In 1980, Albertson and Berman introduced partial coloring. In 2000, Albertson, Grossman, and Haas introduced partial list coloring. Here, we initiate the study of partial coloring for an insightful generalization of list coloring introduced in 2015 by Dvořák and Postle, DP-coloring (or correspondence coloring). We consider the DP-coloring analogue of the Partial List Coloring Conjecture, which generalizes a natural bound for partial coloring. We show that while this partial DP-coloring conjecture does not hold, several results on partial list coloring can be extended to partial DP-coloring. We also study partial DP-coloring of the join of a graph with a complete graph, and we present several interesting open questions.
Let $G$ be a graph embedded on a surface $S_\varepsilon$ with Euler genus $\varepsilon > 0$, and let $P\subseteq V(G)$ be a set of vertices mutually at distance at least 4 apart. Suppose all vertices of $G$ have $H(\varepsilon)$-lists and the vertices of $P$ are precolored, where $H(\varepsilon)=\Big\lfloor\frac{7 + \sqrt{24\varepsilon + 1}}{2}\Big\rfloor$ is the Heawood number. We show that the coloring of $P$ extends to a list-coloring of $G$ and that the distance bound of 4 is best possible. Our result provides an answer to an analogous question of Albertson about extending a precoloring of…
We show that every plane graph with maximum face size four whose all faces of size four are vertex-disjoint is cyclically 5-colorable. This answers a question of Albertson whether graphs drawn in the plane with all crossings independent are 5-colorable.
In this paper, we consider coloring of graphs under the assumption that some vertices are already colored. Let $G$ be an $r$-colorable graph and let $P\subset V(G)$. Albertson [J.\ Combin.\ Theory Ser. B \textbf{73} (1998), 189--194] has proved that if every pair of vertices in $P$ have distance at least four, then every $(r+1)$-coloring of $G[P]$ can be extended to an $(r+1)$-coloring of $G$, where $G[P]$ is the subgraph of $G$ induced by $P$. In this paper, we allow $P$ to have pairs of vertices of distance at most three, and investigate how the number of such pairs affects the number of col…
Let G be an n-vertex graph with list-chromatic number $χ_\ell$. Suppose each vertex of G is assigned a list of t colors. Albertson, Grossman, and Haas conjecture that at least $t n / {χ_\ell}$ vertices can be colored from these lists. We prove a lower bound for the number of colorable vertices. As a corollary, we show that at least 6/7 of the conjectured number can be colored.
Let $G$ be a simple graph with $n$ vertices and list chromatic number $χ_\ell(G)=χ_\ell$. Suppose that $0\leq t\leq χ_\ell$ and each vertex of $G$ is assigned a list of $t$ colors. Albertson, Grossman and Haas [1] conjectured that at least $\frac{tn}{χ_\ell}$ vertices of $G$ can be colored from these lists. In this paper we find some new results in partial list coloring which help us to show that the conjecture is true for at least half of the numbers of the set $\{1,2,...,χ_\ell(G)-1\}$. In addition we introduce a new related conjecture and finally we present some results about this conjectur…
Albertson conjectured that if graph $G$ has chromatic number $r$, then the crossing number of $G$ is at least that of the complete graph $K_r$. This conjecture in the case $r=5$ is equivalent to the four color theorem. It was verified for $r=6$ by Oporowski and Zhao. In this paper, we prove the conjecture for $7 \leq r \leq 12$ using results of Dirac; Gallai; and Kostochka and Stiebitz that give lower bounds on the number of edges in critical graphs, together with lower bounds by Pach et.al. on the crossing number of graphs in terms of the number of edges and vertices.
We answer positively the question of Albertson asking whether every planar graph can be $5$-list-colored even if it contains precolored vertices, as long as they are sufficiently far apart from each other. In order to prove this claim, we also give bounds on the sizes of graphs critical with respect to 5-list coloring. In particular, if G is a planar graph, H is a connected subgraph of G and L is an assignment of lists of colors to the vertices of G such that |L(v)| >= 5 for every v in V(G)-V(H) and G is not L-colorable, then G contains a subgraph with O(|H|^2) vertices that is not L-colorable…
Given a partial edge coloring of a complete graph $K_n$ and lists of allowed colors for the non-colored edges of $K_n$, can we extend the partial edge coloring to a proper edge coloring of $K_n$ using only colors from the lists? We prove that this question has a positive answer in the case when both the partial edge coloring and the color lists satisfy certain sparsity conditions.
