Coloring the complements of intersection graphs of geometric figures

Let be the complement of the intersection graph G of a family of translations of a compact convex figure in Rⁿ. When n=2, we show that , where γ(G) is the size of the minimum dominating set of G. The bound on is sharp. For higher dimension we show that , for n?3. We also study the chromatic number of the complement of the intersection graph of homothetic copies of a fixed convex body in Rⁿ.     

Transversal numbers of translates of a convex body

Let F be a family of translates of a fixed convex set M in Rⁿ. Let τ(F) and ν(F) denote the transversal number and the independence number of F, respectively. We show that ν(F)?τ(F)?8ν(F)-5 for n=2 and τ(F)?2^n-1nⁿν(F) for n?3. Furthermore, if M is centrally symmetric convex body in the plane, then ν(F)?τ(F)?6ν(F)-3.     

A note on the strong chromatic index of bipartite graphs

The strong chromatic index s^′(G) is the minimum integer t such that there is an edge-coloring of G with t colors in which every color class is an induced matching. Brualdi and Quinn conjecture that for every bipartite graph G, s^′(G) is bounded by Δ₁Δ₂, where Δ₁ and Δ₂ are the maximum degrees among vertices in the two partite sets. We give the affirmative answer for Δ₁=2.     

Defective 2-colorings of planar graphs without 4-cycles and 5-cycles

A 2-coloring is a coloring of vertices of a graph with colors 1 and 2. Define $V_i?\{v\in V\left(G\right):c\left(v\right)=i\}$ for $i=1$ and $2.$ We say that $G$ is $(d_1,d_2)$-colorable if $G$ has a 2-coloring such that $V_i$ is an empty set or the induced subgraph $G\left[V_i\right]$ has the maximum degree at most $d_i$ for $i=1$ and $2.$ Let $G$ be a planar graph without 4-cycles and 5-cycles. We show that the problem to determine whether $G$ is $(0,k)$-colorable is NP-complete for every positive integer $k.$ Moreover, we construct non-$(1,k)$-colorable planar graphs without 4-cycles and 5-cycles for every positive integer $k.$ In contrast, we prove that $G$ is $(d_1,d_2)$-colorable where $(d_1,d_2)=(4,4),(3,5),$ and $(2,9).$     

On the Chromatic Number of the Square of the Kneser Graph <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>(2<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>+1, <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>)

The Kneser graph K(n, k) is the graph whose vertices are the k-element subsets of an n-element set, with two vertices adjacent if the sets are disjoint. The chromatic number of the Kneser graph K(n, k) is n–2k+2. Zoltán Füredi raised the question of determining the chromatic number of the square of the Kneser graph, where the square of a graph is the graph obtained by adding edges joining vertices at distance at most 2. We prove that (K²(2k+1, k))4k when k is odd and (K²(2k+1, k))4k+2 when k is even. Also, we use intersecting families of sets to prove lower bounds on (K²(2k+1, k)), and we find the exact maximum size of an intersecting family of 4-sets in a 9-element set such that no two members of the family share three elements.This work was partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0099608Final version received: April 23, 2003