Mod-2 Independence and Domination in Graphs

We develop an O(n3) algorithm for deciding if an n-vertex digraph has a subset of vertices with the property that each vertex of the graph has an even number of arcs into the subset. This algorithm allows us to give a combinatorial interpretation of Gauss-Jordan and Gauss elimination on square boolean matrices. In addition to solving this independence-mod-2 (even) set existence problem we also give efficient algorithms for related domination-mod-2 (odd) set existence problems on digraphs. However, for each of the four combinations of these two properties we show that even though the existence problem on digraphs is tractable, the problems of deciding the existence of a set of size exactly k, larger than k, or smaller than k, for a given k, are all NP-complete for undirected graphs.