We will overview two probabilistic methods used to prove the existence of diverse combinatorial objects with desired properties: First, we will introduce Lovász Local Lemma as a classical tool to prove that, informally speaking, with non-zero probability none of the “bad” events occur if those bad events are of low probability and somewhat essentially independent from each other. Next, we will move on to its algorithmic counterpart, the Entropy Compression Method, used to ensure that a randomized algorithm eventually finds a solution with desired properties. The two methods will be illustrated by applying them to various settings in graph theory, combinatorics, and geometry.
https://www.labri.fr/perso/fkardos/[-]

Le problème Graph Motif est défini comme suit : étant donné un graphe sommet colorié G=(V,E) et un multi-ensemble M de couleurs, déterminer s'il existe une occurrence de M dans G, c'est-à-dire un sous ensemble V' de V tel que
(1) le multi-ensemble des couleurs de V' correspond à M,
(2) le sous-graphe G' induit par V' est connexe.
Ce problème a été introduit, il y a un peu plus de 10 ans, dans le but de rechercher des motifs fonctionnels dans des réseaux biologiques, comme par exemple des réseaux d'interaction de protéines ou des réseaux métaboliques. Graph Motif a fait depuis l'objet d'une attention particulière qui se traduit par un nombre relativement élevé de publications, essentiellement orientées autour de sa complexité algorithmique.
Je présenterai un certain nombre de résultats algorithmiques concernant le problème Graph Motif, en particulier des résultats de FPT (Fixed-Parameter Tractability), ainsi que des bornes inférieures de complexité algorithmique.
Ceci m'amènera à détailler diverses techniques de preuves dont certaines sont plutôt originales, et qui seront je l'espère d'intérêt pour le public.[-]

Le problème Graph Motif est défini comme suit : étant donné un graphe sommet colorié G=(V,E) et un multi-ensemble M de couleurs, déterminer s'il existe une occurrence de M dans G, c'est-à-dire un sous ensemble V' de V tel que
(1) le multi-ensemble des couleurs de V' correspond à M,
(2) le sous-graphe G' induit par V' est connexe.
Ce problème a été introduit, il y a un peu plus de 10 ans, dans le but de rechercher des motifs fonctionnels dans des réseaux biologiques, comme par exemple des réseaux d'interaction de protéines ou des réseaux métaboliques. Graph Motif a fait depuis l'objet d'une attention particulière qui se traduit par un nombre relativement élevé de publications, essentiellement orientées autour de sa complexité algorithmique.
Je présenterai un certain nombre de résultats algorithmiques concernant le problème Graph Motif, en particulier des résultats de FPT (Fixed-Parameter Tractability), ainsi que des bornes inférieures de complexité algorithmique.
Ceci m'amènera à détailler diverses techniques de preuves dont certaines sont plutôt originales, et qui seront je l'espère d'intérêt pour le public.[-]

The problem of testing if a graph can be colored with a given number $k$ of colors is $NP$-complete for every $k>2$. But what if we have more information about the input graph, namely that some fixed graph $H$ is not present in it as an induced subgraph? It is known that the problem remains $NP$-complete even for $k=3$, unless $H$ is the disjoint union of paths. We consider the following two questions: 1) For which graphs $H$ is there a polynomial time algorithm to 3-color (or in general $k$-color) an $H$-free graph? 2) For which graphs $H$ are there finitely many 4-critical $H$-free graphs? This talk will survey recent progress on these questions, and in particular give a complete answer to the second one.[-]

The chromatic number $\chi(G)$ of a graph $G$ is always at least the size of its largest clique (denoted by $\omega(G)$), and there are graphs $G$ with $\omega(G)=2$ and $\chi(G)$ arbitrarily large.
On the other hand, the perfect graph theorem asserts that if neither $G$ nor its complement has an odd hole, then $\chi(G)=\omega(G)$ . (A "hole" is an induced cycle of length at least four, and "odd holes" are holes of odd length.) What happens in between?
With Alex Scott, we recently proved the following, a 1985 conjecture of Gyárfás:

For graphs $G$ with no odd hole, $\chi(G)$ is bounded by a function of $\omega(G)$.

Gyárfás also made the stronger conjecture that for every integer $k$ and for all graphs $G$ with no odd hole of length more than $k$, $\chi(G)$ is bounded by a function of $k$ and $\omega(G)=2$. This is far from settled, and indeed the following much weaker statement is not settled: for every integer $k$, every triangle-free graph with no hole of length at least $k$ has chromatic number bounded by a function of $k$. We give a partial result towards the latter:

For all $k$, every triangle-free graph with no hole of length at least $k$ admits a tree-decomposition into bags with chromatic number bounded by a function of $k$.

Both results have quite pretty proofs, which will more-or-less be given in full.[-]

A hole in a graph is an induced cycle of length at least four, and an odd hole is a hole of odd length. A famous conjecture of A. Gyárfás [1] from 1985 asserts:
Conjecture 1: For all integers $k,l$ there exists $n(k,l)$ such that every graph $G$ with no clique of carnality more than $k$ and no odd hole of length more than $l$ has chromatic number at most $n(k,l)$.

In other words, the conjecture states that the family of graphs with no long odd holes is $\chi$-bounded. Little progress was made on this problem until recently Scott and Seymour proved that Conjecture 1 is true for all pairs $(k,l)$ when $l=3$ (thus excluding all odd holes guarantees $\chi$-boundedness) [3].
No other cases have been settled, and here we focus on the case $k=2$. We resolve the first open case, when $k=2$ and $l=5$, proving that
Theorem 1. Every graph with no triangle and no odd hole of length $>5$ is $82200$-colorable.

Conjecture 1 has a number of other interesting special cases that still remain open; for instance
* Conjecture: For all $l$ every triangle-free graph $G$ with sufficiently large chromatic number has an odd hole of length more than $l$;
* Conjecture: For all $k,l$ every graph with no clique of size more than $k$ and sufficiently large chromatic number has a hole of length more than $l$.

We prove both these statements with the additional assumption that $G$ contains no $5$-hole. (The latter one was proved, but not published, by Scott earlier, improving on [2]). All the proofs follows a similar outline. We start with a leveling of a graph with high chromatic number, that is a classification of the vertices by their distance from a fixed root. Then the graph undergoes several rounds of "trimming" that allows us to focus on a subgraph $M$ with high chromatic number that is, in some sense, minimal. We also ensure that certain pairs of vertices with a neighbor in $M$ can be joined by a path whose interior is anticomplete to $M$. It is now enough to find two long paths between some such pair of vertices, both with interior in $M$ and of lengths of different parity, to obtain a long odd hole.[-]