Let $G$ be a simple $n$-vertex graph with degree sequence $d_1,d_2,...,d_n$ and vertex set $\V(G)$. The degree of $v\in\V(G)$ is denoted by $\D(v)$. The smallest integer $r$ for which $\V(G)$ has an $r$-partition $$ \V(G)=V_1\cup V_2\cup...\cup V_r,\quad V_i\cap V_j=\emptyset, \quad,i\neq j $$ such that $\D(v)\leq n-\abs{V_i}$, $\forall v\in V_i$, $i=1,2,...,r$ is denoted by $\f(G)$. In this note we prove the inequality $$ \f(G)\geq\frac n{n-\bar{\bar{d}}}, $$ where $\bar{\bar{d}}=\sqrt{\dfrac{d_1^2+d_2^2+...+d_n^2}n}$.
Erdős proved that there are graphs with arbitrarily large girth and chromatic number. We study the extension of this for generalized chromatic numbers.
We show that for a simple graph $G$, $c'(G)\leqΔ(G)+2$ where $c'(G)$ is the choice index (or edge-list chromatic number) of $G$, and $Δ(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$. As a simple corollary of this result, we show that the total chromatic number $χ_T(G)$ of a simple graph satisfies the inequality $χ_T(G)\leq\ Δ(G)+4$ and the total choice number $c_T(G)$ also satisfies this inequality. We also relate these bounds to the Hall index and the Hall condition index of a simple graph, and to the total Hall number and the total Hall condition number of a simple graph.
We determine the chromatic number of some graphs of flags in buildings of type $A_4$, namely of the Kneser graphs of flags of type $\{2,4\}$ in the vector spaces $GF(q)^5$ for $q\geq3$, and of the Kneser graph of flags of type $\{2,3\}$ in the vector spaces $GF(q)^5$ for large $q$.
Let $G(n, r, s)$ be a graph whose vertices are all $r$-element subsets of an $n$-element set, in which two vertices are adjacent if they intersect in exactly $s$ elements. In this paper we study chromatic numbers of $G(n, r, s)$ with $r, s$ being fixed constants and $n$ tending to infinity. Using a recent result of Keevash on existence of designs we deduce an inequality $χ(G(n, r, s)) \le (1+o(1))n^{r-s} \frac{(r-s-1)!}{(2r-2s-1)!}$ for $r > s$ with $r, s$ fixed constants. This inequality gives sharp upper bounds for $r \le 2s+1$. Also we develop an elementary approach to this problem and prov…
It is known that the inequality $$ \frac{χ(G)(χ(G)-1)}{2} + |V| - χ(G) \leq |E|$$ holds for all connected graphs, where $χ(G)$ denotes the chromatic number of $G$. We prove that equality holds whenever the graph consists of a complete graph or an odd cycle, together with finitely many trees attached to its vertices.
Let $Γ$ be the graph whose vertices are the chambers of the finite projective space $PG(3,q)$ with two vertices being adjacent when the corresponding chambers are in general position. It is known that the independence number of this graph is $(q^2+q+1)(q+1)^2$. For $q\ge 43$ we determine the largest independent set of $Γ$ and show that every maximal independent set that is not a largest one has at most constant times $q^3$ elements. For $q\ge 47$, this information is then used to show that $Γ$ has chromatic number $q^2+q$. Furthermore, for many families of generalized quadrangles we prove simi…
A simple graph-product type construction shows that for all natural numbers $r \ge q$, there exists an edge-coloring of the complete graph on $2^r$ vertices using $r$ colors where the graph consisting of the union of arbitrary $q$ color classes has chromatic number $2^q$. We show that for each fixed natural number $q$, if there exists an edge-coloring of the complete graph on $n$ vertices using $r$ colors where the graph consisting of the union of arbitrary $q$ color classes has chromatic number at most $2^q -1 $, then $n$ must be sub-exponential in $r$. This answers a question of Conlon, Fox,…
We prove $χ_s'(G)\leq 1.93 Δ(G)^2$ for graphs of sufficiently large maximum degree where $χ_s'(G)$ is the strong chromatic index of $G$. This improves an old bound of Molloy and Reed. As a by-product, we present a Talagrand-type inequality where it is allowed to exclude unlikely bad outcomes that would otherwise render the inequality unusable.
