How does the chromatic number of a graph chosen uniformly at random from all graphs on $n$ vertices behave? This quantity is a random variable, so one can ask (i) for upper and lower bounds on its typical values, and (ii) for bounds on how much it varies: what is the width (e.g., standard deviation) of its distribution?
On (i) there has been considerable progress over the last 45 years; on (ii), which is our focus here, remarkably little. One would like both upper and lower bounds on the width of the distribution, and ideally a description of the (appropriately scaled) limiting distribution. There is a well known upper bound of Shamir and Spencer of order $\sqrt{n}$, improved slightly by Alon to $\sqrt{n}/\log n$, but no non-trivial lower bound was known until 2019, when the first author proved that the width is at least $n^{1/4-o(1)}$ for infinitely many $n$, answering a longstanding question of Bollobás.
In this paper we have two main aims: first, we shall prove a much stronger lower bound on the width. We shall show unconditionally that, for some values of $n$, the width is at least $n^{1/2-o(1)}$, matching the upper bounds up to the error term. Moreover, conditional on a recently announced sharper explicit estimate for the chromatic number, we improve the lower bound to order $\sqrt{n} \log \log n /\log^3 n$, within a logarithmic factor of the upper bound.
Secondly, we will describe a number of conjectures as to what the true behaviour of the variation in $χ(G_{n,1/2})$ is, and why. The first form of this conjecture arises from recent work of Bollobás, Heckel, Morris, Panagiotou, Riordan and Smith. We will also give much more detailed conjectures, suggesting that the true width, for the worst case $n$, matches our lower bound up to a constant factor. These conjectures also predict a Gaussian limiting distribution.
The Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture says that for every forest $H$ and every integer $k$, if $G$ is $H$-free and does not contain a clique on $k$ vertices then it has bounded chromatic number. (A graph is $H$-free if it does not contain an induced copy of $H$.) Kierstead and Penrice proved it for trees of radius at most two, but otherwise the conjecture is known only for a few simple types of forest. More is known if we exclude a complete bipartite subgraph instead of a clique: Rödl showed that, for every forest $H$, if $G$ is $H$-free and does not contain $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph then it has bounded…
A hole in a graph $G$ is an induced cycle of length at least four, and a $k$-multihole in $G$ is a set of pairwise disjoint and nonadjacent holes. It is well known that if $G$ does not contain any holes then its chromatic number is equal to its clique number. In this paper we show that, for any $k$, if $G$ does not contain a $k$-multihole, then its chromatic number is at most a polynomial function of its clique number. We show that the same result holds if we ask for all the holes to be odd or of length four; and if we ask for the holes to be longer than any fixed constant or of length four. T…
The birthday paradox states that there is at least a 50% chance that some two out of twenty-three randomly chosen people will share the same birth date. The calculation for this problem assumes that all birth dates are equally likely. We consider the following two modifications of this question. If the distribution of birthdays is non-uniform, does that increase or decrease the probability of matching birth dates? Further, what if we focus on birthdays shared by some particular pairs rather than any two people. Does a non-uniform distribution on birth dates increase or decrease the probability…
A double star is a tree with two internal vertices. It is known that the Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture holds for double stars, that is, for every double star $H$, there is a function $f$ such that if $G$ does not contain $H$ as an induced subgraph then $χ(G)\le f(ω(G))$ (where $χ, ω$ are the chromatic number and the clique number of $G$). Here we prove that $f$ can be chosen to be a polynomial.
We examine the measurable chromatic number of distance colorings on the surface of 2-dimensional spheres of varying radii, showing in particular that similar arguments to those used to raise lower bounds in the plane work for all but a countable set of radii. Furthermore, we show that measurable chromatic number as a function of the radius, or more generally the curvature, is not monotonic.
We provide a formula for every Schur coefficient in the chromatic symmetric function of a graph in terms of special rim hook tabloids. This formula is useful in confirming the non-Schur positivity of the chromatic symmetric function of a graph, especially when Stanley's stable partition method does not work. As applications, we determine Schur positive fan graphs and Schur positive complete tripartite graphs. We show that any squid graph obtained by adding $n$ leaves to a common vertex on an $m$-vertex cycle is not Schur positive if $m\ne 2n-1$, and conjecture that neither are the squid graphs…
We study the probability that a cycle of length k in the lattice [1, n]^s does not contain more lattice points than the k vertices of the cycle. Then we generalize this problem to other configurations induced by a given graph H, introducting the chromatic zeta fuction of a graph.
