The chromatic number of signed graphs is defined recently. The coloring and clique problem of interval graphs has been studied and polynomial time algorithms are established. Here we consider these problems for signed interval graphs and prove that the coloring problem of signed interval graphs is NP-complete whereas their ordinary clique problem is in P. We also study the complexity of further related problems.
We define a method for edge coloring signed graphs and what it means for such a coloring to be proper. Our method has many desirable properties: it specializes to the usual notion of edge coloring when the signed graph is all-negative, it has a natural definition in terms of vertex coloring of a line graph, and the minimum number of colors required for a proper coloring of a signed simple graph is bounded above by Δ + 1 in parallel with Vizing's Theorem. In fact, Vizing's Theorem is a special case of the more difficult theorem concerning signed graphs.
Let $k, d$ ($2d \leq k)$ be two positive integers. We generalize the well studied notions of $(k,d)$-colorings and of the circular chromatic number $χ_c$ to signed graphs. This implies a new notion of colorings of signed graphs, and the corresponding chromatic number $χ$. Some basic facts on circular colorings of signed graphs and on the circular chromatic number are proved, and differences to the results on unsigned graphs are analyzed. In particular, we show that the difference between the circular chromatic number and the chromatic number of a signed graph is at most 1. Indeed, there are si…
Phil Hanlon proved that the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial of a graph G are equal (up to sign) to the dimensions of the summands in a Hodge-type decomposition of the top homology of the coloring complex for G. We prove a type B analogue of this result for chromatic polynomials of signed graphs using hyperoctahedral Eulerian idempotents.
We extend the work of Hanlon on the chromatic polynomial of an unlabeled graph to define the unlabeled chromatic polynomial of an unlabeled signed graph. Explicit formulas are presented for labeled and unlabeled signed chromatic polynomials as summations over distinguished order-ideals of the signed partition lattice. We also define the quotient of a signed graph by a signed permutation, and show that its signed graphic arrangement is closely related to an induced arrangement on a distinguished subspace. Lastly, a formula for the number of unlabeled acyclic orientations of a signed graph is pr…
There are many concepts of signed graph coloring which are defined by assigning colors to the vertices of the graphs. These concepts usually differ in the number of self-inverse colors used. We introduce a unifying concept for this kind of coloring by assigning elements from symmetric sets to the vertices of the signed graphs. In the first part of the paper, we study colorings with elements from symmetric sets where the number of self-inverse elements is fixed. We prove a Brooks'-type theorem and upper bounds for the corresponding chromatic numbers in terms of the chromatic number of the under…
It is known that, for any $k$-list assignment $L$ of a graph $G$, the number of $L$-list colorings of $G$ is at least the number of the proper $k$-colorings of $G$ when $k>(m-1)/\ln(1+\sqrt{2})$. In this paper, we extend the Whitney's broken cycle theorem to $L$-colorings of signed graphs, by which we show that if $k> \binom{m}{3}+\binom{m}{4}+m-1$ then, for any $k$-assignment $L$, the number of $L$-colorings of a signed graph $Σ$ with $m$ edges is at least the number of the proper $k$-colorings of $Σ$. Further, if $L$ is $0$-free (resp., $0$-included) and $k$ is even (resp., odd), then the lo…
Signed list edge coloring in graphs of bounded treewidth
Yan’an University（延安大学）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Northwestern Polytechnical University（西北工业大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics & Key Laboratory of Analytical Mathematics and Applications (Ministry of Education), Fujian Normal University（福建师范大学数学与统计学院与分析数学及应用重点实验室（教育部））；School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University（西北工业大学海洋科学与技术学院）
Dvořák and Postle \cite{DP} introduced a \textit{DP-coloring} of a simple graph as a generalization of a list-coloring. They proved a Brooks' type theorem for a DP-coloring, and Bernshteyn, Kostochka and Pron \cite{BKP} extended it to a DP-coloring of multigraphs. However, detailed structure when a multigraph does not admit a DP-coloring was not specified in \cite{BKP}. In this note, we make this point clear and give the complete structure. This is also motivated by the relation to signed coloring of signed graphs.
