Directed defective asymmetric graph coloring games

We consider the following 2-person game which is played with an (initially uncolored) digraph D, a finite color set C, and nonnegative integers a, b, and d. Alternately, player I colors a vertices and player II colors b vertices with colors from C. Whenever a player colors a vertex v, all in-arcs (w,v) that do not come from a vertex w previously colored with the same color as v are deleted. For each color i the defect digraphD_i is the digraph induced by the vertices of color i at a certain state of the game. The main rule the players have to respect is that at every time for any color i the digraph D_i has maximum total degree of at most d. The game ends if no vertex can be colored any more according to this rule. Player I wins if D is completely colored at the end of the game, otherwise player II wins. The smallest cardinality of a color set C with which player I has a winning strategy for the game is called . This parameter generalizes several variants of Bodlaender’s game chromatic number. We determine the tight (resp., nearly tight) upper bound (resp., ) for the d-relaxed (a,b)-game chromatic number of orientations of forests (resp., undirected forests) for any d and a≥b≥1. Furthermore we prove that these numbers cannot be bounded in case a<b.     

Relaxed very asymmetric coloring games

This paper investigates a competitive version of the coloring game on a finite graph G. An asymmetric variant of the (r,d)-relaxed coloring game is called the (r,d)-relaxed (a,b)-coloring game. In this game, two players, Alice and Bob, take turns coloring the vertices of a graph G, using colors from a set X, with |X|=r. On each turn Alice colors a vertices and Bob colors b vertices. A color α∈X is legal for an uncolored vertex u if by coloring u with color α, the subgraph induced by all the vertices colored with α has maximum degree at most d. Each player is required to color an uncolored vertex legally on each move. The game ends when there are no remaining uncolored vertices. Alice wins the game if all vertices of the graph are legally colored, Bob wins if at a certain stage there exists an uncolored vertex without a legal color. The d-relaxed (a,b)-game chromatic number, denoted by , of G is the least r for which Alice has a winning strategy in the (r,d)-relaxed (a,b)-coloring game.The (r,d)-relaxed (1,1)-coloring game has been well studied and there are many interesting results. For the (r,d)-relaxed (a,1)-coloring game, this paper proves that if a graph G has an orientation with maximum outdegree k and a≥k, then for all d≥k²+2k; If a≥k³, then (a,1)- for all d≥2k+1.     

Asymmetric directed graph coloring games

This note generalizes the (a,b)-coloring game and the (a,b)-marking game which were introduced by Kierstead [H.A. Kierstead, Asymmetric graph coloring games, J. Graph Theory 48 (2005) 169-185] for undirected graphs to directed graphs. We prove that the (a,b)-chromatic and (a,b)-coloring number for the class of orientations of forests is b+2 if b≤a, and infinity otherwise. From these results we deduce upper bounds for the (a,b)-coloring number of oriented outerplanar graphs and of orientations of graphs embeddable in a surface with bounded girth.     

Asymmetric graph coloring games

We introduce the (a,b)‐coloring game, an asymmetric version of the coloring game played by two players Alice and Bob on a finite graph, which differs from the standard version in that, in each turn, Alice colors a vertices and Bob colors b vertices. We also introduce a related game, the (a,b)‐marking game. We analyze these games and determine the (a,b)‐chromatic numbers and (a,b)‐coloring numbers for the class of forests and all values of a and b. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 48: 169–185, 2005     

A note on acyclic edge coloring of complete bipartite graphs

An acyclic edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic (2-colored) 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). Let Δ=Δ(G) denote the maximum degree of a vertex in a graph G. A complete bipartite graph with n vertices on each side is denoted by K_n,n. Alon, McDiarmid and Reed observed that a^′(K_p−1,p−1)=p for every prime p. In this paper we prove that a^′(K_p,p)≤p+2=Δ+2 when p is prime. Basavaraju, Chandran and Kummini proved that a^′(K_n,n)≥n+2=Δ+2 when n is odd, which combined with our result implies that a^′(K_p,p)=p+2=Δ+2 when p is an odd prime. Moreover we show that if we remove any edge from K_p,p, the resulting graph is acyclically Δ+1=p+1-edge-colorable.     

Acyclic edge coloring of subcubic graphs

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 it is denoted by a^′(G). From a result of Burnstein it follows that all subcubic graphs are acyclically edge colorable using five colors. This result is tight since there are 3-regular graphs which require five colors. In this paper we prove that any non-regular connected graph of maximum degree 3 is acyclically edge colorable using at most four colors. This result is tight since all edge maximal non-regular connected graphs of maximum degree 3 require four colors.     

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.     

Optimal acyclic edge colouring of grid like graphs

We determine the values of the acyclic chromatic index of a class of graphs referred to as d-dimensional partial tori. These are graphs which can be expressed as the cartesian product of d graphs each of which is an induced path or cycle. This class includes some known classes of graphs like d-dimensional meshes, hypercubes, tori, etc. Our estimates are exact except when the graph is a product of a path and a number of odd cycles, in which case the estimates differ by an additive factor of at most 1. Our results are also constructive and provide an optimal (or almost optimal) acyclic edge colouring in polynomial time.     