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 $…
The $χ$-stability index ${\rm es}_χ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of its edges whose removal results in a graph with the chromatic number smaller than that of $G$. In this paper three open problems from [European J.\ Combin.\ 84 (2020) 103042] are considered. Examples are constructed which demonstrate that a known characterization of $k$-regular ($k\le 5$) graphs $G$ with ${\rm es}_χ(G) = 1$ does not extend to $k\ge 6$. Graphs $G$ with $χ(G)=3$ for which ${\rm es}_χ(G)+{\rm es}_χ(\overline{G}) = 2$ holds are characterized. Necessary conditions on graphs $G$ which attain a known uppe…
Hadwiger's conjecture asserts that every graph without a $K_t$-minor is $(t-1)$-colorable. It is known that the exact version of Hadwiger's conjecture does not extend to list coloring, but it has been conjectured by Kawarabayashi and Mohar (2007) that there exists a constant $c$ such that every graph with no $K_t$-minor has list chromatic number at most $ct$. More specifically, they also conjectured that this holds for $c=\frac{3}{2}$. Refuting the latter conjecture, we show that the maximum list chromatic number of graphs with no $K_t$-minor is at least $(2-o(1))t$, and hence $c \ge 2$ in the…
The b-chromatic number of a graph $G$, denoted by $ϕ(G)$, is the largest integer $k$ that $G$ admits a proper $k$-coloring such that each color class has a vertex that is adjacent to at least one vertex in each of the other color classes. We prove that for each $d$-regular graph $G$ which contains no 4-cycle, $ϕ(G)\geq\lfloor\frac{d+3}{2}\rfloor$ and if $G$ has a triangle, then $ϕ(G)\geq\lfloor\frac{d+4}{2}\rfloor$. Also, if $G$ is a $d$-regular graph which contains no 4-cycle and $diam(G)\geq6$, then $ϕ(G)=d+1$. Finally, we show that for any $d$-regular graph $G$ which does not contain 4-cycl…
We construct a connected graph H such that (1) χ(H) = ω; (2) K_ω, the complete graph on ωpoints, is not a minor of H. Therefore Hadwiger's conjecture does not hold for graphs with infinite coloring number.
We prove that reflection of the coloring number of graphs is consistent with non-reflection of the chromatic number. Moreover, it is proved that incompactness for the chromatic number of graphs (with arbitrarily large gaps) is compatible with each of the following compactness principles: Rado's conjecture, Fodor-type reflection, $Δ$-reflection, Stationary-sets reflection, Martin's Maximum, and a generalized Chang's conjecture. This is accomplished by showing that, under $\mathrm{GCH}$-type assumptions, instances of incompactness for the chromatic number can be derived from square-like principl…
The square $G^2$ of a graph $G$ is the graph defined on $V(G)$ such that two vertices $u$ and $v$ are adjacent in $G^2$ if the distance between $u$ and $v$ in $G$ is at most 2. Let $χ(H)$ and $χ_{\ell}(H)$ be the chromatic number and the list chromatic number of $H$, respectively. A graph $H$ is called {\em chromatic-choosable} if $χ_{\ell} (H) = χ(H)$. It is an interesting problem to find graphs that are chromatic-choosable. Motivated by the List Total Coloring Conjecture, Kostochka and Woodall (2001) proposed the List Square Coloring Conjecture which states that $G^2$ is chromatic-choosable …
This paper proves that if $G$ is a graph (parallel edges allowed) of maximum degree 3, then $χ_c'(G) \leq 11/3$ provided that $G$ does not contain $H_1$ or $H_2$ as a subgraph, where $H_1$ and $H_2$ are obtained by subdividing one edge of $K_2^3$ (the graph with three parallel edges between two vertices) and $K_4$, respectively. As $χ_c'(H_1) = χ_c'(H_2) = 4$, our result implies that there is no graph $G$ with $11/3 < χ_c'(G) < 4$. It also implies that if $G$ is a 2-edge connected cubic graph, then $χ'(G) \le 11/3$.