A circular $r$-coloring of a signed graph $(G, σ)$ is an assignment $ϕ$ of points of a circle $C_r$ of circumference $r$ to the vertices of $(G, σ)$ such that for each positive edge $uv$ of $(G, σ)$ the distance of $ϕ(v)$ and $ϕ(v)$ is at least 1 and for each negative edge $uv$ the distance of $ϕ(u)$ from the antipodal of $ϕ(v)$ is at least 1. The circular chromatic number of $(G, σ)$, denoted $χ_c(G, σ)$, is the infimum of $r$ such that $(G, σ)$ admits a circular $r$-coloring. This notion is recently defined by Naserasr, Wang, and Zhu who, among other results, proved that for any signed $d$-d…
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 notion of the circular coloring of signed graphs is a recent one that simultaneously extends both notions of the circular coloring of graphs and $0$-free coloring of signed graphs. A circular $r$-coloring of a signed graph $(G, σ)$ is to assign points of a circle of circumference $r$, $r\geq 2$, to the vertices of $G$ such that vertices connected by a positive edge are at circular distance at least $1$ and vertices connected by a negative edge are at circular distance at most $\frac{r}{2}-1$. The infimum of all $r$ for which $(G, σ)$ admits a circular $r$-coloring is said to be the circula…
DP-coloring of a simple graph is a generalization of list coloring, and also a generalization of signed coloring of signed graphs. It is known that for each $k \in \{3, 4, 5, 6\}$, every planar graph without $C_k$ is 4-choosable. Furthermore, Jin, Kang, and Steffen \cite{JKS} showed that for each $k \in \{3, 4, 5, 6\}$, every signed planar graph without $C_k$ is signed 4-choosable. In this paper, we show that for each $k \in \{3, 4, 5, 6\}$, every planar graph without $C_k$ is 4-DP-colorable, which is an extension of the above results.
A signed graph $(G, Σ)$ is a graph $G$ and a subset $Σ$ of its edges which corresponds to an assignment of signs to the edges: edges in $Σ$ are negative while edges not in $Σ$ are positive. A closed walk of a signed graph is balanced if the product of the signs of its edges (repetitions included) is positive, and unbalanced otherwise. The unbalanced-girth of a signed graph is the length of a shortest unbalanced closed walk (if such a walk exists). A homomorphism of $(G,Σ)$ to $(H,Π)$ is a homomorphism of $G$ to $H$ which preserves the balance of closed walks. In this work, given a signed bipar…
We present a new correspondence between acyclic orientations and coloring of a signed graph (symmetric graph). Goodall et al. introduced a bivariate chromatic polynomial $χ_G(k,l)$ that counts the number of signed colorings using colors $0,\pm1,\dots,\pm k$ along with $l-1$ symmetric colors $0_1,\dots,0_{l-1}$. We show that the evaluation of the bivariate chromatic polynomial $|χ_G(-1,2)|$ is equal to the number of acyclic orientations of the signed graph modulo the equivalence relation generated by swapping sources and sinks. We present three proofs of this fact, a proof using toric hyperplan…
In 2015, Matthias Beck and his team developed a computer program in SAGE which efficiently determines the number of signed proper $k$-colorings for a given signed graph. In this article, we determine the number of different signatures on Book graph up to switching isomorphisms. We also find a recursive formula of the signed chromatic polynomials of signed Book graphs.
There are several ways to generalize graph coloring to signed graphs. Máčajová, Raspaud and Škoviera introduced one of them and conjectured that in this setting, for signed planar graphs four colors are always enough, generalising thereby The Four Color Theorem. We disprove the conjecture.
We give a simple short proof of Brooks' theorem using only induction and greedy coloring, while avoiding issues of graph connectivity. The argument generalizes easily to some extensions of Brooks' theorem, including its variants for list coloring, signed graphs coloring and correspondence coloring.
A signed graph is a graph in which each edge is labeled with $+1$ or $-1$. A (proper) vertex coloring of a signed graph is a mapping $\f$ that assigns to each vertex $v\in V(G)$ a color $\f(v)\in \mz$ such that every edge $vw$ of $G$ satisfies $\f(v)\not= \sg(vw)\f(w)$, where $\sg(vw)$ is the sign of the edge $vw$. For an integer $h\geq 0$, let $\Ga_{2h}=\{\pm1,\pm2, \ldots, \pm h\}$ and $\Ga_{2h+1}=\Ga_{2h} \cup \{0\}$. Following \cite{MaRS2015}, the signed chromatic number $\scn(G)$ of $G$ is the least integer $k$ such that $G$ admits a vertex coloring $\f$ with ${\rm im}(\f)\subseteq \Ga_k$…
We confirm the equitable $Δ$-coloring conjecture for interval graphs and establish the monotonicity of equitable colorability for them. We further obtain results on equitable colorability about square (or Cartesian) and cross (or direct) products of graphs.
