A Customized SAT-based Solver for Graph Coloring

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Brand, Timo, Faber, Daniel, Held, Stephan, Mutzel, Petra
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Brand, Timo
Faber, Daniel
Held, Stephan
Mutzel, Petra
author_facet Brand, Timo
Faber, Daniel
Held, Stephan
Mutzel, Petra
contents We introduce ZykovColor, a novel SAT-based algorithm to solve the graph coloring problem working on top of an encoding that mimics the Zykov tree. Our method is based on an approach of Hébrard and Katsirelos (2020) that employs a propagator to enforce transitivity constraints, incorporate lower bounds for search tree pruning, and enable inferred propagations. We leverage the recently introduced IPASIR-UP interface for CaDiCaL to implement these techniques with a SAT solver. Furthermore, we propose new features that take advantage of the underlying SAT solver. These include modifying the integrated decision strategy with vertex domination hints and using incremental bottom-up search that allows to reuse learned clauses from previous calls. Additionally, we integrate a more effective clique computation and an algorithm for computing the fractional chromatic number to improve the lower bounds used for pruning during the search. We validate the effectiveness of each new feature through an experimental analysis. ZykovColor outperforms other state-of-the-art graph coloring implementations on the DIMACS benchmark set. Further experiments on random Erdős-Rényi graphs show that our new approach matches or outperforms state-of-the-art SAT-based methods for both very sparse and highly dense graphs. We give an additional configuration of ZykovColor that dominates other SAT-based methods on the Erdős-Rényi graphs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_04821
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Customized SAT-based Solver for Graph Coloring
Brand, Timo
Faber, Daniel
Held, Stephan
Mutzel, Petra
Discrete Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence
Data Structures and Algorithms
Logic in Computer Science
05C15
G.2.2
We introduce ZykovColor, a novel SAT-based algorithm to solve the graph coloring problem working on top of an encoding that mimics the Zykov tree. Our method is based on an approach of Hébrard and Katsirelos (2020) that employs a propagator to enforce transitivity constraints, incorporate lower bounds for search tree pruning, and enable inferred propagations. We leverage the recently introduced IPASIR-UP interface for CaDiCaL to implement these techniques with a SAT solver. Furthermore, we propose new features that take advantage of the underlying SAT solver. These include modifying the integrated decision strategy with vertex domination hints and using incremental bottom-up search that allows to reuse learned clauses from previous calls. Additionally, we integrate a more effective clique computation and an algorithm for computing the fractional chromatic number to improve the lower bounds used for pruning during the search. We validate the effectiveness of each new feature through an experimental analysis. ZykovColor outperforms other state-of-the-art graph coloring implementations on the DIMACS benchmark set. Further experiments on random Erdős-Rényi graphs show that our new approach matches or outperforms state-of-the-art SAT-based methods for both very sparse and highly dense graphs. We give an additional configuration of ZykovColor that dominates other SAT-based methods on the Erdős-Rényi graphs.
title A Customized SAT-based Solver for Graph Coloring
topic Discrete Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence
Data Structures and Algorithms
Logic in Computer Science
05C15
G.2.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.04821