A note on the Three Color Problem on planar graphs without 4- and 5-cycles and without ext-triangular 7-cycles

Steinberg conjectured in 1976 that every planar graph with no cycles of length four or five is 3-colorable. This conjecture is disproved by constructing a planar graph with no cycles of length four or five but intersecting triangles. Jin et al. proved that plane graphs without 4- and 5-cycles and without ext-triangular 7-cycles are 3-colorable [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 31 (3) (2017) 1836–1847]. In this paper, we point out a mistake of their proof and give an improved proof.     

平面图3色可染的一个充分条件

Steinberg猜想既没有4-圈又没有5-圈的平面图是3色可染的. Xu, Borodin等人各自独立地证明了既没有相邻三角形又没有5-和7-圈的平面图是3 色可染的. 作为这一结果的推论, 没有4-, 5-和7-圈的平面图是3色可染的. 本文证明一个比此推论更接近Steinberg猜想的结果, 设G是一个既没有4-圈又没有5-圈的平面图, 若对每一个k∈{3, 6, 7}, G都不含(k, 7)-弦, 则G是3色可染的, 这里的(k, 7)-弦是指长度为7+k-2的圈的一条弦, 它的两个端点将圈分成两条路, 一条路的长度为6, 另一条路的长度为k-1.     

Planar graphs without triangles adjacent to cycles of length from 4 to 7 are 3-colorable

It is known that planar graphs without cycles of length from 4 to 7 are 3-colorable (Borodin et al., 2005) [13] and that planar graphs in which no triangles have common edges with cycles of length from 4 to 9 are 3-colorable (Borodin et al., 2006) [11]. We give a common extension of these results by proving that every planar graph in which no triangles have common edges with k-cycles, where k∈{4,5,7} (or, which is equivalent, with cycles of length 3, 5 and 7), is 3-colorable.     

关于平面图(3,1)~*-可选性的一个注记(英文)

给出了平面图的一个结构性定理,并证明了每个没有5-圈,相邻三角形,相邻四边形的平面图是(3,1)*-可选色的.     

关于平面图（3，1）＊-可选性的一个注记

给出了平面图的一个结构性定理,并证明了每个没有5-圈,相邻三角形,相邻四边形的平面图是（3,1）＊-可选色的．     

On acyclic edge coloring of planar graphs without intersecting triangles

Let Δ denote the maximum degree of a graph. Fiam?ík first and then Alon et al. again conjectured that every graph is acyclically edge (Δ+2)-colorable. Even for planar graphs, this conjecture remains open. It is known that every triangle-free planar graph is acyclically edge (Δ+5)-colorable. This paper proves that every planar graph without intersecting triangles is acyclically edge (Δ+4)-colorable.     

Planar graphs with maximum degree 8 and without adjacent triangles are 9-totally-colorable

The Total Coloring Conjecture, in short, TCC, says that every simple graph is (Δ+2)-totally-colorable where Δ is the maximum degree of the graph. Even for planar graphs this conjecture has not been completely settled yet. However, every planar graph with Δ≥9 has been proved to be (Δ+1)-totally-colorable. In this paper, we prove that planar graphs with maximum degree 8 and without adjacent triangles are 9-totally-colorable.     

Acyclic 3-choosability of planar graphs without cycles of length from 4 to 12

Every planar graph is known to be acyclically 7-choosable and is conjectured to be acyclically 5-choosable (O. V. Borodin et al., 2002). This conjecture if proved would imply both Borodin’s acyclic 5-color theorem (1979) and Thomassen’s 5-choosability theorem (1994). However, as yet it has been verified only for several restricted classes of graphs. Some sufficient conditions are also obtained for a planar graph to be acyclically 4- and 3-colorable. In particular, a planar graph of girth at least 7 is acyclically 3-colorable (O. V. Borodin, A. V. Kostochka and D. R. Woodall, 1999) and acyclically 3-choosable (O. V. Borodin et. al, 2009). A natural measure of sparseness, introduced by Erdős and Steinberg, is the absence of k-cycles, where 4 ≤ k ≤ S. Here, we prove that every planar graph without cycles of length from 4 to 12 is acyclically 3-choosable.     

Acyclic 4-choosability of planar graphs with neither 4-cycles nor triangular 6-cycles

Every planar graph is known to be acyclically 7-choosable and is conjectured to be acyclically 5-choosable (Borodin et al. 2002) [7]. This conjecture if proved would imply both Borodin’s acyclic 5-color theorem (1979) and Thomassen’s 5-choosability theorem (1994). However, as yet it has been verified only for several restricted classes of graphs.Some sufficient conditions are also obtained for a planar graph to be acyclically 4-choosable and 3-choosable. In particular, acyclic 4-choosability was proved for the following planar graphs: without 3-cycles and 4-cycles (Montassier, 2006 [23]), without 4-cycles, 5-cycles and 6-cycles (Montassier et al. 2006 [24]), and either without 4-cycles, 6-cycles and 7-cycles, or without 4-cycles, 6-cycles and 8-cycles (Chen et al. 2009 [14]).In this paper it is proved that each planar graph with neither 4-cycles nor 6-cycles adjacent to a triangle is acyclically 4-choosable, which covers these four results.     

