An upper bound for the total chromatic number

The total chromatic number,(G), of a graphG, is defined to be the minimum number of colours needed to colour the vertices and edges of a graph in such a way that no adjacent vertices, no adjacent edges and no incident vertex and edge are given the same colour. This paper shows that , where(G) is the vertex chromatic number and(G) is the edge chromatic number of the graph.Partially supported by ORS grant ORS/84120