Let G be a planar graph with a list assignment L. Suppose a preferred color is given for some of the vertices. We prove that if G has girth at least six and all lists have size at least three, then there exists an L-coloring respecting at least a constant fraction of the preferences.
We prove that planar graphs of maximum degree 3 and of girth at least 7 are 3-edge-colorable, extending the previous result for girth at least 8 by Kronk, Radlowski, and Franen from 1974.
We give here some new lower bounds on the order of a largest induced forest in planar graphs with girth $4$ and $5$. In particular we prove that a triangle-free planar graph of order $n$ admits an induced forest of order at least $\frac{6n+7}{11}$ , improving the lower bound of Salavatipour [M. R. Salavatipour, Large induced forests in triangle-free planar graphs, Graphs and Combinatorics, 22:113-126, 2006]. We also prove that a planar graph of order $n$ and girth at least $5$ admits an induced forest of order at least $\frac{44n+50}{69}$.
Recently, Borodin, Kostochka, and Yancey (On $1$-improper $2$-coloring of sparse graphs. Discrete Mathematics, 313(22), 2013) showed that the vertices of each planar graph of girth at least $7$ can be $2$-colored so that each color class induces a subgraph of a matching. We prove that any planar graph of girth at least $6$ admits a vertex coloring in $2$ colors such that each monochromatic component is a path of length at most $14$. Moreover, we show a list version of this result. On the other hand, for each positive integer $t\geq 3$, we construct a planar graph of girth $4$ such that in any …
We show that every 1-planar graph with minimum degree at least 4 has girth at most $8$, and every 1-planar graph with minimum degree at least 3 has girth at most $198$.
We give here new upper bounds on the size of a smallest feedback vertex set in planar graphs with high girth. In particular, we prove that a planar graph with girth $g$ and size $m$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{4m}{3g}$, improving the trivial bound of $\frac{2m}{g}$. We also prove that every $2$-connected graph with maximum degree $3$ and order $n$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{n+2}{3}$.
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 …
Given a graph $G$ and a list assignment $L(v)$ for each vertex of $v$ of $G$. A proper $L$-list-coloring of $G$ is a function that maps every vertex to a color in $L(v)$ such that no pair of adjacent vertices have the same color. We say that a graph is list $k$-colorable when every vertex $v$ has a list of colors of size at least $k$. A $2$-distance coloring is a coloring where vertices at distance at most 2 cannot share the same color. We prove the existence of a $2$-distance list ($Δ+2$)-coloring for planar graphs with girth at least $10$ and maximum degree $Δ\geq 4$.
In 1991, Bollobás and Frieze showed that the threshold for $G_{n,p}$ to contain a spanning maximal planar subgraph is very close to $p = n^{-1/3}$. In this paper, we compute similar threshold ranges for $G_{n,p}$ to contain a maximal bipartite planar subgraph and for $G_{n,p}$ to contain a maximal planar subgraph of fixed girth $g$.
For a positive integer $k$, the $k$-recolouring graph of a graph $G$ has as vertex set all proper $k$-colourings of $G$ with two $k$-colourings being adjacent if they differ by the colour of exactly one vertex. A result of Dyer et al. regarding graphs of bounded degeneracy implies that the $7$-recolouring graphs of planar graphs, the $5$-recolouring graphs of triangle-free planar graphs and the $4$-recolouring graphs planar graphs of girth at least six are connected. On the other hand, there are planar graphs whose $6$-recolouring graph is disconnected, triangle-free planar graphs whose $4$-re…
A graph is called hypohamiltonian if it is not hamiltonian but becomes hamiltonian if any vertex is removed. Many hypohamiltonian planar cubic graphs have been found, starting with constructions of Thomassen in 1981. However, all the examples found until now had 4-cycles. In this note we present the first examples of hypohamiltonian planar cubic graphs with cyclic connectivity five, and thus girth five. We show by computer search that the smallest members of this class are three graphs with 76 vertices.
