In this short note, we extend the result of Galluccio, Goddyn, and Hell, which states that graphs of large girth excluding a minor are nearly bipartite. We also prove a similar result for the oriented chromatic number, from which follows in particular that graphs of large girth excluding a minor have oriented chromatic number at most $5$, and for the $p$th chromatic number $χ_p$, from which follows in particular that graphs $G$ of large girth excluding a minor have $χ_p(G)\leq p+2$.
Erdős proved that there are graphs with arbitrarily large girth and chromatic number. We study the extension of this for generalized chromatic numbers.
We prove that there are intersection graphs of axis-aligned boxes in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and intersection graphs of straight lines in $\mathbb{R}^3$ that have arbitrarily large girth and chromatic number.
This paper settled the question, which remains open in article published in Discrete Mathematics in 2008. Graphs homeomorphic to $K_4$, i.e., cliques on 4 vertices with edges replaced by paths are considered in this work. This work completes the study of chromaticity of $K_4$-homeomorphs of girth 7.
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…
The distinguishing number $D(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the least integer $d$ such that $G$ has a vertex labeling with $d$ labels that is preserved only by a trivial automorphism. The distinguishing chromatic number $χ_{D}(G)$ of $G$ is defined similarly, where, in addition, $f$ is assumed to be a proper labeling. Motivated by a conjecture in \cite{colins}, we prove that if $G$ is a bipartite graph of girth at least six with the maximum degree $Δ(G)$, then $χ_{D}(G)\leq Δ(G)+1$. We also obtain an upper bound for $χ_{D}(G)$ where $G$ is a graph with at most one cycle. Finally, we state a relationshi…
We introduce a new method for computing bounds on the independence number and fractional chromatic number of classes of graphs with local constraints, and apply this method in various scenarios. We establish a formula that generates a general upper bound for the fractional chromatic number of triangle-free graphs of maximum degree~$Δ\ge 3$. This upper bound matches that deduced from the fractional version of Reed's bound for small values of~$Δ$, and improves it when~$Δ\ge 17$, transitioning smoothly to the best possible asymptotic regime, barring a breakthrough in Ramsey theory. Focusing on sm…
A strong $k$-edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is a mapping from $E(G)$ to $\{1,2,\ldots,k\}$ such that every pair of distinct edges at distance at most two receive different colors. The strong chromatic index $χ'_s(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ for which $G$ has a strong $k$-edge-coloring. Denote $σ(G)=\max_{xy\in E(G)}\{\operatorname{deg}(x)+\operatorname{deg}(y)-1\}$. It is easy to see that $σ(G) \le χ'_s(G)$ for any graph $G$, and the equality holds when $G$ is a tree. For a planar graph $G$ of maximum degree $Δ$, it was proved that $χ'_s(G) \le 4 Δ+4$ by using the Four Color Theorem. T…
Reed conjectured that for every epsilon>0 and Delta there exists g such that the fractional total chromatic number of a graph with maximum degree Delta and girth at least g is at most Delta+1+epsilon. We prove the conjecture for Delta=3 and for even Delta>=4 in the following stronger form: For each of these values of Delta, there exists g such that the fractional total chromatic number of any graph with maximum degree Delta and girth at least g is equal to Delta+1.
A b-coloring of a graph is a coloring of its vertices such that every color class contains a vertex that has a neighbor in all other classes. The b-chromatic number of a graph is the largest integer k such that the graph has a b-coloring with k colors. We show how to compute in polynomial time the b-chromatic number of a graph of girth at least 9. This improves the seminal result of Irving and Manlove on trees.