We determine the chromatic number of the Kneser graph qΓ_{7,{3,4}} of flags of vectorial type {3, 4} of a rank 7 vector space over the finite field GF(q) for large q and describe the colorings that attain the bound. This result relies heavily, not only on the independence number, but also on the structure of all large independent sets. Furthermore, our proof is more general in the following sense: it provides the chromatic number of the Kneser graphs qΓ_{2d+1,{d,d+1}} of flags of vectorial type {d, d+1} of a rank 2d+1 vector space over GF(q) for large q as long as the large independent sets of…
We show that the discrete versions of the systolic inequality that estimate the number of vertices of a simplicial complex from below have substantial applications to graphs, the one-dimensional simplicial complexes. Almost directly they provide good estimates for the number of vertices of a graph in terms of its chromatic number and the length of the smallest odd cycle. Combined with the graph-theoretic techniques of Berlov and Bogdanov, the systolic approach produces even better estimates.
The generalized Kneser hypergraph $KG^{r}(n,k,s)$ is the hypergraph whose vertices are all the $k$-subsets of $\{1,\ldots ,n\}$, and edges are $r$-tuples of distinct vertices such that any pair of them has at most $s$ elements in their intersection. In this note, we show that for each non-negative integers $k, n, r, s$ satisfying $n \geq r(k-1)+1$, $k > s\geq 0$, and $r\geq 2$, we have $$χ({KG}^{r}(n,k,s))\geq\left\lceil\frac{n-r(k-s-1)}{r-1}\right\rceil,$$ which improves the previously known result by Alon--Frankl--Lovász.
Let $G$ be a simple graph and let $\mathcal{L}(G)$ be the free partially commutative Lie algebra associated to $G$. In this paper, using heaps of pieces, we prove an expression for the generalized $\textbf k$-chromatic polynomial of $G$ in terms of dimensions of the grade spaces of $\mathcal{L}(G)$. This will give us a new interpretation for the chromatic polynomials in terms of multilinear heaps and Lyndon length. The classical results of Stanley, and Greene and Zaslavsky regarding the acyclic orientations of $G$ are obtained as corollaries. A heap with a unique minimal piece is said to be a …
DP-coloring (also called correspondence coloring) is a generalization of list coloring that has been widely studied in recent years after its introduction by Dvořák and Postle in 2015. The chromatic polynomial of a graph is an extensively studied notion in combinatorics since its introduction by Birkhoff in 1912; denoted $P(G,m)$, it equals the number of proper $m$-colorings of graph $G$. Counting function analogues of the chromatic polynomial have been introduced and studied for list colorings: $P_{\ell}$, the list color function (1990); DP colorings: $P_{DP}$, the DP color function (2019), a…
A generalized vertex join of a graph is obtained by joining an arbitrary multiset of its vertices to a new vertex. We present a low-order polynomial time algorithm for finding the chromatic polynomials of generalized vertex joins of trees, and by duality we find the flow polynomials of arbitrary outerplanar graphs. We also present closed formulas for the chromatic and flow polynomials of vertex joins of cliques and cycles, otherwise known as "generalized wheel" graphs.
A class of simple graphs such as ${\cal G}$ is said to be {\it odd-girth-closed} if for any positive integer $g$ there exists a graph $G \in {\cal G}$ such that the odd-girth of $G$ is greater than or equal to $g$. An odd-girth-closed class of graphs ${\cal G}$ is said to be {\it odd-pentagonal} if there exists a positive integer $g^*$ depending on ${\cal G}$ such that any graph $G \in {\cal G}$ whose odd-girth is greater than $g^*$ admits a homomorphism to the five cycle (i.e. is $C_{_{5}}$-colorable). In this article, we show that finding the odd girth of generalized Petersen graphs can be t…
A star $k$-edge coloring is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic paths or cycles of length four. The smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ admits a star $k$-edge coloring is the star chromatic index of $G$. Deng \etal \cite{MR2933839}, and Bezegov{á} \etal \cite{MR3431294} independently proved that the star chromatic index of a tree is at most $\lfloor \frac{3Δ}{2} \rfloor$, and the bound is sharp. Han \etal \cite{MR3924408} strengthened the result to list version of star chromatic index, and proved that $\lfloor \frac{3Δ}{2} \rfloor$ is also the sharp upper bound for the lis…
