An odd graph is a finite graph all of whose vertices have odd degrees. Given graph $G$ is decomposable into $k$ odd subgraphs if its edge set can be partitioned into $k$ subsets each of which induces an odd subgraph of $G$. The minimum value of $k$ for which such a decomposition of $G$ exists is the odd chromatic index, $χ_{o}'(G)$, introduced by Pyber (1991). For every $k\geqχ_{o}'(G)$, the graph $G$ is said to be odd $k$-edge-colorable. Apart from two particular exceptions, which are respectively odd $5$- and odd $6$-edge-colorable, the rest of connected loopless graphs are odd $4$-edge-colorable, and moreover one of the color classes can be reduced to size $\leq2$. In addition, it has been conjectured that an odd $4$-edge-coloring with a color class of size at most $1$ is always achievable. Atanasov et al. (2016) characterized the class of subcubic graphs in terms of the value $χ_{o}'(G)\leq4$. In this paper, we extend their result to a characterization of all subdivisions of odd graphs in terms of the value of the odd chromatic index. This larger class $\mathcal{S}$ is of a particular interest as it collects all `least instances' of non-odd graphs. As a prelude to our main result, we show that every connected graph $G\in \mathcal{S}$ requiring the maximum number of four colors, becomes odd $3$-edge-colorable after removing a certain edge. Thus, we provide support for the mentioned conjecture by proving it for all subdivisions of odd graphs. The paper concludes with few problems for possible further work.
Let $K_4^+$ be the 5-vertex graph obtained from $K_4$, the complete graph on four vertices, by subdividing one edge precisely once (i.e. by replacing one edge by a path on three vertices). We prove that if the chromatic number of some graph $G$ is much larger than its clique number, then $G$ contains a subdivision of $K_4^+$ as an induced subgraph.
Let $G$ be a simple graph. A total dominator coloring of $G$, is a proper coloring of the vertices of $G$ in which each vertex of the graph is adjacent to every vertex of some color class. The total dominator chromatic (TDC) number $χ_d^t(G)$ of $G$, is the minimum number of colors among all total dominator coloring of $G$. For any $k \in \mathbb{N}$, the $k$-subdivision of $G$ is a simple graph $G^{\frac{1}{k}}$ which is constructed by replacing each edge of $G$ with a path of length $k$. In this paper, we study the total dominator chromatic number of $k$-subdivision of $G$.
Thomassen formulated the following conjecture: Every $3$-connected cubic graph has a red-blue vertex coloring such that the blue subgraph has maximum degree at most $1$ (that is, it consists of a matching and some isolated vertices) and the red subgraph has minimum degree at least $1$ and contains no $3$-edge path. Since all monochromatic components are small in this coloring and there is a certain irregularity, we call such a coloring \emph{crumby}. Recently, Bellitto, Klimošová, Merker, Witkowski and Yuditsky \cite{counter} constructed an infinite family refuting the above conjecture. Their …
A cyclic coloring of a plane graph $G$ is a coloring of its vertices such that vertices incident with the same face have distinct colors. The minimum number of colors in a cyclic coloring of a plane graph $G$ is its cyclic chromatic number $χ_c(G)$. Let $Δ^*(G)$ be the maximum face degree of a graph $G$. In this note we show that to prove the Cyclic Coloring Conjecture of Borodin from 1984, saying that every connected plane graph $G$ has $χ_c(G) \leq \lfloor \frac{3}{2}Δ^*(G)\rfloor$, it is enough to do it for subdivisions of simple $3$-connected plane graphs. We have discovered four new diffe…
Let $s$ and $t$ be positive integers. We use $P_t$ to denote the path with $t$ vertices and $K_{1,s}$ to denote the complete bipartite graph with parts of size $1$ and $s$ respectively. The one-subdivision of $K_{1,s}$ is obtained by replacing every edge $\{u,v\}$ of $K_{1,s}$ by two edges $\{u,w\}$ and $\{v,w\}$ with a new vertex $w$. In this paper, we give a polynomial-time algorithm for the list-three-coloring problem restricted to the class of $P_t$-free graph with no induced 1-subdivision of $K_{1,s}$.
