Let $f$ be a proper $k$-coloring of a connected graph $G$ and $Π=(V_1,V_2,\ldots,V_k)$ be an ordered partition of $V(G)$ into the resulting color classes. For a vertex $v$ of $G$, the color code of $v$ with respect to $Π$ is defined to be the ordered $k$-tuple $c_{{}_Π}(v)=(d(v,V_1),d(v,V_2),\ldots,d(v,V_k)),$ where $d(v,V_i)=\min\{d(v,x): x\in V_i\}, 1\leq i\leq k$. If distinct vertices have distinct color codes, then $f$ is called a locating coloring. The minimum number of colors needed in a locating coloring of $G$ is the locating chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $\Cchi_{{}_L}(G)$. In this paper, we study the locating chromatic numbers of trees. We provide a counter example to a theorem of Gary Chartrand et al. [G. Chartrand, D. Erwin, M.A. Henning, P.J. Slater, P. Zhang, The locating-chromatic number of a graph, Bull. Inst. Combin. Appl. 36 (2002) 89-101] about the locating chromatic numbers of trees. Also, we offer a new bound for the locating chromatic number of trees. Then, by constructing a special family of trees, we show that this bound is best possible.
Some coloring algorithms gives an upper bound for the locating chromatic number of trees with all the vertices not in an end-path colored by only two colors. That means, a better coloring algorithm could be achieved by optimizing the number of colors used in the end-paths. We provide an estimation of the locating chromatic number of trees using the locating chromatic number of its end-palms. We also study the locating chromatic number of palms, a subdivision of star. We also prove $χ_L(S_n(k))=Θ(n^{1/k})$; $χ_L(S_n(3))=(1+o(1))\sqrt[3]{4n}$; and $χ_L(O_n)=\left\lceil\log_3\left(\frac{n}{4}\rig…
Let $c$ be a proper $k$-coloring of a connected graph $G$ and $Π=(C_1,C_2,...,C_k)$ be an ordered partition of $V(G)$ into the resulting color classes. For a vertex $v$ of $G$, the color code of $v$ with respect to $Π$ is defined to be the ordered $k$-tuple $$c_{{}_Π}(v):=(d(v,C_1),d(v,C_2),...,d(v,C_k)),$$ where $d(v,C_i)=\min\{d(v,x) |x\in C_i\}, 1\leq i\leq k$. If distinct vertices have distinct color codes, then $c$ is called a locating coloring. The minimum number of colors needed in a locating coloring of $G$ is the locating chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $\Cchi_{{}_L}(G)$. In this …
Let $c$ be a proper $k$-coloring of a connected graph $G$ and $Π=(C_1,C_2,...,C_k)$ be an ordered partition of $V(G)$ into the resulting color classes. For a vertex $v$ of $G$, the color code of $v$ with respect to $Π$ is defined to be the ordered $k$-tuple $c_{{}_Π}(v):=(d(v,C_1),d(v,C_2),...,d(v,C_k)),$ where $d(v,C_i)=\min\{d(v,x) | x\in C_i\}, 1\leq i\leq k$. If distinct vertices have distinct color codes, then $c$ is called a locating coloring. The minimum number of colors needed in a locating coloring of $G$ is the locating chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $\Cchi_{{}_L}(G)$. In this p…
Let $f$ be a proper $k$-coloring of a connected graph $G$ and $Π=(V_1,V_2,...,V_k)$ be an ordered partition of $V(G)$ into the resulting color classes. For a vertex $v$ of $G$, the color code of $v$ with respect to $Π$ is defined to be the ordered $k$-tuple $c_{{}_Π}(v):=(d(v,V_1),d(v,V_2),...,d(v,V_k)),$ where $d(v,V_i)=\min\{d(v,x)|x\in V_i\}, 1\leq i\leq k$. If distinct vertices have distinct color codes, then $f$ is called a locating coloring. The minimum number of colors needed in a locating coloring of $G$ is the locating chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $\Cchi_{{}_L}(G)$. In this pap…
A $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a $k$-partition $Π=\{S_1,\ldots,S_k\}$ of $V(G)$ into independent sets, called \emph{colors}. A $k$-coloring is called \emph{neighbor-locating} if for every pair of vertices $u,v$ belonging to the same color $S_i$, the set of colors of the neighborhood of $u$ is different from the set of colors of the neighborhood of $v$. The neighbor-locating chromatic number $χ_{_{NL}}(G)$ is the minimum cardinality of a neighbor-locating coloring of $G$. We establish some tight bounds for the neighbor-locating chromatic number of a graph, in terms of its order, maximum degre…
Let G be a simple connected graph. Then chi L(G) and chi D(G) will denote the locating chromatic number and the distinguishing chromatic number of G, respectively. In this paper, we investigate a comparison between chi L(G) and chi D(G). In fact, we prove that chi D(G) \leq chi L(G). Moreover, we determine some types of graphs whose locating and distinguishing chromatic numbers are equal. Specially, we characteristic all graph G with the property that chi D(G)= chi L(G) = 3.