We study the chromatic symmetric functions of graph classes related to spiders, namely generalized spider graphs (line graphs of spiders), and what we call horseshoe crab graphs. We show that no two generalized spiders have the same chromatic symmetric function, thereby extending the work of Martin, Morin and Wagner. Additionally, we establish that a subclass of generalized spiders, which we call generalized nets, has no e-positive members, providing a more general counterexample to the necessity of the claw-free condition. We use yet another class of generalized spiders to construct a counter…
If $G$ is a $k$-chromatic graph of order $n$ then it is known that the chromatic polynomial of $G$, $π(G,x)$, is at most $x(x-1)\cdots (x-(k-1))x^{n-k} = (x)_{\downarrow k}x^{n-k}$ for every $x\in \mathbb{N}$. We improve here this bound by showing that \[ π(G,x) \leq (x)_{\downarrow k} (x-1)^{Δ(G)-k+1} x^{n-1-Δ(G)}\] for every $x\in \mathbb{N},$ where $Δ(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$. Secondly, we show that if $G$ is a connected $k$-chromatic graph of order $n$ where $k\geq 4$ then $π(G,x)$ is at most $(x)_{\downarrow k}(x-1)^{n-k}$ for every real $x\geq n-2+\left( {n \choose 2} -{k \choose…
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 sets $Π_1,\ldots,Π_k$, where $Π_i$, $i\in [k]$, is an $i$-packing. The following conjecture is posed and studied: if $G$ is a subcubic graph, then $χ_ρ(S(G))\le 5$, where $S(G)$ is the subdivision of $G$. The conjecture is proved for all generalized prisms of cycles. To get this result it is proved that if $G$ is a generalized prism of a cycle, then $G$ is $(1,1,2,2)$-colorable if and only if $G$ is not the Petersen graph. The validity of the conjecture is fu…
Using a relation between domination number and incidence chromatic number, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for $r$-regular graphs to be $(r+1)$-incidence colorable. Also, we determine the optimal Nordhaus-Gaddum inequality for the incidence chromatic number.
Chromatic polynomials have been studied extensively, giving us results such as the Fundamental Reduction Theorem and closed formulas for the chromatic polynomials of common classes of graphs. Though, none of those extend to the context of fractional colorings. We thus present closed formulas for the "fractional" chromatic polynomial - a function that counts the number of distinct $b$-fold $λ$-colorings on a given graph - of complete graphs, trees and forests, as well as a generalized form of the Fundamental Reduction Theorem.
The \emph{packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$} of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ for which there exists a vertex coloring $Γ: V(G)\rightarrow \{1,2,\dots , k\}$ such that any two vertices of color $i$ are at distance at least $i + 1$. For $g\in \{6,8,12\}$, $(q+1,g)$-Moore graphs are $(q+1)$-regular graphs with girth $g$ which are the incidence graphs of a symmetric generalized $g/2$-gons of order $q$. In this paper we study the packing chromatic number of a $(q+1,g)$-Moore graph $G$. For $g=6$ we present the exact value of $χ_ρ(G)$. For $g=8$, we determine $χ_ρ(G)$ in terms of the inte…
Stanley introduced the chromatic symmetric function of a simple graph, which is a generalization of a chromatic polynomial. This is expressed in terms of the integer points of the complements of the corresponding graphic arrangement. Stanley proved a combinatorial reciprocity theorem for chromatic functions. This is considered as an Ehrhart-type reciprocity theorem for the graphic arrangement. We introduce the chromatic signed-symmetric function of a signed graph, an analogue of the chromatic symmetric function, by the integer points of the complements of the corresponding signed-graphic arran…
The generalized theta graph Θ_{s_1,...,s_k} consists of a pair of endvertices joined by k internally disjoint paths of lengths s_1,...,s_k \ge 1. We prove that the roots of the chromatic polynomial $pi(Θ_{s_1,...,s_k},z) of a k-ary generalized theta graph all lie in the disc |z-1| \le [1 + o(1)] k/\log k, uniformly in the path lengths s_i. Moreover, we prove that Θ_{2,...,2} \simeq K_{2,k} indeed has a chromatic root of modulus [1 + o(1)] k/\log k. Finally, for k \le 8 we prove that the generalized theta graph with a chromatic root that maximizes |z-1| is the one with all path lengths equal to…
We study graphs whose chromatic number is close to the order of the graph (the number of vertices). Both when the chromatic number is a constant multiple of the order and when the difference of the chromatic number and the order is a small fixed number, large cliques are forced. We study the latter situation, and we give quantitative results how large the clique number of these graphs have to be. Some related questions are discussed and conjectures are posed. Please note that the results of this article were significantly generalized. Therefore this paper will never be published in a journal. …