Notions of sesquiconstructible complexes and odd iterated stellar subdivisions are introduced, and some of their basic properties are verified. The Charney-Davis conjecture is then proven for odd iterated stellar subdivisions of sesquiconstructible balls and spheres.
\noindent Let $G$ be a simple graph. For any $k\in N$, the $k-$power of $G$ is a simple graph $G^k$ with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $\{xy:d_G(x,y)\leq k\}$ and the $k-$subdivision of $G$ is a simple graph $G^{\frac{1}{k}}$, which is constructed by replacing each edge of $G$ with a path of length $k$. So we can introduce the $m-$power of the $n-$subdivision of $G$, as a fractional power of $G$, that is denoted by $G^{\frac{m}{n}}$. In other words $G^{\frac{m}{n}}:=(G^{\frac{1}{n}})^m$. \noindent In this paper some results about the coloring of $G^{\frac{m}{n}}$ are presented when $G$ is a s…
For $m, n\in \N$, the fractional power $\Gmn$ of a graph $G$ is the $m$th power of the $n$-subdivision of $G$, where the $n$-subdivision is obtained by replacing each edge in $G$ with a path of length $n$. It was conjectured by Iradmusa that if $G$ is a connected graph with $Δ(G)\ge 3$ and $1<m<n$, then $χ(\Gmn)=ω(\Gmn)$. Here we show that the conjecture does not hold in full generality by presenting a graph $H$ for which $χ(H^{3/5})>ω(H^{3/5})$. However, we prove that the conjecture is true if $m$ is even. We also study the case when $m$ is odd, obtaining a general upper bound $χ(\Gmn)\leq ω(…
Given a graph $H$ and an integer $k\geqslant 2$, let $f_{k}(n,H)$ be the smallest number of colors $C$ such that there exists a proper edge-coloring of the complete graph $K_{n}$ with $C$ colors containing no $k$ vertex-disjoint color isomorphic copies of $H$. In this paper, we prove that $f_{2}(n,H_{t})=Ω(n^{1+\frac{1}{2t-3}})$ where $H_{t}$ is the $1$-subdivision of the complete graph $K_{t}$. This answers a question of Conlon and Tyomkyn (arXiv: 2002.00921).
A proper vertex coloring $φ$ of graph $G$ is said to be odd if for each non-isolated vertex $x\in V(G)$ there exists a color $c$ such that $φ^{-1}(c)\cap N(x)$ is odd-sized. The minimum number of colors in any odd coloring of $G$, denoted $χ_o(G)$, is the odd chromatic number. Odd colorings were recently introduced in [M.~Petruševski, R.~Škrekovski: \textit{Colorings with neighborhood parity condition}]. Here we discuss various basic properties of this new graph parameter, characterize acyclic graphs and hypercubes in terms of odd chromatic number, establish several upper bounds in regard to d…
An {\it odd $c$-coloring} of a graph is a proper $c$-coloring such that each non-isolated vertex has a color appearing an odd number of times on its neighborhood. This concept was introduced very recently by Petru\v sevski and \v Skrekovski and has attracted considerable attention. Cranston investigated odd colorings of graphs with bounded maximum average degree, and conjectured that every graph $G$ with $mad(G)\leq \frac{4c-4}{c+1}$ has an odd $c$-coloring for $c\geq 4$, and proved the conjecture for $c\in\{5, 6\}$. In particular, planar graphs with girth at least $7$ and $6$ have an odd $5$-…
We give an upper bound for the online chromatic number of graphs with high girth and for graphs with high oddgirth generalizing Kier- stead's algorithm for graphs that contain neither a C3 or C5 as an induced subgraph.