An \emph{interval $t$-coloring} of a multigraph $G$ is a proper edge coloring with colors $1,\dots,t$ such that the colors on the edges incident to every vertex of $G$ are colored by consecutive colors. A \emph{cyclic interval $t$-coloring} of a multigraph $G$ is a proper edge coloring with colors $1,\dots,t$ such that the colors on the edges incident to every vertex of $G$ are colored by consecutive colors, under the condition that color $1$ is considered as consecutive to color $t$. Denote by $w(G)$ ($w_{c}(G)$) and $W(G)$ ($W_{c}(G)$) the minimum and maximum number of colors in a (cyclic) i…
Proper vertex colorings of a graph are related to its boundary map, also called its signed vertex-edge incidence matrix. The vertex Laplacian of a graph, a natural extension of the boundary map, leads us to introduce nowhere-harmonic colorings and analogues of the chromatic polynomial and Stanley's theorem relating negative evaluations of the chromatic polynomial to acyclic orientations. Further, we discuss some examples demonstrating that nowhere-harmonic colorings are more complicated from an enumerative perspective than proper colorings.
A signed tree-coloring of a signed graph $(G,σ)$ is a vertex coloring $c$ so that $G^{c}(i,\pm)$ is a forest for every $i\in c(u)$ and $u\in V(G)$, where $G^{c}(i,\pm)$ is the subgraph of $(G,σ)$ whose vertex set is the set of vertices colored by $i$ or $-i$ and edge set is the set of positive edges with two end-vertices colored both by $i$ or both by $-i$, along with the set of negative edges with one end-vertex colored by $i$ and the other colored by $-i$. If $c$ is a function from $V(G)$ to $M_n$, where $M_n$ is $\{\pm 1,\pm 2,\ldots,\pm k\}$ if $n=2k$, and $\{0,\pm 1,\pm 2,\ldots,\pm k\}$ …
A proper edge coloring of a graph $G$ with colors $1,2,\dots,t$ is called a \emph{cyclic interval $t$-coloring} if for each vertex $v$ of $G$ the edges incident to $v$ are colored by consecutive colors, under the condition that color $1$ is considered as consecutive to color $t$. We prove that a bipartite graph $G$ with even maximum degree $Δ(G)\geq 4$ admits a cyclic interval $Δ(G)$-coloring if for every vertex $v$ the degree $d_G(v)$ satisfies either $d_G(v)\geq Δ(G)-2$ or $d_G(v)\leq 2$. We also prove that every Eulerian bipartite graph $G$ with maximum degree at most $8$ has a cyclic inter…
An interval coloring of a graph G is a proper coloring of E(G) by positive integers such that the colors on the edges incident to any vertex are consecutive. A (3,4)-biregular bigraph is a bipartite graph in which each vertex of one part has degree 3 and each vertex of the other has degree 4; it is unknown whether these all have interval colorings. We prove that G has an interval coloring using 6 colors when G is a (3,4)-biregular bigraph having a spanning subgraph whose components are paths with endpoints at 3-valent vertices and lengths in {2,4,6,8}. We provide sufficient conditions for the …
A $k$-improper edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a mapping $α:E(G)\longrightarrow \mathbb{N}$ such that at most $k$ edges of $G$ with a common endpoint have the same color. An improper edge coloring of a graph $G$ is called an improper interval edge coloring if the colors of the edges incident to each vertex of $G$ form an integral interval. In this paper we introduce and investigate a new notion, the interval coloring impropriety (or just impropriety) of a graph $G$ defined as the smallest $k$ such that $G$ has a $k$-improper interval edge coloring; we denote the smallest such $k$ by $μ_{\mathr…
For a bipartite graph $G$ with parts $X$ and $Y$, an $X$-interval coloring is a proper edge coloring of $G$ by integers such that the colors on the edges incident to any vertex in $X$ form an interval. Denote by $χ'_{int}(G,X)$ the minimum $k$ such that $G$ has an $X$-interval coloring with $k$ colors. The author and Toft conjectured [Discrete Mathematics 339 (2016), 2628--2639] that there is a polynomial $P(x)$ such that if $G$ has maximum degree at most $Δ$, then $χ'_{int}(G,X) \leq P(Δ)$. In this short note, we prove this conjecture; in fact, we prove that a cubic polynomial suffices. We al…
A proper edge-coloring of a graph is an interval coloring if the labels on the edges incident to any vertex form an interval of consecutive integers. Interval thickness s(G) of a graph G is the smallest number of interval colorable graphs edge-decomposing G. We prove that s(G)=o(n) for any graph G on n vertices. This improves the previously known bound of 2n/5 by Asratian, Casselgren, and Petrosyan. While we do not have a single example of a graph with interval thickness strictly greater than 2, we construct bipartite graphs whose interval spectrum has arbitrarily many arbitrarily large gaps. …
