Hierarchical complexity of 2-clique-colouring weakly chordal graphs and perfect graphs having cliques of size at least 3

Abstract

A clique of a graph is a maximal set of vertices of size at least 2 that induces a complete graph. A $k$-clique-colouring of a graph is a colouring of the vertices with at most $k$ colours such that no clique is monochromatic. D\'efossez proved that the 2-clique-colouring of perfect graphs is a $\Sigma_2^P$-complete problem [J. Graph Theory 62 (2009) 139--156]. We strengthen this result by showing that it is still $\Sigma_2^P$-complete for weakly chordal graphs. We then determine a hierarchy of nested subclasses of weakly chordal graphs whereby each graph class is in a distinct complexity class, namely $\Sigma_2^P$-complete, $\mathcal{NP}$-complete, and $\mathcal{P}$. We solve an open problem posed by Kratochv\'il and Tuza to determine the complexity of 2-clique-colouring of perfect graphs with all cliques having size at least 3 [J. Algorithms 45 (2002), 40--54], proving that it is a $\Sigma_2^P$-complete problem. We then determine a hierarchy of nested subclasses of perfect graphs with all cliques having size at least 3 whereby each graph class is in a distinct complexity class, namely $\Sigma_2^P$-complete, $\mathcal{NP}$-complete, and $\mathcal{P}$.