Král' and Sgall (2005) introduced a refinement of list colouring where every colour list must be subset to one predetermined palette of colours. We call this $(k,\ell)$-choosability when the palette is of size at most $\ell$ and the lists must be of size at least $k$. They showed that, for any integer $k\ge 2$, there is an integer $C=C(k,2k-1)$, satisfying $C = O(16^{k}\ln k)$ as $k\to \infty$, such that, if a graph is $(k,2k-1)$-choosable, then it is $C$-choosable, and asked if $C$ is required to be exponential in $k$. We demonstrate it must satisfy $C = Ω(4^k/\sqrt{k})$.
For an integer $\ell \ge 2k-1$, if $C(k,\ell)$ is the least integer such that a graph is $C(k,\ell)$-choosable if it is $(k,\ell)$-choosable, then we more generally supply a lower bound on $C(k,\ell)$, one that is super-polynomial in $k$ if $\ell = o(k^2/\ln k)$, by relation to an extremal set theoretic property. By the use of containers, we also give upper bounds on $C(k,\ell)$ that improve on earlier bounds if $\ell \ge 2.75 k$.
We consider a variation of the prototype combinatorial-optimisation problem known as graph-colouring. Our optimisation goal is to colour the vertices of a graph with a fixed number of colours, in a way to maximise the number of different colours present in the set of nearest neighbours of each given vertex. This problem, which we pictorially call "palette-colouring", has been recently addressed as a basic example of problem arising in the context of distributed data storage. Even though it has not been proved to be NP complete, random search algorithms find the problem hard to solve. Heuristic…
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 proves that for each positive integer $m$, there is a planar graph $G$ which is not $(4m+\lfloor \frac{2m-1}{9}\rfloor,m)$-choosable. Then we pose some conjectures concerning multiple list colouring of planar graphs.
This paper proves that for each positive integer $m$, there is a triangle-free planar graph $G$ which is not $(3m+ \lceil \frac m{17} \rceil-1, m)$-choosable.
This paper disproves a conjecture of Wang, Wu, Yan and Xie, and answers in negative a question in Dvorak, Pekarek and Sereni. In return, we pose five open problems.
This paper proves the following result: If $G$ is a planar graph and $L$ is a $4$-list assignment of $G$ such that $|L(x) \cap L(y)| \le 2$ for every edge $xy$, then $G$ is $L$-colourable. This answers a question asked by Kratochvíl, Tuza and Voigt in [Journal of Graph Theory, 27(1):43--49, 1998].
The notion of a Galvin orientation of a line graph is introduced, generalizing the idea used by Galvin in his landmark proof of the list-edge-colouring conjecture for bipartite graphs. If L(G) has a proper Galvin orientation with respect to k, then it immediately implies that G is k-list-edge-colourable, but the converse is not true. The stronger property is studied in graphs of the form `bipartite plus an edge', the Petersen graph, cliques, and simple graphs without odd cycles of length 5 or longer.
In 1977, Wegner conjectured that the chromatic number of the square of every planar graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ\ge8$ is at most $\bigl\lfloor\frac32Δ\bigr\rfloor+1$. We show that it is at most $\frac32 Δ(1+o(1))$ (where the $o(1)$ is as $Δ\to+\infty$), and indeed that this is true for the list chromatic number and for more general classes of graphs.
Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ vertices and let $\mathcal{L}_k$ be an arbitrary function that assigns each vertex in $G$ a list of $k$ colours. Then $G$ is $\mathcal{L}_k$-list colourable if there exists a proper colouring of the vertices of $G$ such that every vertex is coloured with a colour from its own list. We say $G$ is $k$-choosable if for every such function $\mathcal{L}_k$, $G$ is $\mathcal{L}_k$-list colourable. The minimum $k$ such that $G$ is $k$-choosable is called the list chromatic number of $G$ and is denoted by $χ_L(G)$. Let $χ_L(G) = s$ and let $t$ be a positive integer less than …
Ohba has conjectured \cite{ohb} that if the graph $G$ has $2χ(G)+1$ or fewer vertices then the list chromatic number and chromatic number of $G$ are equal. In this paper we prove that this conjecture is asymptotically correct. More precisely we obtain that for any $0<ε<1$, there exist an $n_0=n_0(ε)$ such that the list chromatic number of $G$ equals its chromatic number, provided $$n_0 \leq |V(G) | \le (2-ε)χ(G).$$
Let $G$ be a simple planar graph of maximum degree $Δ$, let $t$ be a positive integer, and let $L$ be an edge list assignment on $G$ with $|L(e)| \geq Δ+t$ for all $e \in E(G)$. We prove that if $H$ is a subgraph of $G$ that has been $L$-edge-coloured, then the edge-precolouring can be extended to an $L$-edge-colouring of $G$, provided that $H$ has maximum degree $d\leq t$ and either $d \leq t-4$ or $Δ$ is large enough ($Δ\geq 16+d$ suffices). If $d>t$, there are examples for any choice of $Δ$ where the extension is impossible.
