{"title":"Reachability in graphs having linear 2-arboricity two is NL-hard","authors":"Ronak Bhadra, Raghunath Tewari","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106611","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106611","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A linear <em>k</em>-diforest is a directed forest consisting of directed paths of length at most <em>k</em>. Linear <em>k</em>-arboricity of a directed graph is defined as the minimum number of linear <em>k</em>-diforests needed to partition the edges of the graph. We show that the problem of deciding reachability in directed graphs having linear 2-arboricity two is <span><math><mi>NL</mi></math></span>-hard and the same is also true for directed graphs having linear 1-arboricity three. Our proof also implies that deciding reachability in such graphs remains hard even when a decomposition into two linear 2-diforests or three linear 1-diforests is provided. We further extend our results for a more restricted notion of linear arboricity, called geometric linear arboricity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 106611"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145269981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Practical committing attacks against Rocca-S","authors":"Ryunosuke Takeuchi , Yosuke Todo , Tetsu Iwata","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper shows practical committing attacks against Rocca-S, an authenticated encryption with associated data scheme designed for 6G applications. Previously, the best complexity of the attack was 2<sup>64</sup> by Derbez et al. in ToSC 2024(1)/FSE 2024. We show that the committing attack against Rocca by Takeuchi et al. in ToSC 2024(2)/FSE 2025 can be applied to Rocca-S, where Rocca is an earlier version of Rocca-S. We show a concrete test vector of our attack. We also point out a committing attack that exploits equivalent keys.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 106610"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145269982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Da Qi Chen , Daniel Hathcock , D. Ellis Hershkowitz , R. Ravi
{"title":"The Steiner path aggregation problem","authors":"Da Qi Chen , Daniel Hathcock , D. Ellis Hershkowitz , R. Ravi","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106608","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106608","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the <em>Steiner Path Aggregation Problem</em>, our goal is to aggregate paths in a directed network into a single arborescence without significantly disrupting the paths. In particular, we are given a directed multigraph with colored arcs, a root, and <em>k</em> terminals, each of which has a monochromatic path to the root. Our goal is to find an arborescence in which every terminal has a path to the root, and its path does not switch colors too many times. We give an efficient algorithm that finds such a solution with at most <span><math><mn>2</mn><msub><mrow><mi>log</mi></mrow><mrow><mfrac><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></mfrac></mrow></msub><mo></mo><mi>k</mi></math></span> color switches. Up to constant factors this is the best possible universal bound, as there are graphs requiring at least <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>log</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub><mo></mo><mi>k</mi></math></span> color switches.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 106608"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145222834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cláudia Linhares Sales , Thiago Marcilon , Nicolas Martins , Nicolas Nisse , Rudini Sampaio
{"title":"The harmonious coloring game","authors":"Cláudia Linhares Sales , Thiago Marcilon , Nicolas Martins , Nicolas Nisse , Rudini Sampaio","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106609","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106609","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A harmonious <em>k</em>-coloring of a graph <em>G</em> is a 2-distance proper <em>k</em>-coloring of its vertices such that each edge is uniquely identified by the colors of its endpoints. Here, we introduce its game version: the harmonious coloring game. In this two-player game, Alice and Bob alternately select an uncolored vertex and assigns to it a color in <span><math><mo>{</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>,</mo><mo>…</mo><mo>,</mo><mi>k</mi><mo>}</mo></math></span> with the constraint that, at every turn, the set of colored vertices induces a valid partial harmonious coloring. Alice wins if all vertices are colored; otherwise, Bob wins. The harmonious game chromatic number <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>χ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>h</mi><mi>g</mi></mrow></msub><mo>(</mo><mi>G</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> is the minimum integer <em>k</em> such that Alice has a winning strategy with <em>k</em> colors. In this paper, we prove the PSPACE-hardness of three variants of this game. As a by-product, we prove that a variant introduced by Chen et al. in 1997 of the classical graph coloring game is PSPACE-hard even in graphs with diameter two. We also obtain lower and upper bounds for <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>χ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>h</mi><mi>g</mi></mrow></msub><mo>(</mo><mi>G</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> in graph classes, such as paths, cycles, grids and forests of stars.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 106609"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145160201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tighter bounds on non-clairvoyant parallel machine scheduling with prediction to minimize makespan","authors":"Tianqi Chen, Zhiyi Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106598","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106598","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the non-clairvoyant parallel machine scheduling problem with prediction, with the objective of minimizing the makespan. Improved lower bounds for the problem and competitive ratios of online algorithms with respect to the prediction error are presented for both the non-preemptive and preemptive cases on <em>m</em> identical machines.