Some polynomial classes for the acyclic orientation with parity constraint problem

TL;DR

This paper investigates the existence of acyclic orientations with parity constraints in graphs, identifying necessary conditions, defining graph classes, and providing polynomial-time algorithms for certain instances.

Contribution

It introduces a hierarchy of graph classes based on necessary and sufficient conditions for acyclic T-odd orientations, and characterizes solvable cases for specific graph products.

Findings

Identified three necessary conditions for acyclic T-odd orientations.

Defined graph classes where conditions are sufficient for solutions.

Provided polynomial-time algorithms for constructing orientations in certain cases.

Abstract

We study the problem of finding an acyclic orientation of an undirected graph with constrained in-degree parities specified by a subset T of vertices. An orientation is called T -odd if a vertex v has odd in-degree if and only if v P T . While the unconstrained parity orientation problem is polynomial (Chevalier et al. (1983)), imposing acyclicity makes it more challenging, and its complexity remains an open question. Szegedy and Szegedy ( 2006) proposed a randomized polynomial-time algorithm for this problem, but it is not known whether it belongs to co-NP. Furthermore, Gravier et al. (2025) showed the problem becomes NP-complete on partially directed graphs, even when restricted to planar cubic graphs. We identify three necessary conditions for the existence of acyclic T -odd orientation: a global parity condition P, and two conditions S and S ensuring the existence of potential sources and sinks. Following the work of Frank and Kiraly (2002), we define graph classes containing the graphs for which a given subset of the necessary conditions P, S and S is also sufficient for the existence of an acyclic T -odd orientation. We establish the inclusion relationships between these classes. We complete the study of these classes by a characterization of the solvable instances for Cartesian products of paths and cycles. The proofs of these results are all constructive, so that acyclic T -odd orientations can be built in polynomial time whenever they exist. We use these families, along with cliques, to demonstrate the strictness of the class inclusions in our hierarchy.