Given a multigraph $G$ and a positive integer $t$, the distance-$t$ chromatic index of $G$ is the least number of colours needed for a colouring of the edges so that every pair of distinct edges connected by a path of fewer than $t$ edges must receive different colours. Let $π'_t(d)$ and $τ'_t(d)$ be the largest values of this parameter over the class of planar multigraphs and of (simple) trees, respectively, of maximum degree $d$. We have that $π'_t(d)$ is at most and at least a non-trivial constant multiple larger than $τ'_t(d)$. (We conjecture $\limsup_{d\to\infty}π'_2(d)/τ'_2(d) =9/4$ in p…
A graph is $(d_1, \ldots, d_k)$-colorable if its vertex set can be partitioned into $k$ nonempty subsets so that the subgraph induced by the $i$th part has maximum degree at most $d_i$ for each $i\in\{1, \ldots, k\}$. It is known that for each pair $(d_1, d_2)$, there exists a planar graph with girth $4$ that is not $(d_1, d_2)$-colorable. This sparked the interest in finding the pairs $(d_1, d_2)$ such that planar graphs with girth at least $5$ are $(d_1, d_2)$-colorable. Given $d_1\leq d_2$, it is known that planar graphs with girth at least $5$ are $(d_1, d_2)$-colorable if either $d_1\geq …
As an extension of the Four-Color Theorem it is conjectured that every planar graph of odd-girth at least $2k+1$ admits a homomorphism to $PC_{2k}=(\mathbb{Z}_2^{2k}, \{e_1, e_2, ...,e_{2k}, J\})$ where $e_i$'s are standard basis and $J$ is all 1 vector. Noting that $PC_{2k}$ itself is of odd-girth $2k+1$, in this work we show that if the conjecture is true, then $PC_{2k}$ is an optimal such a graph both with respect to number of vertices and number of edges. The result is obtained using the notion of walk-power of graphs and their clique numbers. An analogous result is proved for bipartite si…
We prove a conjecture of Dvořák, Král, Nejedlý, and Škrekovski that planar graphs of girth at least five are square $(Δ+2)$-colorable for large enough $Δ$. In fact, we prove the stronger statement that such graphs are square $(Δ+2)$-choosable and even square $(Δ+2)$-paintable.
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…
In 1994, Thomassen famously proved that every planar graph is 5-choosable, resolving a conjecture initially posed by Vizing and, independently, Erd\H{os}, Rubin, and Taylor in the 1970s. Later, Thomassen proved that every planar graph of girth at least five is 3-choosable. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a \emph{local girth list assignment}: a list assignment wherein the list size of a vertex depends not on the girth of the graph, but rather on the length of the shortest cycle in which the vertex is contained. We give a local list colouring theorem unifying the two theorems of Thoma…
Thomassen proved that any plane graph of girth 5 is list-colorable from any list assignment such that all vertices have lists of size two or three and the vertices with list of size two are all incident with the outer face and form an independent set. We present a strengthening of this result, relaxing the constraint on the vertices with list of size two. This result is used to bound the size of the 3-list-coloring critical plane graphs with one precolored face.
An injective coloring of a graph $G$ is an assignment of colors to the vertices of $G$ so that any two vertices with a common neighbor have distinct colors. A graph $G$ is injectively $k$-choosable if for any list assignment $L$, where $|L(v)| \geq k$ for all $v \in V(G)$, $G$ has an injective $L$-coloring. Injective colorings have applications in the theory of error-correcting codes and are closely related to other notions of colorability. In this paper, we show that subcubic planar graphs with girth at least 6 are injectively 5-choosable. This strengthens a result of Lužar, Škrekovski, and T…
We consider the problem of coloring the squares of graphs of bounded maximum average degree, that is, the problem of coloring the vertices while ensuring that two vertices that are adjacent or have a common neighbour receive different colors. Borodin et al. proved in 2004 and 2008 that the squares of planar graphs of girth at least seven and sufficiently large maximum degree $Δ$ are list $(Δ+1)$-colorable, while the squares of some planar graphs of girth six and arbitrarily large maximum degree are not. By Euler's Formula, planar graphs of girth at least $6$ are of maximum average degree less …
A feedback vertex set of a graph is a subset of vertices intersecting all cycles. We provide tight upper bounds on the size of a minimum feedback vertex set in planar graphs of girth at least five. We prove that if $G$ is a connected planar graph of girth at least five on $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, then $G$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{2m-n+2}{7}$. By Euler's formula, this implies that $G$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{m}{5}$ and $\frac{n-2}{3}$. These results not only improve a result of Dross, Montassier and Pinlou and confirm the girth-5 case of one o…
A half-square of a bipartite graph $B=(X,Y,E_B)$ has one color class of $B$ as vertex set, say $X$; two vertices are adjacent whenever they have a common neighbor in $Y$. If $G=(V,E_G)$ is the half-square of a planar bipartite graph $B=(V,W,E_B)$, then $G$ is called a map graph, and $B$ is a witness of $G$. Map graphs generalize planar graphs, and have been introduced and investigated by Chen, Grigni and Papadimitriou [STOC 1998, J. ACM 2002]. They proved that recognizing map graphs is in $\mathsf{NP}$ by proving the existence of a witness. Soon later, Thorup [FOCS 1998] claimed that recognizi…
A strong edge-colouring of a graph is a proper edge-colouring where each colour class induces a matching. It is known that every planar graph with maximum degree $Δ$ has a strong edge-colouring with at most $4Δ+4$ colours. We show that $3Δ+1$ colours suffice if the graph has girth 6, and $4Δ$ colours suffice if $Δ\geq 7$ or the girth is at least 5. In the last part of the paper, we raise some questions related to a long-standing conjecture of Vizing on proper edge-colouring of planar graphs.