It was conjectured by Ohba and confirmed recently by Noel et al. that, for any graph $G$, if $|V(G)|\le 2χ(G)+1$ then $χ_l(G)=χ(G)$. This indicates that the graphs with high chromatic number are chromatic-choosable. We show that this is also the case for uniform hypergraphs and further propose a generalized version of Ohba's conjecture: for any $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$ with $r\geq 2$, if $|V(H)|\le rχ(H)+r-1$ then $χ_l(H)=χ(H)$. We show that the condition of the proposed conjecture is sharp by giving two classes of $r$-uniform hypergraphs $H$ with $|V(H)|= rχ(H)+r$ and $χ_l(H)>χ(H)$. To supp…
In an earlier paper, the present authors (2013) introduced the altermatic number of graphs and used Tucker's Lemma, an equivalent combinatorial version of the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem, to show that the altermatic number is a lower bound for the chromatic number. A matching graph has the set of all matchings of a specified size of a graph as vertex set and two vertices are adjacent if the corresponding matchings are edge-disjoint. It is known that the Kneser graphs, the Schrijver graphs, and the permutation graphs can be represented by matching graphs. In this paper, as a generalization of the well-…
J. Makowsky and B. Zilber (2004) showed that many variations of graph colorings, called CP-colorings in the sequel, give rise to graph polynomials. This is true in particular for harmonious colorings, convex colorings, mcc_t-colorings, and rainbow colorings, and many more. N. Linial (1986) showed that the chromatic polynomial $χ(G;X)$ is #P-hard to evaluate for all but three values X=0,1,2, where evaluation is in P. This dichotomy includes evaluation at real or complex values, and has the further property that the set of points for which evaluation is in P is finite. We investigate how the com…
A Kneser representation KG(H) for a graph G is a bijective assignment of hyperedges of a hypergraph H to the vertices of G such that two vertices of G are adjacent if and only if the corresponding hyperedges are disjoint. In this paper, we introduce a colored version of the Turan number and use that to determine the chromatic number of some families of graphs in terms of the generalized Turan number of graphs. In particular, we determine the chromatic number of every Kneser multigraph KG(H), where the vertex set of H is the edge set of a multigraph G such that the multiplicity of each edge is …
Given a graphic degree sequence $D$, let $χ(D)$ (respectively $ω(D)$, $h(D)$, and $H(D)$) denote the maximum value of the chromatic number (respectively, the size of the largest clique, largest clique subdivision, and largest clique minor) taken over all simple graphs whose degree sequence is $D$. It is proved that $χ(D)\le h(D)$. Moreover, it is shown that a subdivision of a clique of order $χ(D)$ exists where each edge is subdivided at most once and the set of all subdivided edges forms a collection of disjoint stars. This bound is an analogue of the Hajos Conjecture for degree sequences and…
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 the upper integer part o…
In this paper we obtain closed formulae for several parameters of generalized Sierpiński graphs $S(G,t)$ in terms of parameters of the base graph $G$. In particular, we focus on the chromatic, vertex cover, clique and domination numbers.
We study the chromatic symmetric function on graphs, and show that its kernel is spanned by the modular relations. We generalize this result to the chromatic quasisymmetric function on hypergraphic polytopes, a family of generalized permutahedra. We use this description of the kernel of the chromatic symmetric function to find other graph invariants that may help us tackle the tree conjecture.
The chromatic number for properly colouring the facets of a combinatorial simple $n$-polytope $P^n$ that is the orbit space of a quasitoric manifold satisfies the inequality $n\leq P^n\leq 2^n-1$. The inequality is sharp for $n=2$ but not for $n=3$ due to the Four Color theorem. In this note, we construct a simple 4-polytope admitting a characteristic map whose chromatic number equals $15$ and deduce that the predicted upper bound is attained for $n=4$. Analogues results are verified for the case of oriented small covers in dimensions $4$ and $5$.
One of the best-known results in spectral graph theory is the inequality of Hoffman \[ χ\left( G\right) \geq1-\frac{λ\left( G\right) }{λ_{\min }\left( G\right) }, \] where $χ\left( G\right) $ is the chromatic number of a graph $G$ and $λ\left( G\right) ,$ $λ_{\min}\left( G\right) $ are the largest and the smallest eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. In this note Hoffman's inequality is extended to weighted uniform $r$-graphs for every even $r$.
