Alon et al. introduced the concept of non-repetitive colourings of graphs. Here we address some questions regarding non-repetitive colourings of planar graphs. Specifically, we show that the faces of any outerplanar map can be non-repetitively coloured using at most five colours. We also give some lower bounds for the number of colours required to non-repetitively colour the vertices of both outerplanar and planar graphs.
We colour the Fibonacci sequence by suitable constant gap sequences to provide an upper bound on the asymptotic repetitive threshold of $d$-ary balanced sequences. The bound is attained for $d=2, 4$ and $8$ and we conjecture that it happens for infinitely many even $d$'s. Our bound reveals an essential difference in behavior of the repetitive threshold and the asymptotic repetitive threshold of balanced sequences. The repetitive threshold of $d$-ary balanced sequences is known to be at least $1+\frac{1}{d-2}$ for each $d \geq 3$. In contrast, our bound implies that the asymptotic repetitive th…
This paper proves that for each positive integer $m$, there is a planar graph $G$ which is not $(4m+\lfloor \frac{2m-1}{9}\rfloor,m)$-choosable. Then we pose some conjectures concerning multiple list colouring of planar graphs.
This paper proves that for each positive integer $m$, there is a triangle-free planar graph $G$ which is not $(3m+ \lceil \frac m{17} \rceil-1, m)$-choosable.
This paper proves the following result: If $G$ is a planar graph and $L$ is a $4$-list assignment of $G$ such that $|L(x) \cap L(y)| \le 2$ for every edge $xy$, then $G$ is $L$-colourable. This answers a question asked by Kratochvíl, Tuza and Voigt in [Journal of Graph Theory, 27(1):43--49, 1998].
The Thue colouring of a graph is a colouring such that the sequence of vertex colours of any path of even and finite length in $G$ is non-repetitive. The change in the Thue number, $π(G)$, as edges are iteratively removed from a graph $G$ is studied. The notion of the $τ$-index denoted, $τ(G)$, of a graph $G$ is introduced as well. $τ(G)$ serves as a measure for the efficiency of edge deletion to reduce the Thue chromatic number of a graph.
In 1977, Wegner conjectured that the chromatic number of the square of every planar graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ\ge8$ is at most $\bigl\lfloor\frac32Δ\bigr\rfloor+1$. We show that it is at most $\frac32 Δ(1+o(1))$ (where the $o(1)$ is as $Δ\to+\infty$), and indeed that this is true for the list chromatic number and for more general classes of graphs.
The odd colouring number is a new graph parameter introduced by Petruševski and Škrekovski. In this note, we show that graphs with so called product structure have bounded odd-colouring number. By known results on the product structure of $k$-planar graphs, this implies that $k$-planar graphs have bounded odd-colouring number, which answers a question of Cranston, Lafferty, and Song.
Let $G$ be a simple planar graph of maximum degree $Δ$, let $t$ be a positive integer, and let $L$ be an edge list assignment on $G$ with $|L(e)| \geq Δ+t$ for all $e \in E(G)$. We prove that if $H$ is a subgraph of $G$ that has been $L$-edge-coloured, then the edge-precolouring can be extended to an $L$-edge-colouring of $G$, provided that $H$ has maximum degree $d\leq t$ and either $d \leq t-4$ or $Δ$ is large enough ($Δ\geq 16+d$ suffices). If $d>t$, there are examples for any choice of $Δ$ where the extension is impossible.