We apply Ramsey theoretic tools to show that there is a family of graphs which have tree-chromatic number at most~$2$ while the path-chromatic number is unbounded. This resolves a problem posed by Seymour.
For a graph $G$ and a tree-decomposition $(T, \mathcal{B})$ of $G$, the chromatic number of $(T, \mathcal{B})$ is the maximum of $χ(G[B])$, taken over all bags $B \in \mathcal{B}$. The tree-chromatic number of $G$ is the minimum chromatic number of all tree-decompositions $(T, \mathcal{B})$ of $G$. The path-chromatic number of $G$ is defined analogously. In this paper, we introduce an operation that always increases the path-chromatic number of a graph. As an easy corollary of our construction, we obtain an infinite family of graphs whose path-chromatic number and tree-chromatic number are dif…
A locating-dominating set (LDS) of a graph $G$ is a dominating set $S$ of $G$ such that for every two vertices $u$ and $v$ in $V(G) \setminus S$, $N(u)\cap S \neq N(v)\cap S$. The locating-domination number $γ^{L}(G)$ is the minimum cardinality of a LDS of $G$. Further if $S$ is a total dominating set then $S$ is called a locating-total dominating set. In this paper we determine the domination, total domination, locating-domination and locating-total domination numbers for hypertrees and sibling trees.
We show that no tree on twenty vertices with maximum degree ten has Schur positive chromatic symmetric function, thereby providing a counterexample to a conjecture from the paper "Schur and e-positivity of trees and cut vertices".
The degree chromatic polynomial $Pm(G,k)$ of a graph $G$ counts the number of $k$-colorings in which no vertex has $m$ adjacent vertices of its same color. We prove Humpert and Martin's conjecture on the leading terms of the degree chromatic polynomial of a tree.
Among other results, it is shown that 3-trees are $Δ$-edge-choosable and that graphs of tree-width 3 and maximum degree at least 7 are $Δ$-edge-choosable.
A well-known open problem in graph theory asks whether Stanley's chromatic symmetric function, a generalization of the chromatic polynomial of a graph, distinguishes between any two non-isomorphic trees. Previous work has proven the conjecture for a class of trees called spiders. This paper generalizes the class of spiders to $n$-spiders, where normal spiders correspond to $n = 1$, and verifies the conjecture for $n = 2$.
We show that there exist linear-time algorithms that compute the strong chromatic index and a maximum induced matching of tree-cographs when the decomposition tree is a part of the input. We also show that there exist efficient algorithms for the strong chromatic index of (bipartite) permutation graphs and of chordal bipartite graphs.
It is a long-standing question of Stanley whether or not the chromatic symmetric function (CSF) distinguishes unrooted trees. Previously, the best computational result, due to Russell, proved that it distinguishes all trees with at most $25$ vertices. In this paper, we present a novel probabilistic algorithm which may be used to check more efficiently that the CSF distinguishes a set of trees. Applying it, we verify that the CSF distinguishes all trees with up to $29$ vertices.
