Abstract

We present a method for solving the independent set formulation of the graph coloring problem (where there is one variable for each independent set in the graph). We use a column generation method for implicit optimization of the linear program at each node of the branch-and-bound tree. This approach, while requiring the solution of a difficult subproblem as well as needing sophisticated branching rules, solves small to moderate size problems quickly. We have also implemented an exact graph coloring algorithm based on DSATUR for comparison. Implementation details and computational experience are presented. 1 INTRODUCTION The graph coloring problem is one of the most useful models in graph theory. This problem has been used to solve problems in school timetabling [10], computer register allocation [7, 8], electronic bandwidth allocation [11], and many other areas. These applications suggest that effective algorithms for solving the graph coloring problem would be of great importance. D...

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