We consider the following type of question: Given a partial proper $d$-edge coloring of the $d$-dimensional hypercube $Q_d$, and lists of allowed colors for the non-colored edges of $Q_d$,can we extend the partial coloring to a proper $d$-edge coloring using only colors from the lists? We prove that this question has a positive answer in the case when both the partial coloring and the color lists satisfy certain sparsity conditions.
We consider the problem of extending and avoiding partial edge colorings of hypercubes; that is, given a partial edge coloring $φ$ of the $d$-dimensional hypercube $Q_d$, we are interested in whether there is a proper $d$-edge coloring of $Q_d$ that agrees with the coloring $φ$ on every edge that is colored under $φ$; or, similarly, if there is a proper $d$-edge coloring that disagrees with $φ$ on every edge that is colored under $φ$. In particular, we prove that for any $d\geq 1$, if $φ$ is a partial $d$-edge coloring of $Q_d$, then $φ$ is avoidable if every color appears on at most $d/8$ edg…
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 …
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…
Discrete d-manifolds are classes of finite simple graphs which can triangulate classical manifolds but which are defined entirely within graph theory. We show that the chromatic number X(G) of a discrete d-manifold G is sandwiched between d+1 and 2(d+1). From the general identity X(A+B)=X(A)+X(B) for the join A+B of two finite simple graphs, it follows that there are (2k)-spheres with chromatic number X=(3k+1) and (2k-1)-spheres with chromatic number X=3k. Examples of 2-manifolds with X(G)=5 have been known since the pioneering work of Fisk. Current data support the that the ceiling function o…
We consider the problem of extending partial edge colorings of cartesian products of graphs. More specifically, we suggest the following Evans-type conjecture: If $G$ is a graph where every precoloring of at most $k$ precolored edges can be extended to a proper $χ'(G)$-edge coloring, then every precoloring of at most $k+1$ edges of $G \square K_2$ is extendable to a proper $(χ'(G) +1)$-edge coloring of $G \square K_2$. In this paper we verify that this conjecture holds for trees, complete and complete bipartite graphs, as well as for graphs with small maximum degree. We also prove versions of …
In a proper edge-coloring of a cubic graph, an edge $e$ is normal if the set of colors used by the edges adjacent to $e$ has cardinality 3 or 5. The Petersen coloring conjecture asserts that every bridgeless cubic graph has a normal 5-edge-coloring, that is, a proper 5-edge-coloring such that all edges are normal. In this paper, we prove a result related to the Petersen coloring conjecture. The parameter $μ_3$ is a measurement for cubic graphs, introduced by Steffen in 2015. Our result shows that every bridgeless cubic graph $G$ has a proper 5-edge-coloring such that at least $|E(G)|-μ_3(G)$, …
We consider the problem of extending partial edge colorings of hypercubes. In particular, we obtain an analogue of the positive solution to the famous Evans' conjecture on completing partial Latin squares by proving that every proper partial edge coloring of at most $d-1$ edges of the $d$-dimensional hypercube $Q_d$ can be extended to a proper $d$-edge coloring of $Q_d$. Additionally, we characterize which partial edge colorings of $Q_d$ with precisely $d$ precolored edges are extendable to proper $d$-edge colorings of $Q_d$, and consider some related edge precoloring extension problems of hyp…
A classical question in combinatorics is the following:\ given a partial Latin square $P$, when can we complete $P$ to a Latin square $L$? In this paper, we investigate the class of \textbf{$ε$-dense partial Latin squares}:\ partial Latin squares in which each symbol, row, and column contains no more than $εn$-many nonblank cells. Based on a conjecture of Nash-Williams, Daykin and Häggkvist conjectured that all $\frac{1}{4}$-dense partial Latin squares are completable. In this paper, we will discuss the proof methods and results used in previous attempts to resolve this conjecture, introduce a…
Let $H$ be a graph with $Δ(H) \leq 2$, and let $G$ be obtained from $H$ by gluing in vertex-disjoint copies of $K_4$. We prove that if $H$ contains at most one odd cycle of length exceeding $3$, or if $H$ contains at most $3$ triangles, then $χ(G) \leq 4$. This proves the Strong Coloring Conjecture for such graphs $H$. For graphs $H$ with $Δ=2$ that are not covered by our theorem, we prove an approximation result towards the conjecture.
