Chromatic number of sparse colored mixed planar graphs

A colored mixed graph has vertices linked by both colored arcs and colored edges. The chromatic number of such a graph G is defined as the smallest order of a colored mixed graph H such that there exists a (arc-color preserving) homomorphism from G to H. We study in this paper the colored mixed chromatic number of planar graphs, partial 2-trees and outerplanar graphs with given girth.     

Homomorphisms of 2-edge-colored graphs

In this paper, we study homomorphisms of 2-edge-colored graphs, that is graphs with edges colored with two colors. We consider various graph classes (outerplanar graphs, partial 2-trees, partial 3-trees, planar graphs) and the problem is to find, for each class, the smallest number of vertices of a 2-edge-colored graph H such that each graph of the considered class admits a homomorphism to H.     

Homomorphisms of 2-edge-colored graphs

In this paper, we study homomorphisms of 2-edge-colored graphs, that is graphs with edges colored with two colors. We consider various graph classes (outerplanar graphs, partial 2-trees, partial 3-trees, planar graphs) and the problem is to find, for each class, the smallest number of vertices of a 2-edge-colored graph H such that each graph of the considered class admits a homomorphism to H.     

On the reconstruction of graph invariants

The reconstruction conjecture has remained open for simple undirected graphs since it was suggested in 1941 by Kelly and Ulam. In an attempt to prove the conjecture, many graph invariants have been shown to be reconstructible from the vertex-deleted deck, and in particular, some prominent graph polynomials. Among these are the Tutte polynomial, the chromatic polynomial and the characteristic polynomial. We show that the interlace polynomial, the U-polynomial, the universal edge elimination polynomial ξ and the colored versions of the latter two are reconstructible.We also present a method of reconstructing boolean graph invariants, or in other words, proving recognizability of graph properties (of colored or uncolored graphs), using first order logic.     

The chromatic polynomial of fatgraphs and its categorification

Motivated by Khovanov homology and relations between the Jones polynomial and graph polynomials, we construct a homology theory for embedded graphs from which the chromatic polynomial can be recovered as the Euler characteristic. For plane graphs, we show that our chromatic homology can be recovered from the Khovanov homology of an associated link. We apply this connection with Khovanov homology to show that the torsion-free part of our chromatic homology is independent of the choice of planar embedding of a graph. We extend our construction and categorify the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial (a generalization of the Tutte polynomial to embedded graphs). We prove that both our chromatic homology and the Khovanov homology of an associated link can be recovered from this categorification.     

Modeling the spread of fault in majority-based network systems: Dynamic monopolies in triangular grids

In a graph theoretical model of the spread of fault in distributed computing and communication networks, each element in the network is represented by a vertex of a graph where edges connect pairs of communicating elements, and each colored vertex corresponds to a faulty element at discrete time periods. Majority-based systems have been used to model the spread of fault to a certain vertex by checking for faults within a majority of its neighbors. Our focus is on irreversible majority processes wherein a vertex becomes permanently colored in a certain time period if at least half of its neighbors were in the colored state in the previous time period. We study such processes on planar, cylindrical, and toroidal triangular grid graphs. More specifically, we provide bounds for the minimum number of vertices in a dynamic monopoly defined as a set of vertices that, if initially colored, will result in the entire graph becoming colored in a finite number of time periods.     

A Reduction of the Anticoloring Problem to Connected Graphs

An anticoloring of a graph is a coloring of some of the vertices, such that no two adjacent vertices are colored in distinct colors. The anticoloring problem seeks, roughly speaking, for such colorings with many vertices colored in each color. We show that, to solve the anticoloring problem with two colors for general graphs, it suffices to solve it for connected graphs.     

Random Walks And The Colored Jones Function

It can be conjectured that the colored Jones function of a knot can be computed in terms of counting paths on the graph of a planar projection of a knot. On the combinatorial level, the colored Jones function can be replaced by its weight system. We give two curious formulas for the weight system of a colored Jones function: one in terms of the permanent of a matrix associated to a chord diagram, and another in terms of counting paths of intersecting chords. Electronic supplementary material to this article is available at and is accessible to authorized users. * S. G. was partially supported by an NSF and by an Israel-US BSF grant. † M. L. was partly supported by GAUK 158 grant and by the Project LN00A056 of the Czech Ministry of Education.     

