Hajós Theorem For Colorings Of Edge-Weighted Graphs

Hajós theorem states that every graph with chromatic number at least k can be obtained from the complete graph K _k by a sequence of simple operations such that every intermediate graph also has chromatic number at least k. Here, Hajós theorem is extended in three slightly different ways to colorings and circular colorings of edge-weighted graphs. These extensions shed some new light on the Hajós theorem and show that colorings of edge-weighted graphs are most natural extension of usual graph colorings.* Supported in part by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Slovenia, Research Program P0–0507–0101.     

An introduction to the k-defect polynomials

The 0-defect polynomial of a graph is just the chromatic polynomial. This polynomial has been widely studied in the literature. Yet little is known about the properties of k-defect polynomials of graphs in general, when 0 < k ≤ |E(G)|. In this survey we give some properties of k-defect polynomials, in particular we highlight the properties of chromatic polynomials which also apply to k-defect polynomials. We discuss further research which can be done on the k-defect polynomials.     

Local Chromatic Number, KY Fan's Theorem, And Circular Colorings

The local chromatic number of a graph was introduced in [14]. It is in between the chromatic and fractional chromatic numbers. This motivates the study of the local chromatic number of graphs for which these quantities are far apart. Such graphs include Kneser graphs, their vertex color-critical subgraphs, the Schrijver (or stable Kneser) graphs; Mycielski graphs, and their generalizations; and Borsuk graphs. We give more or less tight bounds for the local chromatic number of many of these graphs. We use an old topological result of Ky Fan [17] which generalizes the Borsuk–Ulam theorem. It implies the existence of a multicolored copy of the complete bipartite graph K_{⌈t/2⌉,⌊t/2⌋} in every proper coloring of many graphs whose chromatic number t is determined via a topological argument. (This was in particular noted for Kneser graphs by Ky Fan [18].) This yields a lower bound of ⌈t/2⌉ + 1 for the local chromatic number of these graphs. We show this bound to be tight or almost tight in many cases. As another consequence of the above we prove that the graphs considered here have equal circular and ordinary chromatic numbers if the latter is even. This partially proves a conjecture of Johnson, Holroyd, and Stahl and was independently attained by F. Meunier [42]. We also show that odd chromatic Schrijver graphs behave differently, their circular chromatic number can be arbitrarily close to the other extreme. * Research partially supported by the Hungarian Foundation for Scientific Research Grant (OTKA) Nos. T037846, T046376, AT048826, and NK62321. † Research partially supported by the NSERC grant 611470 and the Hungarian Foundation for Scientific Research Grant (OTKA) Nos. T037846, T046234, AT048826, and NK62321.     

Further results on monotonic graph invariants and bipartiteness number

Abstract

The bipartiteness of a graph is the minimum number of vertices whose deletion from G results in a bipartite graph. If a graph invariant decreases or increases with addition of edges of its complement, then it is called a monotonic graph invariant. In this article, we determine the extremal values of some famous monotonic graph invariants, and characterize the corresponding extremal graphs in the class of all connected graphs with a given vertex bipartiteness.     

Graph colourings with forbidden k-coloured subgraphs

Abstract

For a set F of graphs and a natural number k, an (F, k)-colouring of a graph G is a proper colouring of V (G) such that no subgraph of G isomorphic to an element of F is coloured with at most k colours. Equivalently, if P is the class of all graphs that do not contain an element of F as a subgraph, a χP,k colouring of G is a proper colouring such that the union of at most k colour classes induces a graph in P. The smallest number of colours in such a colouring of G, if it exists, is denoted by χP,k (G). We give some general results on χP,k-colourings and investigate values of χP,k (G) for some choices of P and classes of graphs G.     

Colouring games based on autotopisms of Latin hyper-rectangles

Abstract

Every partial colouring of a Hamming graph is uniquely related to a partial Latin hyper-rectangle. In this paper we introduce the Θ-stabilized (a, b)-colouring game for Hamming graphs, a variant of the (a, b)-colouring game so that each move must respect a given autotopism Θ of the resulting partial Latin hyperrectangle. We examine the complexity of this variant by means of its chromatic number. We focus in particular on the bi-dimensional case, for which the game is played on the Cartesian product of two complete graphs, and also on the hypercube case.     

