We introduce and study the dominated edge coloring of a graph. A dominated edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring of $G$ such that each color class is dominated by at least one edge of $G$. The minimum number of colors among all dominated edge coloring is called the dominated edge chromatic number, denoted by $χ_{dom}^{\prime}(G)$. We obtain some properties of $χ_{dom}^{\prime}(G)$ and compute it for specific graphs. Also we examine the effects on $χ_{dom}^{\prime}(G)$ when $G$ is modified by operations on vertex and edge of $G$. Finally, we consider the $k$-subdivision of $G$ and study the dominated edge chromatic number of these kind of graphs.
Let $G$ be a simple graph. The dominated coloring of $G$ is a proper coloring of $G$ such that each color class is dominated by at least one vertex. The minimum number of colors needed for a dominated coloring of $G$ is called the dominated chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $χ_{dom}(G)$. Stability (bondage number) of dominated chromatic number of $G$ is the minimum number of vertices (edges) of $G$ whose removal changes the dominated chromatic number of $G$. In this paper, we study the dominated chromatic number, dominated stability and dominated bondage number of certain graphs.
Let $G$ be a simple graph. The dominated coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper coloring of $G$ such that each color class is dominated by at least one vertex. The minimum number of colors needed for a dominated coloring of $G$ is called the dominated chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $χ_{dom}(G)$. In this paper, we examine the effects on $χ_{dom}(G)$ when $G$ is modified by operations on vertex and edge of $G$.
Dominator coloring of a graph is a proper (vertex) coloring with the property that every vertex is either alone in its color class or adjacent to all vertices of at least one color class. A dominated coloring of a graph is a proper coloring such that every color class is dominated with at least one vertex. The dominator chromatic number of corona products and of edge corona products is determined. Sharp lower and upper bounds are given for the dominated chromatic number of edge corona products. The dominator chromatic number of hierarchical products is bounded from above and the dominated chro…
Using the definition of colouring of $2$-edge-coloured graphs derived from $2$-edge-coloured graph homomorphism, we extend the definition of chromatic polynomial to $2$-edge-coloured graphs. We find closed forms for the first three coefficients of this polynomial that generalize the known results for the chromatic polynomial of a graph. We classify those $2$-edge-coloured graphs that have a chromatic polynomial equal to the chromatic polynomial of the underlying graph, when every vertex is incident to edges of both colours. Finally, we examine the behaviour of the roots of this polynomial, hig…
We consider class of integral sum graphs $H^{-i,s}_{m,j}$ subject to the conditions $-i<0<s$, $1\leq m < i$ and $1\leq j < s$ for all $i,s, m,j\in \mathbb{N}$. We apply edge-sum coloring and edge coloring on $H^{-i,s}_{m,j}$. Since the graphs fully depend on $i$ and $s$, therefore it is not easy to derive the theoretical as well as numerical results for all values of $i$ and $s$. Here, we derive the general formula for computing the minimum number of independent color classes. We compute the edge chromatic as well as edge-sum chromatic number of $H^{-i,s}_{m,j}$ corresponding to different valu…
In the paper we give a lower bound for the number of vertices of a given graph using its chromatic number. We find the graphs for which this bound is exact. The results are applied in the theory of Foklman numbers.
Given a graph $G$, denote by $Δ$ and $χ^\prime$ the maximum degree and the chromatic index of $G$, respectively. A simple graph $G$ is called {\it edge-$Δ$-critical} if $χ^\prime(G)=Δ+1$ and $χ^\prime(H)\leΔ$ for every proper subgraph $H$ of $G$. We proved that every edge chromatic critical graph of order $n$ with maximum degree at least $\frac{2n}{3}+12$ is Hamiltonian.
The {\em chromatic edge-stability number} $es_χ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of edges whose removal results in a spanning subgraph with the chromatic number smaller than that of $G$. A graph $G$ is called {\em $(3,2)$-critical} if $χ(G)=3$, $es_χ(G)=2$ and for any edge $e\in E(G)$, $es_χ(G-e)<es_χ(G)$. In this paper, we characterize $(3,2)$-critical graphs which contain at least five odd cycles. This answers a question proposed by Brešar, Klavžar and Movarraei in [Critical graphs for the chromatic edge-stability number, {\it Discrete Math.} {\bf 343}(2020) 111845].
