Bounds on eigenvalues and chromatic numbers

We give new bounds on eigenvalue of graphs which imply some known bounds. In particular, if T(G) is the maximum sum of degrees of vertices adjacent to a vertex in a graph G, the largest eigenvalue ρ(G) of G satisfies with equality if and only if either G is regular or G is bipartite and such that all vertices in the same part have the same degree. Consequently, we prove that the chromatic number of G is at most with equality if and only if G is an odd cycle or a complete graph, which implies Brook's theorem. A generalization of this result is also given.     

Bounds for the harmonious chromatic number of a graph

The upper bound for the harmonious chromatic number of a graph given by Zhikang Lu and by C. McDiarmid and Luo Xinhua, independently (Journal of Graph Theory, 1991, pp. 345–347 and 629–636) and the lower bound given by D. G. Beane, N. L. Biggs, and B. J. Wilson (Journal of Graph Theory, 1989, pp. 291–298) are improved.     

The chromatic numbers of double coverings of a graph

If we fix a spanning subgraph H of a graph G, we can define a chromatic number of H with respect to G and we show that it coincides with the chromatic number of a double covering of G with co-support H. We also find a few estimations for the chromatic numbers of H with respect to G.     

Acyclic orientations of a graph and chromatic and independence numbers

The determinations of chromatic and independence numbers of a graph are represented as problems in optimization over the set of acyclic orientations of the graph. Specifically $\text{χ =}\text{min}{}_{\mathrm{\omega \in \Omega }}\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{\omega }}$ and $\text{β}{}_0\text{=}\text{max}{}_{\mathrm{\omega \in \Omega }}\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{\omega }}$ where χ is the chromatic number, β₀ is the independence number, Ω is the set of acyclic orientations, l_ω is the length of a maximum chain, and k_ω is the cardinality of a minimum chain decomposition. It is shown that Dilworth's theorem is a special case of the second equality.     

Bounds on the chromatic polynomial and on the number of acyclic orientations of a graph

An upper bound is given on the number of acyclic orientations of a graph, in terms of the spectrum of its Laplacian. It is shown that this improves upon the previously known bound, which depended on the degree sequence of the graph. Estimates on the new bound are provided.A lower bound on the number of acyclic orientations of a graph is given, with the help of the probabilistic method. This argument can take advantage of structural properties of the graph: it is shown how to obtain stronger bounds for small-degree graphs of girth at least five, than are possible for arbitrary graphs. A simpler proof of the known lower bound for arbitrary graphs is also obtained.Both the upper and lower bounds are shown to extend to the general problem of bounding the chromatic polynomial from above and below along the negative real axis.Partially supported by the NSF under grant CCR-9404113. Most of this research was done while the author was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contracts N00014-92-J-1799 and N00014-91-J-1698, the Air Force under Contract F49620-92-J-0125, and the Army under Contract DAAL-03-86-K-0171.Supported by an ONR graduate fellowship, grants NSF 8912586 CCR and AFOSR 89-0271, and an NSF postdoctoral fellowship.     

Lower bounds for the clique and the chromatic numbers of a graph

G is any simple graph with m edges and n vertices where these vertices have vertex degrees d(1)≥d(2)≥?≥d(n), respectively. General algorithms for the exact calculation of χ(G), the chromatic number of G, are almost always of ‘branch and bound’ type; this type of algorithm requires an easily constructed lower bound for χ(G). In this paper it is shown that, for a number of such bounds (many of which are described here for the first time), the bound does not exceed cl(G) where cl(G) is the clique number of G.In 1972 Myers and Liu showed that cl(G)≥n?(n?2m?n). Here we show that cl(G)≥ n?[n?(2m?n)(1+c²_v)^{$\text{1}\text{2}$}], where c_v is the vertex degree coefficient of variation in G, that cl(G)≥ Bondy's constructive lower bound for χ(G), and that cl(G)≥n?(n?W(G)), where W(G) is the largest positive integer such that W(G)≤d(W(G)+1) [W(G)+1 is the Welsh and Powell upper bound for χ(G)]. It is also shown that cl(G)+$\text{1}\text{3}$>n?(n?L(G))≥n?(n?λ₁) and that χ(G)≥ n?(n?λ₁); λ₁ is the largest eigenvalue of A, the adjacency matrix of G, and L(G) is a newly defined single-valued function of G similar to W(G) in its construction from the vertex degree sequence of G [L(G)≥W(G)].Finally, a ‘greedy’ lower bound for cl(G) is constructed from A and it is shown that this lower bound is never less than Bondy's bound; thereafter, for 150 random graphs with varying numbers of vertices and edge densities, the values of lower bounds given in this paper are listed, thereby illustrating that this last greedily obtained lower bound is almost always better than each of the other bounds.     