Two subgraphs $A,B$ of a graph $G$ are anticomplete if they are vertex-disjoint and there are no edges joining them. Is it true that if $G$ is a graph with bounded clique number, and sufficiently large chromatic number, then it has two anticomplete subgraphs, both with large chromatic number? This is a question raised by El-Zahar and Erdős in 1986, and remains open. If so, then at least there should be two anticomplete subgraphs both with large minimum degree, and that is one of our results. We prove two variants of this. First, a strengthening: we can ask for one of the two subgraphs to have …
An $(m,n)$-mixed graph generalizes the notions of oriented graphs and edge-coloured graphs to a graph object with $m$ arc types and $n$ edge types. A simple colouring of such a graph is a non-trivial homomorphism to a reflexive target. We find that simple chromatic number of complete $(m,n)$-mixed graphs can be found in polynomial time. For planar graphs and $k$-trees ($k \geq 3$) we find that allowing the target to be reflexive does not lower the chromatic number of the respective family of $(m,n)$-mixed graphs. This implies that the search for universal targets for such families may be restr…
We play a variation of Nim on stacks of tokens. Take your favorite increasing sequence of positive integers and color the tokens according to the following rule. Each token on a level that corresponds to a number in the sequence is colored red; if the level does not correspond to a number in the sequence, color it green. Now play Nim on a arbitrary number of stacks with the extra rule: if all top tokens are green, then you can make any move you like. On two stacks, we give explicit characterizations for winning the normal play version for some popular sequences, such as Beatty sequences and th…
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…
Spectral extremal results for triangle-free graphs with chromatic number at least four
School of Mathematics, East China University of Science and Technology（华东理工大学数学学院）；School of Mathematics and Physics, Xinjiang Institute of Engineering（新疆工程学院数理学院）
The chromatic number $χ(G)$ of a graph $G$, that is, the smallest number of colors required to color the vertices of $G$ so that no two adjacent vertices are assigned the same color, is a classic and extensively studied parameter. Here we consider the case where $G$ is a random block graph, also known as the stochastic block model. The vertex set is partitioned into $k\in\mathbb{N}$ parts $V_1, \dotsc, V_k$, and for each $1 \le i\le j\le k$, two vertices $u \in V_i, v\in V_j$ are connected by an edge with some probability $p_{ij} \in (0,1)$ independently. Our main result pins down the typical …
As starting point, we formulate a corollary to the Quantitative Combinatorial Nullstellensatz. This corollary does not require the consideration of any coefficients of polynomials, only evaluations of polynomial functions. In certain situations, our corollary is more directly applicable and more ready-to-go than the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz itself. It is also of interest from a numerical point of view. We use it to explain a well-known connection between the sign of 1-factorizations (edge colorings) and the List Edge Coloring Conjecture. For efficient calculations and a better understandi…
The regular Turán number of a graph $F$, denoted by rex$(n,F)$, is the largest number of edges in a regular graph $G$ of order $n$ such that $G$ does not contain subgraphs isomorphic to $F$. Giving a partial answer to a recent problem raised by Gerbner et al. [arXiv:1909.04980] we prove that rex$(n,F)$ asymptotically equals the (classical) Turán number whenever the chromatic number of $F$ is at least four; but it is substantially different for some 3-chromatic graphs $F$ if $n$ is odd.
A C-coloring of a hypergraph ${\cal H}=(X,{\cal E})$ is a vertex coloring $φ: X\to {\mathbb{N}}$ such that each edge $E\in{\cal E}$ has at least two vertices with a common color. The related parameter $\overlineχ({\cal H})$, called the upper chromatic number of ${\cal H}$, is the maximum number of colors can be used in a C-coloring of ${\cal H}$. A hypertree is a hypergraph which has a host tree $T$ such that each edge $E\in {\cal E}$ induces a connected subgraph in $T$. Notations $n$ and $m$ stand for the number of vertices and edges, respectively, in a generic input hypergraph. We establish …