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…
Let ${\rm col_g}(G)$ be the game coloring number of a given graph $G.$ Define the game coloring number of a family of graphs $\mathcal{H}$ as ${\rm col_g}(\mathcal{H}) := \max\{{\rm col_g}(G):G \in \mathcal{H}\}.$ Let $\mathcal{P}_k$ be the family of planar graphs of girth at least $k.$ We show that ${\rm col_g}(\mathcal{P}_7) \leq 5.$ This result extends a result about the coloring number by Wang and Zhang {WZ11} (${\rm col_g}(\mathcal{P}_8) \leq 5).$ We also show that these bounds are sharp by constructing a graph $G$ where $G \in {\rm col_g}(\mathcal{P}_k) \geq 5$ for each $k \leq 8$ such t…
A strong edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring where the edges at distance at most two receive distinct colors. It is known that every planar graph with maximum degree D has a strong edge coloring with at most 4D + 4 colors. We show that 3D + 6 colors suffice if the graph has girth 6, and 3D colors suffice if the girth is at least 7. Moreover, we show that cubic planar graphs with girth at least 6 can be strongly edge colored with at most 9 colors.
We consider 3-regular planar matchstick graphs, i.e. those which have a planar embedding such that all edge lengths are equal, with given girth g. For girth 3 it is known that such graphs exist if and only if the number of vertices n is an even integer larger or equal to 8. Here we prove that such graphs exist for girth g=4 if and only if n is even and at least 20. We provide an example for girth g=5 consisting of 180 vertices.
Grotzsch proved that every triangle-free planar graph is 3-colorable. Thomassen proved that every planar graph of girth at least five is 3-choosable. As for other surfaces, Thomassen proved that there are only finitely many 4-critical graphs of girth at least five embeddable in any fixed surface. This implies a linear-time algorithm for deciding 3-colorablity for graphs of girth at least five on any fixed surface. Dvorak, Kral and Thomas strengthened Thomassen's result by proving that the number of vertices in a 4-critical graph of girth at least five is linear in its genus. They used this res…
Weak degeneracy is a variation of degeneracy which shares many nice properties of degeneracy. In particular, if a graph $G$ is weakly $d$-degenerate, then for any $(d + 1)$-list assignment $L$ of $G$, one can construct an $L$-coloring of $G$ by a modified greedy coloring algorithm. It is known that planar graphs of girth 5 are 3-choosable and locally planar graphs are 5-choosable. This paper strengthens these results and proves that planar graphs of girth 5 are weakly 2-degenerate and locally planar graphs are weakly 4-degenerate.
The $g$-girth-thickness $θ(g,G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest number of planar subgraphs of girth at least $g$ whose union is $G$. In this paper, we calculate the $4$-girth-thickness $θ(4,G)$ of the complete $m$-partite graph $G$ when each part has an even number of vertices.
