Solution discovery via reconfiguration for problems in P

Abstract: In the recently introduced framework of solution discovery via reconfiguration [Fellows et al., ECAI 2023], we are given an initial configuration of $k$ tokens on a graph and the question is whether we can transform this configuration into a feasible solution (for some problem) via a bounded number $b$ of small modification steps. In this work, we study solution discovery variants of polynomial-time solvable problems, namely Spanning Tree Discovery, Shortest Path Discovery, Matching Discovery, and Vertex/Edge Cut Discovery in the unrestricted token addition/removal model, the token jumping model, and the token sliding model. In the unrestricted token addition/removal model, we show that all four discovery variants remain in P. For the toking jumping model we also prove containment in P, except for Vertex/Edge Cut Discovery, for which we prove NP-completeness. Finally, in the token sliding model, almost all considered problems become NP-complete, the exception being Spanning Tree Discovery, which remains polynomial-time solvable. We then study the parameterized complexity of the NP-complete problems and provide a full classification of tractability with respect to the parameters solution size (number of tokens) $k$ and transformation budget (number of steps) $b$. Along the way, we observe strong connections between the solution discovery variants of our base problems and their (weighted) rainbow variants as well as their red-blue variants with cardinality constraints.