Orientations of graphs with uncountable chromatic number

Motivated by an old conjecture of P. Erdős and V. Neumann‐Lara, our aim is to investigate digraphs with uncountable dichromatic number and orientations of undirected graphs with uncountable chromatic number. A graph has uncountable chromatic number if its vertices cannot be covered by countably many independent sets, and a digraph has uncountable dichromatic number if its vertices cannot be covered by countably many acyclic sets. We prove that, consistently, there are digraphs with uncountable dichromatic number and arbitrarily large digirth; this is in surprising contrast with the undirected case: any graph with uncountable chromatic number contains a 4‐cycle. Next, we prove that several well‐known graphs (uncountable complete graphs, certain comparability graphs, and shift graphs) admit orientations with uncountable dichromatic number in ZFC. However, we show that the statement “every graph G of size and chromatic number ω₁ has an orientation D with uncountable dichromatic number” is independent of ZFC. We end the article with several open problems.     

The circular chromatic number of a digraph

We introduce the circular chromatic number χ_c of a digraph and establish various basic results. They show that the coloring theory for digraphs is similar to the coloring theory for undirected graphs when independent sets of vertices are replaced by acyclic sets. Since the directed k‐cycle has circular chromatic number k/(k – 1), for k ≥ 2, values of χ_c between 1 and 2 are possible. We show that in fact, χ_c takes on all rational values greater than 1. Furthermore, there exist digraphs of arbitrarily large digirth and circular chromatic number. It is NP‐complete to decide if a given digraph has χ_c at most 2. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 46: 227–240, 2004     

Bounds on vertex colorings with restrictions on the union of color classes

A proper coloring of a graph is a labeled partition of its vertices into parts which are independent sets. In this paper, given a positive integer j and a family ? of connected graphs, we consider proper colorings in which we require that the union of any j color classes induces a subgraph which has no copy of any member of ?. This generalizes some well‐known types of proper colorings like acyclic colorings (where j = 2 and ?is the collection of all even cycles) and star colorings (where j = 2 and ?consists of just a path on 4 vertices), etc. For this type of coloring, we obtain an upper bound of O(d^{(k ? 1)/(k ? j)}) on the minimum number of colors sufficient to obtain such a coloring. Here, d refers to the maximum degree of the graph and k is the size of the smallest member of ?. For the case of j = 2, we also obtain lower bounds on the minimum number of colors needed in the worst case. As a corollary, we obtain bounds on the minimum number of colors sufficient to obtain proper colorings in which the union of any j color classes is a graph of bounded treewidth. In particular, using O(d^8/7) colors, one can obtain a proper coloring of the vertices of a graph so that the union of any two color classes has treewidth at most 2. We also show that this bound is tight within a multiplicative factor of O((logd)^1/7). We also consider generalizations where we require simultaneously for several pairs (j_i, ?_i) (i = 1, …, l) that the union of any j_i color classes has no copy of any member of ?_i and obtain upper bounds on the corresponding chromatic numbers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66: 213–234, 2011     

List multicolorings of graphs with measurable sets

In an ordinary list multicoloring of a graph, the vertices are “colored” with subsets of pre‐assigned finite sets (called “lists”) in such a way that adjacent vertices are colored with disjoint sets. Here we consider the analog of such colorings in which the lists are measurable sets from an arbitrary atomless, semifinite measure space, and the color sets are to have prescribed measures rather than prescribed cardinalities. We adapt a proof technique of Bollobás and Varopoulos to prove an analog of one of the major theorems about ordinary list multicolorings, a generalization and extension of Hall's marriage theorem, due to Cropper, Gyárfás, and Lehel. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 54: 179–193, 2007     

An algorithm for finding input–output constrained convex sets in an acyclic digraph

A set X of vertices of an acyclic graph is convex if any vertex on a directed walk between elements of X is itself in X. We construct an algorithm for generating all input–output constrained convex (IOCC) sets in an acyclic digraph, which uses several novel ideas. We show that the time complexity of our algorithm significantly improves the best one known from the literature. IOCC sets of acyclic digraphs are of interest in the area of modern embedded processor technology.     