We generalize a framework of list colouring results to correspondence colouring. Correspondence colouring is a generalization of list colouring wherein we localize the meaning of the colours available to each vertex. As pointed out by Dvořák and Postle, both of Thomassen's theorems on the 5-choosability of planar graphs and 3-choosability of planar graphs of girth at least five carry over to the correspondence colouring setting. In this paper, we show that the family of graphs that are critical for 5-correspondence colouring as well as the family of graphs of girth at least five that are criti…
A sequence is called non-repetitive if no of its subsequences forms a repetition (a sequence $r_1,r_2,\dots,r_{2n}$ such that $r_i=r_{n+i}$ for all $1\leq i \leq n$). Let $G$ be a graph whose vertices are coloured. A colouring $φ$ of the graph $G$ is non-repetitive if the sequence of colours on every path in $G$ is non-repetitive. The Thue chromatic number, denoted by $π(G)$, is the minimum number of colours of a non-repetitive colouring of $G$. In this short note we present a general upper bound for the Thue chromatic number for the lexicographic product $G\circ H$ of graphs $G$ and $H$ with …
A list assignment $L$ for a graph $G$ is an $(\ell,k)$-list assignment if $|L(v)|\geq \ell$ for each $v \in V(G)$ and $|L(u) \cap L(v)| \leq k$ for each $uv \in E(G)$. We say $G$ is $(\ell,k)$-choosable if it admits an $L$-colouring for every $(\ell, k)$-list assignment $L$. We prove that if $G$ is a planar graph with $(4,2)$-list assignment $L$ and for every triangle $T \subseteq G$ we have that $|\bigcap_{v \in V(T)} L(v)| \neq 2$, then $G$ is $L$-colourable. In fact, we prove a slightly stronger result: if $G$ contains a clique $H$ such that $V(H) \cap V(T) \neq \emptyset$ for every triangl…
A strong edge-colouring of a graph is a proper edge-colouring where each colour class induces a matching. It is known that every planar graph with maximum degree $Δ$ has a strong edge-colouring with at most $4Δ+4$ colours. We show that $3Δ+1$ colours suffice if the graph has girth 6, and $4Δ$ colours suffice if $Δ\geq 7$ or the girth is at least 5. In the last part of the paper, we raise some questions related to a long-standing conjecture of Vizing on proper edge-colouring of planar graphs.
Petruševski and Škrekovski \cite{odd9} recently introduced the notion of an odd colouring of a graph: a proper vertex colouring of a graph $G$ is said to be \emph{odd} if for each non-isolated vertex $x \in V(G)$ there exists a colour $c$ appearing an odd number of times in $N(x)$. Petruševski and Škrekovski proved that for any planar graph $G$ there is an odd colouring using at most $9$ colours and, together with Caro \cite{oddremarks}, showed that $8$ colours are enough for a significant family of planar graphs. We show that $8$ colours suffice for all planar graphs.
Assume $G$ is a graph. We view $G$ as a symmetric digraph, in which each edge $uv$ of $G$ is replaced by a pair of opposite arcs $e=(u,v)$ and $e^{-1}=(v,u)$. Assume $S$ is an inverse closed subset of permutations of positive integers. We say $G$ is $S$-$k$-colourable if for any mapping $σ: E(G) \to S$ with $σ(x,y) = (σ(y,x))^{-1}$, there is a mapping $f: V(G) \to [k]=\{1,2, \ldots, k\}$ such that for each arc $e=(x,y)$, $σ_e(f(x)) \ne f(y)$. The concept of $S$-$k$-colouring is a common generalization of many colouring concepts, including $k$-colouring, signed $k$-colouring defined by Máčajová…
Let $G$ be a plane graph. A vertex-colouring $φ$ of $G$ is called {\em facial non-repetitive} if for no sequence $r_1 r_2 \dots r_{2n}$, $n\geq 1$, of consecutive vertex colours of any facial path it holds $r_i=r_{n+i}$ for all $i=1,2,\dots,n$. A plane graph $G$ is {\em facial non-repetitively $l$-choosable} if for every list assignment $L:V\rightarrow 2\sp{\mathbb{N}}$ with minimum list size at least $l$ there is a facial non-repetitive vertex-colouring $φ$ with colours from the associated lists. The {\em facial Thue choice number}, $π_{fl}(G)$, of a plane graph $G$ is the minimum number $l$ …
There are two conjectures concerning planar graph colourings that are strengthenings of the four colour theorem. One concerns signed graph colouring and is proposed by Máčajová, Raspaud and Škoviera. It asserts that every signed planar graph is $4$-colourable. Another concerns list colouring and is proposed by Kündgen and Ramamurthi which asserts that if $L$ is a $2$-list assignment of a planar graph $G$, then there is an $L$-colouring of $G$ such that each colour class induces a bipartite graph. In this note we prove that the first conjecture implies the second one.