We introduce the ``trivariate Tutte polynomial" of a signed graph as an invariant of signed graphs up to vertex switching that contains among its evaluations the number of proper colorings and the number of nowhere-zero flows. In this, it parallels the Tutte polynomial of a graph, which contains the chromatic polynomial and flow polynomial as specializations. The number of nowhere-zero tensions (for signed graphs they are not simply related to proper colorings as they are for graphs) is given in terms of evaluations of the trivariate Tutte polynomial at two distinct points. Interestingly, the …
Let D be a finite set of positive real numbers. The distance graph G(R,D) is the graph with vertex set R (set of real numbers), and two vertices x, y are adjacent if |x-y| belongs to D. We prove that every positive integer t>1 there is a distance set D such that the chromatic number of G(R,D) is t and no proper coloring of G(R,D) with t colors allows monochromatic intervals. This result disproves a conjecture in [2].
First-fit is the online graph coloring algorithm that considers vertices one at a time in some order and assigns each vertex the least positive integer not used already on a neighbor. The maximum number of colors used by first-fit on graph G over all vertex orders is denoted χ_{FF}(G). The exact value of R := \sup_G [χ_{FF}(G) / ω(G)] over interval graphs G is unknown. Pemmaraju, Raman, and Varadarajan (2004) proved R <= 10, and this can be improved to 8. Witsenhausen (1976) and Chrobak and Ślusarek (1988) showed R >= 4, and Ślusarek (1993) improved this to 4.45. We prove R >= 5.
We study Dohmen--Pönitz--Tittmann's bivariate chromatic polynomial $c_Γ(k,l)$ which counts all $(k+l)$-colorings of a graph $Γ$ such that adjacent vertices get different colors if they are $\le k$. Our first contribution is an extension of $c_Γ(k,l)$ to signed graphs, for which we obtain an inclusion--exclusion formula and several special evaluations giving rise, e.g., to polynomials that encode balanced subgraphs. Our second goal is to derive combinatorial reciprocity theorems for $c_Γ(k,l)$ and its signed-graph analogues, reminiscent of Stanley's reciprocity theorem linking chromatic polynom…
Zaslavsky proved in 2012 that, up to switching isomorphism, there are six different signed Petersen graphs and that they could be told apart by their chromatic polynomials, by showing that the latter give distinct results when evaluated at 3. He conjectured that the six different signed Petersen graphs also have distinct zero-free chromatic polynomials, and that both types of chromatic polynomials have distinct evaluations at \emph{any} positive integer. We developed and executed a computer program (running in {\tt SAGE}) that efficiently determines the number of proper $k$-colorings for a giv…
A homomorphism of a signed graph $(G, σ)$ to $(H, π)$ is a mapping of vertices and edges of $G$ to (respectively) vertices and edges of $H$ such that adjacencies, incidences and the product of signs of closed walks are preserved. Motivated by reformulations of the $k$-coloring problem in this language, and specially in connection with results on $3$-coloring of planar graphs, such as Grötzsch's theorem, in this work we consider bounds on maximum average degree which are sufficient for mapping to the signed graph $(K_{2k}, σ_m)$ ($k\geq 3$) where $σ_m$ assigns to edges of a perfect matching the…
In 1995, Richard Stanley introduced the chromatic symmetric function $X_G$ of a graph $G$ and proved that, when written in terms of the elementary symmetric functions, it reveals the number of acyclic orientations of $G$ with a given number of sinks. In this paper, we generalize this result to signed graphs, that is, to graphs whose edges are labeled with $+$ or $-$ and whose colorings and orientations can interact with their signs. Additionally, we introduce a non-homogeneous basis which detects the number of sinks and which not only gives a Stanley-type result for signed graphs but gives an …
In this paper, we generalize the concept of complete coloring and achromatic number to 2-edge-colored graphs and signed graphs. We give some useful relationships between different possible definitions of such achromatic numbers and prove that computing any of them is NP-complete.