Brooks' Theorem states that a connected graph $G$ of maximum degree $Δ$ has chromatic number at most $Δ$, unless $G$ is an odd cycle or a complete graph. A result of Johansson (1996) shows that if $G$ is triangle-free, then the chromatic number drops to $O(Δ/ \log Δ)$. In this paper, we derive a weak analog for the chromatic number of digraphs. We show that every (loopless) digraph $D$ without directed cycles of length two has chromatic number $χ(D) \leq (1-e^{-13}) \tildeΔ$, where $\tildeΔ$ is the maximum geometric mean of the out-degree and in-degree of a vertex in $D$, when $\tildeΔ$ is suf…
In this article we consider a problem related to two famous combinatorial topics. One of them concerns the chromatic number of the space. The other deals with graphs having big girth (the length of the shortest cycle) and large chromatic number. Namely, we prove that for any $l\in \mathbb{N}$ there exists a sequence of distance graphs in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with girth at least $l$ and the chromatic number equal to $(c+\bar{o}(1))^n$ with $c>1$.
We study the computational efficiency of approaches, based on Hilbert's Nullstellensatz, which use systems of linear equations for detecting non-colorability of graphs having large girth and chromatic number. We show that for every non-$k$-colorable graph with $n$ vertices and girth $g>4k$, the algorithm is required to solve systems of size at least $n^{Ω(g)}$ in order to detect its non-$k$-colorability.
We give an upper bound for the online chromatic number of graphs with high girth and for graphs with high oddgirth generalizing Kier- stead's algorithm for graphs that contain neither a C3 or C5 as an induced subgraph.
It is known (Bollobás (1978); Kostochka and Mazurova (1977)) that there exist graphs of maximum degree $Δ$ and of arbitrarily large girth whose chromatic number is at least $c Δ/ \log Δ$. We show an analogous result for digraphs where the chromatic number of a digraph $D$ is defined as the minimum integer $k$ so that $V(D)$ can be partitioned into $k$ acyclic sets, and the girth is the length of the shortest cycle in the corresponding undirected graph. It is also shown, in the same vein as an old result of Erdos (1962), that there are digraphs with arbitrarily large chromatic number where ever…
We utilize relations between Khovanov and chromatic graph homology to determine extreme Khovanov groups and corresponding coefficients of the Jones polynomial. The extent to which chromatic homology and chromatic polynomial can be used to compute integral Khovanov homology of a link depends on the maximal girth of its all-positive graphs. In this paper we also define the girth of a link, discuss relations to other knot invariants, and the possible values for girth. Analyzing girth leads to a description of possible all-A state graphs of any given link; e.g., if a link has a diagram such that t…
We prove that for every $k$ and every $\varepsilon>0$, there exists $g$ such that every graph with tree-width at most $k$ and odd-girth at least $g$ has circular chromatic number at most $2+\varepsilon$.
For every positive integer $n$, we construct a Hasse diagram with $n$ vertices and chromatic number $Ω(n^{1/4})$, which significantly improves on the previously known best constructions of Hasse diagrams having chromatic number $Θ(\log n)$. In addition, if we also require that our Hasse diagram has girth at least $k\geq 5$, we can achieve a chromatic number of at least $n^{\frac{1}{2k-3}+o(1)}$. These results have the following surprising geometric consequence. They imply the existence of a family $\mathcal{C}$ of $n$ curves in the plane such that the disjointness graph $G$ of $\mathcal{C}$ is…
We show that every (sub)cubic n-vertex graph with sufficiently large girth has fractional chromatic number at most 2.2978 which implies that it contains an independent set of size at least 0.4352n. Our bound on the independence number is valid to random cubic graphs as well as it improves existing lower bounds on the maximum cut in cubic graphs with large girth.
