On the packing chromatic number of Cartesian products, hexagonal lattice, and trees

The packing chromatic number χ_ρ(G) of a graph G is the smallest integer k such that the vertex set of G can be partitioned into packings with pairwise different widths. Several lower and upper bounds are obtained for the packing chromatic number of Cartesian products of graphs. It is proved that the packing chromatic number of the infinite hexagonal lattice lies between 6 and 8. Optimal lower and upper bounds are proved for subdivision graphs. Trees are also considered and monotone colorings are introduced.     

Packing coloring of Sierpiński-type graphs

The packing chromatic number \(\chi _{\rho }(G)\) of a graph G is the smallest integer k such that the vertex set of G can be partitioned into sets \(V_i\), \(i\in \{1,\ldots ,k\}\), where each \(V_i\) is an i-packing. In this paper, we consider the packing chromatic number of several families of Sierpiński-type graphs. While it is known that this number is bounded from above by 8 in the family of Sierpiński graphs with base 3, we prove that it is unbounded in the families of Sierpiński graphs with bases greater than 3. On the other hand, we prove that the packing chromatic number in the family of Sierpiński triangle graphs \(ST^n_3\) is bounded from above by 31. Furthermore, we establish or provide bounds for the packing chromatic numbers of generalized Sierpiński graphs \(S^n_G\) with respect to all connected graphs G of order 4.     

Total and fractional total colourings of circulant graphs

In this paper, the total chromatic number and the fractional total chromatic number of circulant graphs are studied. For cubic circulant graphs we give upper bounds on the fractional total chromatic number and for 4-regular circulant graphs we find the total chromatic number for some cases and we give the exact value of the fractional total chromatic number in most cases.     

Spectral bounds for the independence ratio and the chromatic number of an operator

We define the independence ratio and the chromatic number for bounded, self-adjoint operators on an L ²-space by extending the definitions for the adjacency matrix of finite graphs. In analogy to the Hoffman bounds for finite graphs, we give bounds for these parameters in terms of the numerical range of the operator. This provides a theoretical framework in which many packing and coloring problems for finite and infinite graphs can be conveniently studied with the help of harmonic analysis and convex optimization. The theory is applied to infinite geometric graphs on Euclidean space and on the unit sphere.     

Graphes cubiques d'indice trois,graphes cubiques isochromatiques,graphes cubiques d'indice quatre

The process introduced by E. Johnson [Amer. Math. Monthly73 (1966), 52–55] for constructing connected cubic graphs can be modified so as to obtain restricted classes of cubic graphs, in particular, those defined by their chromatic number or their chromatic index. We construct here the graphs of chromatic number three and the graphs whose chromatic number is equal to its chromatic index (isochromatic graphs). We then give results about the construction of the class of graphs of chromatic index four, and in particular, we construct an infinite class of “snarks.”     

Packing chromatic number of cubic graphs

A packing$k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a partition of $V\left(G\right)$ into sets $V_1,\dots ,V_k$ such that for each $1\le i\le k$ the distance between any two distinct $x,y\in V_i$ is at least $i+1$. The packing chromatic number, ${\chi }_p\left(G\right)$, of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that $G$ has a packing $k$-coloring. Sloper showed that there are $4$-regular graphs with arbitrarily large packing chromatic number. The question whether the packing chromatic number of subcubic graphs is bounded appears in several papers. We answer this question in the negative. Moreover, we show that for every fixed $k$ and $g\ge 2k+2$, almost every $n$-vertex cubic graph of girth at least $g$ has the packing chromatic number greater than $k$.     

Relation between the correspondence chromatic number and the Alon–Tarsi number

We study the relation between the correspondence chromatic number, also known as the DP-chromatic number, and the Alon–Tarsi number, both upper bounds on the list chromatic number of a graph. There are many graphs with Alon–Tarsi number greater than the correspondence chromatic number. We present here a family of graphs with arbitrary Alon–Tarsi number, with correspondence chromatic number one larger.     

On directed local chromatic number,shift graphs,and Borsuk‐like graphs

We investigate the local chromatic number of shift graphs and prove that it is close to their chromatic number. This implies that the gap between the directed local chromatic number of an oriented graph and the local chromatic number of the underlying undirected graph can be arbitrarily large. We also investigate the minimum possible directed local chromatic number of oriented versions of “topologically t‐chromatic” graphs. We show that this minimum for large enough t‐chromatic Schrijver graphs and t‐chromatic generalized Mycielski graphs of appropriate parameters is ?t/4?+1. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66: 65‐82, 2010     

图的星色数

给出了一些星色数为４的平面图,它们不含有轮图作为子图,这回答了Ｚｈｕ的一个问题,给出了一类４连通平面图其星色数在３与４之间,这也回答了Ａｂｂｏｔｔ和Ｚｈｏｕ的一个问题,应用图的同态概念,讨论了某些图的字典积的星色数,证明了一个图及其补图的星色数的和与积所满足的两个不等式。     

Star chromatic numbers of some planar graphs

The concept of the star chromatic number of a graph was introduced by Vince (A. Vince, Star chromatic number, J. Graph Theory 12 (1988), 551–559), which is a natural generalization of the chromatic number of a graph. This paper calculates the star chromatic numbers of three infinite families of planar graphs. More precisely, the first family of planar graphs has star chromatic numbers consisting of two alternating infinite decreasing sequences between 3 and 4; the second family of planar graphs has star chromatic numbers forming an infinite decreasing sequence between 3 and 4; and the third family of planar graphs has star chromatic number 7/2. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 27: 33–42, 1998     

关于Mycielski图循环色数的猜想

通过引进Mycielski图点集的一类特殊划分,利用该划分在Mycielski图循环着色中的特点改进了如下猜想:完全图的Mycielski图的循环色数等于它的点色数.     