It is proved that if $G$ is a graph containing a spanning tree with at most three leaves, then the chromatic polynomial of $G$ has no roots in the interval $(1,t_1]$, where $t_1 \approx 1.2904$ is the smallest real root of the polynomial $(t-2)^6 +4(t-1)^2(t-2)^3 -(t-1)^4$. We also construct a family of graphs containing such spanning trees with chromatic roots converging to $t_1$ from above. We employ the Whitney $2$-switch operation to manage the analysis of an infinite class of chromatic polynomials.
For a tree $T$, consider its smallest subtree $T^{\circ}$ containing all vertices of degree at least $3$. Then the remaining edges of $T$ lie on disjoint paths each with one endpoint on $T^{\circ}$. We show that the chromatic symmetric function of $T$ determines the size of $T^{\circ}$, and the multiset of the lengths of these incident paths. In particular, this generalizes a proof of Martin, Morin, and Wagner that the chromatic symmetric function distinguishes spiders.
Fong et al. (The game chromatic index of some trees with maximum degree four and adjacent degree-four vertices, J. Comb Optim 36 (2018) 1-12) proved that the game chromatic index of any tree $T$ of maximum degree 4 whose degree-four vertices induce a forest of paths of length $l$ less than 2 is at most 5. In this paper, we show that the bound 5 is also valid for $l\leq 2$. This partially solves the problem of characterization of the trees whose game chromatic index exceeds the maximum degree by at most 1, which was proposed by Cai and Zhu (Game chromatic index of $k$-degenerate graphs, J. Grap…
A star edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring of $G$ such that every path and cycle of length four in $G$ uses at least three different colors. The star chromatic index of a graph $G$, is the smallest integer $k$ for which $G$ admits a star edge coloring with $k$ colors. In this paper, we present a polynomial time algorithm that finds an optimum star edge coloring for every tree. We also provide some tight bounds on the star chromatic index of trees with diameter at most four, and using these bounds we find a formula for the star chromatic index of certain families of trees.
While the game chromatic number of a forest is known to be at most 4, no simple criteria are known for determining the game chromatic number of a forest. We first state necessary and sufficient conditions for forests with game chromatic number 2 and then investigate the differences between forests with game chromatic number 3 and 4. In doing so, we present a minimal example of a forest with game chromatic number 4, criteria for determining the game chromatic number of a forest without vertices of degree 3, and an example of a forest with maximum degree 3 and game chromatic number 4.
Let H be a tree. It was proved by Rodl that graphs that do not contain H as an induced subgraph, and do not contain the complete bipartite graph $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph, have bounded chromatic number. Kierstead and Penrice strengthened this, showing that such graphs have bounded degeneracy. Here we give a further strengthening, proving that for every tree H, the degeneracy is at most polynomial in t. This answers a question of Bonamy, Pilipczuk, Rzazewski, Thomasse and Walczak.
This paper deals with the so-called Stanley conjecture, which asks whether they are non-isomorphic trees with the same symmetric function generalization of the chromatic polynomial. By establishing a correspondence between caterpillars trees and integer compositions, we prove that caterpillars in a large class (we call trees in this class proper) have the same symmetric chromatic function generalization of the chromatic polynomial if and only if they are isomorphic.
We investigate the $e$-positivity and Schur positivity of the chromatic symmetric functions of some spider graphs with three legs. We obtain the positivity classification of all broom graphs and that of most double broom graphs. The methods involve extracting particular $e$-coefficients of the chromatic symmetric function of these graphs with the aid of Orellana and Scott's triple-deletion property, and using the combinatorial formula of Schur coefficients by examining certain special rim hook tabloids. We also propose some conjectures on the $e$-positivity and Schur positivity of trees.
We conjecture that any graph $G$ with treewidth~$k$ and maximum degree $Δ(G)\geq k + \sqrt{k}$ satisfies $χ'(G)=Δ(G)$. In support of the conjecture we prove its fractional version. We also show that any graph $G$ with treewidth~$k\geq 4$ and maximum degree $2k-1$ satisfies $χ'(G)=Δ(G)$, improving an old result of Vizing.