Subgraphs of colour-critical graphs

Some problems and results on the distribution of subgraphs in colour-critical graphs are discussed. In section 3 arbitrarily largek-critical graphs withn vertices are constructed such that, in order to reduce the chromatic number tok−2, at leastc _k n ² edges must be removed. In section 4 it is proved that a 4-critical graph withn vertices contains at mostn triangles. Further it is proved that ak-critical graph which is not a complete graph contains a (k−1)-critical graph which is not a complete graph.     

Lower bound of the hadwiger number of graphs by their average degree

The aim of this paper is to show that the minimum Hadwiger number of graphs with average degreek isO(k/√logk). Specially, it follows that Hadwiger’s conjecture is true for almost all graphs withn vertices, furthermore ifk is large enough then for almost all graphs withn vertices andnk edges.     

On a Problem of Cameron’s on Inexhaustible Graphs

A graph G is inexhaustible if whenever a vertex of G is deleted the remaining graph is isomorphic to G. We address a question of Cameron [6], who asked which countable graphs are inexhaustible. In particular, we prove that there are continuum many countable inexhaustible graphs with properties in common with the infinite random graph, including adjacency properties and universality. Locally finite inexhaustible graphs and forests are investigated, as is a semigroup structure on the class of inexhaustible graphs. We extend a result of [7] on homogeneous inexhaustible graphs to pseudo-homogeneous inexhaustible graphs.The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).     

Minimum cycle bases of graphs on surfaces

In this paper we study the cycle base structures of embedded graphs on surfaces. We first give a sufficient and necessary condition for a set of facial cycles to be contained in a minimum cycle base (or MCB in short) and then set up a 1-1 correspondence between the set of MCBs and the set of collections of nonseparating cycles which are in general positions on surfaces and are of shortest total length. This provides a way to enumerate MCBs in a graph via nonseparating cycles. In particular, some known results such as P.F. Stadler's work on Halin graphs [Minimum cycle bases of Halin graphs, J. Graph Theory 43 (2003) 150-155] and Leydold and Stadler's results on outer-planar graphs [Minimum cycle bases of outerplanar graphs, Electronic J. Combin. 5(16) (1998) 14] are concluded. As applications, the number of MCBs in some types of graphs embedded in lower surfaces (with arbitrarily high genera) is found. Finally, we present an interpolation theorem for the number of one-sided cycles contained in MCB of an embedded graph.     

Spanning trees of extended graphs

A generalization of the Prüfer coding of trees is given providing a natural correspondence between the set of codes of spanning trees of a graph and the set of codes of spanning trees of theextension of the graph. This correspondence prompts us to introduce and to investigate a notion ofthe spanning tree volume of a graph and provides a simple relation between the volumes of a graph and its extension (and in particular a simple relation between the spanning tree numbers of a graph and its uniform extension). These results can be used to obtain simple purely combinatorial proofs of many previous results obtained by the Matrix-tree theorem on the number of spanning trees of a graph. The results also make it possible to construct graphs with the maximal number of spanning trees in some classes of graphs.     

Star chromatic numbers of graphs

We investigate the relation between the star-chromatic number (G) and the chromatic number (G) of a graphG. First we give a sufficient condition for graphs under which their starchromatic numbers are equal to their ordinary chromatic numbers. As a corollary we show that for any two positive integersk, g, there exists ak-chromatic graph of girth at leastg whose star-chromatic number is alsok. The special case of this corollary withg=4 answers a question of Abbott and Zhou. We also present an infinite family of triangle-free planar graphs whose star-chromatic number equals their chromatic number. We then study the star-chromatic number of An infinite family of graphs is constructed to show that for each >0 and eachm2 there is anm-connected (m+1)-critical graph with star chromatic number at mostm+. This answers another question asked by Abbott and Zhou.     