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.     

Strengthening topological colorful results for graphs

Various results ensure the existence of large complete and colorful bipartite graphs in properly colored graphs when some condition related to a topological lower bound on the chromatic number is satisfied. We generalize three theorems of this kind, respectively due to Simonyi and Tardos 2006), Simonyi et al. (2013), and Chen 2011). As a consequence of the generalization of Chen’s theorem, we get new families of graphs whose chromatic number equals their circular chromatic number and that satisfy Hedetniemi’s conjecture for the circular chromatic number.     

Colourings of oriented connected cubic graphs

In this note we show every orientation of a connected cubic graph admits an oriented 8-colouring. This lowers the best-known upper bound for the chromatic number of the family of orientations of connected cubic graphs. We further show that every such oriented graph admits a 2-dipath 7-colouring. These results imply that either the oriented chromatic number for the family of orientations of connected cubic graphs equals the 2-dipath chromatic number or the long-standing conjecture of Sopena (Sopena, 1997) regarding the chromatic number of orientations of connected cubic graphs is false.     

Local Chromatic Number, KY Fan's Theorem, And Circular Colorings

The local chromatic number of a graph was introduced in [14]. It is in between the chromatic and fractional chromatic numbers. This motivates the study of the local chromatic number of graphs for which these quantities are far apart. Such graphs include Kneser graphs, their vertex color-critical subgraphs, the Schrijver (or stable Kneser) graphs; Mycielski graphs, and their generalizations; and Borsuk graphs. We give more or less tight bounds for the local chromatic number of many of these graphs. We use an old topological result of Ky Fan [17] which generalizes the Borsuk–Ulam theorem. It implies the existence of a multicolored copy of the complete bipartite graph K_{⌈t/2⌉,⌊t/2⌋} in every proper coloring of many graphs whose chromatic number t is determined via a topological argument. (This was in particular noted for Kneser graphs by Ky Fan [18].) This yields a lower bound of ⌈t/2⌉ + 1 for the local chromatic number of these graphs. We show this bound to be tight or almost tight in many cases. As another consequence of the above we prove that the graphs considered here have equal circular and ordinary chromatic numbers if the latter is even. This partially proves a conjecture of Johnson, Holroyd, and Stahl and was independently attained by F. Meunier [42]. We also show that odd chromatic Schrijver graphs behave differently, their circular chromatic number can be arbitrarily close to the other extreme. * Research partially supported by the Hungarian Foundation for Scientific Research Grant (OTKA) Nos. T037846, T046376, AT048826, and NK62321. † Research partially supported by the NSERC grant 611470 and the Hungarian Foundation for Scientific Research Grant (OTKA) Nos. T037846, T046234, AT048826, and NK62321.     

Computing clique and chromatic number of circular-perfect graphs in polynomial time

A main result of combinatorial optimization is that clique and chromatic number of a perfect graph are computable in polynomial time (Grötschel et al. in Combinatorica 1(2):169–197, 1981). Perfect graphs have the key property that clique and chromatic number coincide for all induced subgraphs; we address the question whether the algorithmic results for perfect graphs can be extended to graph classes where the chromatic number of all members is bounded by the clique number plus one. We consider a well-studied superclass of perfect graphs satisfying this property, the circular-perfect graphs, and show that for such graphs both clique and chromatic number are computable in polynomial time as well. In addition, we discuss the polynomial time computability of further graph parameters for certain subclasses of circular-perfect graphs. All the results strongly rely upon Lovász’s Theta function.     

On critical graphs with chromatic index 4

It is shown that the number of vertices of valency 2 in a critical graph with chromatic index 4 is at most 1/3 of the total number of vertices, and that there exist critical graphs with just one vertex of valency 2, but none with exactly two vertices of valency 2. From this bounds for the number of edges are deduced. The paper ends with a presentation of a catalogue of all critical graphs with chromatic index 4 and at most 8 vertices, and all simple critical graphs with chromatic index 4 and at most 10 vertices.     

Fractional chromatic number and circular chromatic number for distance graphs with large clique size

An Erratum has been published for this article in Journal of Graph Theory 48: 329–330, 2005 . Let M be a set of positive integers. The distance graph generated by M, denoted by G(Z, M), has the set Z of all integers as the vertex set, and edges ij whenever |i?j| ∈ M. We investigate the fractional chromatic number and the circular chromatic number for distance graphs, and discuss their close connections with some number theory problems. In particular, we determine the fractional chromatic number and the circular chromatic number for all distance graphs G(Z, M) with clique size at least |M|, except for one case of such graphs. For the exceptional case, a lower bound for the fractional chromatic number and an upper bound for the circular chromatic number are presented; these bounds are sharp enough to determine the chromatic number for such graphs. Our results confirm a conjecture of Rabinowitz and Proulx 22 on the density of integral sets with missing differences, and generalize some known results on the circular chromatic number of distance graphs and the parameter involved in the Wills' conjecture 26 (also known as the “lonely runner conjecture” 1 ). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 47: 129–146, 2004     

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.     

On the 4-color theorem for signed graphs

Máčajová et al. (2016) defined the chromatic number of a signed graph which coincides for all-positive signed graphs with the chromatic number of unsigned graphs. They conjectured that in this setting, for signed planar graphs four colors are always enough, generalizing thereby The Four Color Theorem. We disprove the conjecture.