Coloring of distance graphs with intervals as distance sets

Let D be a set of positive integers. The distance graph G(Z,D) with distance set D is the graph with vertex set Z in which two vertices x,y are adjacent if and only if |x−y|D. The fractional chromatic number, the chromatic number, and the circular chromatic number of G(Z,D) for various D have been extensively studied recently. In this paper, we investigate the fractional chromatic number, the chromatic number, and the circular chromatic number of the distance graphs with the distance sets of the form D_m,[k,k^′]={1,2,…,m}−{k,k+1,…,k^′}, where m, k, and k^′ are natural numbers with m≥k^′≥k. In particular, we completely determine the chromatic number of G(Z,D_m,[2,k^′]) for arbitrary m, and k^′.     

Distinguishing chromatic numbers of complements of Cartesian products of complete graphs

The distinguishing chromatic number of a graph, $G$, is the minimum number of colours required to properly colour the vertices of $G$ so that the only automorphism of $G$ that preserves colours is the identity. There are many classes of graphs for which the distinguishing chromatic number has been studied, including Cartesian products of complete graphs (Jerebic and Klav?ar, 2010). In this paper we determine the distinguishing chromatic number of the complement of the Cartesian product of complete graphs, providing an interesting class of graphs, some of which have distinguishing chromatic number equal to the chromatic number, and others for which the difference between the distinguishing chromatic number and chromatic number can be arbitrarily large.     

The 6-relaxed game chromatic number of outerplanar graphs

Suppose G is a graph and k,d are integers. The (k,d)-relaxed colouring game on G is a game played by two players, Alice and Bob, who take turns colouring the vertices of G with legal colours from a set X of k colours. Here a colour i is legal for an uncoloured vertex x if after colouring x with colour i, the subgraph induced by vertices of colour i has maximum degree at most d. Alice’s goal is to have all the vertices coloured, and Bob’s goal is the opposite: to have an uncoloured vertex without a legal colour. The d-relaxed game chromatic number of G, denoted by , is the least number k so that when playing the (k,d)-relaxed colouring game on G, Alice has a winning strategy. This paper proves that if G is an outerplanar graph, then for d≥6.     

Another step towards proving a conjecture by Plummer and Toft

A cyclic colouring of a graph G embedded in a surface is a vertex colouring of G in which any two distinct vertices sharing a face receive distinct colours. The cyclic chromatic number of G is the smallest number of colours in a cyclic colouring of G. Plummer and Toft in 1987 [M.D. Plummer, B. Toft, Cyclic coloration of 3-polytopes, J. Graph Theory 11 (1987) 507-515] conjectured that for any 3-connected plane graph G with maximum face degree Δ^∗. It is known that the conjecture holds true for Δ^∗≤4 and Δ^∗≥24. The validity of the conjecture is proved in the paper for Δ^∗≥18.     

On chromatic‐choosable graphs

A graph is chromatic‐choosable if its choice number coincides with its chromatic number. It is shown in this article that, for any graph G, if we join a sufficiently large complete graph to G, then we obtain a chromatic‐choosable graph. As a consequence, if the chromatic number of a graph G is close enough to the number of vertices in G, then G is chromatic‐choosable. We also propose a conjecture related to this fact. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 40: 130–135, 2002     

Distance graphs with maximum chromatic number

The distance graph G(D) has the set of integers as vertices and two vertices are adjacent in G(D) if their difference is contained in the set D⊂Z. A conjecture of Zhu states that if the chromatic number of G(D) achieves its maximum value |D|+1 then the graph has a triangle. The conjecture is proven to be true if |D|?3. We prove that the chromatic number of a distance graph with D={a,b,c,d} is five only if either D={1,2,3,4k} or D={a,b,a+b,b-a}. This confirms a stronger version of Zhu's conjecture for |D|=4, namely, if the chromatic number achieves its maximum value then the graph contains K₄.     

Strong chromatic index of subset graphs

The strong chromatic index of a graph G, denoted sq(G), is the minimum number of parts needed to partition the edges of G into induced matchings. For 0 ≤ k ≤ l ≤ m, the subset graph S_m(k, l) is a bipartite graph whose vertices are the k- and l-subsets of an m element ground set where two vertices are adjacent if and only if one subset is contained in the other. We show that and that this number satisfies the strong chromatic index conjecture by Brualdi and Quinn for bipartite graphs. Further, we demonstrate that the conjecture is also valid for a more general family of bipartite graphs. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Colourings of the cartesian product of graphs and multiplicative Sidon sets

Let F be a family of connected bipartite graphs, each with at least three vertices. A proper vertex colouring of a graph G with no bichromatic subgraph in F is F-free. The F-free chromatic number χ(G,F) of a graph G is the minimum number of colours in an F-free colouring of G. For appropriate choices of F, several well-known types of colourings fit into this framework, including acyclic colourings, star colourings, and distance-2 colourings. This paper studies F-free colourings of the cartesian product of graphs.     

Game coloring the Cartesian product of graphs

This article proves the following result: Let G and G′ be graphs of orders n and n′, respectively. Let G^* be obtained from G by adding to each vertex a set of n′ degree 1 neighbors. If G^* has game coloring number m and G′ has acyclic chromatic number k, then the Cartesian product G□G′ has game chromatic number at most k(k + m ? 1). As a consequence, the Cartesian product of two forests has game chromatic number at most 10, and the Cartesian product of two planar graphs has game chromatic number at most 105. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 59: 261–278, 2008     

On the ultimate lexicographic Hall-ratio

The Hall-ratio ρ(G) of a graph G is the ratio of the number of vertices and the independence number maximized over all subgraphs of G. The ultimate lexicographic Hall-ratio of a graph G is defined as , where G^°n denotes the nth lexicographic power of G (that is, n times repeated substitution of G into itself). Here we prove the conjecture of Simonyi stating that the ultimate lexicographic Hall-ratio equals the fractional chromatic number for all graphs.     

