Complexity of Rainbow Vertex Connectivity Problems for Restricted Graph Classes

Abstract: A path in a vertex-colored graph $G$ is \emph{vertex rainbow} if all of its internal vertices have a distinct color. The graph $G$ is said to be \emph{rainbow vertex connected} if there is a vertex rainbow path between every pair of its vertices. Similarly, the graph $G$ is \emph{strongly rainbow vertex connected} if there is a shortest path which is vertex rainbow between every pair of its vertices. We consider the complexity of deciding if a given vertex-colored graph is rainbow or strongly rainbow vertex connected. We call these problems \probRvc and \probSrvc, respectively. We prove both problems remain NP-complete on very restricted graph classes including bipartite planar graphs of maximum degree 3, interval graphs, and $k$-regular graphs for $k \geq 3$. We settle precisely the complexity of both problems from the viewpoint of two width parameters: pathwidth and tree-depth. More precisely, we show both problems remain NP-complete for bounded pathwidth graphs, while being fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by tree-depth. Moreover, we show both problems are solvable in polynomial time for block graphs, while \probSrvc is tractable for cactus graphs and split graphs.