In this short paper, we introduce a new vertex coloring whose motivation comes from our series on odd edge-colorings of graphs. A proper vertex coloring $φ$ of graph $G$ is said to be odd if for each non-isolated vertex $x\in V(G)$ there exists a color $c$ such that $φ^{-1}(c)\cap N(x)$ is odd-sized. We prove that every simple planar graph admits an odd $9$-coloring, and conjecture that $5$ colors always suffice.
We prove that every internally 4-connected non-planar bipartite graph has an odd K_3,3 subdivision; that is, a subgraph obtained from K_3,3 by replacing its edges by internally disjoint odd paths with the same ends. The proof gives rise to a polynomial-time algorithm to find such a subdivision. (A bipartite graph G is internally 4-connected if it is 3-connected, has at least five vertices, and there is no partition (A,B,C) of V(G) such that |A|,|B|>1, |C|=3 and G has no edge with one end in A and the other in B.)
An $n$-subdivision of a graph $G$ is a graph constructed by replacing a path of length $n$ instead of each edge of $G$ and an $m$-power of $G$ is a graph with the same vertices as $G$ and any two vertices of $G$ at distance at most $m$ are adjacent. The graph $G^{\frac{m}{n}}$ is the $m$-power of the $n$-subdivision of $G$. In [M. N. Iradmusa, M. Mozafari-Nia, A note on coloring of $\frac{3}{3}$-power of subquartic graphs, Vol. 79, No.3, 2021] it was conjectured that the chromatic number of $\frac{3}{3}$-power of graphs with maximum degree $Δ\geq 2$ is at most $2Δ+1$. In this paper, we introdu…
This paper studies some coloring properties of graph powers. We show that $χ_c(G^{^{\frac{2r+1}{2s+1}}})=\frac{(2s+1)χ_c(G)}{(s-r)χ_c(G)+2r+1}$ provided that $χ_c(G^{^{\frac{2r+1}{2s+1}}})< 4$. As a consequence, one can see that if ${2r+1 \over 2s+1} \leq {χ_c(G) \over 3(χ_c(G)-2)}$, then $χ_c(G^{^{\frac{2r+1}{2s+1}}})=\frac{(2s+1)χ_c(G)}{(s-r)χ_c(G)+2r+1}$. In particular, $χ_c(K_{3n+1}^{^{1\over3}})={9n+3\over 3n+2}$ and $K_{3n+1}^{^{1\over3}}$ has no subgraph with circular chromatic number equal to ${6n+1\over 2n+1}$. This provides a negative answer to a question asked in [Xuding Zhu, Circul…
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…
Frédéric Meunier's question about a multicolored Sperner lemma is addressed, leaving the question of connectivity for the color hypergraphs of such a multicolored simplex. Sperner's lemma asserts the existence of a simplex using all the colors for any vertex coloring of a subdivision of a large simplex with appropriate boundary conditions. Meunier's questions generalizes this to the situation of having several such colorings and asserts the existence of a simplex using enough different colors from each coloring.
A vertex coloring of a given simple graph $G=(V,E)$ with $k$ colors ($k$-coloring) is a map from its vertex set to the set of integers $\{1,2,3,\dots, k\}$. A coloring is called perfect if the multiset of colors appearing on the neighbours of any vertex depends only on the color of the vertex. We consider perfect colorings of Cayley graphs of the additive group of integers with generating set $\{1,-1,3,-3,5,-5,\dots, 2n-1,1-2n\}$ for a positive integer $n$. We enumerate perfect $2$-colorings of the graphs under consideration and state the conjecture generalizing the main result to an arbitrary…
Suppose a d-dimensional lattice cube of size n^d is colored in several colors so that no face of its triangulation (subdivision of the standard partition into n^d small cubes) is colored in m+2 colors. Then one color is used at least f(d,m)*n^(d-m) times.