Representation of proofs by colored graphs and the hadwiger conjecture

A tinted graph is a graph whose arcs are colored with certain colors. A colored graph is a graph whose vertices are colored with certain colors. If M is the set of tinted (or colored tinted) graphs of order k and G is a tinted (or colored tinted) graph, then we shall say that G is M-regular (or M-regularly colored) if all its subgraphs of order k belong to M. We shall show how, for any formula p of the first-order predicate calculus, to construct a finite set B_p of tinted graphs of order 3 and a finite set C_p of colored tinted graphs of order 2 such that ¦-p if and only if there exists a B_p-regular tinted graph not admitting a C_p-regular coloring. Hadwiger's conjecture (HC) is as follows: If no subgraph of a graph without loops G is contractible to a complete graph of order n, then the vertices of G can be colored in n–1 colors such that neighboring vertices are colored with different colors. We construct a formula X of the first-order predicate calculus such that HC is equivalent with X. Thus, HC reduces to HC₁: if all subgraphs of order 3 of the tinted graph G belong to B_X, then G is C_X-regularly colorable. Here B_X and C_X are specific finite sets of tinted graphs of order 3 and colored tinted graphs of order 2, respectively.Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov Leningradskogo Otdeleniya Matematicheskogo Instituta im. V. A. Steklova AN SSSR, Vol. 88, pp. 209–216, 1979.     

Game chromatic number of strong product graphs

The graph coloring game is a two-player game in which the two players properly color an uncolored vertex of G alternately. The first player wins the game if all vertices of G are colored, and the second wins otherwise. The game chromatic number of a graph G is the minimum integer k such that the first player has a winning strategy for the graph coloring game on G with k colors. There is a lot of literature on the game chromatic number of graph products, e.g., the Cartesian product and the lexicographic product. In this paper, we investigate the game chromatic number of the strong product of graphs, which is one of major graph products. In particular, we completely determine the game chromatic number of the strong product of a double star and a complete graph. Moreover, we estimate the game chromatic number of some King's graphs, which are the strong products of two paths.     

Anticoloring and separation of graphs

An anticoloring of a graph is a coloring of some of the vertices, such that no two adjacent vertices are colored in distinct colors. The anticoloring problem seeks, roughly speaking, such colorings with many vertices colored in each color. We deal with the anticoloring problem for planar graphs and, using Lipton and Tarjan’s separation algorithm, provide an algorithm with some bound on the error. We also show that, to solve the anticoloring problem for general graphs, it suffices to solve it for connected graphs.     

On the colored Tutte polynomial of a graph of bounded treewidth

We observe that a formula given by Negami [Polynomial invariants of graphs, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 299 (1987) 601-622] for the Tutte polynomial of a k-sum of two graphs generalizes to a colored Tutte polynomial. Consequently, an algorithm of Andrzejak [An algorithm for the Tutte polynomials of graphs of bounded treewidth, Discrete Math. 190 (1998) 39-54] may be directly adapted to compute the colored Tutte polynomial of a graph of bounded treewidth in polynomial time. This result has also been proven by Makowsky [Colored Tutte polynomials and Kauffman brackets for graphs of bounded tree width, Discrete Appl. Math. 145 (2005) 276-290], using a different algorithm based on logical techniques.     

Rainbow Connection and Graph Products

A path in an edge colored graph G is called a rainbow path if all its edges have pairwise different colors. Then G is rainbow connected if there exists a rainbow path between every pair of vertices of G and the least number of colors needed to obtain a rainbow connected graph is the rainbow connection number. If we demand that there must exist a shortest rainbow path between every pair of vertices, we speak about strongly rainbow connected graph and the strong rainbow connection number. In this paper we study the (strong) rainbow connection number on the direct, strong, and lexicographic product and present several upper bounds for these products that are attained by many graphs. Several exact results are also obtained.     

Chordal bipartite completion of colored graphs

Golumbic, Kaplan, and Shamir [Graph sandwich problems, J. Algorithms 19 (1995) 449-473], in their paper on graph sandwich problems published in 1995, left the status of the sandwich problems for strongly chordal graphs and chordal bipartite graphs open. It was recently shown [C.M.H. de Figueiredo, L. Faria, S. Klein, R. Sritharan, On the complexity of the sandwich problems for strongly chordal graphs and chordal bipartite graphs, Theoret. Comput. Sci., accepted for publication] that the sandwich problem for strongly chordal graphs is NP-complete. We show that given graph G with a proper vertex coloring c, determining whether there is a supergraph of G that is chordal bipartite and also is properly colored by c is NP-complete. This implies that the sandwich problem for chordal bipartite graphs is also NP-complete.     