We generalize a framework of list colouring results to correspondence colouring. Correspondence colouring is a generalization of list colouring wherein we localize the meaning of the colours available to each vertex. As pointed out by Dvořák and Postle, both of Thomassen's theorems on the 5-choosability of planar graphs and 3-choosability of planar graphs of girth at least five carry over to the correspondence colouring setting. In this paper, we show that the family of graphs that are critical for 5-correspondence colouring as well as the family of graphs of girth at least five that are criti…
A graph is $\ell$-choosable if, for any choice of lists of $\ell$ colors for each vertex, there is a list coloring, which is a coloring where each vertex receives a color from its list. We study complexity issues of choosability of graphs when the number $k$ of colors is limited. We get results which differ surprisingly from the usual case where $k$ is implicit and which extend known results for the usual case. We also exhibit some classes of graphs (defined by structural properties of their blocks) which are choosable.
Proportional choosability is a list coloring analogue of equitable coloring. Specifically, a $k$-assignment $L$ for a graph $G$ specifies a list $L(v)$ of $k$ available colors to each $v \in V(G)$. An $L$-coloring assigns a color to each vertex $v$ from its list $L(v)$. A proportional $L$-coloring of $G$ is a proper $L$-coloring in which each color $c \in \bigcup_{v \in V(G)} L(v)$ is used $\lfloor η(c)/k \rfloor$ or $\lceil η(c)/k \rceil$ times where $η(c)=\left\lvert{\{v \in V(G) : c \in L(v) \}}\right\rvert$. A graph $G$ is proportionally $k$-choosable if a proportional $L$-coloring of $G$ …
We restate theorems of Hutchinson on list-colouring extendability for outerplanar graphs in terms of non-vanishing monomials in a graph polynomial, which yields an Alon-Tarsi equivalent for her work. This allows to simplify her proofs as well as obtain more general results.
A list assignment $L$ for a graph $G$ is an $(\ell,k)$-list assignment if $|L(v)|\geq \ell$ for each $v \in V(G)$ and $|L(u) \cap L(v)| \leq k$ for each $uv \in E(G)$. We say $G$ is $(\ell,k)$-choosable if it admits an $L$-colouring for every $(\ell, k)$-list assignment $L$. We prove that if $G$ is a planar graph with $(4,2)$-list assignment $L$ and for every triangle $T \subseteq G$ we have that $|\bigcap_{v \in V(T)} L(v)| \neq 2$, then $G$ is $L$-colourable. In fact, we prove a slightly stronger result: if $G$ contains a clique $H$ such that $V(H) \cap V(T) \neq \emptyset$ for every triangl…
A vertex colouring of some graph is called perfect if each vertex of colour $i$ has exactly $a_{ij}$ neighbours of colour $j$. Being perfect imposes several restrictions on the colour incidence matrix $(a_{ij})$. We list several (old and new) necessary conditions for a matrix to be the colour incidence matrix of a perfect colouring. Moreover we show that a certain combination of these conditions is also sufficient. Using this we determine a list of all colour incidence matrices corresponding to perfect colourings of 3-regular, 4-regular and 5-regular graphs with two, three and four colours, re…
A graph $G$ is called $3$-choice critical if $G$ is not $2$-choosable but any proper subgraph is $2$-choosable. A characterization of $3$-choice critical graphs was given by Voigt in [On list Colourings and Choosability of Graphs, Habilitationsschrift, Tu Ilmenau(1998)]. Voigt conjectured that if $G$ is a bipartite $3$-choice critical graph, then $G$ is $(4m, 2m)$-choosable for every integer $m$. This conjecture was disproved by Meng, Puleo and Zhu in [On (4, 2)-Choosable Graphs, Journal of Graph Theory 85(2):412-428(2017)]. They showed that if $G=Θ_{r,s,t}$ where $r,s,t$ have the same parity …
The Unfriendly Partition Conjecture posits that every countable graph admits a 2-colouring in which for each vertex there are at least as many bichromatic edges containing that vertex as monochromatic ones. This is not known in general, but it is known that a 3-colouring with this property always exists. Anholcer, Bosek and Grytczuk recently gave a list-colouring version of this conjecture, and proved that such a colouring exists for lists of size 4. We improve their result to lists of size 3; the proof extends to directed acyclic graphs. We also discuss some generalisations.
