The \textit{packing chromatic number} of a graph $G$, denoted by $% χ_ρ(G)$, is the smallest integer $k$ such that the vertex set of $G$ can be partitioned into sets $V_i$, $i\in \{1,\ldots,k\}$, where each $V_i$ is an $i$-packing. In this paper, we present some general properties of packing chromatic numbers of \textit{finite super subdivisions} of graphs. We determine the packing chromatic numbers of the finite super subdivisions of complete graphs, cycles and \textit{neighborhood corona graphs} of a cycle and a path respectively of a complete graph and a path.
An oriented cycle is an orientation of a undirected cycle. We first show that for any oriented cycle $C$, there are digraphs containing no subdivision of $C$ (as a subdigraph) and arbitrarily large chromatic number. In contrast, we show that for any $C$ a cycle with two blocks, every strongly connected digraph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains a subdivision of $C$. We prove a similar result for the antidirected cycle on four vertices (in which two vertices have out-degree $2$ and two vertices have in-degree $2$).
Let $G$ be a simple graph. A total dominator coloring of $G$, is a proper coloring of the vertices of $G$ in which each vertex of the graph is adjacent to every vertex of some color class. The total dominator chromatic (TDC) number $χ_d^t(G)$ of $G$, is the minimum number of colors among all total dominator coloring of $G$. For any $k \in \mathbb{N}$, the $k$-subdivision of $G$ is a simple graph $G^{\frac{1}{k}}$ which is constructed by replacing each edge of $G$ with a path of length $k$. In this paper, we study the total dominator chromatic number of $k$-subdivision of $G$.
The Hall ratio of a graph G is the maximum of |V(H)|/alpha(H) over all subgraphs H of G. Clearly, the Hall ratio of a graph is a lower bound for the fractional chromatic number. It has been asked whether conversely, the fractional chromatic number is upper bounded by a function of the Hall ratio. We answer this question in negative, by showing two results of independent interest regarding 1-subdivisions (the 1-subdivision of a graph is obtained by subdividing each edge exactly once). * For every c > 0, every graph of sufficiently large average degree contains as a subgraph the 1-subdivision of…
We prove that for every digraph $F$ and every assignment of pairs of integers $(r_e,q_e)_{e \in A(F)}$ to its arcs there exists an integer $N$ such that every digraph $D$ with dichromatic number at least $N$ contains a subdivision of $F$ in which $e$ is subdivided into a directed path of length congruent to $r_e$ modulo $q_e$, for every $e \in A(F)$. This generalizes to the directed setting the analogous result by Thomassen for undirected graphs, and at the same time yields a novel short proof of his result.
Recently, Balogh, Kostochka and Liu in [Packing chromatic number of cubic graphs, Discrete Math.~341 (2018) 474--483] answered in negative the question that was posed in several earlier papers whether the packing chromatic number is bounded in the class of graphs with maximum degree $3$. In this note, we present an explicit infinite family of subcubic graphs with unbounded packing chromatic number.
For a graph $G$, let $χ(G)$ denote its chromatic number and $σ(G)$ denote the order of the largest clique subdivision in $G$. Let H(n) be the maximum of $χ(G)/σ(G)$ over all $n$-vertex graphs $G$. A famous conjecture of Hajós from 1961 states that $σ(G) \geq χ(G)$ for every graph $G$. That is, $H(n) \leq 1$ for all positive integers $n$. This conjecture was disproved by Catlin in 1979. Erdős and Fajtlowicz further showed by considering a random graph that $H(n) \geq cn^{1/2}/\log n$ for some absolute constant $c>0$. In 1981 they conjectured that this bound is tight up to a constant factor in t…
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…
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that there exists a $k$-vertex coloring of $G$ in which any two vertices receiving color $i$ are at distance at least $i+1$. It is proved that in the class of subcubic graphs the packing chromatic number is bigger than $13$, thus answering an open problem from [Gastineau, Togni, $S$-packing colorings of cubic graphs, Discrete Math.\ 339 (2016) 2461--2470]. In addition, the packing chromatic number is investigated with respect to several local operations. In particular, if $S_e(G)$ is the graph obtained from a…
