The @math -coloring problem is a fundamental symmetry breaking problem in distributed computing. We give a new randomized coloring algorithm for @math -coloring running in @math rounds with probability @math in a graph with @math nodes and maximum degree @math . This implies that the @math -coloring problem is easier than the maximal independent set problem and the maximal matching problem, due to their lower bounds by Kuhn, Moscibroda, and Wattenhofer [PODC'04]. Our algorithm also extends to the list-coloring problem where the palette of each node contains @math colors.
@cite_53: 
@cite_52: The distributed (Δ + 1)-coloring problem is one of most fundamental and well-studied problems in Distributed Algorithms. Starting with the work of Cole and Vishkin in 86, there was a long line of gradually improving algorithms published. The current state-of-the-art running time is O(Δ log Δ + log* n), due to Kuhn and Wattenhofer, PODC'06. Linial (FOCS'87) has proved a lower bound of 1 2 log* n for the problem, and Szegedy and Vishwanathan (STOC'93) provided a heuristic argument that shows that algorithms from a wide family of locally iterative algorithms are unlikely to achieve running time smaller than Θ(Δ log Δ). We present a deterministic (Δ + 1)-coloring distributed algorithm with running time O(Δ) + 1 2 log* n. We also present a tradeoff between the running time and the number of colors, and devise an O(Δ • t)-coloring algorithm with running time O(Δ t + log* n), for any parameter t, 1
@cite_15: The Maximal Independent Set (MIS) problem is one of the basics in the study of locality in distributed graph algorithms. This paper presents a very simple randomized algorithm for this problem providing a near-optimal local complexity, which incidentally, when combined with some known techniques, also leads to a near-optimal global complexity. Classical MIS algorithms of Luby [STOC'85] and Alon, Babai and Itai [JALG'86] provide the global complexity guarantee that, with high probability1, all nodes terminate after O(log n) rounds. In contrast, our initial focus is on the local complexity, and our main contribution is to provide a very simple algorithm guaranteeing that each particular node v terminates after O(log deg(v) + log 1 e) rounds, with probability at least 1 -- e. The degree-dependency in this bound is optimal, due to a lower bound of Kuhn, Moscibroda, and Wattenhofer [PODC'04]. Interestingly, this local complexity smoothly transitions to a global complexity: by adding techniques of Barenboim, Elkin, Pettie, and Schneider [FOCS'12; arXiv: 1202.1983v3], we2 get an MIS algorithm with a high probability global complexity of O(log Δ) + 2O([EQUATION]), where Δ denotes the maximum degree. This improves over the O(log2 Δ) + 2O([EQUATION]) result of , and gets close to the Ω(min log Δ, [EQUATION] ) lower bound of Corollaries include improved algorithms for MIS in graphs of upper-bounded arboricity, or lower-bounded girth, for Ruling Sets, for MIS in the Local Computation Algorithms (LCA) model, and a faster distributed algorithm for the Lovasz Local Lemma.
As we have discussed, the MIS problem and the coloring problems are related. An MIS can be computed in @math rounds deterministically @cite_52 and in @math rounds randomly @cite_53 . More recently, Ghaffari @cite_15 reduced the randomized complexity of MIS to @math . Whether an MIS can be obtained in polylogarithmic deterministic time or sublogarithmic randomized time remain interesting open problems.