Strong rainbow disconnection in graphs

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of strong rainbow disconnection in graphs, characterizes graphs with specific srd-numbers, studies srd-numbers for various graph classes, and proves that computing srd is NP-hard.

Contribution

It defines the strong rainbow disconnection number, characterizes graphs with given srd-values, analyzes srd for special graph classes, and establishes NP-hardness of computing srd.

Findings

Characterized graphs with srd-number 1, 2, and m.

Determined srd-number for complete k-partite, k-regular, and grid graphs.

Proved computing srd is NP-hard and deciding srd=3 for cubic graphs is NP-complete.

Abstract

Let $G$ be a nontrivial edge-colored connected graph. An edge-cut $R$ of $G$ is called a {\it rainbow edge-cut} if no two edges of $R$ are colored with the same color. For two distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$, if an edge-cut separates them, then the edge-cut is called a {\it $u$-$v$-edge-cut}. An edge-colored graph $G$ is called \emph{strong rainbow disconnected} if for every two distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$, there exists a both rainbow and minimum $u$-$v$-edge-cut ({\it rainbow minimum $u$-$v$-edge-cut} for short) in $G$, separating them, and this edge-coloring is called a {\it strong rainbow disconnection coloring} (srd-{\it coloring} for short) of $G$. For a connected graph $G$, the \emph{strong rainbow disconnection number} (srd-{\it number} for short) of $G$, denoted by $\textnormal{srd}(G)$, is the smallest number of colors that are needed in order to make $G$ strong rainbow disconnected. In this paper, we first characterize the graphs with $m$ edges such that $\textnormal{srd}(G)=k$ for each $k \in \{1,2,m\}$, respectively, and we also show that the srd-number of a nontrivial connected graph $G$ equals the maximum srd-number among the blocks of $G$. Secondly, we study the srd-numbers for the complete $k$-partite graphs, $k$-edge-connected $k$-regular graphs and grid graphs. Finally, we show that for a connected graph $G$, to compute $\textnormal{srd}(G)$ is NP-hard. In particular, we show that it is already NP-complete to decide if $\textnormal{srd}(G)=3$ for a connected cubic graph. Moreover, we show that for a given edge-colored (with an unbounded number of colors) connected graph $G$ it is NP-complete to decide whether $G$ is strong rainbow disconnected.