An injective coloring of a graph is a vertex coloring where two vertices with common neighbor receive distinct colors. The minimum integer $k$ that $G$ has a $k-$injective coloring is called injective chromatic number of $G$ and denoted by $χ_i(G)$. In this paper, the injective chromatic number of outerplanar graphs with maximum degree $Δ$ and girth $g$ is studied. It is shown that for every outerplanar graph, $χ_i(G)\leq Δ+2$, and this bound is tight. Then, it is proved that for outerplanar graphs with $Δ=3$, $χ_i(G)\leq Δ+1$ and the bound is tight for outerplanar graphs of girth three and $4…
The strong chromatic index of a graph $G$, denoted $χ_s'(G)$, is the least number of colors needed to edge-color $G$ so that edges at distance at most two receive distinct colors. The strong list chromatic index, denoted $χ_{s,\ell}'(G)$, is the least integer $k$ such that if arbitrary lists of size $k$ are assigned to each edge then $G$ can be edge-colored from those lists where edges at distance at most two receive distinct colors. We use the discharging method, the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz, and computation to show that if $G$ is a subcubic planar graph with $\operatorname{girth}(G) \ge…
We prove that every triangle-free graph with maximum degree $Δ$ has list chromatic number at most $(1+o(1))\fracΔ{\ln Δ}$. This matches the best-known bound for graphs of girth at least 5. We also provide a new proof that for any $r\geq 4$ every $K_r$-free graph has list-chromatic number at most $200r\frac{Δ\ln\lnΔ}{\lnΔ}$.
A graph with chromatic number $k$ is called $k$-chromatic. Using computational methods, we show that the smallest triangle-free 6-chromatic graphs have at least 32 and at most 40 vertices. We also determine the complete set of all triangle-free 5-chromatic graphs up to 24 vertices. This implies that Reed's conjecture holds for triangle-free graphs up to at least this order. We also establish that the smallest regular triangle-free 5-chromatic graphs have 24 vertices. Finally, we show that the smallest 5-chromatic graphs of girth at least 5 have at least 29 vertices and that the smallest 4-chro…
We consider two graph colouring problems in which edges at distance at most $t$ are given distinct colours, for some fixed positive integer $t$. We obtain two upper bounds for the distance-$t$ chromatic index, the least number of colours necessary for such a colouring. One is a bound of $(2-\eps)Δ^t$ for graphs of maximum degree at most $Δ$, where $\eps$ is some absolute positive constant independent of $t$. The other is a bound of $O(Δ^t/\log Δ)$ (as $Δ\to\infty$) for graphs of maximum degree at most $Δ$ and girth at least $2t+1$. The first bound is an analogue of Molloy and Reed's bound on t…
The distinguishing chromatic number, $χ_D(G)$, of a graph $G$ is the smallest number of colors in a proper coloring, $φ$, of $G$, such that the only automorphism of $G$ that preserves all colors of $φ$ is the identity map. Collins and Trenk conjectured that if $G$ is connected with girth at least 5 and $G\ne C_6$, then $χ_D(G)\le Δ+1$. We prove this conjecture.
Sharp bounds for the fractional chromatic number of high-girth $d$-degenerate graphs
The London School of Economics and Political Science（伦敦政治经济学院）；University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；The University of Victoria（维多利亚大学）
For every integer $r\ge3$ and every $\eps>0$ we construct a graph with maximum degree $r-1$ whose circular total chromatic number is in the interval $(r,r+\eps)$. This proves that (i) every integer $r\ge3$ is an accumulation point of the set of circular total chromatic numbers of graphs, and (ii) for every $Δ\ge2$, the set of circular total chromatic numbers of graphs with maximum degree $Δ$ is infinite. All these results hold for the set of circular total chromatic numbers of bipartite graphs as well.
