Examining Kempe equivalence via commutative algebra

Abstract

Kempe equivalence is a classical and important notion on vertex coloring in graph theory. In the present paper, we introduce several ideals associated with graphs and provide a method to determine whether two $k$-colorings are Kempe equivalent via commutative algebra. Moreover, we give a way to compute all $k$-colorings of a graph up to Kempe equivalence by virtue of the algebraic technique on Gr\"{o}bner bases. As a consequence, the number of $k$-Kempe classes can be computed by using Hilbert functions. Finally, we introduce several algebraic algorithms related to Kempe equivalence.