A graph is $(d_1, ..., d_r)$-colorable if its vertex set can be partitioned into $r$ sets $V_1, ..., V_r$ so that the maximum degree of the graph induced by $V_i$ is at most $d_i$ for each $i\in \{1, ..., r\}$. For a given pair $(g, d_1)$, the question of determining the minimum $d_2=d_2(g; d_1)$ such that planar graphs with girth at least $g$ are $(d_1, d_2)$-colorable has attracted much interest. The finiteness of $d_2(g; d_1)$ was known for all cases except when $(g, d_1)=(5, 1)$. Montassier and Ochem explicitly asked if $d_2(5; 1)$ is finite. We answer this question in the affirmative with…
A graph G is (d_1,..,d_l)-colorable if the vertex set of G can be partitioned into subsets V_1,..,V_l such that the graph G[V_i] induced by the vertices of V_i has maximum degree at most d_i for all 1 <= i <= l. In this paper, we focus on complexity aspects of such colorings when l=2,3. More precisely, we prove that, for any fixed integers k,j,g with (k,j) distinct form (0,0) and g >= 3, either every planar graph with girth at least g is (k,j)-colorable or it is NP-complete to determine whether a planar graph with girth at least g is (k,j)-colorable. Also, for any fixed integer k, it is NP-com…
Using computational techniques we provide a framework for proving results on subclasses of planar graphs via discharging method. The aim of this paper is to apply these techniques to study the 2-distance coloring of planar subcubic graphs. Applying these techniques we show that every subcubic planar graph $G$ of girth at least 8 has 2-distance chromatic number at most 6.
We classify Cohen-Macaulay graphs of girth at least $5$ and planar Gorenstein graphs of girth at least $4$. Moreover, such graphs are also vertex decomposable.
In this paper, we define the $4$-girth-thickness $θ(4,G)$ of a graph $G$ as the minimum number of planar subgraphs of girth at least $4$ whose union is $G$. We obtain the $4$-girth-thickness of the arbitrary complete graph $K_n$ getting that $θ(4,K_n)=\left\lceil \frac{n+2}{4}\right\rceil$ for $n\not=6,10$ and $θ(4,K_6)=3$.
We introduce the fractional version of oriented coloring and initiate its study. We prove some basic results and study the parameter for directed cycles and sparse planar graphs. In particular, we show that for every $ε> 0$, there exists an integer $g_ε \geq 12$ such that any oriented planar graph having girth at least $g_ε$ has fractional oriented chromatic number at most $4+ε$. Whereas, it is known that there exists an oriented planar graph having girth at least $g_ε$ with oriented chromatic number equal to $5$. We also study the fractional oriented chromatic number of directed cycles and pr…
In this paper, we aim to introduce the group version of edge coloring and list edge coloring, and prove that all 2-degenerate graphs along with some planar graphs without adjacent short cycles is group $(Δ(G)+1)$-edge-choosable while some planar graphs with large girth and maximum degree is group $Δ(G)$-edge-choosable.
The $g$-girth-thickness $θ(g,G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of planar subgraphs of girth at least $g$ whose union is $G$. In this note, we give the $4$-girth-thickness $θ(4,L(K_n))$ of the line graph of the complete graph $L(K_n)$ when $n$ is even. We also give the minimum number of subgraphs of $L(K_n)$, which are of girth at least $4$ and embeddable on the projective plane, whose union is $L(K_n)$.
The $g$-girth-thickness $θ(g,G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of planar subgraphs of girth at least $g$ whose union is $G$. In this paper, we determine the $6$-girth-thickness $θ(6,K_n)$ of the complete graph $K_n$ in almost all cases. And also, we calculate by computer the missing value of $θ(4,K_n)$.
We study a variant of intersection representations with unit balls, that is, unit disks in the plane and unit intervals on the line. Given a planar graph and a bipartition of the edges of the graph into near and far sets, the goal is to represent the vertices of the graph by unit balls so that the balls representing two adjacent vertices intersect if and only if the corresponding edge is near. We consider the problem in the plane and prove that it is NP-hard to decide whether such a representation exists for a given edge-partition. On the other hand, every series-parallel graph admits such a r…
The $4$-girth-thickness $θ(4,G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of planar subgraphs of girth at least four whose union is $G$. In this paper, we obtain that the 4-girth-thickness of complete tripartite graph $K_{n,n,n}$ is $\big\lceil\frac{n+1}{2}\big\rceil$ except for $θ(4,K_{1,1,1})=2$. And we also show that the $4$-girth-thickness of the complete graph $K_{10}$ is three which disprove the conjecture $θ(4,K_{10})=4$ posed by Rubio-Montiel (Ars Math Contemp 14(2) (2018) 319).