We prove that it is always possible to color online nonrepetitively any (partial) $k$-tree (that is, graphs with tree-width at most $k$) with $4^k$ colors. This implies that it is always possible to color online nonrepetitively cycles, trees and series-parallel graphs with $16$ colors. Our results generalize the respective (offline) nonrepetitive coloring results.
We consider the so-called coupon-coloring of the vertices of a graph where every color appears in every open neighborhood, and our aim is to determine the maximal number of colors in such colorings. In other words, every color class must be a total dominating set in the graph and we study the total domatic number of the graph. We determine this parameter in every maximal outerplanar graph, and show that every Hamiltonian maximal planar graph has domatic number at least two, partially answering a conjecture of Goddard and Henning.
A b-coloring of a graph is a proper coloring such that each color class has at least one vertex which is adjacent to each other color class. The b-spectrum of $G$ is the set $S_{b}(G)$ of integers $k$ such that $G$ has a b-coloring with $k$ colors and $b(G)=\max S_{b}(G)$ is the b-chromatic number of $G$. A graph is b-continous if $S_{b}(G)=[χ(G),b(G)]\cap \mathbb{Z}$. An infinite number of graphs that are not b-continuous is known. It is also known that graphs with girth at least 10 are b-continuous. A partial Grundy coloring is a proper coloring $f:V(G)\rightarrow \{1,\ldots,k\}$ such that e…
We present several bijections, in terms of combinatorial objects counted by the Schröder numbers, that are then used (via coloring) for the construction and enumeration of rational Schröder paths with integer slope, ordered rooted trees, and simple rooted outerplanar maps. On the other hand, we derive partial Bell polynomial identities for the little and large Schröder numbers, which allow us to obtain explicit enumeration formulas.
In attempting to understand how combinatorial modifications alter algebraic properties of monomial ideals, several authors have investigated the process of adding "whiskers" to graphs. In this paper, we study a similar construction to build a simplicial complex $Δ_χ$ from a coloring $χ$ of a subset of the vertices of $Δ$, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for this construction to produce vertex decomposable simplicial complexes. We apply this work to strengthen and give new proofs about sequentially Cohen-Macaulay edge ideals of graphs.
In this expository note, we discuss an early partial coloring result of B. Kashin [C. R. Acad. Bulgare Sci., 1985]. Although this result only implies Spencer's six standard deviations [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 1985] up to a $\log\log n$ factor, Kashin's argument gives a simple proof of the existence of a constant discrepancy partial coloring in the setup of Komlós conjecture.
We prove that every partial function with finite domain and range can be effectively simulated through sequential colorings of graphs. Namely, we show that given a finite set $S=\{0,1,\ldots,m-1\}$ and a number $n \geq \max\{m,3\}$, any partial function $φ:S^{^p} \to S^{^q}$ (i.e. it may not be defined on some elements of its domain $S^{^p}$) can be effectively (i.e. in polynomial time) transformed to a simple graph $\matr{G}_{_{φ,n}}$ along with three sets of specified vertices $$X = \{x_{_{0}},x_{_{1}},\ldots,x_{_{p-1}}\}, \ \ Y = \{y_{_{0}},y_{_{1}},\ldots,y_{_{q-1}}\}, \ \ R = \{\Kv{0},\Kv…
For a poset P, a subposet A, and an order preserving map F from A into the real numbers, the marked order polytope parametrizes the order preserving extensions of F to P. We show that the function counting integral-valued extensions is a piecewise polynomial in F and we prove a reciprocity statement in terms of order-reversing maps. We apply our results to give a geometric proof of a combinatorial reciprocity for monotone triangles due to Fischer and Riegler (2011) and we consider the enumerative problem of counting extensions of partial graph colorings of Herzberg and Murty (2007).
