On the size of special class 1 graphs and (P3;k)-co-critical graphs

A well-known theorem of Vizing states that if G is a simple graph with maximum degree Δ, then the chromatic index ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ of G is Δ or $\mathrm{\Delta }+1$. A graph G is class 1 if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }$, and class 2 if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }+1$; G is Δ-critical if it is connected, class 2 and ${\chi }^{\prime }(G-e)<{\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ for every $e\in E(G)$. A long-standing conjecture of Vizing from 1968 states that every Δ-critical graph on n vertices has at least $(n(\mathrm{\Delta }-1)+3)/2$ edges. We initiate the study of determining the minimum number of edges of class 1 graphs G, in addition, ${\chi }^{\prime }(G+e)={\chi }^{\prime }(G)+1$ for every $e\in E(\bar{G})$. Such graphs have intimate relation to $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graphs, where a non-complete graph G is $(P_3;k)$-co-critical if there exists a k-coloring of $E(G)$ such that G does not contain a monochromatic copy of $P_3$ but every k-coloring of $E(G+e)$ contains a monochromatic copy of $P_3$ for every $e\in E(\bar{G})$. We use the bound on the size of the aforementioned class 1 graphs to study the minimum number of edges over all $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graphs. We prove that if G is a $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graph on $n\ge k+2$ vertices, then$e(G)\ge \frac{k}{2}(n-\lceil \frac{k}{2}\rceil -\epsilon )+\left(\begin{array}{c}\lceil k/2\rceil +\epsilon \\ 2\end{array}\right),$ where ε is the remainder of $n-\lceil k/2\rceil$ when divided by 2. This bound is best possible for all $k\ge 1$ and $n\ge \lceil 3k/2\rceil +2$.     

Point partition numbers: Decomposable and indecomposable critical graphs

Graphs considered in this paper are finite, undirected and loopless, but we allow multiple edges. The point partition number ${\chi }_t(G)$ is the least integer k for which G admits a coloring with k colors such that each color class induces a $(t?1)$-degenerate subgraph of G. So ${\chi }_1$ is the chromatic number and ${\chi }_2$ is the point arboricity. The point partition number ${\chi }_t$ with $t\ge 1$ was introduced by Lick and White. A graph G is called ${\chi }_t$-critical if every proper subgraph H of G satisfies ${\chi }_t(H)<{\chi }_t(G)$. In this paper we prove that if G is a ${\chi }_t$-critical graph whose order satisfies $|G|\le 2{\chi }_t(G)?2$, then G can be obtained from two non-empty disjoint subgraphs $G_1$ and $G_2$ by adding t edges between any pair $u,v$ of vertices with $u\in V(G_1)$ and $v\in V(G_2)$. Based on this result we establish the minimum number of edges possible in a ${\chi }_t$-critical graph G of order n and with ${\chi }_t(G)=k$, provided that $n\le 2k?1$ and t is even. For $t=1$ the corresponding two results were obtained in 1963 by Tibor Gallai.