Complexity of clique‐coloring odd‐hole‐free graphs

In this paper we investigate the problem of clique‐coloring, which consists in coloring the vertices of a graph in such a way that no monochromatic maximal clique appears, and we focus on odd‐hole‐free graphs. On the one hand we do not know any odd‐hole‐free graph that is not 3‐clique‐colorable, but on the other hand it is NP‐hard to decide if they are 2‐clique‐colorable, and we do not know if there exists any bound k₀ such that they are all k₀ ‐clique‐colorable. First we will prove that (odd hole, codiamond)‐free graphs are 2‐clique‐colorable. Then we will demonstrate that the complexity of 2‐clique‐coloring odd‐hole‐free graphs is actually Σ₂ P‐complete. Finally we will study the complexity of deciding whether or not a graph and all its subgraphs are 2‐clique‐colorable. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 139–156, 2009     

Clique‐coloring some classes of odd‐hole‐free graphs

We consider the problem of clique‐coloring, that is coloring the vertices of a given graph such that no maximal clique of size at least 2 is monocolored. Whereas we do not know any odd‐hole‐free graph that is not 3‐clique‐colorable, the existence of a constant C such that any perfect graph is C‐clique‐colorable is an open problem. In this paper we solve this problem for some subclasses of odd‐hole‐free graphs: those that are diamond‐free and those that are bull‐free. We also prove the NP‐completeness of 2‐clique‐coloring K₄‐free perfect graphs. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 233–249, 2006     

List coloring triangle‐free hypergraphs

A triangle in a hypergraph is a collection of distinct vertices u, v, w and distinct edges e, f, g with , and . Johansson [Tech. report (1996)] proved that every triangle‐free graph with maximum degree Δ has list chromatic number . Frieze and Mubayi (Electron J Comb 15 (2008), 27) proved that every linear (meaning that every two edges share at most one vertex) triangle‐free triple system with maximum degree Δ has chromatic number . The restriction to linear triple systems was crucial to their proof. We provide a common generalization of both these results for rank 3 hypergraphs (edges have size 2 or 3). Our result removes the linear restriction from 8 , while reducing to the (best possible) result [Johansson, Tech. report (1996)] for graphs. In addition, our result provides a positive answer to a restricted version of a question of Ajtai Erd?s, Komlós, and Szemerédi (combinatorica 1 (1981), 313–317) concerning sparse 3‐uniform hypergraphs. As an application, we prove that if is the collection of 3‐uniform triangles, then the Ramsey number satisfies for some positive constants a and b. The upper bound makes progress towards the recent conjecture of Kostochka, Mubayi, and Verstraëte (J Comb Theory Ser A 120 (2013), 1491–1507) that where C₃ is the linear triangle. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 47, 487–519, 2015     

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.     

Perfect coloring and linearly χ‐bound P6‐free graphs

We derive decomposition theorems for P₆, K₁ + P₄‐free graphs, P₅, K₁ + P₄‐free graphs and P₅, K₁ + C₄‐free graphs, and deduce linear χ‐binding functions for these classes of graphs (here, P_n (C_n) denotes the path (cycle) on n vertices and K₁ + G denotes the graph obtained from G by adding a new vertex and joining it with every vertex of G). Using the same techniques, we also obtain an optimal χ‐binding function for P₅, C₄‐free graphs which is an improvement over that given in [J. L. Fouquet, V. Giakoumakis, F. Maire, and H. Thuillier, 11 , Discrete Math, 146, 33–44.]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 54: 293–306, 2007     

An approximate version of Hadwiger's conjecture for claw‐free graphs

Hadwiger's conjecture states that every graph with chromatic number χ has a clique minor of size χ. In this paper we prove a weakened version of this conjecture for the class of claw‐free graphs (graphs that do not have a vertex with three pairwise nonadjacent neighbors). Our main result is that a claw‐free graph with chromatic number χ has a clique minor of size $\lceil\frac{2}{3}\chi\rceil$. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 63: 259–278, 2010     

Edge‐face coloring of plane graphs with maximum degree nine

An edge‐face coloring of a plane graph with edge set E and face set F is a coloring of the elements of E∪F so that adjacent or incident elements receive different colors. Borodin [Discrete Math 128(1–3):21–33, 1994] proved that every plane graph of maximum degree Δ?10 can be edge‐face colored with Δ + 1 colors. We extend Borodin's result to the case where Δ = 9. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66:332‐346, 2011     

The Johansson‐Molloy theorem for DP‐coloring

The aim of this note is twofold. On the one hand, we present a streamlined version of Molloy's new proof of the bound for triangle‐free graphs G, avoiding the technicalities of the entropy compression method and only using the usual “lopsided” Lovász Local Lemma (albeit in a somewhat unusual setting). On the other hand, we extend Molloy's result to DP‐coloring (also known as correspondence coloring), a generalization of list coloring introduced recently by Dvo?ák and Postle.     