We show that for a simple graph $G$, $c'(G)\leqΔ(G)+2$ where $c'(G)$ is the choice index (or edge-list chromatic number) of $G$, and $Δ(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$. As a simple corollary of this result, we show that the total chromatic number $χ_T(G)$ of a simple graph satisfies the inequality $χ_T(G)\leq\ Δ(G)+4$ and the total choice number $c_T(G)$ also satisfies this inequality. We also relate these bounds to the Hall index and the Hall condition index of a simple graph, and to the total Hall number and the total Hall condition number of a simple graph.
In this note we obtain a new bound for the acyclic edge chromatic number $a'(G)$ of a graph $G$ with maximum degree $D$ proving that $a'(G)\leq 3.569(D-1)$. To get this result we revisit and slightly modify the method described in [Giotis, Kirousis, Psaromiligkos and Thilikos, Theoretical Computer Science, 66: 40-50, 2017].
For an arbitrary invariant $ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$, the $ρ-$vertex stability number $vs_ρ(G)$ is the minimum number of vertices of $G$ whose removal results in a graph $H\subseteq G$ with $ρ(H)\neq ρ(G)$ or with $E(H)=\varnothing$. In this paper, first we give some general lower and upper bounds for the $ρ$-vertex stability number, and then study the edge chromatic stability number of graphs, $vs_{χ^{\prime}}(G)$, where $χ^{\prime}=χ^{\prime}(G)$ is edge chromatic number (chromatic index) of $G$. We prove some general results for this parameter and determine $vs_{χ^{\prime}}(G)$ for specific cla…
We introduce the total dominator edge chromatic number of a graph $G$. A total dominator edge coloring (briefly TDE-coloring) of $G$ is a proper edge coloring of $G$ in which each edge of the graph is adjacent to every edge of some color class. The total dominator edge chromatic number (briefly TDEC-number) $χ'^t_d(G)$ of $G$ is the minimum number of color classes in a TDE-coloring of $G$. We obtain some properties of $χ'^t_d(G)$ and compute this parameter for specific graphs. We examine the effects on $χ'^t_d(G)$ when $G$ is modified by operations on vertex and edge of $G$. Finally, we consid…
We give an elementary proof for the non-$3$-colorability of $4$-chromatic Schrijver graphs thus providing such a proof also for $4$-chromatic Kneser graphs. To this end we use a complete description of the structure of $4$-chromatic Schrijver graphs that was already given by Braun and even earlier in an unpublished manuscript by Li. We also address connections to surface quadrangulations. In particular, we show that a spanning subgraph of $4$-chromatic Schrijver graphs quadrangulates the Klein bottle, while another spanning subgraph quadrangulates the projective plane. The latter is a special …
In 1973 P. Erdős and L. Lovász noticed that any hypergraph whose edges are pairwise intersecting has chromatic number 2 or 3. In the first case, such hypergraph may have any number of edges. However, Erdős and Lovász proved that in the second case, the number of edges is bounded from above. For example, if a hypergraph is $ n $-uniform, has pairwise intersecting edges, and has chromatic number 3, then the number of its edges does not exceed $ n^n $. Recently D.D. Cherkashin improved this bound (see \cite{Ch}). In this paper, we further improve it in the case when the number of vertices of an $…
A finite simple connected graph $G$ with maximum degree $k$ is $k$-critical if it has chromatic index $χ'(G)=k+1$ and $χ'(G-e)=k$ for every edge $e\in E(G)$. Bej and the first author raised the question whether every $k$-critical graph has an even factor. We prove that every $k$-critical graph with at most $2k-6$ vertices of degree 2 has an even factor.
The chromatic edge-stability number ${\rm es}_χ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of edges whose removal results in a spanning subgraph $G'$ with $χ(G')=χ(G)-1$. Edge-stability critical graphs are introduced as the graphs $G$ with the property that ${\rm es}_χ(G-e) < {\rm es}_χ(G)$ holds for every edge $e\in E(G)$. If $G$ is an edge-stability critical graph with $χ(G)=k$ and ${\rm es}_χ(G)=\ell$, then $G$ is $(k,\ell)$-critical. Graphs which are $(3,2)$-critical and contain at most four odd cycles are classified. It is also proved that the problem of deciding whether a graph $G$ has $χ(…
An adjacent vertex distinguishing edge-coloring or an \avd-coloring of a simple graph $G$ is a proper edge-coloring of $G$ such that no pair of adjacent vertices meets the same set of colors. We prove that every graph with maximum degree $Δ$ and with no isolated edges has an \avd-coloring with at most $Δ+300$ colors, provided that $Δ>10^{20}$.