Triangle Contact Representations and Duality

A?contact representation by triangles of a graph is a set of triangles in the plane such that two triangles intersect on at most one point, each triangle represents a vertex of the graph and two triangles intersects if and only if their corresponding vertices are adjacent. De Fraysseix, Ossona de Mendez and Rosenstiehl proved that every planar graph admits a contact representation by triangles. We strengthen this in terms of a simultaneous contact representation by triangles of a planar map and of its dual. A?primal?Cdual contact representation by triangles of a planar map is a contact representation by triangles of the primal and a contact representation by triangles of the dual such that for every edge uv, bordering faces f and g, the intersection between the triangles corresponding to u and v is the same point as the intersection between the triangles corresponding to f and g. We prove that every 3-connected planar map admits a primal?Cdual contact representation by triangles. Moreover, the interiors of the triangles form a tiling of the triangle corresponding to the outer face and each contact point is a corner of exactly three triangles. Then we show that these representations are in one-to-one correspondence with generalized Schnyder woods defined by Felsner for 3-connected planar maps.     

Every planar graph without adjacent cycles of length at most 8 is 3-choosable

DP-coloring as a generalization of list coloring was introduced by Dvořák and Postle in 2017, who proved that every planar graph without cycles from 4 to 8 is 3-choosable, which was conjectured by Borodin et al. in 2007. In this paper, we prove that every planar graph without adjacent cycles of length at most 8 is 3-choosable, which extends this result of Dvořák and Postle.     

Note on 3-choosability of planar graphs with maximum degree 4

Deciding whether a planar graph (even of maximum degree 4) is 3-colorable is NP-complete. Determining subclasses of planar graphs being 3-colorable has a long history, but since Grötzsch’s result that triangle-free planar graphs are such, most of the effort was focused to solving Havel’s and Steinberg’s conjectures. In this paper, we prove that every planar graph obtained as a subgraph of the medial graph of any bipartite plane graph is 3-choosable. These graphs are allowed to have close triangles (even incident), and have no short cycles forbidden, hence representing an entirely different class than the graphs inferred by the above mentioned conjectures.     

Extension of a theorem of Whitney

It is shown that every planar graph with no separating triangles is a subgraph of a Hamiltonian planar graph; that is, Whitney’s theorem holds without the assumption of a triangulation.     

Planar graphs without 4‐cycles adjacent to 3‐cycles are list vertex 2‐arborable

It is known that not all planar graphs are 4‐choosable; neither all of them are vertex 2‐arborable. However, planar graphs without 4‐cycles and even those without 4‐cycles adjacent to 3‐cycles are known to be 4‐choosable. We extend this last result in terms of covering the vertices of a graph by induced subgraphs of variable degeneracy. In particular, we prove that every planar graph without 4‐cycles adjacent to 3‐cycles can be covered by two induced forests. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62, 234–240, 2009     

On well-covered triangulations: Part III

A graph G is said to be well-covered if every maximal independent set of vertices has the same cardinality. A planar (simple) graph in which each face is a triangle is called a triangulation. It was proved in an earlier paper Finbow et al. (2004) [3] that there are no 5-connected planar well-covered triangulations, and in Finbow et al. (submitted for publication) [4] that there are exactly four 4-connected well-covered triangulations containing two adjacent vertices of degree 4. It is the aim of the present paper to complete the characterization of 4-connected well-covered triangulations by showing that each such graph contains two adjacent vertices of degree 4.     

Packing and Covering Triangles in K 4-free Planar Graphs

We show that every K ₄-free planar graph with at most ν edge-disjoint triangles contains a set of at most ${\frac32\nu}$ edges whose removal makes the graph triangle-free. Moreover, equality is attained only when G is the edge-disjoint union of 5-wheels plus possibly some edges that are not in triangles. We also show that the same statement is true if instead of planar graphs we consider the class of graphs in which each edge belongs to at most two triangles. In contrast, it is known that for any c?<?2 there are K ₄-free graphs with at most ν edge-disjoint triangles that need more than cν edges to cover all triangles.     

Acyclic 5-choosability of planar graphs without 4-cycles

The conjecture on the acyclic 5-choosability of planar graphs (Borodin et al., 2002) as yet has been verified only for several restricted classes of graphs: those of girth at least 5 (Montassier, Ochem, and Raspaud, 2006), without 4- and 5-cycles or without 4- and 6-cycles (Montassier, Raspaud, and Wang, 2007), with neither 4-cycles nor chordal 6-cycles (Zhang and Xu, 2009), with neither 4- cycles nor two 3-cycles at distance less than 3 (Chen and Wang, 2008), and with neither 4-cycles nor intersecting 3-cycles (Chen and Raspaud, 2010). Wang and Chen (2009) proved that the planar graphs without 4-cycles are acyclically 6-choosable. We prove that a planar graph without 4-cycles is acyclically 5-choosable, which is a common strengthening of all above-mentioned results.     

DP-4-colorability of two classes of planar graphs

DP-coloring (also known as correspondence coloring) is a generalization of list coloring introduced by Dvo?ák and Postle in 2017. In this paper, we prove that every planar graph without 4-cycles adjacent to $k$-cycles is DP-4-colorable for $k=5$ and 6. As a consequence, we obtain two new classes of 4-choosable planar graphs. We use identification of vertices in the proof, and actually prove stronger statements that every pre-coloring of some short cycles can be extended to the whole graph.     

Each maximal planar graph with exactly two separating triangles is Hamiltonian

A classical result of Whitney states that each maximal planar graph without separating triangles is Hamiltonian, where a separating triangle is a triangle whose removal separates the graph. Chen [Any maximal planar graph with only one separating triangle is Hamiltonian J. Combin. Optim. 7 (2003) 79-86] proved that any maximal planar graph with only one separating triangle is still Hamiltonian. In this paper, it is shown that the conclusion of Whitney's Theorem still holds if there are exactly two separating triangles.     

On the tightness conditions for maximal planar graphs

We characterize the tight structure of a vertex-accumulation-free maximal planar graph with no separating triangles. Together with the result of Halin who gave an equivalent form for such graphs, this yields that a tight structure always exists in every 4-connected maximal planar graph with one end.