The packing chromatic number $χ$ $ρ$ (G) of an undirected (resp. oriented) graph G is the smallest integer k such that its set of vertices V (G) can be partitioned into k disjoint subsets V 1,..., V k, in such a way that every two distinct vertices in V i are at distance (resp. directed distance) greater than i in G for every i, 1 $\le$ i $\le$ k. The generalized theta graph $Θ$ {\ell} 1,...,{\ell}p consists in two end-vertices joined by p $\ge$ 2 internally vertex-disjoint paths with respective lengths 1 $\le$ {\ell} 1 $\le$ . . . $\le$ {\ell} p. We prove that the packing chromatic number of …
Nordhaus and Gaddum proved, for any graph G, that the chromatic number of G plus the chromatic number of G complement is less than or equal to the number of vertices in G plus 1. Finck characterized the class of graphs that satisfy equality in this bound. In this paper, we provide a new characterization of this class of graphs, based on vertex degrees, which yields a new polynomial-time recognition algorithm and efficient computation of the chromatic number of graphs in this class. Our motivation comes from our theorem that generalizes the Nordhaus-Gaddum theorem to the distinguishing chromati…
By a graph we mean a finite undirected graph having multiple edges but no loops. Given a graph property $\mathcal{P}$, a $\mathcal{P}$-coloring of a graph $G$ with color set $C$ is a mapping $\f:V(G)\to C$ such that for each color $c\in C$ the subgraph of $G$ induced by the color class $φ^{-1}(c)$ belongs to $\mathcal{P}$. The $\mathcal{P}$-chromatic number $χ(G:\mathcal{P})$ of $G$ is the least number $k$ for which $G$ admits an $\mathcal{P}$-coloring with a set of $k$-colors. This coloring concept dates back to the late 1960s and is commonly known as generalized coloring. In the 1980s the $\…
We study the chromatic quasisymmetric class function of a linearized combinatorial Hopf monoid. Given a linearized combinatorial Hopf monoid $H$, and an $H$-structure $h$ on a set $N$, there are proper colorings of $h$, generalizing graph colorings and poset partitions. We show that the automorphism group of $h$ acts on the set of proper colorings. The chromatic quasisymmetric class function enumerates the fixed points of this action, weighting each coloring with a monomial. For the Hopf monoid of graphs this invariant generalizes Stanley's chromatic symmetric function and specializes to the o…
Inspired by Bondarenko's counter-example to Borsuk's conjecture, we notice some strongly regular graphs that provide examples of ball packings whose chromatic numbers are significantly higher than the dimensions. In particular, from generalized quadrangles we obtain unit ball packings in dimension $q^3-q^2+q$ with chromatic number $q^3+1$, where $q$ is a prime power. This improves the previous lower bound for the chromatic number of ball packings.
For studying topological obstructions to graph colorings, Hom-complexes were introduced by Lovász. A graph $T$ is called a test graph if for every graph $H$, the $k$-connectedness of $|Hom(T, H)|$ implies $χ(H)\geq k + 1 + χ(T)$. The proof of the famous Kneser conjecture is based on the fact that $\mathcal{K}_2$, the complete graph on $2$ vertices, is a test graph. This result was extended to all complete graphs by Babson and Kozlov. Their proof is based on generalized nerve lemma and discrete Morse theory. In this paper, we propose a new topological lower bound for the chromatic number of a s…
We prove that reflection of the coloring number of graphs is consistent with non-reflection of the chromatic number. Moreover, it is proved that incompactness for the chromatic number of graphs (with arbitrarily large gaps) is compatible with each of the following compactness principles: Rado's conjecture, Fodor-type reflection, $Δ$-reflection, Stationary-sets reflection, Martin's Maximum, and a generalized Chang's conjecture. This is accomplished by showing that, under $\mathrm{GCH}$-type assumptions, instances of incompactness for the chromatic number can be derived from square-like principl…
The local chromatic number of a graph G is the number of colors appearing in the most colorful closed neighborhood of a vertex minimized over all proper colorings of G. We show that two specific topological obstructions that have the same implications for the chromatic number have different implications for the local chromatic number. These two obstructions can be formulated in terms of the homomorphism complex Hom(K_2,G) and its suspension, respectively. These investigations follow the line of research initiated by Matousek and Ziegler who recognized a hierarchy of the different topological e…
