In a proper edge-coloring the edges of every color form a matching. A matching is induced if the end-vertices of its edges induce a matching. A strong edge-coloring is an edge-coloring in which the edges of every color form an induced matching. We consider intermediate types of edge-colorings, where edges of some colors are allowed to form matchings, and the remaining form induced matchings. Our research is motivated by the conjecture proposed in a recent paper of Gastineau and Togni on S-packing edge-colorings (On S-packing edge-colorings of cubic graphs, Discrete Appl. Math. 259 (2019), 63-75) asserting that by allowing three additional induced matchings, one is able to save one matching color. We prove that every graph with maximum degree 3 can be decomposed into one matching and at most 8 induced matchings, and two matchings and at most 5 induced matchings. We also show that if a graph is in class I, the number of induced matchings can be decreased by one, hence confirming the above-mentioned conjecture for class I graphs.
We study the exact square chromatic number of subcubic planar graphs. An exact square coloring of a graph G is a vertex-coloring in which any two vertices at distance exactly 2 receive distinct colors. The smallest number of colors used in such a coloring of G is its exact square chromatic number, denoted $χ^{\sharp 2}(G)$. This notion is related to other types of distance-based colorings, as well as to injective coloring. Indeed, for triangle-free graphs, exact square coloring and injective coloring coincide. We prove tight bounds on special subclasses of planar graphs: subcubic bipartite pla…
A linear coloring of a graph is a proper coloring of the vertices of the graph so that each pair of color classes induce a union of disjoint paths. In this paper, we prove that for every connected graph with maximum degree at most three and every assignment of lists of size four to the vertices of the graph, there exists a linear coloring such that the color of each vertex belongs to the list assigned to that vertex and the neighbors of every degree-two vertex receive different colors, unless the graph is $C_5$ or $K_{3,3}$. This confirms a conjecture raised by Esperet, Montassier, and Raspaud…
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.
Given a non-decreasing sequence $S=(s\_1,s\_2, \ldots, s\_k)$ of positive integers, an {\em $S$-packing coloring} of a graph $G$ is a mapping $c$ from $V(G)$ to $\{s\_1,s\_2, \ldots, s\_k\}$ such that any two vertices with color $s\_i$ are at mutual distance greater than $s\_i$, $1\le i\le k$. This paper studies $S$-packing colorings of (sub)cubic graphs. We prove that subcubic graphs are $(1,2,2,2,2,2,2)$-packing colorable and $(1,1,2,2,3)$-packing colorable. For subdivisions of subcubic graphs we derive sharper bounds, and we provide an example of a cubic graph of order $38$ which is not $(1…
An injective $k$-edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is an assignment of colors, i.e. integers in $\{1, \ldots , k\}$, to the edges of $G$ such that any two edges each incident with one distinct endpoint of a third edge, receive distinct colors. The problem of determining whether such a $k$-coloring exists is called k-INJECTIVE EDGE-COLORING. We show that 3-INJECTIVE EDGE-COLORING is NP-complete, even for triangle-free cubic graphs, planar subcubic graphs of arbitrarily large girth, and planar bipartite subcubic graphs of girth~6. 4-INJECTIVE EDGE-COLORING remains NP-complete for cubic graphs. For an…
We introduce the notion of locally identifying coloring of a graph. A proper vertex-coloring c of a graph G is said to be locally identifying, if for any adjacent vertices u and v with distinct closed neighborhood, the sets of colors that appear in the closed neighborhood of u and v are distinct. Let $χ_{lid}(G)$ be the minimum number of colors used in a locally identifying vertex-coloring of G. In this paper, we give several bounds on $χ_{lid}$ for different families of graphs (planar graphs, some subclasses of perfect graphs, graphs with bounded maximum degree) and prove that deciding whethe…
An edge-coloring of a multigraph G with colors 1,2,...,t is called an interval t-coloring if all colors are used, and the colors of edges incident to any vertex of G are distinct and form an interval of integers. In this paper we prove that if G is a connected cubic multigraph (a connected cubic graph) that admits an interval t-coloring, then t\leq |V(G)| +1 (t\leq |V(G)|), where V(G) is the set of vertices of G. Moreover, if G is a connected cubic graph, G\neq K_{4}, and G has an interval t-coloring, then t\leq |V(G)| -1. We also show that these upper bounds are sharp. Finally, we prove that …
A strong edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring in which every color class is an induced matching. The strong chromatic index $χ_s'(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of colors in a strong edge coloring of $G$. Let $Δ\geq 4$ be an integer. In this note, we study the odd graphs and show the existence of some special walks. By using these results and Chang's ideas in [Discuss. Math. Graph Theory 34 (4) (2014) 723--733], we show that every planar graph with maximum degree at most $Δ$ and girth at least $10 Δ- 4$ has a strong edge coloring with $2Δ- 1$ colors. In addition, we pro…
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.