DP-coloring (also known as correspondence coloring) is a generalization of list coloring developed recently by Dvořák and Postle. In this paper we introduce and study the fractional DP-chromatic number $χ_{DP}^\ast(G)$. We characterize all connected graphs $G$ such that $χ_{DP}^\ast(G) \leqslant 2$: they are precisely the graphs with no odd cycles and at most one even cycle. By a theorem of Alon, Tuza, and Voigt, the fractional list-chromatic number $χ_\ell^\ast(G)$ of any graph $G$ equals its fractional chromatic number $χ^\ast(G)$. This equality does not extend to fractional DP-colorings. Mo…
Let G be a graph with n vertices, and let k be an integer dividing n. G is said to be strongly k-colorable if for every partition of V(G) into disjoint sets V_1 \cup ... \cup V_r, all of size exactly k, there exists a proper vertex k-coloring of G with each color appearing exactly once in each V_i. In the case when k does not divide n, G is defined to be strongly k-colorable if the graph obtained by adding k \lceil n/k \rceil - n isolated vertices is strongly k-colorable. The strong chromatic number of G is the minimum k for which G is strongly k-colorable. In this paper, we study the behavior…
A hereditary class $\mathcal{G}$ of graphs is $χ$-bounded if there is a $χ$-binding function, say $f$ such that $χ(G) \leq f(ω(G))$, for every $G \in \cal{G}$, where $χ(G)$ ($ω(G)$) denote the chromatic (clique) number of $G$. It is known that for every $2K_2$-free graph $G$, $χ(G) \leq \binom{ω(G)+1}{2}$, and the class of ($2K_2, 3K_1$)-free graphs does not admit a linear $χ$-binding function. In this paper, we are interested in classes of $2K_2$-free graphs that admit a linear $χ$-binding function. We show that the class of ($2K_2, H$)-free graphs, where $H\in \{K_1+P_4, K_1+C_4, \overline{P…
In Chapter 2 we study the path-cycle symmetric function of a digraph, a symmetric function generalization of Chung and Graham's cover polynomial. Most of this material appears in either Advances in Math. 118 (1996), 71-98 or J. Algebraic Combin. 10 (1999), 227-240. Chapter 3 contains miscellaneous results about Stanley's symmetric function generalization X_G of the chromatic polynomial, e.g., we establish a connection with some of Tutte's work on the chromatic polynomial and use this to prove that X_G is reconstructible. Most of Chapter 3 does not appear elsewhere.
We consider the extension to directed graphs of the concept of achromatic number in terms of acyclic vertex colorings. The achromatic number have been intensely studied since it was introduced by Harary, Hedetniemi and Prins in 1967. The dichromatic number is a generalization of the chromatic number for digraphs defined by Neumann-Lara in 1982. A coloring of a digraph is an acyclic coloring if each subdigraph induced by each chromatic class is acyclic, and a coloring is complete if for any pair of chromatic classes $x,y$, there is an arc from $x$ to $y$ and an arc from $y$ to $x$. The dichroma…
A hole is an induced cycle of length at least 4, and an odd hole is a hole of odd length. A full house is a graph composed by a vertex adjacent to both ends of an edge in $K_4$ . Let $H$ be the complement of a cycle on 7 vertices. Chudnovsky et al [6] proved that every (odd hole, $K_4$)-free graph is 4-colorable and is 3-colorable if it does not has $H$ as an induced subgraph. In this paper, we use the proving technique of Chudnovsky et al to generalize this conclusion to (odd hole, full house)-free graphs, and prove that for (odd hole, full house)-free graph $G$, $χ(G)\le ω(G)+1$, and the equ…
Chromatic numbers of circulants with indispensable generators
University of California, Irvine（加州大学尔湾分校）；University of California, San Diego（加州大学圣地亚哥分校）；California State University, Los Angeles（加州州立大学洛杉矶分校）；Rice University（莱斯大学）
Motivated by Stanley's $\mathbf{(3+1)}$-free conjecture on chromatic symmetric functions, Foley, Hoàng and Merkel introduced the concept of strong $e$-positivity and conjectured that a graph is strongly $e$-positive if and only if it is (claw, net)-free. In order to study strongly $e$-positive graphs, they further introduced the twinning operation on a graph $G$ with respect to a vertex $v$, which adds a vertex $v'$ to $G$ such that $v$ and $v'$ are adjacent and any other vertex is adjacent to both of them or neither of them. Foley, Hoàng and Merkel conjectured that if $G$ is $e$-positive, the…
An equitable coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper vertex coloring of $G$ such that the sizes of any two color classes differ by at most one. In the paper, we pose a conjecture that offers a gap-one bound for the smallest number of colors needed to equitably color every block graph. In other words, the difference between the upper and the lower bounds of our conjecture is at most one. Thus, in some sense, the situation is similar to that of chromatic index, where we have the classical theorem of Vizing and the Goldberg conjecture for multigraphs. The results obtained in the paper support our con…