A star edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring of $G$ such that every path and cycle of length four in $G$ uses at least three different colors. The star chromatic index of a graph $G$, is the smallest integer $k$ for which $G$ admits a star edge coloring with $k$ colors. In this paper, we present a polynomial time algorithm that finds an optimum star edge coloring for every tree. We also provide some tight bounds on the star chromatic index of trees with diameter at most four, and using these bounds we find a formula for the star chromatic index of certain families of trees.
The edge-distinguishing chromatic number (EDCN) of a graph $G$ is the minimum positive integer $k$ such that there exists a vertex coloring $c:V(G)\to\{1,2,\dotsc,k\}$ whose induced edge labels $\{c(u),c(v)\}$ are distinct for all edges $uv$. Previous work has determined the EDCN of paths, cycles, and spider graphs with three legs. In this paper, we determine the EDCN of petal graphs with two petals and a loop, cycles with one chord, and spider graphs with four legs. These are achieved by graph embedding into looped complete graphs.
We study the class of simple graphs $\mathcal{G}^*$ for which every pair of distinct odd cycles intersect in at most one edge. We give a structural characterization of the graphs in $\mathcal{G}^*$ and prove that every $G \in \mathcal{G}^*$ satisfies the list-edge-coloring conjecture. When $Δ(G) \geq 4$, we in fact prove a stronger result about kernel-perfect orientations in $L(G)$ which implies that $G$ is $(mΔ(G):m)$-edge-choosable and $Δ(G)$-edge-paintable for every $m \geq 1$.
Fix an oriented graph H, and let G be a graph with bounded clique number and very large chromatic number. If we somehow orient its edges, must there be an induced subdigraph isomorphic to H? Kierstead and Rodl raised this question for two specific kinds of digraph H: the three-edge path, with the first and last edges both directed towards the interior; and stars (with many edges directed out and many directed in). Aboulker et al subsequently conjectured that the answer is affirmative in both cases. We give affirmative answers to both questions.
Among other results, it is shown that 3-trees are $Δ$-edge-choosable and that graphs of tree-width 3 and maximum degree at least 7 are $Δ$-edge-choosable.
A star edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring of $G$ such that every path and cycle of length four in $G$ uses at least three different colors. The star chromatic index of $G$, is the smallest integer $k$ for which $G$ admits a star edge coloring with $k$ colors. In this paper, we obtain tight upper bound $\left\lfloor\frac{3Δ}{2}\right\rfloor+2$ for the star chromatic index of every Halin graph, that proves the conjecture of Dvo{ř}{á}k et al. (J Graph Theory, 72 (2013), 313--326) for cubic Halin graphs.
A strong $k$-edge-coloring of a graph G is an edge-coloring with $k$ colors in which every color class is an induced matching. The strong chromatic index of $G$, denoted by $χ'_{s}(G)$, is the minimum $k$ for which $G$ has a strong $k$-edge-coloring. In 1985, Erdős and Nešetřil conjectured that $χ'_{s}(G)\leq\frac{5}{4}Δ(G)^2$, where $Δ(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$. When $G$ is a graph with maximum degree at most 3, the conjecture was verified independently by Andersen and Horák, Qing, and Trotter. In this paper, we consider the list version of strong edge-coloring. In particular, we show …
A coloring of edges of a graph $G$ is injective if for any two distinct edges $e_1$ and $e_2$, the colors of $e_1$ and $e_2$ are distinct if they are at distance $1$ in $G$ or in a common triangle. Naturally, the injective chromatic index of $G$, $χ'_{inj}(G)$, is the minimum number of colors needed for an injective edge-coloring of $G$. We study how large can be the injective chromatic index of $G$ in terms of maximum degree of $G$ when we have restrictions on girth and/or chromatic number of $G$. We also compare our bounds with analogous bounds on the strong chromatic index.