A matching in a graph is uniquely restricted if no other matching covers exactly the same set of vertices. This notion was defined by Golumbic, Hirst, and Lewenstein and studied in a number of articles. Our contribution is twofold. We provide approximation algorithms for computing a uniquely restricted matching of maximum size in some bipartite graphs. In particular, we achieve a ratio of $9/5$ for subcubic bipartite graphs, improving over a $2$-approximation algorithm proposed by Mishra. Furthermore, we study the uniquely restricted chromatic index of a graph, defined as the minimum number of…
We consider cell colorings of drawings of graphs in the plane. Given a multi-graph $G$ together with a drawing $Γ(G)$ in the plane with only finitely many crossings, we define a cell $k$-coloring of $Γ(G)$ to be a coloring of the maximal connected regions of the drawing, the cells, with $k$ colors such that adjacent cells have different colors. By the $4$-color theorem, every drawing of a bridgeless graph has a cell $4$-coloring. A drawing of a graph is cell $2$-colorable if and only if the underlying graph is Eulerian. We show that every graph without degree 1 vertices admits a cell $3$-color…
A perfect matching cut is a perfect matching that is also a cutset, or equivalently a perfect matching containing an even number of edges on every cycle. The corresponding algorithmic problem, Perfect Matching Cut, is known to be NP-complete in subcubic bipartite graphs [Le & Telle, TCS '22] but its complexity was open in planar graphs and in cubic graphs. We settle both questions at once by showing that Perfect Matching Cut is NP-complete in 3-connected cubic bipartite planar graphs or Barnette graphs. Prior to our work, among problems whose input is solely an undirected graph, only Distance-…
More than ten years ago in 2008, a new kind of graph coloring appeared in graph theory, which is the {\it rainbow connection coloring} of graphs, and then followed by some other new concepts of graph colorings, such as {\it proper connection coloring, monochromatic connection coloring, and conflict-free connection coloring} of graphs. In about ten years of our consistent study, we found that these new concepts of graph colorings are actually quite different from the classic graph colorings. These {\it colored connection colorings} of graphs are brand-new colorings and they need to take care of…
A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a coloring of edges of $G$ with colors $1,2,...,t$ such that each of $t$ colors is used, and adjacent edges are colored differently. The set of colors of edges incident with a vertex $x$ of $G$ is called a spectrum of $x$. A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is interval for its vertex $x$ if the spectrum of $x$ is an interval of integers. A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is persistent-interval for its vertex $x$ if the spectrum of $x$ is an interval of integers beginning from the color 1. For graphs $G$ from some classes of graphs, we…
A {\em conflict-free coloring} of a graph {\em with respect to open} (resp., {\em closed}) {\em neighborhood} is a coloring of vertices such that for every vertex there is a color appearing exactly once in its open (resp., closed) neighborhood. Similarly, a {\em unique-maximum coloring} of a graph {\em with respect to open} (resp., {\em closed}) {\em neighborhood} is a coloring of vertices such that for every vertex the maximum color appearing in its open (resp., closed) neighborhood appears exactly once. There is a vast amount of literature on both notions where the colorings need not be prop…
A proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a coloring of edges of $G$ with colors $1,2,...,t$ such that all colors are used, and no two adjacent edges receive the same color. The set of colors of edges incident with a vertex $x$ is called a spectrum of $x$. An arbitrary nonempty subset of consecutive integers is called an interval. We say that a proper edge $t$-coloring of a graph $G$ is interval in the vertex $x$ if the spectrum of $x$ is an interval. We say that a proper edge $t$-coloring $φ$ of a graph $G$ is interval on a subset $R_0$ of vertices of $G$, if for an arbitrary $x\in R_0$, $…
If $f:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ is a function, then let us say that $f$ is sublinear if \[\lim_{n\rightarrow +\infty}\frac{f(n)}{n}=0.\] If $G=(V,E)$ is a cubic graph and $c:E\rightarrow \{1,...,k\}$ is a proper $k$-edge-coloring of $G$, then an edge $e=uv$ of $G$ is poor (rich) in $c$, if the edges incident to $u$ and $v$ are colored with three (five) colors. An edge is abnormal if it is neither rich nor poor. The Petersen coloring conjecture of Jaeger states that any bridgeless cubic graph admits a proper 5-edge-coloring $c$, such that there is no an abnormal edge of $G$ with respect…
A facial-parity edge-coloring of a $2$-edge-connected plane graph is a facially-proper edge-coloring in which every face is incident with zero or an odd number of edges of each color. A facial-parity vertex-coloring of a $2$-connected plane graph is a facially-proper vertex-coloring in which every face is incident with zero or an odd number of vertices of each color. Czap and Jendroľ (in Facially-constrained colorings of plane graphs: A survey, Discrete Math. 340 (2017), 2691--2703), conjectured that $10$ colors suffice in both colorings. We present an infinite family of counterexamples to bot…
Let G be a planar triangle-free graph and let C be a cycle in G of length at most 8. We characterize all situations where a 3-coloring of C does not extend to a proper 3-coloring of the whole graph.
We show that any proper coloring of a Kneser graph $KG_{n,k}$ with $n-2k+2$ colors contains a trivial color (i.e., a color consisting of sets that all contain a fixed element), provided $n>(2+\varepsilon)k^2$, where $\varepsilon\to 0$ as $k\to \infty$. This bound is essentially tight. This is a consequence of a more general result on the minimum number of non-trivial colors needed to properly color $KG_{n,k}$.
For $p\in \mathbb{N}$, a coloring $λ$ of the vertices of a graph $G$ is {\em{$p$-centered}} if for every connected subgraph~$H$ of $G$, either $H$ receives more than $p$ colors under $λ$ or there is a color that appears exactly once in $H$. In this paper, we prove that every $K_t$-minor-free graph admits a $p$-centered coloring with $\mathcal{O}(p^{g(t)})$ colors for some function $g$. In the special case that the graph is embeddable in a fixed surface $Σ$ we show that it admits a $p$-centered coloring with $\mathcal{O}(p^{19})$ colors, with the degree of the polynomial independent of the genu…
A graph is $k$-planar if it can be drawn in the plane so that each edge is crossed at most $k$ times. Typically, the class of 1-planar graphs is among the most investigated graph families within the so-called "beyond planar graphs". A dynamic $\ell$-list coloring of a graph is a proper coloring so that each vertex receives a color from a list of $\ell$ distinct candidate colors assigned to it, and meanwhile, there are at least two colors appearing in the neighborhood of every vertex of degree at least two. In this paper, we prove that each 1-planar graph has a dynamic $11$-list coloring. Moreo…
Let $G(V,E)$ be a $k$-uniform hypergraph. A hyperedge $e \in E$ is said to be properly $(r,p)$ colored by an $r$-coloring of vertices in $V$ if $e$ contains vertices of at least $p$ distinct colors in the $r$-coloring. An $r$-coloring of vertices in $V$ is called a {\it strong $(r,p)$ coloring} if every hyperedge $e \in E$ is properly $(r,p)$ colored by the $r$-coloring. We study the maximum number of hyperedges that can be properly $(r,p)$ colored by a single $r$-coloring and the structures that maximizes number of properly $(r,p)$ colored hyperedges.
