Walks and regular integral graphs

We establish a useful correspondence between the closed walks in regular graphs and the walks in infinite regular trees, which, after counting the walks of a given length between vertices at a given distance in an infinite regular tree, provides a lower bound on the number of closed walks in regular graphs. This lower bound is then applied to reduce the number of the feasible spectra of the 4-regular bipartite integral graphs by more than a half.Next, we give the details of the exhaustive computer search on all 4-regular bipartite graphs with up to 24 vertices, which yields a total of 47 integral graphs.     

Fractional chromatic number and circular chromatic number for distance graphs with large clique size

An Erratum has been published for this article in Journal of Graph Theory 48: 329–330, 2005 . Let M be a set of positive integers. The distance graph generated by M, denoted by G(Z, M), has the set Z of all integers as the vertex set, and edges ij whenever |i?j| ∈ M. We investigate the fractional chromatic number and the circular chromatic number for distance graphs, and discuss their close connections with some number theory problems. In particular, we determine the fractional chromatic number and the circular chromatic number for all distance graphs G(Z, M) with clique size at least |M|, except for one case of such graphs. For the exceptional case, a lower bound for the fractional chromatic number and an upper bound for the circular chromatic number are presented; these bounds are sharp enough to determine the chromatic number for such graphs. Our results confirm a conjecture of Rabinowitz and Proulx 22 on the density of integral sets with missing differences, and generalize some known results on the circular chromatic number of distance graphs and the parameter involved in the Wills' conjecture 26 (also known as the “lonely runner conjecture” 1 ). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 47: 129–146, 2004     

A semidefinite programming-based heuristic for graph coloring

The Lovász θ-function is a well-known polynomial lower bound on the chromatic number. Any near-optimal solution of its semidefinite programming formulation carries valuable information on how to color the graph. A self-contained presentation of the role of this formulation in obtaining heuristics for the graph coloring problem is presented. These heuristics could be useful for coloring medium sized graphs as numerical results on DIMACS benchmark graphs indicate.     

Thickness-Two Graphs Part Two: More New Nine-Critical Graphs,Independence Ratio,Cloned Planar Graphs,and Singly and Doubly Outerplanar Graphs

There are numerous means for measuring the closeness to planarity of a graph such as crossing number, splitting number, and a variety of thickness parameters. We focus on the classical concept of the thickness of a graph, and we add to earlier work in [4]. In particular, we offer new 9-critical thickness-two graphs on 17, 25, and 33 vertices, all of which provide counterexamples to a conjecture on independence ratio of Albertson; we investigate three classes of graphs, namely singly and doubly outerplanar graphs, and cloned planar graphs. We give a sharp upper bound for the largest chromatic number of the cloned planar graphs, and we give upper and lower bounds for the largest chromatic number of the former two classes.     

Strengthening topological colorful results for graphs

Various results ensure the existence of large complete and colorful bipartite graphs in properly colored graphs when some condition related to a topological lower bound on the chromatic number is satisfied. We generalize three theorems of this kind, respectively due to Simonyi and Tardos 2006), Simonyi et al. (2013), and Chen 2011). As a consequence of the generalization of Chen’s theorem, we get new families of graphs whose chromatic number equals their circular chromatic number and that satisfy Hedetniemi’s conjecture for the circular chromatic number.     

Copositive programming motivated bounds on the stability and the chromatic numbers

The Lovász theta number of a graph G can be viewed as a semidefinite programming relaxation of the stability number of G. It has recently been shown that a copositive strengthening of this semidefinite program in fact equals the stability number of G. We introduce a related strengthening of the Lovász theta number toward the chromatic number of G, which is shown to be equal to the fractional chromatic number of G. Solving copositive programs is NP-hard. This motivates the study of tractable approximations of the copositive cone. We investigate the Parrilo hierarchy to approximate this cone and provide computational simplifications for the approximation of the chromatic number of vertex transitive graphs. We provide some computational results indicating that the Lovász theta number can be strengthened significantly toward the fractional chromatic number of G on some Hamming graphs. Partial support by the EU project Algorithmic Discrete Optimization (ADONET), MRTN-CT-2003-504438, is gratefully acknowledged.     

Distance edge-colourings and matchings

We consider a distance generalisation of the strong chromatic index and the maximum induced matching number. We study graphs of bounded maximum degree and Erd?s–Rényi random graphs. We work in three settings. The first is that of a distance generalisation of an Erd?s–Ne?et?il problem. The second is that of an upper bound on the size of a largest distance matching in a random graph. The third is that of an upper bound on the distance chromatic index for sparse random graphs. One of our results gives a counterexample to a conjecture of Skupień.     