A strong edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is an edge-coloring such that no two edges of distance at most two receive the same color. The strong chromatic index $χ'_s(G)$ is the minimum number of colors in a strong edge-coloring of $G$. P. Erdős and J. Nešetřil conjectured in 1985 that $χ'_s(G)$ is bounded above by $\frac54Δ^2$ when $Δ$ is even and $\frac14(5Δ^2-2Δ+1)$ when $Δ$ is odd, where $Δ$ is the maximum degree of $G$. In this paper, we give an algorithm that uses at most $2Δ^2-3Δ+2$ colors for graphs with girth at least $5$. And in particular, we prove that any graph with maximum degree $Δ=5…
Three edges $e_{1}, e_{2}$ and $e_{3}$ in a graph $G$ are consecutive if they form a path (in this order) or a cycle of length three. An injective edge coloring of a graph $G = (V,E)$ is a coloring $c$ of the edges of $G$ such that if $e_{1}, e_{2}$ and $e_{3}$ are consecutive edges in $G$, then $c(e_{1})\neq c(e_3)$. The injective edge coloring number $χ_{i}^{'}(G)$ is the minimum number of colors permitted in such a coloring. In this paper, exact values of $χ_{i}^{'}(G)$ for several classes of graphs are obtained, upper and lower bounds for $χ_{i}^{'}(G)$ are introduced and it is proven that…
An acyclic edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring such that no bichromatic cycles are produced. The acyclic chromatic index $a'(G)$ of $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ has an acyclic edge coloring using $k$ colors. It was conjectured that $a'(G)\le Δ+2$ for any simple graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ$. In this paper, we prove that if $G$ is a planar graph, then $a'(G)\leqΔ+7$. This improves a result by Basavaraju et al. [{\em Acyclic edge-coloring of planar graphs}, SIAM J. Discrete Math., 25 (2011), pp. 463-478], which says that every planar graph $G$ satisfies $a…
The distinguishing index of a graph $G$, denoted by $D'(G)$, is the least number of labels in an edge labeling of $G$ not preserved by any non-trivial automorphism. The distinguishing chromatic index $χ'_D (G)$ of a graph $G$ is the least number $d$ such that $G$ has a proper edge labeling with $d$ labels that is preserved only by the identity automorphism of $G$. In this paper we compute the distinguishing chromatic index for some specific graphs. Also we study the distinguishing chromatic index of corona product and join of two graphs.
In this paper, by developing several new adjacency lemmas about a path on $4$ or $5$ vertices, we show that the average degree of 7-critical graphs is at least 6. It implies Vizing's planar graph conjecture for planar graphs with maximum degree $7$ and its extension to graphs embeddable in a surface with nonnegative Euler characteristic due to Sanders and Zhao (J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 83 (2001) 201-212 and J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 87 (2003) 254-263) and Zhang (Graphs and Combinatorics 16 (2000) 467-495).
A graph is outer-1-planar if it can be drawn in the plane so that all vertices are on the outer face and each edge is crossed at most once. In this paper, we completely determine the edge chromatic number of outer 1-planar graphs.
A strong edge-coloring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a partition of its edge set $E$ into induced matchings. We study bipartite graphs with one part having maximum degree at most $3$ and the other part having maximum degree $Δ$. We show that every such graph has a strong edge-coloring using at most $3 Δ$ colors. Our result confirms a conjecture of Brualdi and Quinn Massey ~\cite{[BQ]} for this class of bipartite graphs.
A star edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring of $G$ such that every path and cycle of length four in $G$ uses at least three different colors. The star chromatic index of a graph $G$, is the smallest integer $k$ for which $G$ admits a star edge coloring with $k$ colors. In this paper, we first obtain some upper bounds for the star chromatic index of the Cartesian product of two graphs. We then determine the exact value of the star chromatic index of $2$-dimensional grids. We also obtain some upper bounds on the star chromatic index of the Cartesian product of a path with a cyc…
Let $G$ be a graph and $k$ a positive integer. A strong $k$-edge-coloring of $G$ is a mapping $ϕ: E(G)\to \{1,2,\dots,k\}$ such that for any two edges $e$ and $e'$ that are either adjacent to each other or adjacent to a common edge, $ϕ(e)\neq ϕ(e')$. The strong chromatic index of $G$, denoted as $χ'_{s}(G)$, is the minimum integer $k$ such that $G$ has a strong $k$-edge-coloring. Lv, Li and Zhang [Graphs and Combinatorics 38 (3) (2022) 63] proved that if $G$ is a claw-free subcubic graph other than the triangular prism then $χ_s'(G)\le 8$. In addition, they asked if the upper bound $8$ can be …
The strong chromatic index of a graph $G$, denoted $χ_s'(G)$, is the least number of colors needed to edge-color $G$ so that edges at distance at most two receive distinct colors. The strong list chromatic index, denoted $χ_{s,\ell}'(G)$, is the least integer $k$ such that if arbitrary lists of size $k$ are assigned to each edge then $G$ can be edge-colored from those lists where edges at distance at most two receive distinct colors. We use the discharging method, the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz, and computation to show that if $G$ is a subcubic planar graph with $\operatorname{girth}(G) \ge…