Investigating the equality of the chromatic number and the circular chromatic number of graphs has been an active stream of research for last decades. In this regard, Habolhassan and Zhu [Circular chromatic number of Kneser graphs, Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series B, 2003] proved that if $n$ is sufficiently large with respect to $k$, then the Schrijver graph ${\rm SG}(n,k)$ has the same chromatic and circular chromatic number. Later, Meunier [A topological lower bound for the circular chromatic number of Schrijver graphs, Journal of Graph Theory, 2005] and independently, Simonyi and Tard…
We prove that in sparse Erdős-Rényi graphs of average degree $d$, the vector chromatic number (the relaxation of chromatic number coming from the Lovàsz theta function) is typically $\tfrac{1}{2}\sqrt{d} + o_d(1)$. This fits with a long-standing conjecture that various refutation and hypothesis-testing problems concerning $k$-colorings of sparse Erdős-Rényi graphs become computationally intractable below the `Kesten-Stigum threshold' $d_{KS,k} = (k-1)^2$. Along the way, we use the celebrated Ihara-Bass identity and a carefully constructed non-backtracking random walk to prove two deterministic…
We prove that for all nonnegative integers k,s there exists c with the following property. Let G be a graph with clique number at most k and chromatic number more than c. Then for every vertex-colouring (not necessarily optimal) of G, some induced subgraph of G is an s-vertex path, and all its vertices have different colours. This extends a recent result of Gyarfas and Sarkozy, who proved the same (when k=2) for graphs G with girth at least five.
Alon and Mohar (2002) posed the following problem: among all graphs $G$ of maximum degree at most $d$ and girth at least $g$, what is the largest possible value of $χ(G^t)$, the chromatic number of the $t$th power of $G$? For $t\ge 3$, we provide several upper and lower bounds concerning this problem, all of which are sharp up to a constant factor as $d\to \infty$. The upper bounds rely in part on the probabilistic method, while the lower bounds are various direct constructions whose building blocks are incidence structures.
A b-coloring of a graph is a proper coloring of its vertices such that each color class contains a vertex adjacent to at least one vertex of every other color class. The b-chromatic number of a graph is the largest integer k such that the graph has a b-coloring with k colors. In this work we present lower bounds for the b-chromatic number of a vertex-deleted subgraph of a graph, particularly regarding two important classes, quasi-line and chordal graphs. We also get bounds for the b-chromatic number of G -{x}, when G is a graph with large girth.
In this work, the classical Nelson -- Hadwiger problem is studied which lies on the edge of combinatorial geometry and graph theory. It concerns colorings of distance graphs in $ {\mathbb R}^n $, i.e., graphs such that their vertices are vectors and their edges are pairs of vectors at a distance from a given set of postive numbers apart. A series of new lower bounds are obtained for the chromatic numbers of such graphs with different restrictions on the clique numbers and the girths.
We prove that for any graph $G$ of maximum degree at most $Δ$, the zeros of its chromatic polynomial $χ_G(z)$ (in $\mathbb{C}$) lie outside the disk of radius $5.02 Δ$ centered at $0$. This improves on the previously best known bound of approximately $6.91Δ$. In the case of graphs of high girth we can improve this. We prove that for every $g$ there is a constant $K_g$ such that for any graph $G$ of maximum degree at most $Δ$ and girth at least $g$, the zeros of its chromatic polynomial $χ_G(z)$ lie outside the disk of radius $K_g Δ$ centered at $0$ where $K_g \to 1 + e \approx 3.72$ as $g \to …
We denote by $χ$ g (G) the game chromatic number of a graph G, which is the smallest number of colors Alice needs to win the coloring game on G. We know from Montassier et al. [M. Montassier, P. Ossona de Mendez, A. Raspaud and X. Zhu, Decomposing a graph into forests, J. Graph Theory Ser. B, 102(1):38-52, 2012] and, independantly, from Wang and Zhang, [Y. Wang and Q. Zhang. Decomposing a planar graph with girth at least 8 into a forest and a matching, Discrete Maths, 311:844-849, 2011] that planar graphs with girth at least 8 have game chromatic number at most 5. One can ask if this bound of …