In 1959, Grötzsch famously proved that every planar graph of girth at least 4 is 3-colourable (or equivalently, admits a homomorphism to $C_3$). A natural generalization of this is the following conjecture: for every positive integer $t$, every planar graph of girth at least $4t$ admits a homomorphism to $C_{2t+1}$. This is in fact the planar dual of a well-known conjecture of Jaeger which states that every $4t$-edge-connected graph admits a modulo $(2t+1)$-orientation. Though Jaeger's original conjecture was disproved in 2018 by Han et al., Lovasz et al. showed that every $6t$-edge connected …
A graph $G$ is hypohamiltonian if $G$ is non-hamiltonian and $G - v$ is hamiltonian for every $v \in V(G)$. In the following, every graph is assumed to be hypohamiltonian. Aldred, Wormald, and McKay gave a list of all graphs of order at most 17. In this article, we present an algorithm to generate all graphs of a given order and apply it to prove that there exist exactly 14 graphs of order 18 and 34 graphs of order 19. We also extend their results in the cubic case. Furthermore, we show that (i) the smallest graph of girth 6 has order 25, (ii) the smallest planar graph has order at least 23, (…
We study the Cage Problem for regular and biregular planar graphs. A $(k,g)$-graph is a $k$-regular graph with girth $g$. A $(k,g)$-cage is a $(k,g)$-graph of minimum order. It is not difficult to conclude that the regular planar cages are the Platonic Solids. A $(\{r,m\};g)$-graph is a graph of girth $g$ whose vertices have degrees $r$ and $m.$ A $(\{r,m\};g)$-cage is a $(\{r,m\};g)$-graph of minimum order. In this case we determine the triplets of values $(\{r,m\};g)$ for which there exist planar $(\{r,m\};g)$--graphs, for all those values we construct examples. Furthermore, for many triplet…
We describe an algorithm for generating all $k$-critical $\mathcal H$-free graphs, based on a method of Hoàng et al. Using this algorithm, we prove that there are only finitely many $4$-critical $(P_7,C_k)$-free graphs, for both $k=4$ and $k=5$. We also show that there are only finitely many $4$-critical graphs $(P_8,C_4)$-free graphs. For each case of these cases we also give the complete lists of critical graphs and vertex-critical graphs. These results generalize previous work by Hell and Huang, and yield certifying algorithms for the $3$-colorability problem in the respective classes. More…
Signed graphs are studied since the middle of the last century. Recently, the notion of homomorphism of signed graphs has been introduced since this notion captures a number of well known conjectures which can be reformulated using the definitions of signed homomorphism. In this paper, we introduce and study the properties of some target graphs for signed homomorphism. Using these properties, we obtain upper bounds on the signed chromatic numbers of graphs with bounded acyclic chromatic number and of signed planar graphs with given girth.
We study the following Steinberg-type problem on circular coloring: for an odd integer $k\ge 3$, what is the smallest number $f(k)$ such that every planar graph of girth $k$ without cycles of length from $k+1$ to $f(k)$ admits a homomorphism to the odd cycle $C_k$ (or equivalently, is circular $(k,\frac{k-1}{2})$-colorable). Known results and counterexamples on Steinberg's Conjecture indicate that $f(3)\in\{6,7\}$. In this paper, we show that $f(k)$ exists if and only if $k$ is an odd prime. Moreover, we prove that for any prime $p\ge 5$, $$p^2-\frac{5}{2}p+\frac{3}{2}\le f(p)\le 2p^2+2p-5.$$ …
A set $S\subseteq V(G)$ of a graph $G$ is a dominating set if each vertex has a neighbor in $S$ or belongs to $S$. Let $γ(G)$ be the cardinality of a minimum dominating set in $G$. The bondage number $b(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest cardinality of a set of edges $A\subseteq E(G)$, such that $γ(G-A)=γ(G)+1$. The $d$-Bondage is the problem of deciding, given a graph $G$ and an integer $d\geq 1$, if $b(G)\leq d$. This problem is known to be $\mathsf{NP}$-hard even for bipartite graphs and $d=1$. In this paper, we show that $1$-Bondage is $\mathsf{NP}$-hard, even for the class of $3$-regular …