A \emph{mixed graph} is a graph with directed edges, called arcs, and undirected edges. A $k$-coloring of the vertices is proper if colors from ${1,2,...,k}$ are assigned to each vertex such that $u$ and $v$ have different colors if $uv$ is an edge, and the color of $u$ is less than or equal to (resp. strictly less than) the color of $v$ if $uv$ is an arc. The weak (resp. strong) chromatic polynomial of a mixed graph counts the number of proper $k$-colorings. Using order polynomials of partially ordered sets, we establish a reciprocity theorem for weak chromatic polynomials giving interpretati…
A {\em strong edge coloring} of a graph is a proper edge coloring in which every color class is an induced matching. The {\em strong chromatic index} of a graph is the minimum number of colors needed to obtain a strong edge coloring. In an analogous way, we can define the list version of strong edge coloring and list version of strong chromatic index. In this paper, we prove that if $G$ is a graph with maximum degree at most four and maximum average degree less than $3$, then the list strong chromatic index is at most $3Δ+ 1$, where $Δ$ is the maximum degree of $G$. In addition, we prove that …
The chromatic symmetric function $X_H$ of a hypergraph $H$ is the generating function for all colorings of $H$ so that no edge is monochromatic. When $H$ is an ordinary graph, it is known that $X_H$ is positive in the fundamental quasisymmetric functions $F_S$, but this is not the case for general hypergraphs. We exhibit a class of hypergraphs $H$ --- hypertrees with prime-sized edges --- for which $X_H$ is $F$-positive, and give an explicit combinatorial interpretation for the $F$-coefficients of $X_H$.
We consider graphs $G$ with $Δ=3$ such that $χ'(G)=4$ and $χ'(G-e)=3$ for every edge $e$, so-called \emph{critical} graphs. Jakobsen noted that the Petersen graph with a vertex deleted, $P^*$, is such a graph and has average degree only $\frac83$. He showed that every critical graph has average degree at least $\frac83$, and asked if $P^*$ is the only graph where equality holds. A result of Cariolaro and Cariolaro shows that this is true. We strengthen this average degree bound further. Our main result is that if $G$ is a subcubic critical graph other than $P^*$, then $G$ has average degree at…
An edge labeling of a connected graph $G = (V, E)$ is said to be local antimagic if it is a bijection $f:E \to\{1,\ldots ,|E|\}$ such that for any pair of adjacent vertices $x$ and $y$, $f^+(x)\not= f^+(y)$, where the induced vertex label $f^+(x)= \sum f(e)$, with $e$ ranging over all the edges incident to $x$. The local antimagic chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $χ_{la}(G)$, is the minimum number of distinct induced vertex labels over all local antimagic labelings of $G$. In this paper, several sufficient conditions for $χ_{la}(H)\le χ_{la}(G)$ are obtained, where $H$ is obtained from $G$ …
A star $k$-edge coloring is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic paths or cycles of length four. The smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ admits a star $k$-edge coloring is the star chromatic index of $G$. Deng \etal \cite{MR2933839}, and Bezegov{á} \etal \cite{MR3431294} independently proved that the star chromatic index of a tree is at most $\lfloor \frac{3Δ}{2} \rfloor$, and the bound is sharp. Han \etal \cite{MR3924408} strengthened the result to list version of star chromatic index, and proved that $\lfloor \frac{3Δ}{2} \rfloor$ is also the sharp upper bound for the lis…
We prove several results about three families of graphs. For queen graphs, defined from the usual moves of a chess queen, we find the edge-chromatic number in almost all cases. In the unproved case, we have a conjecture supported by a vast amount of computation, which involved the development of a new edge-coloring algorithm. The conjecture is that the edge-chromatic number is the maximum degree, except when simple arithmetic forces the edge-chromatic number to be one greater than the maximum degree. For Mycielski graphs, we strengthen an old result that the graphs are Hamiltonian by showing t…
Let $G=(V(G), E(G))$ be a multigraph with maximum degree $Δ(G)$, chromatic index $χ'(G)$ and total chromatic number $χ''(G)$. The Total Coloring conjecture proposed by Behzad and Vizing, independently, states that $χ''(G)\leq Δ(G)+μ(G) +1$ for a multigraph $G$, where $μ(G)$ is the multiplicity of $G$. Moreover, Goldberg conjectured that $χ''(G)=χ'(G)$ if $χ'(G)\geq Δ(G)+3$ and noticed the conjecture holds when $G$ is an edge-chromatic critical graph. By assuming the Goldberg-Seymour conjecture, we show that $χ''(G)=χ'(G)$ if $χ'(G)\geq \max\{ Δ(G)+2, |V(G)|+1\}$ in this note. Consequently, $χ'…
Two vertices of an odd-distance graph are connected by an edge if and only if their Euclidean distance is an odd integer. We construct a 6-chromatic odd-distance graph in the plane.