An odd coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper coloring such that any non-isolated vertex in $G$ has a coloring appears odd times on its neighbors. The odd chromatic number, denoted by $χ_o(G)$, is the minimum number of colors that admits an odd coloring of $G$. Petruševski and Škrekovski in 2021 introduced this notion and proved that if $G$ is planar, then $χ_o(G)\le9$ and conjectured that $χ_o(G)\le5$. More recently, Petr and Portier improved $9$ to $8$. A graph is $1$-planar if it can be drawn in the plane so that each edge is crossed by at most one other edge. Cranston, Lafferty and Song showe…
Sewell and Trotter [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 1993] proved that every connected alpha-critical graph that is not isomorphic to K_1, K_2 or an odd cycle contains a totally odd K_4-subdivision. Their theorem implies an interesting min-max relation for stable sets in graphs without totally odd K_4-subdivisions. In this note, we give a simpler proof of Sewell and Trotter's theorem.
We study the following Steinberg-type problem on circular coloring: for an odd integer $k\ge 3$, what is the smallest number $f(k)$ such that every planar graph of girth $k$ without cycles of length from $k+1$ to $f(k)$ admits a homomorphism to the odd cycle $C_k$ (or equivalently, is circular $(k,\frac{k-1}{2})$-colorable). Known results and counterexamples on Steinberg's Conjecture indicate that $f(3)\in\{6,7\}$. In this paper, we show that $f(k)$ exists if and only if $k$ is an odd prime. Moreover, we prove that for any prime $p\ge 5$, $$p^2-\frac{5}{2}p+\frac{3}{2}\le f(p)\le 2p^2+2p-5.$$ …
In 2003 Kostochka, Pelsmajer, and West introduced a list analogue of equitable coloring called equitable choosability. A $k$-assignment, $L$, for a graph $G$ assigns a list, $L(v)$, of $k$ available colors to each $v \in V(G)$, and an equitable $L$-coloring of $G$ is a proper coloring, $f$, of $G$ such that $f(v) \in L(v)$ for each $v \in V(G)$ and each color class of $f$ has size at most $\lceil |V(G)|/k \rceil$. In 2018, Kaul, Mudrock, and Pelsmajer subsequently introduced the List Equitable Total Coloring Conjecture which states that if $T$ is a total graph of some simple graph, then $T$ is…
Strengthening Hadwiger's conjecture, Gerards and Seymour conjectured in 1995 that every graph with no odd $K_t$-minor is properly $(t-1)$-colorable, this is known as the Odd Hadwiger's conjecture. We prove a relaxation of the above conjecture, namely we show that every graph with no odd $K_t$-minor admits a vertex $(2t-2)$-coloring such that all monochromatic components have size at most $\lceil \frac{1}{2}(t-2) \rceil$. The bound on the number of colors is optimal up to a factor of $2$, improves previous bounds for the same problem by Kawarabayashi (2008), Kang and Oum (2019), Liu and Wood (2…
In this paper we determine the chromatic number of graphs with two odd cycle lengths. Let $G$ be a graph and $L(G)$ be the set of all odd cycle lengths of $G$. We prove that: (1) If $L(G)=\{3,3+2l\}$, where $l\geq 2$, then $χ(G)=\max\{3,ω(G)\}$; (2) If $L(G)=\{k,k+2l\}$, where $k\geq 5$ and $l\geq 1$, then $χ(G)=3$. These, together with the case $L(G)=\{3,5\}$ solved in \cite{W}, give a complete solution to the general problem addressed in \cite{W,CS,KRS}. Our results also improve a classical theorem of Gyárfás which asserts that $χ(G)\le 2|L(G)|+2$ for any graph $G$.