Constructing 5-chromatic unit distance graphs embedded in the Euclidean plane and two-dimensional spheres

This paper is devoted to the development of algorithms for finding unit distance graphs with chromatic number greater than 4, embedded in a two-dimensional sphere or plane. Such graphs provide a lower bound for the Hadwiger–Nelson problem on the chromatic number of the plane and its generalizations to the case of the sphere. A series of 5-chromatic unit distance graphs on 64513 vertices embedded into the plane is constructed. Unlike previously known examples, these graphs do not use the Moser spindle as the base element. The construction of 5-chromatic graphs embedded in a sphere at two values of the radius is given. Namely, the 5-chromatic unit distance graph on 372 vertices embedded into the circumsphere of an icosahedron with a unit edge length, and the 5-chromatic graph on 972 vertices embedded into the circumsphere of a great icosahedron are constructed.     

Efficient algorithms for finding critical subgraphs

This paper presents algorithms to find vertex-critical and edge-critical subgraphs in a given graph G, and demonstrates how these critical subgraphs can be used to determine the chromatic number of G. Computational experiments are reported on random and DIMACS benchmark graphs to compare the proposed algorithms, as well as to find lower bounds on the chromatic number of these graphs. We improve the best known lower bound for some of these graphs, and we are even able to determine the chromatic number of some graphs for which only bounds were known.     

On lower bounds for the chromatic number in terms of vertex degree

In this paper we discuss the existence of lower bounds for the chromatic number of graphs in terms of the average degree or the coloring number of graphs. We obtain a lower bound for the chromatic number of K_1,t-free graphs in terms of the maximum degree and show that the bound is tight. For any tree T, we obtain a lower bound for the chromatic number of any K_2,t-free and T-free graph in terms of its average degree. This answers affirmatively a modified version of Problem 4.3 in [T.R. Jensen, B. Toft, Graph Coloring Problems, Wiley, New York, 1995]. More generally, we discuss δ-bounded families of graphs and then we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for a family of graphs to be a δ-bounded family in terms of its induced bipartite Turán number. Our last bound is in terms of forbidden induced even cycles in graphs; it extends a result in [S.E. Markossian, G.S. Gasparian, B.A. Reed, β-perfect graphs, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 67 (1996) 1–11].     

The Proportional Colouring Problem: Optimizing Buffers in Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we consider a new edge colouring problem motivated by wireless mesh networks optimization: the proportional edge colouring problem. Given a graph G with positive weights associated to its edges, we want to find a proper edge colouring which assigns to each edge at least a proportion (given by its weight) of all the colours. If such colouring exists, we want to find one using the minimum number of colours. We proved that deciding if a weighted graph admits a proportional edge colouring is polynomial while determining its proportional edge chromatic number is NP-hard. We also give a lower and an upper bound that can be polynomially computed. We finally characterize some graphs and weighted graphs for which we can determine the proportional edge chromatic number.     

The chromatic number of oriented graphs

We introduce in this paper the notion of the chromatic number of an oriented graph G (that is of an antisymmetric directed graph) defined as the minimum order of an oriented graph H such that G admits a homomorphism to H. We study the chromatic number of oriented k-trees and of oriented graphs with bounded degree. We show that there exist oriented k-trees with chromatic number at least 2^k+1 - 1 and that every oriented k-tree has chromatic number at most (k + 1) × 2^k. For 2-trees and 3-trees we decrease these upper bounds respectively to 7 and 16 and show that these new bounds are tight. As a particular case, we obtain that oriented outerplanar graphs have chromatic number at most 7 and that this bound is tight too. We then show that every oriented graph with maximum degree k has chromatic number at most (2k - 1) × 2^2k-2. For oriented graphs with maximum degree 2 we decrease this bound to 5 and show that this new bound is tight. For oriented graphs with maximum degree 3 we decrease this bound to 16 and conjecture that there exists no such connected graph with chromatic number greater than 7. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 25: 191–205, 1997     

