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Given a k -coloring of a graph G , a Kempe-change for two colors a and b produces another k -coloring of G , as follows: first choose a connected component in the subgraph of G induced by the two color classes of a and b , and then swap the colors a and b in the component. Two k -colorings are called Kempe-equivalent if one can be transformed into the other by a sequence of Kempe-changes. We consider two problems, defined as follows: First, given two k -colorings of a graph G , Kempe Reachability asks whether they are Kempe-equivalent; and second, given a graph G and a positive integer k , Kempe Connectivity asks whether any two k -colorings of G are Kempe-equivalent. We analyze the complexity of these problems from the viewpoint of graph classes. We prove that Kempe Reachability is PSPACE -complete for any fixed k ≥ 3 , and that it remains PSPACE -complete even when restricted to three colors and planar graphs of maximum degree six. Furthermore, we show that both problems admit polynomial-time algorithms on chordal graphs, bipartite graphs, and cographs. For each of these graph classes, we give a non-trivial upper bound on the number of Kempe-changes needed in order to certify that two k -colorings are Kempe-equivalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subgraph reconfiguration is a family of problems focusing on the reachability of the solution space in which feasible solutions are subgraphs, represented either as sets of vertices or sets of edges, satisfying a prescribed graph structure property. Although there has been previous work that can be categorized as subgraph reconfiguration , most of the related results appear under the name of the property under consideration; for example, independent set, clique, and matching. In this paper, we systematically clarify the complexity status of subgraph reconfiguration with respect to graph structure properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-deterministic constraint logic (NCL) is a simple model of computation based on orientations of a constraint graph with edge weights and vertex demands. NCL captures PSPACE and has been a useful tool for proving algorithmic hardness of many puzzles, games, and reconfiguration problems. In particular, its usefulness stems from the fact that it remains PSPACE -complete even under severe restrictions of the weights (e.g., only edge-weights one and two are needed) and the structure of the constraint graph (e.g., planar and/or graphs of bounded bandwidth). While such restrictions on the structure of constraint graphs do not seem to limit the expressiveness of NCL , the building blocks of the constraint graphs cannot be limited without losing expressiveness: We consider as parameters the number of weight-one edges and the number of weight-two edges of a constraint graph, as well as the number of and or or vertices of an and/or constraint graph. We show that NCL is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) for any of these parameters. In particular, for NCL parameterized by the number of weight-one edges or the number of and vertices, we obtain a linear kernel. It follows that, in a sense, NCL as introduced by Hearn and Demaine is defined in the most economical way for the purpose of capturing PSPACE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]