In the mysterious and colorful world of chromatic numbers, where there are a lot of unknown, there is an amazing thing. It turns out that for some intervals of forbidden distances on the plane, one can specify the exact value of the chromatic number $χ$. Two sets of such intervals have been found, for $χ=7$ and 9. We call them islands of certainty. Here we increase the size of these islands, and add three new ones with $χ=8$, 12, 13. We also %formulate conjectures which predict conjecture islands for $χ=14$, 15, 16. Are there islands of certainty for $χ$=10 or 11? This is still a mystery. Roll…
A \textit{distinguishing coloring} of a graph $G$ is a coloring of the vertices so that every nontrivial automorphism of $G$ maps some vertex to a vertex with a different color. The \textit{distinguishing number} of $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that $G$ has a distinguishing coloring where each vertex is assigned a color from $\{1,\ldots,k\}$. A \textit{list assignment} to $G$ is an assignment $L=\{L(v)\}_{v\in V(G)}$ of lists of colors to the vertices of $G$. A \textit{distinguishing $L$-coloring} of $G$ is a distinguishing coloring of $G$ where the color of each vertex $v$ comes from $L(v)$. T…
In this paper, we define and characterize signed interval graphs and bigraphs introducing the concept of negative interval. Also we have shown that these classes of graphs are respectively a generalization of well known classes of interval graphs and interval bigraphs. In this context we have observed that signed interval graphs coincide with the complement of Threshold tolerance graphs(co-TT graphs) introduced by Monma, Reed and Trotter \cite{22}. Finally, we have solved the open problem of forbidden induced subgraph characterization of co-TT graphs posed by them in the same paper.
The on-line interval coloring and its variants are important combinatorial problems with many applications in network multiplexing, resource allocation and job scheduling. In this paper we present a new lower bound of $4.1626$ for the competitive ratio for the on-line coloring of intervals with bandwidth which improves the best known lower bound of $\frac{24}{7}$. For the on-line coloring of unit intervals with bandwidth we improve the lower bound of $1.831$ to $2$.
An edge-coloring of a graph $G$ with colors $1,\ldots,t$ is called an \emph{interval $t$-coloring} if all colors are used and the colors of edges incident to each vertex of $G$ are distinct and form an interval of integers. In 1990, Kamalian proved that if a graph $G$ with at least one edge has an interval $t$-coloring, then $t\leq 2|V(G)|-3$. In 2002, Axenovich improved this upper bound for planar graphs: if a planar graph $G$ admits an interval $t$-coloring, then $t\leq \frac{11}{6}|V(G)|$. In the same paper Axenovich suggested a conjecture that if a planar graph $G$ has an interval $t$-colo…
An edge-coloring of a graph $G$ with colors $1,\ldots,t$ is an interval $t$-coloring if all colors are used, and the colors of edges incident to each vertex of $G$ are distinct and form an interval of integers. A graph $G$ is interval colorable if it has an interval $t$-coloring for some positive integer $t$. The problem of deciding whether a bipartite graph is interval colorable is NP-complete. The smallest known examples of interval non-colorable bipartite graphs have $19$ vertices. On the other hand it is known that the bipartite graphs on at most $14$ vertices are interval colorable. In th…
A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a coloring of edges of $G$ with colors $1,2,...,t$ such that each of $t$ colors is used, and adjacent edges are colored differently. The set of colors of edges incident with a vertex $x$ of $G$ is called a spectrum of $x$. A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is interval for its vertex $x$ if the spectrum of $x$ is an interval of integers. A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is persistent-interval for its vertex $x$ if the spectrum of $x$ is an interval of integers beginning from the color 1. For graphs $G$ from some classes of graphs, we…