Enhancing RLT relaxations via a new class of semidefinite cuts

In this paper, we propose a mechanism to tighten Reformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT) based relaxations for solving nonconvex programming problems by importing concepts from semidefinite programming (SDP), leading to a new class of semidefinite cutting planes. Given an RLT relaxation, the usual nonnegativity restrictions on the matrix of RLT product variables is replaced by a suitable positive semidefinite constraint. Instead of relying on specific SDP solvers, the positive semidefinite stipulation is re-written to develop a semi-infinite linear programming representation of the problem, and an approach is developed that can be implemented using traditional optimization software. Specifically, the infinite set of constraints is relaxed, and members of this set are generated as needed via a separation routine in polynomial time. In essence, this process yields an RLT relaxation that is augmented with valid inequalities, which are themselves classes of RLT constraints that we call semidefinite cuts. These semidefinite cuts comprise a relaxation of the underlying semidefinite constraint. We illustrate this strategy by applying it to the case of optimizing a nonconvex quadratic objective function over a simplex. The algorithm has been implemented in C++, using CPLEX callable routines, and two types of semidefinite restrictions are explored along with several implementation strategies. Several of the most promising lower bounding strategies have been implemented within a branch-and-bound framework. Computational results indicate that the cutting plane algorithm provides a significant tightening of the lower bound obtained by using RLT alone. Moreover, when used within a branch-and-bound framework, the proposed lower bound significantly reduces the effort required to obtain globally optimal solutions.     

An infinite family of subcubic graphs with unbounded packing chromatic number

Recently, Balogh et al. (2018) answered in negative the question that was posed in several earlier papers whether the packing chromatic number is bounded in the class of graphs with maximum degree 3. In this note, we present an explicit infinite family of subcubic graphs with unbounded packing chromatic number.     

Measurable chromatic number of geometric graphs and sets without some distances in euclidean space

LetH be a set of positive real numbers. We define the geometric graphG _H as follows: the vertex set isR ⁿ (or the unit circleS ¹) andx, y are joined if their distance belongs toH. We define the measurable chromatic number of geometric graphs as the minimum number of classes in a measurable partition into independent sets. In this paper we investigate the difference between the notions of the ordinary and measurable chromatic numbers. We also prove upper and lower bounds on the Lebesgue upper density of independent sets.     

Star chromatic numbers of some planar graphs

The concept of the star chromatic number of a graph was introduced by Vince (A. Vince, Star chromatic number, J. Graph Theory 12 (1988), 551–559), which is a natural generalization of the chromatic number of a graph. This paper calculates the star chromatic numbers of three infinite families of planar graphs. More precisely, the first family of planar graphs has star chromatic numbers consisting of two alternating infinite decreasing sequences between 3 and 4; the second family of planar graphs has star chromatic numbers forming an infinite decreasing sequence between 3 and 4; and the third family of planar graphs has star chromatic number 7/2. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 27: 33–42, 1998     

Colourings of oriented connected cubic graphs

In this note we show every orientation of a connected cubic graph admits an oriented 8-colouring. This lowers the best-known upper bound for the chromatic number of the family of orientations of connected cubic graphs. We further show that every such oriented graph admits a 2-dipath 7-colouring. These results imply that either the oriented chromatic number for the family of orientations of connected cubic graphs equals the 2-dipath chromatic number or the long-standing conjecture of Sopena (Sopena, 1997) regarding the chromatic number of orientations of connected cubic graphs is false.     

New upper bounds on harmonious colorings

We present an improved upper bound on the harmonious chromatic number of an arbitrary graph. We also consider ?fragmentable”? classes of graphs (an example is the class of planar graphs) that are, roughly speaking, graphs that can be decomposed into bounded-sized components by removing a small proportion of the vertices. We show that for such graphs of bounded degree the harmonious chromatic number is close to the lower bound (2m)^1/2, where m is the number of edges.     

Distance graphs with large chromatic number and without large cliques

The present paper is devoted to the study of the properties of distance graphs in Euclidean space. We prove, in particular, the existence of distance graphs with chromatic number of exponentially large dimension and without cliques of dimension 6. In addition, under a given constraint on the cardinality of the maximal clique, we search for distance graphs with extremal large values of the chromatic number. The resulting estimates are best possible within the framework of the proposed method, which combines probabilistic techniques with the linear-algebraic approach.     

Graphes cubiques d'indice trois,graphes cubiques isochromatiques,graphes cubiques d'indice quatre

The process introduced by E. Johnson [Amer. Math. Monthly73 (1966), 52–55] for constructing connected cubic graphs can be modified so as to obtain restricted classes of cubic graphs, in particular, those defined by their chromatic number or their chromatic index. We construct here the graphs of chromatic number three and the graphs whose chromatic number is equal to its chromatic index (isochromatic graphs). We then give results about the construction of the class of graphs of chromatic index four, and in particular, we construct an infinite class of “snarks.”