An $i$-packing in a graph $G$ is a set of vertices at pairwise distance greater than $i$. For a nondecreasing sequence of integers $S=(s\_{1},s\_{2},\ldots)$, the $S$-packing chromatic number of a graph $G$ is the least integer $k$ such that there exists a coloring of $G$ into $k$ colors where each set of vertices colored $i$, $i=1,\ldots, k$, is an $s\_i$-packing. This paper describes various subdivisions of an $i$-packing into $j$-packings ($j\textgreater{}i$) for the hexagonal, square and triangular lattices. These results allow us to bound the $S$-packing chromatic number for these graphs,…
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that the vertex set of $G$ can be partitioned into sets $V_i$, $i\in [k]$, where each $V_i$ is an $i$-packing. In this paper, we investigate for a given triple $(a,b,c)$ of positive integers whether there exists a graph $G$ such that $ω(G) = a$, $χ(G) = b$, and $χ_ρ(G) = c$. If so, we say that $(a, b, c)$ is realizable. It is proved that $b=c\ge 3$ implies $a=b$, and that triples $(2,k,k+1)$ and $(2,k,k+2)$ are not realizable as soon as $k\ge 4$. Some of the obtained results are deduced from the bounds proved…
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that there exists a $k$-vertex coloring of $G$ in which any two vertices receiving color $i$ are at distance at least $i+1$. In this short note we present upper and lower bound for the packing chromatic number of the lexicographic product $G\circ H$ of graphs $G$ and $H$. Both bounds coincide in many cases. In particular this happens if $|V(H)|-α(H)\geq {\rm diam}(G)-1$, where $α(G)$ denotes the independence number of $G$.
A $(2+1)$-bispindle $B(k_1,k_2;k_3)$ is the union of two $xy$-dipaths of respective lengths $k_1$ and $k_2$, and one $yx$-dipath of length $k_3$, all these dipaths being pairwise internally disjoint. Recently, Cohen et al. conjectured that, for every positive integers $k_1, k_2, k_3$, there is an integer $g(k_1, k_2, k_3)$ such that every strongly connected digraph not containing subdivisions of $B(k_1, k_2; k_3)$ has a chromatic number at most $g(k_1, k_2, k_3)$, and they proved it only for the case where $k_2=1$. For Hamiltonian digraphs, we prove Cohen et al.'s conjecture, namely $g(k_1, k_…
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. For a graph $G$, let $D(G)$ denote the graph obtained from $G$ by subdividing every edge. The questions on the value of the maximum of $χ_p(G)$ and of $χ_p(D(G))$ over the class of subcubic graphs $G$ appear in several papers. Gastineau and Togni asked whether $χ_p(D(G))\leq 5$ for any su…
For a nondecreasing sequence of integers $S=(s_1, s_2, \ldots)$ an $S$-packing $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a mapping from $V(G)$ to $\{1, 2,\ldots,k\}$ such that vertices with color $i$ have pairwise distance greater than $s_i$. By setting $s_i = d + \lfloor \frac{i-1}{n} \rfloor$ we obtain a $(d,n)$-packing coloring of a graph $G$. The smallest integer $k$ for which there exists a $(d,n)$-packing coloring of $G$ is called the $(d,n)$-packing chromatic number of $G$. In the special case when $d$ and $n$ are both equal to one we speak of the packing chromatic number of $G$. We determine the …
Given a graph $G$, a function $c:V(G)\longrightarrow \{1,\ldots,k\}$ with the property that $c(u)=c(v)=i$ implies that the distance between $u$ and $v$ is greater than $i$, is called a $k$-packing coloring of $G$. The smallest integer $k$ for which there exists a $k$-packing coloring of $G$ is called the packing chromatic number of $G$, and is denoted by $χ_ρ$. Packing chromatic vertex-critical graphs are the graphs $G$ for which $χ_ρ(G-x) < χ_ρ(G)$ holds for every vertex $x$ of $G$. A graph $G$ is called a packing chromatic critical graph if for every proper subgraph $H$ of $G$, $χ_ρ(H) < χ_ρ…
The \emph{packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$} of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ for which there exists a vertex coloring $Γ: V(G)\rightarrow \{1,2,\dots , k\}$ such that any two vertices of color $i$ are at distance at least $i + 1$. For $g\in \{6,8,12\}$, $(q+1,g)$-Moore graphs are $(q+1)$-regular graphs with girth $g$ which are the incidence graphs of a symmetric generalized $g/2$-gons of order $q$. In this paper we study the packing chromatic number of a $(q+1,g)$-Moore graph $G$. For $g=6$ we present the exact value of $χ_ρ(G)$. For $g=8$, we determine $χ_ρ(G)$ in terms of the inte…