Disjoint quasi‐kernels in digraphs

A quasi‐kernel in a digraph is an independent set of vertices such that any vertex in the digraph can reach some vertex in the set via a directed path of length at most two. Chvátal and Lovász proved that every digraph has a quasi‐kernel. Recently, Gutin et al. raised the question of which digraphs have a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. Clearly, a digraph has a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels cannot contain sinks, that is, vertices of outdegree zero, as each such vertex is necessarily included in a quasi‐kernel. However, there exist digraphs which contain neither sinks nor a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. Thus, containing no sinks is not sufficient in general for a digraph to have a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. In contrast, we prove that, for several classes of digraphs, the condition of containing no sinks guarantees the existence of a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. The classes contain semicomplete multipartite, quasi‐transitive, and locally semicomplete digraphs. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 58:251‐260, 2008     

On-line and first fit colorings of graphs

A graph coloring algorithm that immediately colors the vertices taken from a list without looking ahead or changing colors already assigned is called “on-line coloring.” The properties of on-line colorings are investigated in several classes of graphs. In many cases we find on-line colorings that use no more colors than some function of the largest clique size of the graph. We show that the first fit on-line coloring has an absolute performance ratio of two for the complement of chordal graphs. We prove an upper bound for the performance ratio of the first fit coloring on interval graphs. It is also shown that there are simple families resisting any on-line algorithm: no on-line algorithm can color all trees by a bounded number of colors.     

Acyclic colorings of planar graphs

A coloring of the vertices of a graph byk colors is called acyclic provided that no circuit is bichromatic. We prove that every planar graph has an acyclic coloring with nine colors, and conjecture that five colors are sufficient. Other results on related types of colorings are also obtained; some of them generalize known facts about “point-arboricity”. Research supported in part by the Office of Naval Research under Grant N00014-67-A-0103-0003.     

Acyclic coloring of graphs without bichromatic long path

Let G be a graph of maximum degree Δ. A proper vertex coloring of G is acyclic if there is no bichromatic cycle. It was proved by Alon et al. [Acyclic coloring of graphs. Random Structures Algorithms, 1991, 2(3): 277−288] that G admits an acyclic coloring with O(Δ^4/3) colors and a proper coloring with O(Δ^{(k−1)/(k−2)}) colors such that no path with k vertices is bichromatic for a fixed integer k≥5. In this paper, we combine above two colorings and show that if k≥5 and G does not contain cycles of length 4, then G admits an acyclic coloring with O(Δ^{(k−1)/(k−2)}) colors such that no path with k vertices is bichromatic.     

Enumeration of labelled chain graphs and labelled essential directed acyclic graphs

A chain graph is a digraph whose strong components are undirected graphs and a directed acyclic graph (ADG or DAG) G is essential if the Markov equivalence class of G consists of only one element. We provide recurrence relations for counting labelled chain graphs by the number of chain components and vertices; labelled essential DAGs by the number of vertices. The second one is a lower bound for the number of labelled essential graphs. The formula for labelled chain graphs can be extended in such a way, that allows us to count digraphs with two additional properties, which essential graphs have.     

Discrepancy properties for random regular digraphs

For the uniform random regular directed graph we prove concentration inequalities for (1) codegrees and (2) the number of edges passing from one set of vertices to another. As a consequence, we can deduce discrepancy properties for the distribution of edges essentially matching results for Erd?s–Rényi digraphs obtained from Chernoff‐type bounds. The proofs make use of the method of exchangeable pairs, developed for concentration of measure by Chatterjee in (Chatterjee, Probab Theory and Relat Fields 138 (2007), 305–321). Exchangeable pairs are constructed using two involutions on the set of regular digraphs: a well‐known “simple switching” operation, as well as a novel “reflection” operation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 50, 23–58, 2017     