Let $T$ be an unrooted tree. The \emph{chromatic symmetric function} $X_T$, introduced by Stanley, is a sum of monomial symmetric functions corresponding to proper colorings of $T$. The \emph{subtree polynomial} $S_T$, first considered under a different name by Chaudhary and Gordon, is the bivariate generating function for subtrees of $T$ by their numbers of edges and leaves. We prove that $S_T = <Φ,X_T>$, where $<\cdot,\cdot>$ is the Hall inner product on symmetric functions and $Φ$ is a certain symmetric function that does not depend on $T$. Thus the chromatic symmetric function is a stronge…
One of the major outstanding conjectures in the study of chromatic symmetric functions (CSF's) states that trees are uniquely determined by their CSF's. Though verified on graphs of order up to twenty-nine, this result has been proved only for certain subclasses of trees. Using the definition of the CSF that emerges via the Frobenius character map applied to $\mathbb{C}[S_n]$, we offer new algebraic proofs of several results about the CSF's of trees. Additionally, we prove that a "parent function" of the CSF defined in the group ring of $S_n$ can uniquely determine trees, providing further sup…
The Gyarfas-Sumner conjecture asserts that if H is a tree then every graph with bounded clique number and very large chromatic number contains H as an induced subgraph. This is still open, although it has been proved for a few simple families of trees, including trees of radius two, some special trees of radius three, and subdivided stars. These trees all have the property that their vertices of degree more than two are clustered quite closely together. In this paper, we prove the conjecture for two families of trees which do not have this restriction. As special cases, these families contain …
We investigate which graphs H have the property that in every graph with bounded clique number and sufficiently large chromatic number, some induced subgraph is isomorphic to a subdivision of H. In an earlier paper, one of us proved that every tree has this property; and in another earlier paper with M. Chudnovsky, we proved that every cycle has this property. Here we give a common generalization. Say a banana is the union of a set of paths all with the same ends but otherwise disjoint. We prove that if H is obtained from a tree by replacing each edge by a banana then H has the property mentio…
The "clustered chromatic number" of a class of graphs is the minimum integer $k$ such that for some integer $c$ every graph in the class is $k$-colourable with monochromatic components of size at most $c$. We determine the clustered chromatic number of any minor-closed class with bounded treedepth, and prove a best possible upper bound on the clustered chromatic number of any minor-closed class with bounded pathwidth. As a consequence, we determine the fractional clustered chromatic number of every minor-closed class.
In a 1995 paper Richard Stanley defined $X_G$, the symmetric chromatic polynomial of a Graph $G=(V,E)$. He then conjectured that $X_G$ distinguishes trees; a conjecture which still remains open. $X_G$ can be represented as a certain collection of integer partitions of $|V|$ induced by each $S\subseteq E$, which is very approachable with the aid of a computer. Our research involved writing a computer program for efficient verification of this conjecture for trees up to 23 vertices. In this process, we also gather trees with matching collections of integer partitions of a fixed number of parts. …
The Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture says that for every forest $H$ and every integer $k$, if $G$ is $H$-free and does not contain a clique on $k$ vertices then it has bounded chromatic number. (A graph is $H$-free if it does not contain an induced copy of $H$.) Kierstead and Penrice proved it for trees of radius at most two, but otherwise the conjecture is known only for a few simple types of forest. More is known if we exclude a complete bipartite subgraph instead of a clique: Rödl showed that, for every forest $H$, if $G$ is $H$-free and does not contain $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph then it has bounded…
A {\em chromatic root} is a root of the chromatic polynomial of a graph. While the real chromatic roots have been extensively studied and well understood, little is known about the {\em real parts} of chromatic roots. It is not difficult to see that the largest real chromatic root of a graph with $n$ vertices is $n-1$, and indeed, it is known that the largest real chromatic root of a graph is at most the tree-width of the graph. Analogous to these facts, it was conjectured in [8] that the real parts of chromatic roots are also bounded above by both $n-1$ and the tree-width of the graph. In thi…