Given a graph $G$, a coloring $c:V(G)\longrightarrow \{1,\ldots,k\}$ such that $c(u)=c(v)=i$ implies that vertices $u$ and $v$ are at distance greater than $i$, is called a packing coloring of $G$. The minimum number of colors in a packing coloring of $G$ is called the packing chromatic number of $G$, and is denoted by $χ_ρ(G)$. In this paper, we propose the study of $χ_ρ$-critical graphs, which are the graphs $G$ such that for any proper subgraph $H$ of $G$, $χ_ρ(H)<χ_ρ(G)$. We characterize $χ_ρ$-critical graphs with diameter 2, and $χ_ρ$-critical block graphs with diameter 3. Furthermore, we…
We show that for every graph $G$ and every graph $H$ obtained by subdividing each edge of $G$ at least $O(\log |V(G)|)$, $H$ is nonrepetitively 3-colorable. In fact, we show that $O(\log π'(G))$ subdivisions per edge are enough, where $π'(G)$ is the nonrepetitive chromatic index of $G$. This answers a question of Wood and improves a similar result of Pezarski and Zmarz that stated the existence of at least one 3-colorable division with a linear number of subdivision vertices per edge.
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that the vertex set of $G$ can be partitioned into sets $V_i$, $i\in \{1,\ldots,k\}$, where each $V_i$ is an $i$-packing. In this paper, we consider the packing chromatic number of several families of Sierpiński-type graphs. While it is known that this number is bounded from above by $8$ in the family of Sierpiński graphs with base $3$, we prove that it is unbounded in the families of Sierpiński graphs with bases greater than $3$. On the other hand, we prove that the packing chromatic number in the family of …
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that the vertex set of $G$ can be partitioned into sets $Π_1,\ldots,Π_k$, where $Π_i$, $i\in [k]$, is an $i$-packing. The following conjecture is posed and studied: if $G$ is a subcubic graph, then $χ_ρ(S(G))\le 5$, where $S(G)$ is the subdivision of $G$. The conjecture is proved for all generalized prisms of cycles. To get this result it is proved that if $G$ is a generalized prism of a cycle, then $G$ is $(1,1,2,2)$-colorable if and only if $G$ is not the Petersen graph. The validity of the conjecture is fu…
Although it has recently been proved that the packing chromatic number is unbounded on the class of subcubic graphs, there exists subclasses in which the packing chromatic number is finite (and small). These subclasses include subcubic trees, base-3 Sierpi{ń}ski graphs and hexagonal lattices.In this paper we are interested in the packing chromatic number of subcubic outerplanar graphs. We provide asymptotic bounds depending on structural properties of the outerplanar graphs and determine sharper bounds for some classes of subcubic outerplanar graphs.
Inspired by Bondarenko's counter-example to Borsuk's conjecture, we notice some strongly regular graphs that provide examples of ball packings whose chromatic numbers are significantly higher than the dimensions. In particular, from generalized quadrangles we obtain unit ball packings in dimension $q^3-q^2+q$ with chromatic number $q^3+1$, where $q$ is a prime power. This improves the previous lower bound for the chromatic number of ball packings.
Let $K_4^+$ be the 5-vertex graph obtained from $K_4$, the complete graph on four vertices, by subdividing one edge precisely once (i.e. by replacing one edge by a path on three vertices). We prove that if the chromatic number of some graph $G$ is much larger than its clique number, then $G$ contains a subdivision of $K_4^+$ as an induced subgraph.
The Gyárfás tree packing conjecture asserts that any set of trees with $2,3, ..., k$ vertices has an (edge-disjoint) packing into the complete graph on $k$ vertices. Gyárfás and Lehel proved that the conjecture holds in some special cases. We address the problem of packing trees into $k$-chromatic graphs. In particular, we prove that if all but three of the trees are stars then they have a packing into any $k$-chromatic graph. We also consider several other generalizations of the conjecture.