Acrylic improper colorings of graphs

In this article, we introduce the new notion of acyclic improper colorings of graphs. An improper coloring of a graph is a vertex-coloring in which adjacent vertices are allowed to have the same color, but each color class V_i satisfies some condition depending on i. Such a coloring is acyclic if there are no alternating 2-colored cycles. We prove that every outerplanar graph can be acyclically 2-colored in such a way that each monochromatic subgraph has degree at most five and that this result is best possible. For planar graphs, we prove some negative results and state some open problems. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 32: 97–107, 1999     

Graph unique-maximum and conflict-free colorings

We investigate the relationship between two kinds of vertex colorings of graphs: unique-maximum colorings and conflict-free colorings. In a unique-maximum coloring, the colors are ordered, and in every path of the graph the maximum color appears only once. In a conflict-free coloring, in every path of the graph there is a color that appears only once. We also study computational complexity aspects of conflict-free colorings and prove a completeness result. Finally, we improve lower bounds for those chromatic numbers of the grid graph.     

On the number of connected convex subgraphs of a connected acyclic digraph

A digraph D is connected if the underlying undirected graph of D is connected. A subgraph H of an acyclic digraph D is convex if there is no directed path between vertices of H which contains an arc not in H. We find the minimum and maximum possible number of connected convex subgraphs in a connected acyclic digraph of order n. Connected convex subgraphs of connected acyclic digraphs are of interest in the area of modern embedded processors technology.     

Optimal acyclic edge‐coloring of cubic graphs

An acyclic edge‐coloring of a graph is a proper edge‐coloring such that the subgraph induced by the edges of any two colors is acyclic. The acyclic chromatic index of a graph G is the smallest number of colors in an acyclic edge‐coloring of G. We prove that the acyclic chromatic index of a connected cubic graph G is 4, unless G is K₄ or K_3,3; the acyclic chromatic index of K₄ and K_3,3 is 5. This result has previously been published by Fiam?ík, but his published proof was erroneous.     

不含相邻三角形的平面图的无圈边着色

An acyclic edge coloring of a graph G is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles.The acyclic edge chromatic number of a graph G is the minimum number k such that there exists an acyclic edge coloring using k colors and is denoted by χ’ a(G).In this paper we prove that χ ’ a(G) ≤(G) + 5 for planar graphs G without adjacent triangles.     

Interval digraphs: An analogue of interval graphs

Intersection digraphs analogous to undirected intersection graphs are introduced. Each vertex is assigned an ordered pair of sets, with a directed edge uv in the intersection digraph when the “source set” of u intersects the “terminal set” of v. Every n-vertex digraph is an intersection digraph of ordered pairs of subsets of an n-set, but not every digraph is an intersection digraph of convex sets in the plane. Interval digraphs are those having representations where all sets are intervals on the real line. Interval digraphs are characterized in terms of the consecutive ones property of certain matrices, in terms of the adjacency matrix and in terms of Ferrers digraphs. In particular, they are intersections of pairs of Ferrers digraphs whose union is a complete digraph.     

Orientable edge colorings of graphs

An edge coloring of a graph is orientable if and only if it is possible to orient the edges of the graph so that the color of each edge is determined by the head of its corresponding oriented arc. The goals of this paper include finding a forbidden substructure characterization of orientable colorings and giving a linear time recognition algorithm for orientable colorings.An edge coloring is lexical if and only if it is possible to number the vertices of the graph so that the color of each edge is determined by its lower endpoint. Lexical colorings are, of course, the orientable colorings in which the underlying orientation is acyclic. Lexical colorings play an important role in Canonical Ramsey theory, and it is this standpoint that motivates the current study.     

Every planar graph has an acyclic 7-coloring

A proper coloring of the vertices of a graph is said to be acyclic provided that no cycle is two colored. We prove that every planar graph has an acyclic seven coloring. Research supported in part by the Research Corporation through a Cottrell College Science Research Grant.     

Fundamental groupoids of digraphs and graphs

We introduce the notion of fundamental groupoid of a digraph and prove its basic properties. In particular, we obtain a product theorem and an analogue of the Van Kampen theorem. Considering the category of (undirected) graphs as the full subcategory of digraphs, we transfer the results to the category of graphs. As a corollary we obtain the corresponding results for the fundamental groups of digraphs and graphs. We give an application to graph coloring.