Asymptotic bounds for some bipartite graph: complete graph Ramsey numbers

The Ramsey number r(H,K_n) is the smallest integer N so that each graph on N vertices that fails to contain H as a subgraph has independence number at least n. It is shown that r(K_2,m,K_n)(m−1+o(1))(n/log n)² and r(C_2m,K_n)c(n/log n)^m/(m−1) for m fixed and n→∞. Also r(K_2,n,K_n)=Θ(n³/log² n) and .     

Path-path Ramsey-type numbers for the complete bipartite graph

For a fixed pair of integers r, s ≥ 2, all positive integers m and n are determined which have the property that if the edges of K_m,n (a complete bipartite graph with parts n and m) are colored with two colors, then there will always exist a path with r vertices in the first color or a path with s vertices in the second color.     

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 ramsey numbers for stripes and one complete graph

The Ramsey numbers r(K_p, n₁P₂,…,n_dP₂), p > 2, are calculated.     

Bounds on graph spectra

The largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of a graph has received considerable attention in the literature. Not nearly as much seems to be known about bounds on other eigenvalues of the spectrum. Several results are presented here toward that goal, first for the general class of simple graphs, then for triangle-free graphs and finally for the even more restricted class of bipartite graphs.     

Bounds of eigenvalues of a graph

LetG be a simple graph withn vertices. We denote by _i(G) thei-th largest eigenvalue ofG. In this paper, several results are presented concerning bounds on the eigenvalues ofG. In particular, it is shown that –1₂(G)(n–2)/2, and the left hand equality holds if and only ifG is a complete graph with at least two vertices; the right hand equality holds if and only ifn is even andG2K _n/2.     

The skew chromatic index of a graph

We define a skew edge coloring of a graph to be a set of two edge colorings such that no two edges are assigned the same unordered pair of colors. The skew chromatic index s(G) is the minimum number of colors required for a skew edge coloring of G. We show that this concept is closely related to that of skew Room squares and use this relation to prove that s(G) is at most o(G) + 4. We also find better upper bounds for s(G) when G is cyclic, cubic, or bipartite. In particular we use a construction involving Latin squares to show that if G is complete bipartite of order 2n, s(G) is bounded above by roughly $\text{3n}\text{2}$.     

The chromatic covering number of a graph

Following [1], we investigate the problem of covering a graph G with induced subgraphs G₁,…, G_k of possibly smaller chromatic number, but such that for every vertex u of G, the sum of reciprocals of the chromatic numbers of the G_i's containing u is at least 1. The existence of such “chromatic coverings” provides some bounds on the chromatic number of G. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The chromatic difference sequence of a graph

Let α_k(G) denote the maximum number of vertices in a k-colorable subgraph of G. Set α_k(G)=α_k(G)?α_(k?1)(G). The sequence a₁(G), a₂(G),… is called the chromatic difference sequence of the graph G. We present necessary and sufficient conditions for a sequence to be the chromatic difference sequence of some 4-colorable graph.     

The star chromatic number of a graph

We study a generalization of the notion of the chromatic number of a graph in which the colors assigned to adjacent vertices are required to be, in a certain sense, far apart. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On the chromatic polynomial of a graph

Let P(G,λ) be the chromatic polynomial of a graph G with n vertices, independence number α and clique number ω. We show that for every λ≥n, ()^α≤≤ () ^{n −ω}. We characterize the graphs that yield the lower bound or the upper bound.?These results give new bounds on the mean colour number μ(G) of G: n− (n−ω)() ^{n −ω}≤μ(G)≤n−α() ^α. Received: December 12, 2000 / Accepted: October 18, 2001?Published online February 14, 2002