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106598"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Note on pancake sorting","authors":"Marcin Peczarski","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106597","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106597","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We present generalized approach to the proof of the lower bound for unburnt pancake sorting problem, where we search for the number <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>n</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> of prefix reversals required to sort a stack (permutation) of <em>n</em> pancakes. For this purpose we introduce a new concept of guarded pancake blocks. Gates and Papadimitriou proved that <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>n</mi><mo>)</mo><mo>≥</mo><mn>17</mn><mi>n</mi><mo>/</mo><mn>16</mn></math></span> for <em>n</em> a multiple of 16. Heydari and Sudborough improved this bound to <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>n</mi><mo>)</mo><mo>≥</mo><mn>15</mn><mi>n</mi><mo>/</mo><mn>14</mn></math></span> for <em>n</em> a multiple of 14. We extend that result to <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>n</mi><mo>)</mo><mo>≥</mo><mo>⌊</mo><mo>(</mo><mn>15</mn><mi>n</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>9</mn><mo>)</mo><mo>/</mo><mn>14</mn><mo>⌋</mo></math></span> for every <span><math><mi>n</mi><mo>≥</mo><mn>6</mn></math></span>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106597"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Logical characterization of branching bisimilarity over random processes","authors":"Xian Xu , Wenbo Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106596","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106596","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Quantitative aspects like probabilities play an important role in concurrent processes. Providing a (modal) logic for a randomized concurrency model can augment the toolbox of analyzing probabilistic processes, and thus is a frequent topic in the field. In this paper, we are interested in logically characterizing uniformly randomized processes, whose semantical behavior is defined in a model-independent manner. Specifically, we present two modal logics for the uniformly randomized version of finite-state CCS (RCCS<sub>fs</sub>for short). Our logics extend the Hennessy-Milner logic, and one of them is equipped with the <em>μ</em> operator. Indeed, we prove that both logics characterize the branching bisimilarity for RCCS<sub>fs</sub>, i.e., two RCCS<sub>fs</sub>processes are branching bisimilar if and only if they are logically equivalent. To facilitate the proof, we also develop for RCCS<sub>fs</sub>an up-to proof method, which may be of independent interest.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106596"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Notes about the linear complexity of quaternary cyclotomic sequences of order four","authors":"Vladimir Edemskiy, Zeyu Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106595","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106595","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we study the linear complexity of quaternary cyclotomic sequences with period <em>p</em>, where <span><math><mi>p</mi><mo>></mo><mn>2</mn></math></span> is a prime. Considered sequences are based on classical cyclotomic classes of order four modulo <em>p</em>. We show that any balanced quaternary cyclotomic sequence of order four with period <em>p</em> has high linear complexity over finite ring of order four. Our results generalize those obtained earlier by other authors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106595"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Roberto Grossi , Costas S. Iliopoulos , Jesper Jansson , Zara Lim , Wing-Kin Sung , Wiktor Zuba
{"title":"Finding the cyclic covers of a string","authors":"Roberto Grossi , Costas S. Iliopoulos , Jesper Jansson , Zara Lim , Wing-Kin Sung , Wiktor Zuba","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106594","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106594","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We introduce the concept of cyclic covers, which generalizes the classical notion of covers in strings. Given any string <em>X</em>, a factor <em>W</em> of <em>X</em> is called a <em>cyclic cover</em> if each position of <em>X</em> belongs to an occurrence of a cyclic shift of <em>W</em> in <em>X</em>. Two cyclic covers are distinct if one is not a cyclic shift of the other. The <em>cyclic covers problem</em> asks for all distinct cyclic covers of an input string <em>X</em>. We present an algorithm that solves the cyclic covers problem in <span><math><mi>O</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>n</mi><mi>log</mi><mo></mo><mi>n</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> time, where <em>n</em> is the length of <em>X</em>. It is based on finding a well-structured set of standard occurrences of a constant number of factors of a cyclic cover candidate <em>W</em>, computing the regions of <em>X</em> covered by cyclic shifts of <em>W</em>, extending those factors, and taking the union of the results.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106594"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144298426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rank-2 module-LIP with special matrices","authors":"Manoj Gyawali","doi":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106593","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ipl.2025.106593","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lattice isomorphism problem (LIP) has been studied since 1990s. In 2023, a post-quantum signature scheme known as HAWK was submitted in the NIST standardization of additional signature scheme, which is based on the module lattice isomorphism problem (module-LIP). Module-LIP was formally defined by Mureau et al. at Eurocrypt'24 and Luo et al. reduced the problem of solving module-LIP over CM number fields to a problem of finding the special type of symplectic automorphism.</div><div>In this paper, we extend this idea further by establishing a reduction of the module-LIP to a problem of finding special types of matrices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56290,"journal":{"name":"Information Processing Letters","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 106593"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144270237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}