In this paper we study a family of discrete configuration spaces, the so-called protocol complexes, which are of utmost importance in theoretical distributed computing. Specifically, we consider questions of the existance of compliant binary labelings on the vertices of iterated standard chromatic subdivisions of an n-simplex. The existance of such labelings is equivalent to the existance of distributed protocols solving Weak Symmetry Breaking task in the standard computational model. As a part of our formal model, we introduce function sb(n), defined for natural numbers n, called the symmetry…
Given a graph $G$ and a non-decreasing sequence $S=(a_1,a_2,\ldots)$ of positive integers, the mapping $f:V(G) \rightarrow \{1,\ldots,k\}$ is an $S$-packing $k$-coloring of $G$ if for any distinct vertices $u,v\in V(G)$ with $f(u)=f(v)=i$ the distance between $u$ and $v$ in $G$ is greater than $a_i$. The smallest $k$ such that $G$ has an $S$-packing $k$-coloring is the $S$-packing chromatic number, $χ_S(G)$, of $G$. In this paper, we consider the distance graphs $G(\mathbb{Z},\{2,t\})$, where $t>1$ is an odd integer, which has $\mathbb{Z}$ as its vertex set, and $i,j\in\mathbb{Z}$ are adjacent…
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $p$ such that vertices of $G$ can be partitioned into disjoint classes $X_{1}, ..., X_{p}$ where vertices in $X_{i}$ have pairwise distance greater than $i$. For $k < t$ we study the packing chromatic number of infinite distance graphs $D(k, t)$, i.e. graphs with the set $\Z$ of integers as vertex set and in which two distinct vertices $i, j \in \Z$ are adjacent if and only if $|i - j| \in \{k, t\}$. We generalize results by Ekstein et al. for graphs $D (1, t)$. For sufficiently large $t$ we prove that $χ_ρ(D(k, t)) \…
Using a SAT-solver on top of a partial previously-known solution we improve the upper bound of the packing chromatic number of the infinite square lattice from 17 to 15. We discuss the merits of SAT-solving for this kind of problem as well as compare the performance of different encodings. Further, we improve the lower bound from 12 to 13 again using a SAT-solver, demonstrating the versatility of this technology for our approach.
It is known that every graph of sufficiently large chromatic number and bounded clique number contains, as an induced subgraph, a subdivision of any fixed forest, and a subdivision of any fixed cycle. Equivalently, forests and triangles are pervasive, where H is pervasive (in some class of graphs) if for all s>0, every graph in the class with bounded clique number and sufficiently large chromatic number contains an induced subdivision of H, with every edge subdivided at least s times. Which other graphs are pervasive? Chalopin, Esperet, Li and Ossona de Mendez proved that every such graph is a…
An anagram is a word of the form $WP$ where $W$ is a non-empty word and $P$ is a permutation of $W$. A vertex colouring of a graph is anagram-free if no subpath of the graph is an anagram. Anagram-free graph colouring was independently introduced by Kamčev, Łuczak and Sudakov and ourselves. In this paper we introduce the study of anagram-free colourings of graph subdivisions. We show that every graph has an anagram-free $8$-colourable subdivision. The number of division vertices per edge is exponential in the number of edges. For trees, we construct anagram-free $10$-colourable subdivisions wi…
Given a graphic degree sequence $D$, let $χ(D)$ (respectively $ω(D)$, $h(D)$, and $H(D)$) denote the maximum value of the chromatic number (respectively, the size of the largest clique, largest clique subdivision, and largest clique minor) taken over all simple graphs whose degree sequence is $D$. It is proved that $χ(D)\le h(D)$. Moreover, it is shown that a subdivision of a clique of order $χ(D)$ exists where each edge is subdivided at most once and the set of all subdivided edges forms a collection of disjoint stars. This bound is an analogue of the Hajos Conjecture for degree sequences and…
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…
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that vertices of $G$ can be partitioned into disjoint classes $X_1, ..., X_k$ where vertices in $X_i$ have pairwise distance greater than $i$. We study the packing chromatic number of infinite distance graphs $G(Z, D)$, i.e. graphs with the set $Z$ of integers as vertex set and in which two distinct vertices $i, j \in Z$ are adjacent if and only if $|i - j| \in D$. In this paper we focus on distance graphs with $D = \{1, t\}$. We improve some results of Togni who initiated the study. It is shown that $χ_ρ(G(Z…