As a strengthening of Hadwiger's conjecture, Gerards and Seymour conjectured that every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor is $(t-1)$-colorable. We prove two weaker variants of this conjecture. Firstly, we show that for each $t \geq 2$, every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor has a partition of its vertex set into $6t-9$ sets $V_1, \dots, V_{6t-9}$ such that each $V_i$ induces a subgraph of bounded maximum degree. Secondly, we prove that for each $t \geq 2$, every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor has a partition of its vertex set into $10t-13$ sets $V_1, \dots, V_{10t-13}$ such that each $V_i$ induces a s…
In this paper, some results concerning the colorings of graph powers are presented. The notion of helical graphs is introduced. We show that such graphs are hom-universal with respect to high odd-girth graphs whose $(2t+1)$st power is bounded by a Kneser graph. Also, we consider the problem of existence of homomorphism to odd cycles. We prove that such homomorphism to a $(2k+1)$-cycle exists if and only if the chromatic number of the $(2k+1)$st power of $S_2(G)$ is less than or equal to 3, where $S_2(G)$ is the 2-subdivision of $G$. We also consider Nešetřil's Pentagon problem. This problem is…
A vertex coloring of a graph is said to be \textit{conflict-free} with respect to neighborhoods if for every non-isolated vertex there is a color appearing exactly once in its (open) neighborhood. As defined in [Fabrici et al., \textit{Proper Conflict-free and Unique-maximum Colorings of Planar Graphs with Respect to Neighborhoods}, arXiv preprint], the minimum number of colors in any such proper coloring of graph $G$ is the PCF chromatic number of $G$, denoted $χ_{\mathrm{pcf}}(G)$. In this paper, we determine the value of this graph parameter for several basic graph classes including trees, …
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 at most $k$ colors. For an integer $k\geq 1$, the Gallai-Ramsey number $GR_k(H)$ of a given graph $H$ is the least positive integer $N$ such that every Gallai $k$-coloring of the complete graph $K_N$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. Let $C_m$ denote the cycle on $m\ge4$ vertices and let $Θ_m$ denote the family of graphs obtained from $C_m$ by adding an additional edge joining two non-consecutive vertices. We prove that $GR_k(Θ_{2n+1})=n\cdot …
A clique-coloring of a given graph $G$ is a coloring of the vertices of $G$ such that no maximal clique of size at least two is monocolored. The clique-chromatic number of $G$ is the least number of colors for which $G$ admits a clique-coloring. It has been proved that every planar graph is $3$-clique colorable and every claw-free planar graph, different from an odd cycle, is $2$-clique colorable. In this paper, we generalize these results to $K_{3,3}$-minor free ($K_{3,3}$-subdivision free) graphs.
The $r$-size-Ramsey number $\hat{R}_r(H)$ of a graph $H$ is the smallest number of edges a graph $G$ can have, such that for every edge-coloring of $G$ with $r$ colors there exists a monochromatic copy of $H$ in $G$. For a graph $H$, we denote by $H^q$ the graph obtained from $H$ by subdividing its edges with $q{-}1$ vertices each. In a recent paper of Kohayakawa, Retter and R{ö}dl, it is shown that for all constant integers $q,r\geq 2$ and every graph $H$ on $n$ vertices and of bounded maximum degree, the $r$-size-Ramsey number of $H^q$ is at most $(\log n)^{20(q-1)}n^{1+1/q}$, for $n$ large …
A tree-coloring of a maximal planar graph is a proper vertex $4$-coloring such that every bichromatic subgraph, induced by this coloring, is a tree. A maximal planar graph $G$ is tree-colorable if $G$ has a tree-coloring. In this article, we prove that a tree-colorable maximal planar graph $G$ with $δ(G)\geq 4$ contains at least four odd-vertices. Moreover, for a tree-colorable maximal planar graph of minimum degree 4 that contains exactly four odd-vertices, we show that the subgraph induced by its four odd-vertices is not a claw and contains no triangles.
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 $G$ …
We give a very short self-contained combinatorial proof of the Babson-Kozlov conjecture, by presenting a cochain whose coboundary is the desired power of the characteristic class.