DP-coloring is a relatively new coloring concept by Dvořák and Postle and was introduced as an extension of list-colorings of (undirected) graphs. It transforms the problem of finding a list-coloring of a given graph $G$ with a list-assignment $L$ to finding an independent transversal in an auxiliary graph with vertex set $\{(v,c) ~|~ v \in V(G), c \in L(v)\}$. In this paper, we extend the definition of DP-colorings to digraphs using the approach from Neumann-Lara where a coloring of a digraph is a coloring of the vertices such that the digraph does not contain any monochromatic directed cycle…
DP-coloring is a generalization of list coloring that was introduced in 2015 by Dvořák and Postle. The chromatic polynomial of a graph is a notion that has been extensively studied since the early 20th century. The chromatic polynomial of graph $G$ is denoted $P(G,m)$, and it is equal to the number of proper $m$-colorings of $G$. In 2019, Kaul and Mudrock introduced an analogue of the chromatic polynomial for DP-coloring; specifically, the DP color function of graph $G$ is denoted $P_{DP}(G,m)$. Two fundamental questions posed by Kaul and Mudrock are: (1) For any graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, i…
Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama（南阿拉巴马大学米切尔商学院）；Alabama School of Math and Science（阿拉巴马数学与科学学校）；School of Computing, University of South Alabama（南阿拉巴马大学计算机学院）；Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of South Alabama（南阿拉巴马大学数学与统计系）
We calculate the chromatic polynomials $P((G_s)_m,q)$ and, from these, the asymptotic limiting functions $W(\{G_s\},q)=\lim_{n \to \infty}P(G_s,q)^{1/n}$ for families of $n$-vertex graphs $(G_s)_m$ comprised of $m$ repeated subgraphs $H$ adjoined to an initial graph $I$. These calculations of $W(\{G_s\},q)$ for infinitely long strips of varying widths yield important insights into properties of $W(Λ,q)$ for two-dimensional lattices $Λ$. In turn, these results connect with statistical mechanics, since $W(Λ,q)$ is the ground state degeneracy of the $q$-state Potts model on the lattice $Λ$. For o…
In 1989, Lescure and Meyniel proved, for $d=5, 6$, that every $d$-chromatic graph contains an immersion of $K_d$, and in 2003 Abu-Khzam and Langston conjectured that this holds for all $d$. In 2010, DeVos, Kawarabayashi, Mohar, and Okamura proved this conjecture for $d = 7$. In each proof, the $d$-chromatic assumption was not fully utilized, as the proofs only use the fact that a $d$-critical graph has minimum degree at least $d - 1$. DeVos, Dvořák, Fox, McDonald, Mohar, and Scheide show the stronger conjecture that a graph with minimum degree $d-1$ has an immersion of $K_d$ fails for $d=10$ a…
We study quantum analogs of graph colorings and chromatic number. Initially defined via an interactive protocol, quantum colorings can also be viewed as a natural operator relaxation of graph coloring. Since there is no known algorithm for producing nontrivial quantum colorings, the existing examples rely on ad hoc constructions. Almost all of the known constructions of quantum $d$-colorings start from $d$-dimensional orthogonal representations. We show the limitations of this method by exhibiting, for the first time, a graph with a 3-dimensional orthogonal representation which cannot be quant…
A $ρ$-mean coloring of a graph is a coloring of the edges such that the average number of colors incident with each vertex is at most $ρ$. For a graph $H$ and for $ρ\geq 1$, the {\em mean Ramsey-Turán number} $RT(n,H,ρ-mean)$ is the maximum number of edges a $ρ$-mean colored graph with $n$ vertices can have under the condition it does not have a monochromatic copy of $H$. It is conjectured that $RT(n,K_m,2-mean)=RT(n,K_m,2)$ where $RT(n,H,k)$ is the maximum number of edges a $k$ edge-colored graph with $n$ vertices can have under the condition it does not have a monochromatic copy of $H$. We p…
It is well-known that the graphs not containing a given graph H as a subgraph have bounded chromatic number if and only if H is acyclic. Here we consider ordered graphs, i.e., graphs with a linear ordering on their vertex set, and the function f(H) = sup{chi(G) | G in Forb(H)} where Forb(H) denotes the set of all ordered graphs that do not contain a copy of H. If H contains a cycle, then as in the case of unordered graphs, f(H) is infinity. However, in contrast to the unordered graphs, we describe an infinite family of ordered forests H with infinite f(H). An ordered graph is crossing if there…