We prove two distinct and natural refinements of a recent breakthrough result of Molloy (and a follow-up work of Bernshteyn) on the (list) chromatic number of triangle-free graphs. In both our results, we permit the amount of colour made available to vertices of lower degree to be accordingly lower. One result concerns list colouring and correspondence colouring, while the other concerns fractional colouring. Our proof of the second illustrates the use of the hard-core model to prove a Johansson-type result, which may be of independent interest.
Let ${\mathcal D}_d$ be the class of $d$-degenerate graphs and let $L$ be a list assignment for a graph $G$. A colouring of $G$ such that every vertex receives a colour from its list and the subgraph induced by vertices coloured with one color is a $d$-degenerate graph is called the $(L,{\mathcal D}_d)$-colouring of $G$. For a $k$-uniform list assignment $L$ and $d\in\mathbb{N}_0$, a graph $G$ is equitably $(L,{\mathcal D}_d)$-colorable if there is an $(L,{\mathcal D}_d)$-colouring of $G$ such that the size of any colour class does not exceed $\left\lceil|V(G)|/k\right\rceil$. An equitable $(L…
The Four Colour Theorem asserts that the vertices of every plane graph can be properly coloured with four colors. Fabrici and Göring conjectured the following stronger statement to also hold: the vertices of every plane graph can be properly coloured with the numbers 1,...,4 in such a way that every face contains a unique vertex coloured with the maximal color appearing on that face. They proved that every plane graph has such a colouring with the numbers 1,...,6. We prove that every plane graph has such a colouring with the numbers 1,...,5 and we also prove the list variant of the statement f…
Let $χ_l(G)$ denote the list chromatic number of the $r$-uniform hypergraph~$G$. Extending a result of Alon for graphs, Saxton and the second author used the method of containers to prove that, if $G$ is simple and $d$-regular, then $χ_l(G)\ge (1/(r-1)+o(1))\log_r d$. To see how close this inequality is to best possible, we examine $χ_l(G)$ when $G$ is a random $r$-partite hypergraph with $n$ vertices in each class. The value when $r=2$ was determined by Alon and Krivelevich, here we show that $χ_l(G)= (g(r,α)+o(1))\log_r d$ almost surely, where $d$ is the expected average degree of~$G$ and $α…
A fundamental connection between list vertex colourings of graphs and Property B (also known as hypergraph 2-colourability) was already known to Erdős, Rubin and Taylor. In this article, we draw similar connections for improper list colourings. This extends results of Kostochka, Alon, and Král' and Sgall for, respectively, multipartite graphs, graphs of large minimum degree, and list assignments with bounded list union.
There are two conjectures concerning planar graph colourings that are strengthenings of the four colour theorem. One concerns signed graph colouring and is proposed by Máčajová, Raspaud and Škoviera. It asserts that every signed planar graph is $4$-colourable. Another concerns list colouring and is proposed by Kündgen and Ramamurthi which asserts that if $L$ is a $2$-list assignment of a planar graph $G$, then there is an $L$-colouring of $G$ such that each colour class induces a bipartite graph. In this note we prove that the first conjecture implies the second one.