The colored Jones polynomial and the A-polynomial of Knots

We study relationships between the colored Jones polynomial and the A-polynomial of a knot. The AJ conjecture (of Garoufalidis) that relates the colored Jones polynomial and the A-polynomial is established for a large class of two-bridge knots, including all twist knots. We formulate a weaker conjecture and prove that it holds for all two-bridge knots. Along the way we also calculate the Kauffman bracket skein module of the complements of two-bridge knots. Some properties of the colored Jones polynomial are established.     

Unsigned State Models for the Jones Polynomial

It is a well-known and fundamental result that the Jones polynomial can be expressed as Potts and vertex partition functions of signed plane graphs. Here we consider constructions of the Jones polynomial as state models of unsigned graphs and show that the Jones polynomial of any link can be expressed as a vertex model of an unsigned embedded graph. In the process of deriving this result, we show that for every diagram of a link in S ³ there exists a diagram of an alternating link in a thickened surface (and an alternating virtual link) with the same Kauffman bracket. We also recover two recent results in the literature relating to the Jones and Bollobás-Riordan polynomials and show they arise from two different interpretations of the same embedded graph.     

Tverberg’s Theorem and Graph Coloring

The topological Tverberg theorem has been generalized in several directions by setting extra restrictions on the Tverberg partitions. Restricted Tverberg partitions, defined by the idea that certain points cannot be in the same part, are encoded with graphs. When two points are adjacent in the graph, they are not in the same part. If the restrictions are too harsh, then the topological Tverberg theorem fails. The colored Tverberg theorem corresponds to graphs constructed as disjoint unions of small complete graphs. Hell studied the case of paths and cycles. In graph theory these partitions are usually viewed as graph colorings. As explored by Aharoni, Haxell, Meshulam and others there are fundamental connections between several notions of graph colorings and topological combinatorics. For ordinary graph colorings it is enough to require that the number of colors q satisfy q>Δ, where Δ is the maximal degree of the graph. It was proven by the first author using equivariant topology that if q>Δ ² then the topological Tverberg theorem still works. It is conjectured that q>KΔ is also enough for some constant K, and in this paper we prove a fixed-parameter version of that conjecture. The required topological connectivity results are proven with shellability, which also strengthens some previous partial results where the topological connectivity was proven with the nerve lemma.     

An extremal problem in hypergraph coloring

F(n, r, k) is defined to be the minimum number of edges in an r graph on n vertices in which there exists a strongly colored edge in every equipartite k-coloring. Approximate values are given for this function in the general case, and the problem is solved in the particular case of graphs.     

Triangle-free strongly circular-perfect graphs

Zhu [X. Zhu, Circular-perfect graphs, J. Graph Theory 48 (2005) 186-209] introduced circular-perfect graphs as a superclass of the well-known perfect graphs and as an important χ-bound class of graphs with the smallest non-trivial χ-binding function χ(G)≤ω(G)+1. Perfect graphs have been recently characterized as those graphs without odd holes and odd antiholes as induced subgraphs [M. Chudnovsky, N. Robertson, P. Seymour, R. Thomas, The strong perfect graph theorem, Ann. Math. (in press)]; in particular, perfect graphs are closed under complementation [L. Lovász, Normal hypergraphs and the weak perfect graph conjecture, Discrete Math. 2 (1972) 253-267]. To the contrary, circular-perfect graphs are not closed under complementation and the list of forbidden subgraphs is unknown.We study strongly circular-perfect graphs: a circular-perfect graph is strongly circular-perfect if its complement is circular-perfect as well. This subclass entails perfect graphs, odd holes, and odd antiholes. As the main result, we fully characterize the triangle-free strongly circular-perfect graphs, and prove that, for this graph class, both the stable set problem and the recognition problem can be solved in polynomial time.Moreover, we address the characterization of strongly circular-perfect graphs by means of forbidden subgraphs. Results from [A. Pêcher, A. Wagler, On classes of minimal circular-imperfect graphs, Discrete Math. (in press)] suggest that formulating a corresponding conjecture for circular-perfect graphs is difficult; it is even unknown which triangle-free graphs are minimal circular-imperfect. We present the complete list of all triangle-free minimal not strongly circular-perfect graphs.