Tree-chromatic number is a chromatic version of treewidth, where the cost of a bag in a tree-decomposition is measured by its chromatic number rather than its size. Path-chromatic number is defined analogously. These parameters were introduced by Seymour (JCTB 2016). In this paper, we survey all the known results on tree- and path-chromatic number and then present some new results and conjectures. In particular, we propose a version of Hadwiger's Conjecture for tree-chromatic number. As evidence that our conjecture may be more tractable than Hadwiger's Conjecture, we give a short proof that ev…
Richard P. Stanley defined the chromatic symmetric function of a simple graph and has conjectured that every tree is determined by its chromatic symmetric function. Recently, Takahiro Hasebe and the author proved that the order quasisymmetric functions, which are analogs of the chromatic symmetric functions, distinguish rooted trees. In this paper, using a similar method, we prove that the chromatic symmetric functions distinguish trivially perfect graphs. Moreover, we also prove that claw-free cographs, that is, $ \{K_{1,3},P_{4}\} $-free graphs belong to a known class of $ e $-positive graph…
A classic result of Asplund and Grünbaum states that intersection graphs of axis-aligned rectangles in the plane are $χ$-bounded. This theorem can be equivalently stated in terms of path-decompositions as follows: There exists a function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{N}$ such that every graph that has two path-decompositions such that each bag of the first decomposition intersects each bag of the second in at most $k$ vertices has chromatic number at most $f(k)$. Recently, Dujmović, Joret, Morin, Norin, and Wood asked whether this remains true more generally for two tree-decompositions. In this note…
In 1995, Stanley introduced the well-known chromatic symmetric function $X_{G}(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots)$ of a graph $G$. It is a sum of monomial symmetric functions such that for each vertex coloring of $G$ there is exactly one of these summands. The question, whether $X_{G}(x_1,x_{2},\ldots)$ distinguishes nonisomorphic trees with the same number of vertices, is still open in general. For special trees it has already been shown. In 2008, Martin, Morin and Wagner proved it for spiders and some caterpillars. We decompose a tree by separating the leafs and their neighbors and do the same to the remai…
A locating-dominating set in a graph G is a subset of vertices representing "detectors" which can locate an "intruder" given that each detector covers its closed neighborhood and can distinguish its own location from its neighbors. We explore a fault-tolerant variant of locating-dominating sets called redundant locating-dominating sets, which can tolerate one detector malfunctioning (going offline or being removed). In particular, we characterize redundant locating-dominating sets and prove that the problem of determining the minimum cardinality of a redundant locating-dominating set is NP-com…
For a graph $G$, the tree graph ${\cal T}_{G,t}$ has all tree subgraphs of $G$ with $t$ vertices as vertex set and two tree subgraphs are neighbors if they are edge-disjoint. Also, the $r^{th}$ cut number of $G$ is the minimum number of edges between parts of a partition of vertex set of $G$ into two parts such that each part has size at least $r$. We show that if $t=(1-o(1))n$ and $n$ is large enough, then for any dense graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, the chromatic number of the tree graph ${\cal T}_{G,t}$ is equal to the $(n-t+1)^{th}$ cut number of $G$. In particular, as a consequence, we prov…
In this paper we prove that the dominator chromatic number of every oriented tree is invariant under reversal of orientation. In addition to this marquee result, we also prove the exact dominator chromatic number for arborescences and anti-arborescences as well as bounds on other orientations of oft studied tree topologies including generalized stars and caterpillars.
Stanley [9] introduced the chromatic symmetric function ${\bf X}_G$ associated to a simple graph $G$ as a generalization of the chromatic polynomial of $G$. In this paper we present a novel technique to write ${\bf X}_G$ as a linear combination of chromatic symmetric functions of smaller graphs. We use this technique to give a sufficient condition for two graphs to have the same chromatic symmetric function. We then construct an infinite family of pairs of unicyclic graphs with the same chromatic symmetric function, answering the question posed by Martin, Morin, and Wagner [7] of whether such …
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…
We prove that the list chromatic index of a graph of maximum degree $Δ$ and treewidth $\leq \sqrt{2Δ} -3$ is $Δ$; and that the total chromatic number of a graph of maximum degree $Δ$ and treewidth $\leq Δ/3 +1$ is $Δ+1$. This improves results by Meeks and Scott.
This paper describes how many known graph polynomials arise from the coefficients of chromatic symmetric function expansions in different bases, and studies a new polynomial arising by expanding over a basis given by chromatic symmetric functions of trees.