List circular coloring of trees and cycles

Suppose G=(V, E) is a graph and p ≥ 2q are positive integers. A (p, q)‐coloring of G is a mapping ?: V → {0, 1, …, p‐1} such that for any edge xy of G, q ≤ |?(x)‐?(y)| ≤ p‐q. A color‐list is a mapping L: V → ({0, 1, …, p‐1}) which assigns to each vertex v a set L(v) of permissible colors. An L‐(p, q)‐coloring of G is a (p, q)‐coloring ? of G such that for each vertex v, ?(v) ∈ L(v). We say G is L‐(p, q)‐colorable if there exists an L‐(p, q)‐coloring of G. A color‐size‐list is a mapping ? which assigns to each vertex v a non‐negative integer ?(v). We say G is ?‐(p, q)‐colorable if for every color‐list L with |L(v)| = ?(v), G is L‐(p, q)‐colorable. In this article, we consider list circular coloring of trees and cycles. For any tree T and for any p ≥ 2q, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for T to be ?‐(p, q)‐colorable. For each cycle C and for each positive integer k, we present a condition on ? which is sufficient for C to be ?‐(2k+1, k)‐colorable, and the condition is sharp. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 249–265, 2007     

Improved bounds on acyclic edge colouring

We prove that the acyclic chromatic index a^′(G)?6Δ for all graphs with girth at least 9. We extend the same method to obtain a bound of 4.52Δ with the girth requirement g?220. We also obtain a relationship between g and a^′(G).     

On acyclic edge coloring of planar graphs without intersecting triangles

Let Δ denote the maximum degree of a graph. Fiam?ík first and then Alon et al. again conjectured that every graph is acyclically edge (Δ+2)-colorable. Even for planar graphs, this conjecture remains open. It is known that every triangle-free planar graph is acyclically edge (Δ+5)-colorable. This paper proves that every planar graph without intersecting triangles is acyclically edge (Δ+4)-colorable.     

An algorithm for computing the nucleolus of disjunctive non-negative additive games with an acyclic permission structure

A cooperative game with a permission structure describes a situation in which players in a cooperative TU-game are hierarchically ordered in the sense that there are players that need permission from other players before they are allowed to cooperate. In this paper we consider non-negative additive games with an acyclic permission structure. For such a game we provide a polynomial time algorithm for computing the nucleolus of the induced restricted game. The algorithm is applied to a market situation where sellers can sell objects to buyers through a directed network of intermediaries.     

Acyclic edge coloring of triangle-free 1-planar graphs

A proper edge coloring of a graph G is acyclic if there is no 2-colored cycle in G. The acyclic chromatic index of G, denoted by χ a(G), is the least number of colors such that G has an acyclic edge coloring. A graph is 1-planar if it can be drawn on the plane so that each edge is crossed by at most one other edge. In this paper, it is proved that χ a(G) ≤Δ(G) + 22, if G is a triangle-free 1-planar graph.     

Clique coloring of binomial random graphs

A clique coloring of a graph is a coloring of the vertices so that no maximal clique is monochromatic (ignoring isolated vertices). The smallest number of colors in such a coloring is the clique chromatic number. In this paper, we study the asymptotic behavior of the clique chromatic number of the random graph ??(n,p) for a wide range of edge‐probabilities p = p(n). We see that the typical clique chromatic number, as a function of the average degree, forms an intriguing step function.     

A note on acyclic domination number in graphs of diameter two

A subset S of the vertex set of a graph G is called acyclic if the subgraph it induces in G contains no cycles. S is called an acyclic dominating set of G if it is both acyclic and dominating. The minimum cardinality of an acyclic dominating set, denoted by γ_a(G), is called the acyclic domination number of G. Hedetniemi et al. [Acyclic domination, Discrete Math. 222 (2000) 151-165] introduced the concept of acyclic domination and posed the following open problem: if δ(G) is the minimum degree of G, is γ_a(G)?δ(G) for any graph whose diameter is two? In this paper, we provide a negative answer to this question by showing that for any positive k, there is a graph G with diameter two such that γ_a(G)-δ(G)?k.     

Graphs whose acyclic graphoidal covering number is one less than its maximum degree

An acyclic graphoidal cover of a graph G is a collection ψ of paths in G such that every path in ψ has at least two vertices, every vertex of G is an internal vertex of at most one path in ψ and every edge of G is in exactly one path in ψ. The minimum cardinality of an acyclic graphoidal cover of G is called the acyclic graphoidal covering number of G and is denoted by η_a. In this paper we characterize the class of graphs G for which η_a=Δ−1 where Δ is the maximum degree of a vertex in G.     

Injective coloring of planar graphs

A coloring of a graph G is injective if its restriction to the neighborhood of any vertex is injective. The injective chromatic numberχ_i(G) of a graph G is the least k such that there is an injective k-coloring. In this paper we prove that if G is a planar graph with girth g and maximum degree Δ, then (1) χ_i(G)=Δ if either g≥20 and Δ≥3, or g≥7 and Δ≥71; (2) χ_i(G)≤Δ+1 if g≥11; (3) χ_i(G)≤Δ+2 if g≥8.