Facial non‐repetitive edge‐coloring of plane graphs

A sequence r₁, r₂, …, r_2n such that r_i=r_{n+ i} for all 1≤i≤n is called a repetition. A sequence S is called non‐repetitive if no block (i.e. subsequence of consecutive terms of S) is a repetition. Let G be a graph whose edges are colored. A trail is called non‐repetitive if the sequence of colors of its edges is non‐repetitive. If G is a plane graph, a facial non‐repetitive edge‐coloring of G is an edge‐coloring such that any facial trail (i.e. a trail of consecutive edges on the boundary walk of a face) is non‐repetitive. We denote π′_f(G) the minimum number of colors of a facial non‐repetitive edge‐coloring of G. In this article, we show that π′_f(G)≤8 for any plane graph G. We also get better upper bounds for π′_f(G) in the cases when G is a tree, a plane triangulation, a simple 3‐connected plane graph, a hamiltonian plane graph, an outerplanar graph or a Halin graph. The bound 4 for trees is tight. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66: 38–48, 2010     

On list‐coloring outerplanar graphs

We prove that a 2‐connected, outerplanar bipartite graph (respectively, outerplanar near‐triangulation) with a list of colors L (v ) for each vertex v such that (resp., ) can be L‐list‐colored (except when the graph is K₃ with identical 2‐lists). These results are best possible for each condition in the hypotheses and bounds. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 59: 59–74, 2008     

List coloring triangle-free planar graphs

This paper proves the following result. Assume $G$ is a triangle-free planar graph, $X$ is an independent set of $G$. If $L$ is a list assignment of $G$ such that $\text{◂=▸}|L\left(v\right)|=4$ for each vertex $\text{◂+▸}v\in V\left(G\right)-X$ and $\text{◂=▸}|L\left(v\right)|=3$ for each vertex $v\in X$, then $G$ is $L$-colorable.     

Acyclic list 7‐coloring of planar graphs

The acyclic list chromatic number of every planar graph is proved to be at most 7. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 40: 83–90, 2002     

A note on near‐optimal coloring of shift hypergraphs

As shown in the original work on the Lovász Local Lemma due to Erd?s & Lovász (Infinite and Finite Sets, 1975), a basic application of the Local Lemma answers an infinitary coloring question of Strauss, showing that given any integer set S, the integers may be k‐colored so that S and all its translates meet every color. The quantitative bounds here were improved by Alon, Kriz & Nesetril (Studia Scientiarum Mathematicarum Hungarica, 1995). We obtain an asymptotically optimal bound in this note, using the technique of iteratively applying the Lovász Local Lemma in order to prune dependencies. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 48, 53–56, 2016     

Coloring quasi‐line graphs

A graph G is a quasi‐line graph if for every vertex v, the set of neighbors of v can be expressed as the union of two cliques. The class of quasi‐line graphs is a proper superset of the class of line graphs. A theorem of Shannon's implies that if G is a line graph, then it can be properly colored using no more than 3/2 ω(G) colors, where ω(G) is the size of the largest clique in G. In this article, we extend this result to all quasi‐line graphs. We also show that this bound is tight. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

NP‐completeness of list coloring and precoloring extension on the edges of planar graphs

In the edge precoloring extension problem, we are given a graph with some of the edges having preassigned colors and it has to be decided whether this coloring can be extended to a proper k‐edge‐coloring of the graph. In list edge coloring every edge has a list of admissible colors, and the question is whether there is a proper edge coloring where every edge receives a color from its list. We show that both problems are NP‐complete on (a) planar 3‐regular bipartite graphs, (b) bipartite outerplanar graphs, and (c) bipartite series‐parallel graphs. This improves previous results of Easton and Parker 6 , and Fiala 8 . © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 49: 313–324, 2005     

Clique‐inverse graphs of K3‐free and K4‐free graphs

The clique graph K(G) of a given graph G is the intersection graph of the collection of maximal cliques of G. Given a family ℱ of graphs, the clique‐inverse graphs of ℱ are the graphs whose clique graphs belong to ℱ. In this work, we describe characterizations for clique‐inverse graphs of K₃‐free and K₄‐free graphs. The characterizations are formulated in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 35: 257–272, 2000     

Precoloring extension for K4‐minor‐free graphs

Let G=(V, E) be a graph where every vertex v∈V is assigned a list of available colors L(v). We say that G is list colorable for a given list assignment if we can color every vertex using its list such that adjacent vertices get different colors. If L(v)={1, …, k} for all v∈V then a corresponding list coloring is nothing other than an ordinary k‐coloring of G. Assume that W?V is a subset of V such that G[W] is bipartite and each component of G[W] is precolored with two colors taken from a set of four. The minimum distance between the components of G[W] is denoted by d(W). We will show that if G is K₄‐minor‐free and d(W)≥7, then such a precoloring of W can be extended to a 4‐coloring of all of V. This result clarifies a question posed in 10. Moreover, we will show that such a precoloring is extendable to a list coloring of G for outerplanar graphs, provided that |L(v)|=4 for all v∈V\W and d(W)≥7. In both cases the bound for d(W) is best possible. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 284‐294, 2009     

Subgraphs in vertex neighborhoods of Kr‐free graphs

In a K_r‐free graph, the neighborhood of every vertex induces a K_{r ? 1}‐free subgraph. The K_r‐free graphs with the converse property that every induced K_{r ? 1}‐free subgraph is contained in the neighborhood of a vertex are characterized, based on the characterization in the case r ? 3 due to Pach [ 8 ]. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 47: 29–38, 2004