Coloring games are combinatorial games where the players alternate painting uncolored vertices of a graph one of $k > 0$ colors. Each different ruleset specifies that game's coloring constraints. This paper investigates six impartial rulesets (five new), derived from previously-studied graph coloring schemes, including proper map coloring, oriented coloring, 2-distance coloring, weak coloring, and sequential coloring. For each, we study the outcome classes for special cases and general computational complexity. In some cases we pay special attention to the Grundy function.
I prove that in a tree in which the distance between any two endpoints is even, there is a maximum proper partial 0-1 coloring such that the edges colored by 0 form a maximum matching.
The list coloring problem is a variation of the classical vertex coloring problem, extensively studied in recent years, where each vertex has a restricted list of allowed colors, and having some variations as the $(γ,μ)$-coloring, where the color lists have sequential values with known lower and upper bounds. This work discusses the choosability property, that consists in determining the least number $k$ for which it has a proper list coloring no matter how one assigns a list of $k$ colors to each vertex. This is a $Π_2^P$-complete problem, however, we show that $k$-$(γ,μ)$-choosability is an …
An $acyclic$ edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles. The \emph{acyclic chromatic index} of a graph is the minimum number k such that there is an acyclic edge coloring using k colors and is denoted by $a'(G)$. It was conjectured by Alon, Sudakov and Zaks (and much earlier by Fiamcik) that $a'(G)\le Δ+2$, where $Δ=Δ(G)$ denotes the maximum degree of the graph. If every induced subgraph $H$ of $G$ satisfies the condition $\vert E(H) \vert \le 2\vert V(H) \vert -1$, we say that the graph $G$ satisfies $Property\ A$. In this paper, we prove that…
We define an $n$-gon to be any convex polygon with $n$ vertices. Let $V$ represent the set of vertices of the polygon. A proper $k$-coloring refers to a function, $f$ : $V$ $\rightarrow$ $\{1, 2, 3, ... k\}$, such that for any two vertices $u$ and $v$, if $f(u) = f(v)$, $u$ is not adjacent to $v$. The purpose of this paper is to develop a recursive algorithm to compute the number of proper $k$-colorings in an $n$-gon. The proposed algorithm can easily be solved to obtain the explicit expression. This matches the explicit expression obtained from the popular conventional solutions, which confir…
The network coloring game has been proposed in the literature of social sciences as a model for conflict-resolution circumstances. The players of the game are the vertices of a graph with $n$ vertices and maximum degree $Δ$. The game is played over rounds, and in each round all players simultaneously choose a color from a set of available colors. Players have local information of the graph: they only observe the colors chosen by their neighbors and do not communicate or cooperate with one another. A player is happy when she has chosen a color that is different from the colors chosen by her nei…
A recent palette sparsification theorem of Assadi, Chen, and Khanna [SODA'19] states that in every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ$, sampling $O(\log{n})$ colors per each vertex independently from $Δ+1$ colors almost certainly allows for proper coloring of $G$ from the sampled colors. Besides being a combinatorial statement of its own independent interest, this theorem was shown to have various applications to design of algorithms for $(Δ+1)$ coloring in different models of computation on massive graphs such as streaming or sublinear-time algorithms. In this paper, we further study…
Golovach, Paulusma and Song (Inf. Comput. 2014) asked to determine the parameterized complexity of the following problems parameterized by $k$: (1) Given a graph $G$, a clique modulator $D$ (a clique modulator is a set of vertices, whose removal results in a clique) of size $k$ for $G$, and a list $L(v)$ of colors for every $v\in V(G)$, decide whether $G$ has a proper list coloring; (2) Given a graph $G$, a clique modulator $D$ of size $k$ for $G$, and a pre-coloring $λ_P: X \rightarrow Q$ for $X \subseteq V(G),$ decide whether $λ_P$ can be extended to a proper coloring of $G$ using only color…