Given a graph $G$ and a nondecreasing sequence $S=(s_1,\ldots,s_k)$ of positive integers, the mapping $c:V(G)\longrightarrow \{1,\ldots,k\}$ is called an $S$-packing coloring of $G$ if for any two distinct vertices $x$ and $y$ in $c^{-1}(i)$, the distance between $x$ and $y$ is greater than $s_i$. The smallest integer $k$ such that there exists a $(1,2,\ldots,k)$-packing coloring of a graph $G$ is called the packing chromatic number of $G$, denoted $χ_ρ(G)$. The question of boundedness of the packing chromatic number in the class of subcubic (planar) graphs was investigated in several earlier …
We investigate bounds on the dichromatic number of digraphs which avoid a fixed digraph as a topological minor. For a digraph $F$, denote by $\text{mader}_{\vecχ}(F)$ the smallest integer $k$ such that every $k$-dichromatic digraph contains a subdivision of $F$. As our first main result, we prove that if $F$ is an orientation of a cycle then $\text{mader}_{\vecχ}(F)=v(F)$. This settles a conjecture of Aboulker, Cohen, Havet, Lochet, Moura and Thomassé. We also extend this result to the more general class of orientations of cactus graphs, and to bioriented forests. Our second main result is tha…
The packing chromatic number $χ$ $ρ$ (G) of a graph G is the smallest integer k such that its set of vertices V (G) can be partitioned into k disjoint subsets V 1 ,. .. , V k , in such a way that every two distinct vertices in V i are at distance greater than i in G for every i, 1 $\le$ i $\le$ k. Recently, Balogh, Kostochka and Liu proved that $χ$ $ρ$ is not bounded in the class of subcubic graphs [Packing chromatic number of subcubic graphs, Discrete Math. 341 (2018), 474483], thus answering a question previously addressed in several papers. However, several subclasses of cubic or subcubic g…
List packing is a notion that was introduced in 2021 (by Cambie et al.). The list packing number of a graph $G$, denoted $χ_{\ell}^*(G)$, is the least $k$ such that for any list assignment $L$ that assigns $k$ colors to each vertex of $G$, there is a set of $k$ proper $L$-colorings of $G$, $\{f_1, \ldots, f_k \}$, with the property $f_i(v) \neq f_j(v)$ whenever $1 \leq i < j \leq k$ and $v \in V(G)$. We present a short proof that for any graph $G$, $χ_{\ell}^*(G) \leq |V(G)|$. Interestingly, our proof makes use of Galvin's celebrated result that the list chromatic number of the line graph of a…
A $(k_1+k_2)$-bispindle is the union of $k_1$ $(x,y)$-dipaths and $k_2$ $(y,x)$-dipaths, all these dipaths being pairwise internally disjoint. Recently, Cohen et al. showed that for every $(1,1)$- bispindle $B$, there exists an integer $k$ such that every strongly connected digraph with chromatic number greater than $k$ contains a subdivision of $B$. We investigate generalisations of this result by first showing constructions of strongly connected digraphs with large chromatic number without any $(3,0)$-bispindle or $(2,2)$-bispindle. Then we show that strongly connected digraphs with large ch…
An odd graph is a finite graph all of whose vertices have odd degrees. Given graph $G$ is decomposable into $k$ odd subgraphs if its edge set can be partitioned into $k$ subsets each of which induces an odd subgraph of $G$. The minimum value of $k$ for which such a decomposition of $G$ exists is the odd chromatic index, $χ_{o}'(G)$, introduced by Pyber (1991). For every $k\geqχ_{o}'(G)$, the graph $G$ is said to be odd $k$-edge-colorable. Apart from two particular exceptions, which are respectively odd $5$- and odd $6$-edge-colorable, the rest of connected loopless graphs are odd $4$-edge-colo…
The {\em packing chromatic number} $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the least integer $k$ for which there exists a mapping $f$ from $V(G)$ to $\{1,2,\ldots ,k\}$ such that any two vertices of color $i$ are at distance at least $i+1$. This paper studies the packing chromatic number of infinite distance graphs $G(\mathbb{Z},D)$, i.e. graphs with the set $\mathbb{Z}$ of integers as vertex set, with two distinct vertices $i,j\in \mathbb{Z}$ being adjacent if and only if $|i-j|\in D$. We present lower and upper bounds for $χ_ρ(G(\mathbb{Z},D))$, showing that for finite $D$, the packing chromatic number i…