Dujmović, Joret, Micek, Morin, Ueckerdt and Wood recently in [Planar graphs have bounded queue-number, Journal of the ACM, Volume 67, Issue 4, Article No.: 22, August 2020] showed some attractive graph product structure theorems for planar graphs. By using the product structure, they proved that planar graphs have bounded queue-number $48$; in [Planar graphs have bounded nonrepetitive chromatic number, Advances in Combinatorics, 5, 11 pp, 2020], the authors proved that planar graphs have bounded nonrepetitive chromatic number $768$. In this paper, still by using some product structure theorem,…
The planar graph product structure theorem of Dujmović, Joret, Micek, Morin, Ueckerdt, and Wood [J. ACM 2020] states that every planar graph is a subgraph of the strong product of a graph with bounded treewidth and a path. This result has been the key tool to resolve important open problems regarding queue layouts, nonrepetitive colourings, centered colourings, and adjacency labelling schemes. In this paper, we extend this line of research by utilizing shallow minors to prove analogous product structure theorems for several beyond planar graph classes. The key observation that drives our work …
Let $k \geq 1$ be an integer. The reconfiguration graph $R_k(G)$ of the $k$-colourings of a graph~$G$ has as vertex set the set of all possible $k$-colourings of $G$ and two colourings are adjacent if they differ on exactly one vertex. A conjecture of Cereceda from 2007 asserts that for every integer $\ell \geq k + 2$ and $k$-degenerate graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, $R_{\ell}(G)$ has diameter $O(n^2)$. The conjecture has been verified only when $\ell \geq 2k + 1$. We give a simple proof that if $G$ is a planar graph on $n$ vertices, then $R_{10}(G)$ has diameter at most $n^2$. Since planar graphs…
We prove that graphs excluding a fixed immersion have bounded nonrepetitive chromatic number. More generally, we prove that if $H$ is a fixed planar graph that has a planar embedding with all the vertices with degree at least 4 on a single face, then graphs excluding $H$ as a topological minor have bounded nonrepetitive chromatic number. This is the largest class of graphs known to have bounded nonrepetitive chromatic number.
A vertex colouring of a graph is \emph{nonrepetitive} if there is no path for which the first half of the path is assigned the same sequence of colours as the second half. The \emph{nonrepetitive chromatic number} of a graph $G$ is the minimum integer $k$ such that $G$ has a nonrepetitive $k$-colouring. Whether planar graphs have bounded nonrepetitive chromatic number is one of the most important open problems in the field. Despite this, the best known upper bound is $O(\sqrt{n})$ for $n$-vertex planar graphs. We prove a $O(\log n)$ upper bound.
The odd chromatic number and the conflict-free chromatic number are new graph parameters introduced by Petruševski and Škrekovski [2021] and Fabrici, Lužar, Rindošová and Soták [2022] respectively. In this note, we show that graphs with bounded $2$-strong colouring number have bounded odd chromatic number and bounded conflict-free chromatic number. This implies that graph classes with bounded expansion have bounded odd chromatic number and bounded conflict-free chromatic number. Moreover, it follows by known results that the odd chromatic number and the conflict-free chromatic number of $k$-pl…
It was conjectured by the third author in about 1973 that every $d$-regular planar graph (possibly with parallel edges) can be $d$-edge-coloured, provided that for every odd set $X$ of vertices, there are at least $d$ edges between $X$ and its complement. For $d = 3$ this is the four-colour theorem, and the conjecture has been proved for all $d\le 7$, by various authors. Here we prove it for $d = 8$.
