Kernels by properly colored paths in arc-colored digraphs

Abstract: A {\em kernel by properly colored paths} of an arc-colored digraph $D$ is a set $S$ of vertices of $D$ such that (i) no two vertices of $S$ are connected by a properly colored directed path in $D$, and (ii) every vertex outside $S$ can reach $S$ by a properly colored directed path in $D$. In this paper, we conjecture that every arc-colored digraph with all cycles properly colored has such a kernel and verify the conjecture for unicyclic digraphs, semi-complete digraphs and bipartite tournaments, respectively. Moreover, weaker conditions for the latter two classes of digraphs are given.