

Computational results show improved efficiency.

Abstract

This paper describes a new exact algorithm for the Equitable Coloring Problem, a coloring problem where the sizes of two arbitrary color classes differ in at most one unit. Based on the well known DSatur algorithm for the classic Coloring Problem, a new pruning criterion arising from equity constraints is proposed and analyzed. The good performance of the algorithm is shown through computational experiments over random and benchmark instances.