A celebrated result of Thomassen states that not only can every planar graph be colored properly with five colors, but no matter how arbitrary palettes of five colors are assigned to vertices, one can choose a color from the corresponding palette for each vertex so that the resulting coloring is proper. This result is referred to as 5-choosability of planar graphs. Albertson asked whether Thomassen's theorem can be extended by precoloring some vertices which are at a large enough distance apart in a graph. Here, among others, we answer the question in the case when the graph does not contain s…
An adjacent vertex distinguishing edge colouring of a graph $G$ without isolated edges is its proper edge colouring such that no pair of adjacent vertices meets the same set of colours in $G$. We show that such colouring can be chosen from any set of lists associated to the edges of $G$ as long as the size of every list is at least $Δ+CΔ^{\frac{1}{2}}(\logΔ)^4$, where $Δ$ is the maximum degree of $G$ and $C$ is a constant. The proof is probabilistic. The same is true in the environment of total colourings.
Let $K_{n,n}$ be the complete bipartite graph with $n$ vertices in each side. For each vertex draw uniformly at random a list of size $k$ from a base set $S$ of size $s=s(n)$. In this paper we estimate the asymptotic probability of the existence of a proper colouring from the random lists for all fixed values of $k$ and growing $n$. We show that this property exhibits a sharp threshold for $k\geq 2$ and the location of the threshold is precisely $s(n)=2n$ for $k=2$, and approximately $s(n)=\frac{n}{2^{k-1}\ln 2}$ for $k\geq 3$.
We say that a vertex colouring $φ$ of a graph $G$ is nonrepetitive if there is no positive integer $n$ and a path on $2n$ vertices $v_{1}\ldots v_{2n}$ in $G$ such that the associated sequence of colours $φ(v_{1})\ldotsφ(v_{2n})$ satisfy $φ(v_{i})=φ(v_{i+n})$ for all $i=1,2,\dots,n$. The minimum number of colours in a nonrepetitive vertex colouring of $G$ is the Thue chromatic number $π(G)$. For the case of vertex list colourings the Thue choice number $π_{l}(G)$ of $G$ denotes the smallest integer $k$ such that for every list assignment $L:V(G)\rightarrow 2^{\mathbb{N}}$ with minimum list len…
Let $C_n^k$ be the $k$-th power of a cycle on $n$ vertices (i.e. the vertices of $C_n^k$ are those of the $n$-cycle, and two vertices are connected by an edge if their distance along the cycle is at most $k$). For each vertex draw uniformly at random a subset of size $c$ from a base set $S$ of size $s=s(n)$. In this paper we solve the problem of determining the asymptotic probability of the existence of a proper colouring from the lists for all fixed values of $c,k$, and growing $n$.
We examine the computational complexity of approximately counting the list H-colourings of a graph. We discover a natural graph-theoretic trichotomy based on the structure of the graph H. If H is an irreflexive bipartite graph or a reflexive complete graph then counting list H-colourings is trivially in polynomial time. Otherwise, if H is an irreflexive bipartite permutation graph or a reflexive proper interval graph then approximately counting list H-colourings is equivalent to #BIS, the problem of approximately counting independent sets in a bipartite graph. This is a well-studied problem wh…
In this paper, the on-line list colouring of binomial random graphs G(n,p) is studied. We show that the on-line choice number of G(n,p) is asymptotically almost surely asymptotic to the chromatic number of G(n,p), provided that the average degree d=p(n-1) tends to infinity faster than (log log n)^1/3(log n)^2n^(2/3). For sparser graphs, we are slightly less successful; we show that if d>(log n)^(2+epsilon) for some epsilon>0, then the on-line choice number is larger than the chromatic number by at most a multiplicative factor of C, where C in [2,4], depending on the range of d. Also, for d=O(1…
A colouring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a function $c: V\rightarrow\{1,2,\ldots \}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for every $uv\in E$. A $k$-regular list assignment of $G$ is a function $L$ with domain $V$ such that for every $u\in V$, $L(u)$ is a subset of $\{1, 2, \dots\}$ of size $k$. A colouring $c$ of $G$ respects a $k$-regular list assignment $L$ of $G$ if $c(u)\in L(u)$ for every $u\in V$. A graph $G$ is $k$-choosable if for every $k$-regular list assignment $L$ of $G$, there exists a colouring of $G$ that respects $L$. We may also ask if for a given $k$-regular list assignment $L$ of a given g…
Given $η\in [0, 1]$, a colouring $C$ of $V(G)$ is an $η$-majority colouring if at most $ηd^+(v)$ out-neighbours of $v$ have colour $C(v)$, for any $v \in V(G)$. We show that every digraph $G$ equipped with an assignment of lists $L$, each of size at least $k$, has a $2/k$-majority $L$-colouring. For even $k$ this is best possible, while for odd $k$ the constant $2/k$ cannot be replaced by any number less than $2/(k+1)$. This generalizes a result of Anholcer, Bosek and Grytczuk, who proved the cases $k=3$ and $k=4$ and gave a weaker result for general $k$.