In the first partial result toward Steinberg's now-disproved three coloring conjecture, Abbott and Zhou used a counting argument to show that every planar graph without cycles of lengths 4 through 11 is 3-colorable. Implicit in their proof is a fact about plane graphs: in any plane graph of minimum degree 3, if no two triangles share an edge, then triangles make up strictly less than 2/3 of the faces. We show how this result, combined with Kostochka and Yancey's resolution of Ore's conjecture for k = 4, implies that every planar graph without cycles of lengths 4 through 8 is 3-colorable.
Given a family of curves $\mathcal{C}$ in the plane, its disjointness graph is the graph whose vertices correspond to the elements of $\mathcal{C}$, and two vertices are joined by an edge if and only if the corresponding sets are disjoint. We prove that for every positive integer $r$ and $n$, there exists a family of $n$ curves whose disjointness graph has girth $r$ and chromatic number $Ω(\frac{1}{r}\log n)$. In the process we slightly improve Bollobás's old result on Hasse diagrams and show that our improved bound is best possible for uniquely generated partial orders.
The existence of an on-line competitive algorithm for coloring bipartite graphs remains a tantalizing open problem. So far there are only partial positive results for bipartite graphs with certain small forbidden graphs as induced subgraphs. We propose a new on-line competitive coloring algorithm for $P_9$-free bipartite graphs.
If $G$ and $H$ are two cubic graphs, then we write $H\prec G$, if $G$ admits a proper edge-coloring $f$ with edges of $H$, such that for each vertex $x$ of $G$, there is a vertex $y$ of $H$ with $f(\partial_G(x))=\partial_H(y)$. Let $P$ and $S$ be the Petersen graph and the Sylvester graph, respectively. In this paper, we introduce the Sylvester coloring conjecture. Moreover, we show that if $G$ is a connected bridgeless cubic graph with $G\prec P$, then $G=P$. Finally, if $G$ is a connected cubic graph with $G\prec S$, then $G=S$.
If $G$ and $H$ are two cubic graphs, then an $H$-coloring of $G$ is a proper edge-coloring $f$ with edges of $H$, such that for each vertex $x$ of $G$, there is a vertex $y$ of $H$ with $f(\partial_G(x))=\partial_H(y)$. If $G$ admits an $H$-coloring, then we will write $H\prec G$. The Petersen coloring conjecture of Jaeger states that for any bridgeless cubic graph $G$, one has: $P\prec G$. The second author has recently introduced the Sylvester coloring conjecture, which states that for any cubic graph $G$ one has: $S\prec G$. Here $S$ is the Sylvester graph on $10$ vertices. In this paper, w…
A Gallai coloring is a coloring of the edges of a complete graph without rainbow triangles, and a Gallai $k$-coloring is a Gallai coloring that uses $k$ colors. We study Ramsey-type problems in Gallai colorings. Given an integer $k\ge1$ and a graph $H$, the Gallai-Ramsey number $GR_k(H)$ is the least positive integer $n$ such that every Gallai $k$-coloring of the complete graph on $n$ vertices contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. It turns out that $GR_k(H)$ is more well-behaved than the classical Ramsey number $R_k(H)$. However, finding exact values of $GR_k (H)$ is far from trivial. In this …
A hole is an induced cycle with at least four vertices. A hole is even if its number of vertices is even. Given a set L of graphs, a graph G is L-free if G does not contain any graph in L as an induced subgraph. Currently, the following two problems are unresolved: the complexity of coloring even hole-free graphs, and the complexity of coloring {4K1, C4}-free graphs. The intersection of these two problems is the problem of coloring {4K1, C4, C6}-free graphs. In this paper we present partial results on this problem.