Preperfect graphs

We say that a vertexx of a graph is predominant if there exists another vertexy ofG such that either every maximum clique ofG containingy containsx or every maximum stable set containingx containsy. A graph is then called preperfect if every induced subgraph has a predominant vertex. We show that preperfect graphs are perfect, and that several well-known classes of perfect graphs are preperfect. We also derive a new characterization of perfect graphs.     

Diperfect graphs

Gallai and Milgram have shown that the vertices of a directed graph, with stability number α(G), can be covered by exactly α(G) disjoint paths. However, the various proofs of this result do not imply the existence of a maximum stable setS and of a partition of the vertex-set into paths μ₁, μ₂, ..., μ_k such tht |μ_i ∩S|=1 for alli. Later, Gallai proved that in a directed graph, the maximum number of vertices in a path is at least equal to the chromatic number; here again, we do not know if there exists an optimal coloring (S ₁,S ₂, ...,S _k) and a path μ such that |μ ∩S _i|=1 for alli. In this paper we show that many directed graphs, like the perfect graphs, have stronger properties: for every maximal stable setS there exists a partition of the vertex set into paths which meet the stable set in only one point. Also: for every optimal coloring there exists a path which meets each color class in only one point. This suggests several conjecties similar to the perfect graph conjecture. Dedicated to Tibor Gallai on his seventieth birthday     

On The Chromatic Number Of Pentagon-Free Graphs Of Large Minimum Degree

We prove that, for each fixed real number c > 0, the pentagon-free graphs of minimum degree at least cn (where n is the number of vertices) have bounded chromatic number. This problem was raised by Erdős and Simonovits in 1973. A similar result holds for any other fixed odd cycle, except the triangle for which there is no such result for c<1/3.     

On the critical ideals of graphs

We introduce some determinantal ideals of the generalized Laplacian matrix associated to a digraph G, that we call critical ideals of G. Critical ideals generalize the critical group and the characteristic polynomials of the adjacency and Laplacian matrices of a digraph. The main results of this article are the determination of some minimal generator sets and the reduced Gröbner basis for the critical ideals of the complete graphs, the cycles and the paths. Also, we establish a bound between the number of trivial critical ideals and the stability and clique numbers of a graph.     

Extending partial isomorphisms on finite structures

We prove the following theorem:Let A be a finite structure in a fixed finite relational language,p ₁,...,p _m partial isomorphisms of A. Then there exists a finite structure B, and automorphismsf _i of B extending thep _i 's. This theorem can be used to prove the small index property for the random structure in this language. A special case of this theorem is, if A and B are hypergraphs. In addition we prove the theorem for the case of triangle free graphs.     

Star clusters in independence complexes of graphs

We introduce the notion of star cluster of a simplex in a simplicial complex. This concept provides a general tool to study the topology of independence complexes of graphs. We use star clusters to answer a question arisen from works of Engström and Jonsson on the homotopy type of independence complexes of triangle-free graphs and to investigate a large number of examples which appear in the literature. We present an alternative way to study the chromatic and clique numbers of a graph from a homotopical point of view and obtain new results regarding the connectivity of independence complexes.     

Hadwiger's conjecture forK 6-free graphs

In 1943, Hadwiger made the conjecture that every loopless graph not contractible to the complete graph ont+1 vertices ist-colourable. Whent3 this is easy, and whent=4, Wagner's theorem of 1937 shows the conjecture to be equivalent to the four-colour conjecture (the 4CC). However, whent5 it has remained open. Here we show that whent=5 it is also equivalent to the 4CC. More precisely, we show (without assuming the 4CC) that every minimal counterexample to Hadwiger's conjecture whent=5 is apex, that is, it consists of a planar graph with one additional vertex. Consequently, the 4CC implies Hadwiger's conjecture whent=5, because it implies that apex graphs are 5-colourable.Research partially supported by NSF grants number DMS 8903132, and DMS 9103480 respectively. Both authors were also partially supported by the DIMACS Center at Rutgers University, and the research was carried out partially under a consulting agreement with Bellcore.     

On the conjecture of hajós

Hajós conjectured that everys-chromatic graph contains a subdivision ofK _s, the complete graph ons vertices. Catlin disproved this conjecture. We prove that almost all graphs are counter-examles in a very strong sense.