A colouring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a function $c: V\rightarrow\{1,2,\ldots \}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for every $uv\in E$. A $k$-regular list assignment of $G$ is a function $L$ with domain $V$ such that for every $u\in V$, $L(u)$ is a subset of $\{1, 2, \dots\}$ of size $k$. A colouring $c$ of $G$ respects a $k$-regular list assignment $L$ of $G$ if $c(u)\in L(u)$ for every $u\in V$. A graph $G$ is $k$-choosable if for every $k$-regular list assignment $L$ of $G$, there exists a colouring of $G$ that respects $L$. We may also ask if for a given $k$-regular list assignment $L$ of a given g…
Given a multigraph $G$ and a positive integer $t$, the distance-$t$ chromatic index of $G$ is the least number of colours needed for a colouring of the edges so that every pair of distinct edges connected by a path of fewer than $t$ edges must receive different colours. Let $π'_t(d)$ and $τ'_t(d)$ be the largest values of this parameter over the class of planar multigraphs and of (simple) trees, respectively, of maximum degree $d$. We have that $π'_t(d)$ is at most and at least a non-trivial constant multiple larger than $τ'_t(d)$. (We conjecture $\limsup_{d\to\infty}π'_2(d)/τ'_2(d) =9/4$ in p…
A conjecture due to the fourth author states that every $d$-regular planar multigraph can be $d$-edge-coloured, provided that for every odd set $X$ of vertices, there are at least $d$ edges between $X$ and its complement. For $d = 3$ this is the four-colour theorem, and the conjecture has been proved for all $d\le 8$, by various authors. In particular, two of us proved it when $d=7$; and then three of us proved it when $d=8$. The methods used for the latter give a proof in the $d=7$ case that is simpler than the original, and we present it here.
We give a short proof of a bound on the list chromatic number of graphs $G$ of maximum degree $Δ$ where each neighbourhood has density at most $d$, namely $χ_\ell(G) \le (1+o(1)) \fracΔ{\ln \fracΔ{d+1}}$ as $\fracΔ{d+1} \to \infty$. This bound is tight up to an asymptotic factor $2$, which is the best possible barring a breakthrough in Ramsey theory, and strengthens results due to Vu, and more recently Davies, P., Kang, and Sereni. Our proof relies on the first moment method, and adapts a clever counting argument developed by Rosenfeld in the context of non-repetitive colourings. As a final to…
The first step in investigating colour symmetries for periodic and aperiodic systems is the determination of all colouring schemes that are compatible with the symmetry group of the underlying structure, or with a subgroup of it. For an important class of colourings of planar structures, this mainly combinatorial question can be addressed with methods of algebraic number theory. We present the corresponding results for all planar modules with N-fold symmetry that emerge as the rings of integers in cyclotomic fields with class number one. The counting functions are multiplicative and can be enc…
The reconfiguration graph $R_k(G)$ of the $k$-colourings of a graph $G$ has as vertex set the set of all possible $k$-colourings of $G$ and two colourings are adjacent if they differ on the colour of exactly one vertex. Cereceda conjectured ten years ago that, for every $k$-degenerate graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, $R_{k+2}(G)$ has diameter $\mathcal{O}({n^2})$. The conjecture is wide open, with a best known bound of $\mathcal{O}({k^n})$, even for planar graphs. We improve this bound for planar graphs to $2^{\mathcal{O}({\sqrt{n}})}$. Our proof can be transformed into an algorithm that runs in $2^…
We prove that the two-colouring number of any planar graph is at most 8. This resolves a question of Kierstead et al. [SIAM J. Discrete Math.~23 (2009), 1548--1560]. The result is optimal.
