Let H be a fixed graph without loops. We prove that if H is a co-circular arc bigraph then the minimum cost homomorphism problem to H admits a polynomial time constant ratio approximation algorithm; otherwise the minimum cost homomorphism problem to H is known to be not approximable. This solves a problem posed in an earlier paper. For the purposes of the approximation, we provide a new characterization of co-circular arc bigraphs by the existence of min ordering. Our algorithm is then obtained by derandomizing a two-phase randomized procedure. We show a similar result for graphs H in which all vertices have loops: if H is an interval graph, then the minimum cost homomorphism problem to H admits a polynomial time constant ratio approximation algorithm, and otherwise the minimum cost homomorphism problem to H is not approximable.

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Approximation of minimum cost homomorphisms

For a graph $F$, a graph $G$ is \emph{$F$-free} if it does not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to $F$. For two graphs $G$ and $H$, an \emph{$H$-coloring} of $G$ is a mapping $f:V(G)\rightarrow V(H)$ such that for every edge $uv\in E(G)$ it holds that $f(u)f(v)\in E(H)$. We are interested in the complexity of the problem $H$-{\sc Coloring}, which asks for the existence of an $H$-coloring of an input graph $G$. In particular, we consider $H$-{\sc Coloring} of $F$-free graphs, where $F$ is a fixed graph and $H$ is an odd cycle of length at least 5. This problem is closely related to the well known open problem of determining the complexity of 3-{\sc Coloring} of $P_t$-free graphs. 
We show that for every odd $k \geq 5$ the $C_k$-{\sc Coloring} problem, even in the list variant, can be solved in polynomial time in $P_9$-free graphs. The algorithm extends for the case of list version of $C_k$-{\sc Coloring}, where $k$ is an even number of length at least 10. 
On the other hand, we prove that if some component of $F$ is not a subgraph of a subdividecd claw, then the following problems are NP-complete in $F$-free graphs: a)extension version of $C_k$-{\sc Coloring} for every odd $k \geq 5$, b) list version of $C_k$-{\sc Coloring} for every even $k \geq 6$.

Complexity of $C_k$-coloring in hereditary classes of graphs

List-homomorphism problems on graphs and arc consistency

We characterise the graphs (which may contain loops) whose list-homomorphism problem is solvable by arc consistency, or equivalently, that admit conservative totally symmetric idempotent operations of all arities. We prove that for every bipartite graph G, its list-homomorphism problem is tractable if and only if G admits a monochromatic conservative semi lattice operation, in particular, its list-homomorphism problem can easily be solved by a combination of two-colouring and arc-consistency.

Adrien Lemaitre

Papers

List-homomorphism problems on graphs and arc consistency

List-Homomorphism Problems on Graphs and Arc Consistency