Degree-constrained subgraph reconfiguration is in P

Abstract

The degree-constrained subgraph problem asks for a subgraph of a given graph such that the degree of each vertex is within some specified bounds. We study the following reconfiguration variant of this problem: Given two solutions to a degree-constrained subgraph instance, can we transform one solution into the other by adding and removing individual edges, such that each intermediate subgraph satisfies the degree constraints and contains at least a certain minimum number of edges? This problem is a generalization of the matching reconfiguration problem, which is known to be in P. We show that even in the more general setting the reconfiguration problem is in P.