Indicated coloring is a type of game coloring in which two players collectively color the vertices of a graph in the following way. In each round the first player (Ann) selects a vertex, and then the second player (Ben) colors it properly, using a fixed set of colors. The goal of Ann is to achieve a proper coloring of the whole graph, while Ben is trying to prevent the realization of this project. The smallest number of colors necessary for Ann to win the game on a graph $G$ (regardless of Ben's strategy) is called the indicated chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $χ_i(G)$. In this paper, we o…
We advance a probabilistic approach to the Hadwiger-Nelson problem initially developed by the Polymath16 project, in particular relating the approach to finite unit-distance graphs. We define the numerical \textit{badness} of a given $k$-coloring of the plane to be the probability that a randomly chosen unit-distance edge is monochromatic under the coloring, and we provide lower bounds on the badness of arbitrary $k$-colorings using a probabilistic technique relating to finite graphs. The contrapositive of the resulting bounds lets us compute lower bounds on the order of non $k$-colorable unit…
If $G$ and $H$ are two cubic graphs, then an $H$-coloring of $G$ is a proper edge-coloring $f$ with edges of $H$, such that for each vertex $x$ of $G$, there is a vertex $y$ of $H$ with $f(\partial_G(x))=\partial_H(y)$. If $G$ admits an $H$-coloring, then we will write $H\prec G$. The Petersen coloring conjecture of Jaeger ($P_{10}$-conjecture) states that for any bridgeless cubic graph $G$, one has: $P_{10}\prec G$. The Sylvester coloring conjecture ($S_{10}$-conjecture) states that for any cubic graph $G$, $S_{10}\prec G$. In this paper, we introduce two new conjectures that are related to t…
We investigate some coloring properties of Kneser graphs. A star-free coloring is a proper coloring $c:V(G)\to \Bbb{N}$ such that no path with three vertices may be colored with just two consecutive numbers. The minimum positive integer $t$ for which there exists a star-free coloring $c: V(G) \to \{1,2,..., t\}$ is called the star-free chromatic number of $G$ and denoted by $χ_s(G)$. In view of Tucker-Ky Fan's lemma, we show that for any Kneser graph ${\rm KG}(n,k)$ we have $χ_s({\rm KG}(n,k))\geq \max\{2χ({\rm KG}(n,k))-10, χ({\rm KG}(n,k))\}$ where $n\geq 2k \geq 4$. Moreover, we show that $…
Indicated coloring is a graph coloring game in which two players collectively color the vertices of a graph in the following way. In each round the first player (Ann) selects a vertex, and then the second player (Ben) colors it properly, using a fixed set of colors. The goal of Ann is to achieve a proper coloring of the whole graph, while Ben is trying to prevent the realization of this project. The smallest number of colors necessary for Ann to win the game on a graph $G$ (regardless of Ben's strategy) is called the indicated chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $χ_i(G)$. In this paper, we hav…
Let $G$ be a graph. We introduce the acyclic b-chromatic number of $G$ as an analogue to the b-chromatic number of $G$. An acyclic coloring of a graph $G$ is a map $c:V(G)\rightarrow \{1,\dots,k\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for any $uv\in E(G)$ and the induced subgraph on vertices of any two colors $i,j\in \{1,\dots,k\}$ induces a forest. On the set of all acyclic colorings of $G$ we define a relation whose transitive closure is a strict partial order. The minimum cardinality of its minimal element is then the acyclic chromatic number $A(G)$ of $G$ and the maximum cardinality of its minimal el…
We present a common generalization of counting lattice points in rational polytopes and the enumeration of proper graph colorings, nowhere-zero flows on graphs, magic squares and graphs, antimagic squares and graphs, compositions of an integer whose parts are partially distinct, and generalized latin squares. Our method is to generalize Ehrhart's theory of lattice-point counting to a convex polytope dissected by a hyperplane arrangement. We particularly develop the applications to graph and signed-graph coloring, compositions of an integer, and antimagic labellings.
In an undirected graph $G$, a conflict-free coloring with respect to open neighborhoods (denoted by CFON coloring) is an assignment of colors to the vertices such that every vertex has a uniquely colored vertex in its open neighborhood. The minimum number of colors required for a CFON coloring of $G$ is the CFON chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $χ_{ON}(G)$. The decision problem that asks whether $χ_{ON}(G) \leq k$ is NP-complete. We obtain the following results: * Bodlaender, Kolay and Pieterse [WADS 2019] showed the upper bound $χ_{ON}(G)\leq {\sf fvs}(G)+3$, where ${\sf fvs}(G)$ denotes t…
Graph anticoloring problem is partial coloring problem where the main feature is the opposite rule of the graph coloring problem, i.e., if two vertices are adjacent, their assigned colors must be the same or at least one of them is uncolored. In the same way, Berge in 1972 proposed the problem of placing b black queens and w white queens on a $n \times n$ chessboard such that no two queens of different color can attack to each other, the complexity of this problem remains open. In this work we deal with the knight piece under the balance property, since this special case is the most difficult …