For a positive integer $k$, the $k$-recolouring graph of a graph $G$ has as vertex set all proper $k$-colourings of $G$ with two $k$-colourings being adjacent if they differ by the colour of exactly one vertex. A result of Dyer et al. regarding graphs of bounded degeneracy implies that the $7$-recolouring graphs of planar graphs, the $5$-recolouring graphs of triangle-free planar graphs and the $4$-recolouring graphs planar graphs of girth at least six are connected. On the other hand, there are planar graphs whose $6$-recolouring graph is disconnected, triangle-free planar graphs whose $4$-re…
In 1994, Thomassen famously proved that every planar graph is 5-choosable, resolving a conjecture initially posed by Vizing and, independently, Erd\H{os}, Rubin, and Taylor in the 1970s. Later, Thomassen proved that every planar graph of girth at least five is 3-choosable. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a \emph{local girth list assignment}: a list assignment wherein the list size of a vertex depends not on the girth of the graph, but rather on the length of the shortest cycle in which the vertex is contained. We give a local list colouring theorem unifying the two theorems of Thoma…
Combining tree decomposition and transfer matrix techniques provides a very general algorithm for computing exact partition functions of statistical models defined on arbitrary graphs. The algorithm is particularly efficient in the case of planar graphs. We illustrate it by computing the Potts model partition functions and chromatic polynomials (the number of proper vertex colourings using Q colours) for large samples of random planar graphs with up to N=100 vertices. In the latter case, our algorithm yields a sub-exponential average running time of ~ exp(1.516 sqrt(N)), a substantial improvem…
In this paper we introduce the notion of $Σ$-colouring of a graph $G$: For given subsets $Σ(v)$ of neighbours of $v$, for every $v\in V(G)$, this is a proper colouring of the vertices of $G$ such that, in addition, vertices that appear together in some $Σ(v)$ receive different colours. This concept generalises the notion of colouring the square of graphs and of cyclic colouring of graphs embedded in a surface. We prove a general result for graphs embeddable in a fixed surface, which implies asymptotic versions of Wegner's and Borodin's Conjecture on the planar version of these two colourings. …
Assume $L$ is a $k$-list assignment of a graph $G$. A $d$-defective $m$-fold $L$-colouring $ϕ$ of $G$ assigns to each vertex $v$ a set $ϕ(v)$ of $m$ colours, so that $ϕ(v) \subseteq L(v)$ for each vertex $v$, and for each colour $i$, the set $\{v: i \in ϕ(v)\}$ induces a subgraph of maximum degree at most $d$. In this paper, we consider on-line list $d$-defective $m$-fold colouring of graphs, where the list assignment $L$ is given on-line, and the colouring is constructed on-line. To be precise, the $d$-defective $(k,m)$-painting game on a graph $G$ is played by two players: Lister and Painter…
Assume $k$ is a positive integer, $λ=\{k_1, k_2, \ldots, k_q\}$ is a partition of $k$ and $G$ is a graph. A $λ$-list assignment of $G$ is a $k$-list assignment $L$ of $G$ such that the colour set $\cup_{v\in V(G)}L(v)$ can be partitioned into $q$ subsets $C_1 \cup C_2 \ldots \cup C_q$ and for each vertex $v$ of $G$, $|L(v) \cap C_i| \ge k_i$. We say $G$ is $λ$-choosable if for each $λ$-list assignment $L$ of $G$, $G$ is $L$-colourable. It follows from the definition that if $λ=\{k\}$, then $λ$-choosable is the same as $k$-choosable, if $λ=\{1,1,\ldots, 1\}$, then $λ$-choosable is equivalent to…
A colouring of a graph is "nonrepetitive" if for every path of even order, the sequence of colours on the first half of the path is different from the sequence of colours on the second half. We show that planar graphs have nonrepetitive colourings with a bounded number of colours, thus proving a conjecture of Alon, Grytczuk, Haluszczak and Riordan (2002). We also generalise this result for graphs of bounded Euler genus, graphs excluding a fixed minor, and graphs excluding a fixed topological minor.