On minimally b-imperfect graphs

A b-coloring is a coloring of the vertices of a graph such that each color class contains a vertex that has a neighbour in all other color classes. The b-chromatic number of a graph G is the largest integer k such that G admits a b-coloring with k colors. A graph is b-perfect if the b-chromatic number is equal to the chromatic number for every induced subgraph H of G. A graph is minimally b-imperfect if it is not b-perfect and every proper induced subgraph is b-perfect. We give a list of minimally b-imperfect graphs, conjecture that a graph is b-perfect if and only if it does not contain a graph from this list as an induced subgraph, and prove this conjecture for diamond-free graphs, and graphs with chromatic number at most three.     

Circular game chromatic number of graphs

In a circular r-colouring game on G, Alice and Bob take turns colouring the vertices of G with colours from the circle S(r) of perimeter r. Colours assigned to adjacent vertices need to have distance at least 1 in S(r). Alice wins the game if all vertices are coloured, and Bob wins the game if some uncoloured vertices have no legal colour. The circular game chromatic number χ_cg(G) of G is the infimum of those real numbers r for which Alice has a winning strategy in the circular r-colouring game on G. This paper proves that for any graph G, , where is the game colouring number of G. This upper bound is shown to be sharp for forests. It is also shown that for any graph G, χ_cg(G)≤2χ_a(G)(χ_a(G)+1), where χ_a(G) is the acyclic chromatic number of G. We also determine the exact value of the circular game chromatic number of some special graphs, including complete graphs, paths, and cycles.     

A result on the total colouring of powers of cycles

The total chromatic number χ_T(G) is the least number of colours needed to colour the vertices and edges of a graph G such that no incident or adjacent elements (vertices or edges) receive the same colour. The Total Colouring Conjecture (TCC) states that for every simple graph G, χ_T(G)?Δ(G)+2. This work verifies the TCC for powers of cycles even and 2<k<n/2, showing that there exists and can be polynomially constructed a (Δ(G)+2)-total colouring for these graphs.     

Bounded edge-connectivity and edge-persistence of Cartesian product of graphs

The bounded edge-connectivity λ_k(G) of a connected graph G with respect to is the minimum number of edges in G whose deletion from G results in a subgraph with diameter larger than k and the edge-persistence D⁺(G) is defined as λ_d(G)(G), where d(G) is the diameter of G. This paper considers the Cartesian product G₁×G₂, shows λ_k1+k2(G₁×G₂)≥λ_k1(G₁)+λ_k2(G₂) for k₁≥2 and k₂≥2, and determines the exact values of D⁺(G) for G=C_n×P_m, C_n×C_m, Q_n×P_m and Q_n×C_m.     

Acyclic edge coloring of graphs with maximum degree 4

An acyclic edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles. The acyclic chromatic index of a graph is the minimum number k such that there is an acyclic edge coloring using k colors and is denoted by a′(G). It was conjectured by Alon, Sudakov, and Zaks that for any simple and finite graph G, a′(G)?Δ + 2, where Δ=Δ(G) denotes the maximum degree of G. We prove the conjecture for connected graphs with Δ(G)?4, with the additional restriction that m?2n?1, where n is the number of vertices and m is the number of edges in G. Note that for any graph G, m?2n, when Δ(G)?4. It follows that for any graph G if Δ(G)?4, then a′(G)?7. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 61: 192–209, 2009     

Labeling planar graphs with a condition at distance two

An L(2,1)-labeling of a graph is a mapping c:V(G)→{0,…,K} such that the labels assigned to neighboring vertices differ by at least 2 and the labels of vertices at distance two are different. The smallest K for which an L(2,1)-labeling of a graph G exists is denoted by λ_2,1(G). Griggs and Yeh [J.R. Griggs, R.K. Yeh, Labeling graphs with a condition at distance 2, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 5 (1992) 586–595] conjectured that λ_2,1(G)≤Δ² for every graph G with maximum degree Δ≥2. We prove the conjecture for planar graphs with maximum degree Δ≠3. All our results also generalize to the list-coloring setting.     

Hadwiger Number and the Cartesian Product of Graphs

The Hadwiger number η(G) of a graph G is the largest integer n for which the complete graph K _n on n vertices is a minor of G. Hadwiger conjectured that for every graph G, η(G) ≥ χ(G), where χ(G) is the chromatic number of G. In this paper, we study the Hadwiger number of the Cartesian product of graphs. As the main result of this paper, we prove that for any two graphs G ₁ and G ₂ with η(G ₁) = h and η(G ₂) = l. We show that the above lower bound is asymptotically best possible when h ≥ l. This asymptotically settles a question of Z. Miller (1978). As consequences of our main result, we show the following:

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.     

Improper colouring of (random) unit disk graphs

For any graph G, the k-improper chromatic numberχ^k(G) is the smallest number of colours used in a colouring of G such that each colour class induces a subgraph of maximum degree k. We investigate χ^k for unit disk graphs and random unit disk graphs to generalise results of McDiarmid and Reed [Colouring proximity graphs in the plane, Discrete Math. 199(1-3) (1999) 123-137], McDiarmid [Random channel assignment in the plane, Random Structures Algorithms 22(2) (2003) 187-212], and McDiarmid and Müller [On the chromatic number of random geometric graphs, submitted for publication].