A signed graph is a pair $(G, σ)$, where $G$ is a graph and $σ: E(G) \to \{+, -\}$ is a signature which assigns to each edge of $G$ a sign. Various notions of coloring of signed graphs have been studied. In this paper, we extend circular coloring of graphs to signed graphs. Given a signed graph $(G, σ)$ a circular $r$-coloring of $(G, σ)$ is an assignment $ψ$ of points of a circle of circumference $r$ to the vertices of $G$ such that for every edge $e=uv$ of $G$, if $σ(e)=+$, then $ψ(u)$ and $ψ(v)$ have distance at least $1$, and if $σ(e)=-$, then $ψ(v)$ and the antipodal of $ψ(u)$ have distan…
The $b$-chromatic number of a graph $G$, denoted by $b(G)$, is the largest positive integer $k$ such that there exists a proper coloring for G with $k$ colors in which every color class contains at least one vertex adjacent to some vertex in each of the other color classes, such a vertex is called a dominant vertex. The $f$-chromatic vertex number of a $d$-regular graph $G$, denoted by $f(G)$, is the maximum number of dominant vertices of distinct colors in a proper coloring with $d+1$ colors. El Sahili and Kouider conjectured that $b(G)=d+1$ for any $d$-regular graph $G$ of girth 5. We study …
We present a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph of odd-girth $2k+1$ to bound the class of $K_4$-minor-free graphs of odd-girth (at least) $2k+1$, that is, to admit a homomorphism from any such $K_4$-minor-free graph. This yields a polynomial-time algorithm to recognize such bounds. Using this condition, we first prove that every $K_4$-minor free graph of odd-girth $2k+1$ admits a homomorphism to the projective hypercube of dimension $2k$. This supports a conjecture of the third author which generalizes the four-color theorem and relates to several outstanding conjectures such as Se…
A graph G is (a:b)-colorable if there exists an assignment of b-element subsets of {1,...,a} to vertices of G such that sets assigned to adjacent vertices are disjoint. We first show that for every triangle-free planar graph G and a vertex x of G, the graph G has a set coloring phi by subsets of {1,...,6} such that |phi(v)|>=2 for each vertex v of G and |phi(x)|=3. As a corollary, every triangle-free planar graph on n vertices is (6n:2n+1)-colorable. We further use this result to prove that for every Delta, there exists a constant M_Delta such that every planar graph G of girth at least five a…
The Additive Coloring Problem is a variation of the Coloring Problem where labels of $\{1,\ldots,k\}$ are assigned to the vertices of a graph $G$ so that the sum of labels over the neighborhood of each vertex is a proper coloring of $G$. The least value $k$ for which $G$ admits such labeling is called \emph{additive chromatic number} of $G$. This problem was first presented by Czerwiński, Grytczuk and Żelazny who also proposed a conjecture that for every graph $G$, the additive chromatic number never exceeds the classic chromatic number. Up to date, the conjecture has been proved for complete …
A packing $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a partition of $V(G)$ into sets $V_1,\ldots,V_k$ such that for each $1\leq i\leq k$ the distance between any two distinct $x,y\in V_i$ is at least $i+1$. The packing chromatic number, $χ_p(G)$, of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that $G$ has a packing $k$-coloring. Sloper showed that there are $4$-regular graphs with arbitrarily large packing chromatic number. The question whether the packing chromatic number of subcubic graphs is bounded appears in several papers. We answer this question in the negative. Moreover, we show that for every fixed $k$ a…
As a natural generalization of chromatic number of a graph, the circular chromatic number of graphs (or the star chromatic number) was introduced by A.Vince in 1988. Let $M^t(G)$ denote the $t$th iterated Mycielski graph of $G$. It was conjectured by Chang, Huang and Zhu(Discrete mathematics,205(1999), 23-37) that for all $n \ge t+2, χ_c(M^t(K_n))=χ(M^t(K_n))=n+t.$ In 2004, D.D.F. Liu proved the conjecture when $t\ge 2$, $n\ge 2^{t-1}+2t-2$. In this paper,we show that the result can be strengthened to the following: if $t\ge 4$, $n\ge {11/12}2^{t-1}+2t+{1/3}$, then $χ_c(M^t(K_n))=χ(M^t(K_n))$.
