Optimally Reconfiguring List and Correspondence Colourings

TL;DR

This paper investigates the maximum diameter of reconfiguration graphs for list and correspondence colourings, proposing conjectures and bounds that relate these diameters to graph invariants like matching and vertex cover numbers.

Contribution

It introduces conjectures on the diameter bounds for list and correspondence colourings, proves these bounds in certain cases, and provides constructions showing the bounds are tight.

Findings

Established upper bounds for diameters in list and correspondence colourings.

Proved the conjectured bounds hold when all list sizes are at least twice the degree plus one.

Validated the conjectures for specific graph classes such as bipartite, subcubic, and bounded degree graphs.

Abstract

The reconfiguration graph $\mathcal{C}_k(G)$ for the $k$-colourings of a graph $G$ has a vertex for each proper $k$-colouring of $G$, and two vertices of $\mathcal{C}_k(G)$ are adjacent precisely when those $k$-colourings differ on a single vertex of $G$. Much work has focused on bounding the maximum value of ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_k(G)$ over all $n$-vertex graphs $G$. We consider the analogous problems for list colourings and for correspondence colourings. We conjecture that if $L$ is a list-assignment for a graph $G$ with $|L(v)|\ge d(v)+2$ for all $v\in V(G)$, then ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_L(G)\le n(G)+\mu(G)$. We also conjecture that if $(L,H)$ is a correspondence cover for a graph $G$ with $|L(v)|\ge d(v)+2$ for all $v\in V(G)$, then ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_{(L,H)}(G)\le n(G)+\tau(G)$. (Here $\mu(G)$ and $\tau(G)$ denote the matching number and vertex cover number of $G$.) For every graph $G$, we give constructions showing that both conjectures are best possible. Our first main result proves the upper bounds (for the list and correspondence versions, respectively) ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_L(G)\le n(G)+2\mu(G)$ and ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_{(L,H)}(G)\le n(G)+2\tau(G)$. Our second main result proves that both conjectured bounds hold, whenever all $v$ satisfy $|L(v)|\ge 2d(v)+1$. We conclude by proving one or both conjectures for various classes of graphs such as complete bipartite graphs, subcubic graphs, cactuses, and graphs with bounded maximum average degree.