An adjacent vertex distinguishing coloring of a graph G is a proper edge coloring of G such that any pair of adjacent vertices are incident with distinct sets of colors. The minimum number of colors needed for an adjacent vertex distinguishing coloring of G is denoted by $χ'_a(G)$. In this paper, we prove that $χ_a'(G)$ <= 5($Δ+2$)/2 for any graph G having maximum degree $Δ$ and no isolated edges. This improves a result in [S. Akbari, H. Bidkhori, N. Nosrati, r-Strong edge colorings of graphs, Discrete Math. 306 (2006), 3005-3010], which states that $χ_a'(G)$ <= 3$Δ$ for any graph G without is…
A well-studied concept is that of the total chromatic number. A proper total colouring of a graph is a colouring of both vertices and edges so that every pair of adjacent vertices receive different colours, every pair of adjacent edges receive different colours and every vertex and incident edge receive different colours. This paper considers a strengthening of this condition and examines the minimum number of colours required for a total colouring with the additional property that for any adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$, the sets of colours incident to $u$ is different from the set of colours i…
Given a graph $G$, denote by $Δ$, $\bar{d}$ and $χ^\prime$ the maximum degree, the average degree and the chromatic index of $G$, respectively. A simple graph $G$ is called {\it edge-$Δ$-critical} if $χ^\prime(G)=Δ+1$ and $χ^\prime(H)\leΔ$ for every proper subgraph $H$ of $G$. Vizing in 1968 conjectured that if $G$ is edge-$Δ$-critical, then $\bar{d}\geq Δ-1+ \frac{3}{n}$. We show that $$ \begin{displaystyle} \avd \ge \begin{cases} 0.69241\D-0.15658 \quad\,\: \mbox{ if } Δ\geq 66, 0.69392\D-0.20642\quad\;\,\mbox{ if } Δ=65, \mbox{ and } 0.68706\D+0.19815\quad\! \quad\mbox{if } 56\leq Δ\leq64. …
A connected $k$-chromatic graph $G$ is said to be {\it double-critical} if for all edges $uv$ of $G$ the graph $G - u - v$ is $(k-2)$-colourable. A longstanding conjecture of Erdős and Lovász states that the complete graphs are the only double-critical graphs. Kawarabayashi, Pedersen and Toft [\it{Electron. J. Combin.}, 17(1): Research Paper 87, 2010] proved that every double-critical $k$-chromatic graph with $k \leq 7$ contains a $K_k$ minor. It remains unknown whether an arbitrary double-critical $8$-chromatic graph contains a $K_8$ minor, but in this paper we prove that any double-critical …
In this work, the classical Nelson -- Hadwiger problem is studied which lies on the edge of combinatorial geometry and graph theory. It concerns colorings of distance graphs in $ {\mathbb R}^n $, i.e., graphs such that their vertices are vectors and their edges are pairs of vectors at a distance from a given set of postive numbers apart. A series of new lower bounds are obtained for the chromatic numbers of such graphs with different restrictions on the clique numbers and the girths.
The star chromatic index of a multigraph $G$, denoted $χ'_{s}(G)$, is the minimum number of colors needed to properly color the edges of $G$ such that no path or cycle of length four is bi-colored. A multigraph $G$ is star $k$-edge-colorable if $χ'_{s}(G)\le k$. Dvořák, Mohar and Šámal [Star chromatic index, J. Graph Theory 72 (2013), 313--326] proved that every subcubic multigraph is star $7$-edge-colorable. They conjectured in the same paper that every subcubic multigraph should be star $6$-edge-colorable. In this paper, we first prove that it is NP-complete to determine whether $χ'_s(G)\le3…