Consider the following two ways to colour the vertices of a graph where the requirement that adjacent vertices get distinct colours is relaxed. A colouring has "defect" $d$ if each monochromatic component has maximum degree at most $d$. A colouring has "clustering" $c$ if each monochromatic component has at most $c$ vertices. This paper surveys research on these types of colourings, where the first priority is to minimise the number of colours, with small defect or small clustering as a secondary goal. List colouring variants are also considered. The following graph classes are studied: outerp…
Given a graph $G$, the $k$-mixing problem asks: Can one obtain all $k$-colourings of $G$, starting from one $k$-colouring $f$, by changing the colour of only one vertex at a time, while at each step maintaining a $k$-colouring? More generally, for a graph $H$, the $H$-mixing problem asks: Can one obtain all homomorphisms $G \to H$, starting from one homomorphism $f$, by changing the image of only one vertex at a time, while at each step maintaining a homomorphism $G \to H$? This paper focuses on a generalization of $k$-colourings, namely $(p,q)$-circular colourings. We show that when $2 < \fra…
A decomposition of a graph $G$ is a family of subgraphs of $G$ whose edge sets form a partition of $E(G)$. In this paper, we prove that every triangle-free planar graph $G$ can be decomposed into a $2$-degenerate graph and a matching. Consequently, every triangle-free planar graph $G$ has a matching $M$ such that $G-M$ is online 3-DP-colorable. This strengthens an earlier result in [R. Škrekovski, {\em A Grötzsch-Type Theorem for List Colourings with Impropriety One}, Combin. Prob. Comput. 8 (1999), 493-507] that every triangle-free planar graph is $1$-defective $3$-choosable.
A sequence $\left(x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_{2n}\right)$ of even length is a repetition if $\left(x_1,\ldots,x_n\right) = \left(x_{n+1},\ldots,x_{2n}\right)$. We prove existence of a constant $C < 10^{4 \cdot 10^7}$ such that given any planar drawing of a graph $G$, and a list $L(v)$ of $C$ permissible colors for each vertex $v$ in $G$, there is a choice of a permissible color for each vertex such that the sequence of colors of the vertices on any facial simple path in $G$ is not a repetition.
The smallest integer $k$ needed for the assignment of colors to the elements so that the coloring is proper (vertices and edges) is called the total chromatic number of a graph. Vizing and Behzed conjectured that the total coloring can be done using at most $Δ(G)+2$ colors, where $Δ(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$. It is not settled even for planar graphs. In this paper we give a survey on total coloring of graphs.
It is known that every loopless cubic graph is 4-edge choosable. We prove the following strengthened result. Let G be a planar cubic graph having b cut-edges. There exists a set F of at most 5b/2 edges of G with the following property. For any function L which assigns to each edge of F a set of 4 colours and which assigns to each edge in E(G)-F a set of 3 colours, the graph G has a proper edge colouring where the colour of each edge e belongs to L(e).
In 1982, Zaslavsky introduced the concept of a proper vertex colouring of a signed graph $G$ as a mapping $ϕ\colon V(G)\to \mathbb{Z}$ such that for any two adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$ the colour $ϕ(u)$ is different from the colour $σ(uv)ϕ(v)$, where is $σ(uv)$ is the sign of the edge $uv$. The substantial part of Zaslavsky's research concentrated on polynomial invariants related to signed graph colourings rather than on the behaviour of colourings of individual signed graphs. We continue the study of signed graph colourings by proposing the definition of a chromatic number for signed graphs…
A graph is apex if there is a vertex whose deletion makes the graph planar, and doublecross if it can be drawn in the plane with only two crossings, both incident with the infinite region in the natural sense. In 1966, Tutte conjectured that every two-edge-connected cubic graph with no Petersen graph minor is three-edge-colourable. With Neil Robertson, two of us showed that this is true in general if it is true for apex graphs and doublecross graphs. In another paper, two of us solved the apex case, but the doublecross case remained open. Here we solve the doublecross case; that is, we prove t…
Can the vertices of a graph $G$ be partitioned into $A \cup B$, so that $G[A]$ is a line-graph and $G[B]$ is a forest? Can $G$ be partitioned into a planar graph and a perfect graph? The NP-completeness of these problems are just special cases of our result: if ${\cal P}$ and ${\cal Q}$ are additive induced-hereditary graph properties, then $({\cal P}, {\cal Q})$-colouring is NP-hard, with the sole exception of graph 2-colouring (the case where both $\cal P$ and $\cal Q$ are the set ${\cal O}$ of finite edgeless graphs). Moreover, $({\cal P}, {\cal Q})$-colouring is NP-complete iff ${\cal P}$-…
