Hereditary Graph Classes: When the Complexities of Colouring and Clique Cover Coincide

Abstract

A graph is $(H_1,H_2)$-free for a pair of graphs $H_1,H_2$ if it contains no induced subgraph isomorphic to $H_1$ or $H_2$. In 2001, Kr\'al', Kratochv\'{\i}l, Tuza, and Woeginger initiated a study into the complexity of Colouring for $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs. Since then, others have tried to complete their study, but many cases remain open. We focus on those $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs where $H_2$ is $\overline{H_1}$, the complement of $H_1$. As these classes are closed under complementation, the computational complexities of Colouring and Clique Cover coincide. By combining new and known results, we are able to classify the complexity of Colouring and Clique Cover for $(H,\overline{H})$-free graphs for all cases except when $H=sP_1+ P_3$ for $s\geq 3$ or $H=sP_1+P_4$ for $s\geq 2$. We also classify the complexity of Colouring on graph classes characterized by forbidding a finite number of self-complementary induced subgraphs, and we initiate a study of $k$-Colouring for $(P_r,\overline{P_r})$-free graphs.