A characterization for the neighbor-distinguishing total chromatic number of planar graphs with Δ=13

The neighbor-distinguishing total chromatic number ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ can be totally colored using $k$ colors with a condition that any two adjacent vertices have different sets of colors. In this paper, we give a sufficient and necessary condition for a planar graph $G$ with maximum degree 13 to have ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)=14$ or ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)=15$. Precisely, we show that if $G$ is a planar graph of maximum degree 13, then $14\le {\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le 15$; and ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)=15$ if and only if $G$ contains two adjacent 13-vertices.     

An improved upper bound on the adjacent vertex distinguishing total chromatic number of graphs

An adjacent vertex distinguishing total $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper total $k$-coloring of $G$ such that any pair of adjacent vertices have different sets of colors. The minimum number $k$ needed for such a total coloring of $G$ is denoted by ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)$. In this paper we prove that ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)?1$ if $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge 4$, and ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le ?\frac{5\Delta \left(G\right)+8}{3}?$ in general. This improves a result in Huang et al. (2012) which states that ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)$ for any graph with $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge 3$.     

On 3-stable number conditions in n-connected claw-free graphs

For a subgraph $X$ of $G$, let ${\alpha }_G^3\left(X\right)$ be the maximum number of vertices of $X$ that are pairwise distance at least three in $G$. In this paper, we prove three theorems. Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $H$ be a subgraph of an $n$-connected claw-free graph $G$. We prove that if $n\ge 2$, then either $H$ can be covered by a cycle in $G$, or there exists a cycle $C$ in $G$ such that ${\alpha }_G^3(H?V\left(C\right))\le {\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)?n$. This result generalizes the result of Broersma and Lu that $G$ has a cycle covering all the vertices of $H$ if ${\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)\le n$. We also prove that if $n\ge 1$, then either $H$ can be covered by a path in $G$, or there exists a path $P$ in $G$ such that ${\alpha }_G^3(H?V\left(P\right))\le {\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)?n?1$. By using the second result, we prove the third result. For a tree $T$, a vertex of $T$ with degree one is called a leaf of $T$. For an integer $k\ge 2$, a tree which has at most $k$ leaves is called a $k$-ended tree. We prove that if ${\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)\le n+k?1$, then $G$ has a $k$-ended tree covering all the vertices of $H$. This result gives a positive answer to the conjecture proposed by Kano et al. (2012).     

List star chromatic index of sparse graphs

A star edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring such that every 2-colored connected subgraph of $G$ is a path of length at most 3. For a graph $G$, let the list star chromatic index of $G$, $c{h}_s^{\prime }\left(G\right)$, be the minimum $k$ such that for any $k$-uniform list assignment $L$ for the set of edges, $G$ has a star edge-coloring from $L$. Dvo?ák et al. (2013) asked whether the list star chromatic index of every subcubic graph is at most 7. In Kerdjoudj et al. (2017) we proved that it is at most 8. In this paper we consider graphs with any maximum degree, we proved that if the maximum average degree of a graph $G$ is less than $\frac{14}{5}$ (resp. 3), then $c{h}_s^{\prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)+2$ (resp. $c{h}_s^{\prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)+3$).     

Edge-partitions of graphs and their neighbor-distinguishing index

A proper edge coloring is neighbor-distinguishing if any two adjacent vertices have distinct sets consisting of colors of their incident edges. The minimum number of colors needed for a neighbor-distinguishing edge coloring is the neighbor-distinguishing index, denoted by ${\chi }_a^{\prime }\left(G\right)$. A graph is normal if it contains no isolated edges. Let $G$ be a normal graph, and let $\Delta \left(G\right)$ and ${\chi }^{\prime }\left(G\right)$ denote the maximum degree and the chromatic index of $G$, respectively. We modify the previously known techniques of edge-partitioning to prove that ${\chi }_a^{\prime }\left(G\right)\le 2{\chi }^{\prime }\left(G\right)$, which implies that ${\chi }_a^{\prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)+2$. This improves the result in Wang et al. (2015), which states that ${\chi }_a^{\prime }\left(G\right)\le \frac{5}{2}\Delta \left(G\right)$ for any normal graph. We also prove that ${\chi }_a^{\prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)$ when $\Delta \left(G\right)=2^k$, $k$ is an integer with $k\ge 2$.