Consider any dense r-regular quasirandom bipartite graph H with parts of size n and fix a set of r colours. Let L be a random list assignment where each colour is available for each edge of H with probability p. We show that the threshold probability for H to have a proper L-edge-colouring is p of order (log n)/n. This answers a question of Kang, Kelly, Kühn, Methuku and Osthus. We thus obtain the same threshold for Steiner Triple Systems and Latin squares; the latter answers a question of Johanssen from 2006.
For a positive integer $k$ and graph $G=(V,E)$, a $k$-colouring of $G$ is a mapping $c: V\rightarrow\{1,2,\ldots,k\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ whenever $uv\in E$. The $k$-Colouring problem is to decide, for a given $G$, whether a $k$-colouring of $G$ exists. The $k$-Precolouring Extension problem is to decide, for a given $G=(V,E)$, whether a colouring of a subset of $V$ can be extended to a $k$-colouring of $G$. A $k$-list assignment of a graph is an allocation of a list -a subset of $\{1,\ldots,k\}$- to each vertex, and the List $k$-Colouring problem is to decide, for a given $G$, whether $…
A sequence is nonrepetitive if it contains no identical consecutive subsequences. An edge colouring of a path is nonrepetitive if the sequence of colours of its consecutive edges is nonrepetitive. By the celebrated construction of Thue, it is possible to generate nonrepetitive edge colourings for arbitrarily long paths using only three colours. A recent generalization of this concept implies that we may obtain such colourings even if we are forced to choose edge colours from any sequence of lists of size 4 (while sufficiency of lists of size 3 remains an open problem). As an extension of these…
The Catalan numbers occur in various counting problems in combinatorics. This paper reveals a connection between the Catalan numbers and list colouring of graphs. Assume $G$ is a graph and $f:V(G) \to N$ is a mapping. For a nonnegative integer $m$, let $f^{(m)}$ be the extension of $f$ to the graph $ G \diamondplus \overline{K_m}$ for which $f^{(m)}(v)=|V(G)|$ for each vertex $v$ of $\overline{K_m}$. Let $m_c(G,f)$ be the minimum $m$ such that $ G \diamondplus \overline{K_m}$ is not $f^{(m)}$-choosable and $m_p(G,f)$ be the minimum $m$ such that $ G \diamondplus \overline{K_m}$ is not $f^{(m)}…
A colouring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a mapping $c\colon V\to \{1,2,\ldots\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for every two adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$. The {\sc List $k$-Colouring} problem is to decide whether a graph $G=(V,E)$ with a list $L(u)\subseteq \{1,\ldots,k\}$ for each $u\in V$ has a colouring $c$ such that $c(u)\in L(u)$ for every $u\in V$. Let $P_t$ be the path on $t$ vertices and let $K_{1,s}^1$ be the graph obtained from the $(s+1)$-vertex star $K_{1,s}$ by subdividing each of its edges exactly once.Recently, Chudnovsky, Spirkl and Zhong (DM 2020) proved that List $3$-Colouring…
Assume $L$ is a $k$-list assignment of a graph $G$. A $d$-defective $m$-fold $L$-colouring $ϕ$ of $G$ assigns to each vertex $v$ a set $ϕ(v)$ of $m$ colours, so that $ϕ(v) \subseteq L(v)$ for each vertex $v$, and for each colour $i$, the set $\{v: i \in ϕ(v)\}$ induces a subgraph of maximum degree at most $d$. In this paper, we consider on-line list $d$-defective $m$-fold colouring of graphs, where the list assignment $L$ is given on-line, and the colouring is constructed on-line. To be precise, the $d$-defective $(k,m)$-painting game on a graph $G$ is played by two players: Lister and Painter…
