The dichromatic number $χ(\vec{G})$ of a digraph $\vec{G}$ is the minimum number of colors needed to color the vertices $V(\vec{G})$ in such a way that no monochromatic directed cycle is obtained. In this note, for any $k\in \mathbb{N}$, we give a simple construction of tournaments with dichromatic number exactly equal to $k$. The proofs are based on a combinatorial lemma on partitioning a checkerboard which may be of independent interest. We also generalize our finite construction to give an elementary construction of a complete digraph of cardinality equal to the cardinality of $\mathbb{R}$ and having an uncountable dichromatic number. Furthermore, we also construct an oriented balanced complete $n$-partite graph $\vec{K}^{(m)}_n$, such that the minimum number of colors needed to color its vertices such that there is no monochromatic directed triangle is greater than or equal to $nm/(n+2m-2)$.
We show that if $D$ is a tournament of arbitrary size then $D$ has finite strong components after reversing a locally finite sequence of cycles. In turn, we prove that any tournament can be covered by two acyclic sets after reversing a locally finite sequence of cycles. This provides a partial solution to a conjecture of S. Thomassé.
Motivated by an old conjecture of P. Erdős and V. Neumann-Lara, our aim is to investigate digraphs with uncountable dichromatic number and orientations of undirected graphs with uncountable chromatic number. A graph has uncountable chromatic number if its vertices cannot be covered by countably many independent sets, and a digraph has uncountable dichromatic number if its vertices cannot be covered by countably many acyclic sets. We prove that consistently there are digraphs with uncountable dichromatic number and arbitrarily large digirth; this is in surprising contrast with the undirected ca…
The dichromatic number of a directed graph is at most 2, if we can 2-color the vertices such that each monochromatic part is acyclic. An oriented graph arises from a graph by orienting its edges in one of the two possible directions. We study oriented graphs, which have dichromatic number more than 2. Such a graph $D$ is $3$-dicritical if the removal of any arc of $D$ reduces the dichromatic number to 2. We construct infinitely many $3$-dicritical oriented graphs. Neumann-Lara found the four $7$-vertex $3$-dichromatic tournaments. We determine the $8$-vertex $3$-dichromatic tournaments, which …
Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$. It is well-known that $α(G)\geq \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{1}{1+d_i}$, where $α(G)$ is the independence number of $G$ and $d_1,\ldots,d_n$ is the degree sequence of $G$. We extend this result to digraphs by showing that if $D$ is a digraph with $n$ vertices, then $ α(D)\geq \sum_{i=1}^n \left( \frac{1}{1+d_i^+} + \frac{1}{1+d_i^-} - \frac{1}{1+d_i}\right)$, where $α(D)$ is the maximum size of an acyclic vertex set of $D$. Golowich proved that for any digraph $D$, $χ(D)\leq \lceil \frac{4k}{5} \rceil+2$, where $k=max(Δ^+(D),Δ^-(D))$. We give a short and simple proof for…
We propose a purely combinatorial quadratic time algorithm that for any $n$-vertex $P_{k}$-free tournament $T$, where $P_{k}$ is a directed path of length $k$, finds in $T$ a transitive subset of order $n^{\frac{c}{k\log(k)^{2}}}$. As a byproduct of our method, we obtain subcubic $O(n^{1-\frac{c}{k\log(k)^{2}}})$-approximation algorithm for the optimal acyclic coloring problem on $P_{k}$-free tournaments. Our results are tight up to the $\log(k)$-factor in the following sense: there exist infinite families of $P_{k}$-free tournaments with largest transitive subsets of order at most $n^{\frac{c…
We investigate bounds on the dichromatic number of digraphs which avoid a fixed digraph as a topological minor. For a digraph $F$, denote by $\text{mader}_{\vecχ}(F)$ the smallest integer $k$ such that every $k$-dichromatic digraph contains a subdivision of $F$. As our first main result, we prove that if $F$ is an orientation of a cycle then $\text{mader}_{\vecχ}(F)=v(F)$. This settles a conjecture of Aboulker, Cohen, Havet, Lochet, Moura and Thomassé. We also extend this result to the more general class of orientations of cactus graphs, and to bioriented forests. Our second main result is tha…
The dichromatic number $\vecχ(D)$ of a digraph $D$ is the least number $k$ such that the vertex set of $D$ can be partitioned into $k$ parts each of which induces an acyclic subdigraph. Introduced by Neumann-Lara in 1982, this digraph invariant shares many properties with the usual chromatic number of graphs and can be seen as the natural analog of the graph chromatic number. In this paper, we study the list dichromatic number of digraphs, giving evidence that this notion generalizes the list chromatic number of graphs. We first prove that the list dichromatic number and the dichromatic number…
In 1985, Mader conjectured the existence of a function $f$ such that every digraph with minimum out-degree at least $f(k)$ contains a subdivision of the transitive tournament of order $k$. This conjecture is still completely open, as the existence of $f(5)$ remains unknown. In this paper, we show that if $D$ is an oriented path, or an in-arborescence (i.e., a tree with all edges oriented towards the root) or the union of two directed paths from $x$ to $y$ and a directed path from $y$ to $x$, then every digraph with minimum out-degree large enough contains a subdivision of $D$. Additionally, we…
We consider acyclic r-colorings in graphs and digraphs: they color the vertices in r colors, each of which induces an acyclic graph or digraph. (This includes the dichromatic number of a digraph, and the arboricity of a graph.) For any girth and sufficiently high degree, we prove the NP-completeness of acyclic r-colorings; our method also implies the known analogue for classical colorings. The proofs use high girth graphs with high arboricity and dichromatic numbers. High girth graphs and digraphs with high chromatic and dichromatic numbers have been well studied; we re-derive the results from…
We show that digraphs with no transitive tournament on $3$ vertices and in which every induced directed cycle has length $3$ can have arbitrarily large dichromatic number. This answers to the negative a question of Carbonero, Hompe, Moore, and Spirkl (and extends some of their results).
Kostochka and Thomason independently showed that any graph with average degree $Ω(r\sqrt{\log r})$ contains a $K_r$ minor. In particular, any graph with chromatic number $Ω(r\sqrt{\log r})$ contains a $K_r$ minor, a partial result towards Hadwiger's famous conjecture. In this paper, we investigate analogues of these results in the directed setting. There are several ways to define a minor in a digraph. One natural way is as follows. A strong $\overrightarrow{K}_r$ minor is a digraph whose vertex set is partitioned into $r$ parts such that each part induces a strongly-connected subdigraph, and …
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…
DIENS, École normale supérieure, CNRS, PSL University（法国高等师范学院）；University of Waterloo, Department of Combinatorics and Optimization（滑铁卢大学）；Institute of Informatics, University of Warsaw（华沙大学信息学研究所）；Université de Montpellier, CNRS, LIRMM（蒙彼利埃大学）；University of Manitoba, Department of Mathematics（曼尼托巴大学）
