We exhibit infinite families of planar graphs with real chromatic roots arbitrarily close to 4, thus resolving a long-standing conjecture in the affirmative.
In this paper, we study the feedback game on $3$-chromatic Eulerian triangulations of surfaces. We prove that the winner of the game on every $3$-chromatic Eulerian triangulation of a surface all of whose vertices have degree $0$ modulo $4$ is always fixed. Moreover, we also study the case of $3$-chromatic Eulerian triangulations of surfaces which have at least two vertices whose degrees are $2$ modulo $4$, and in particular, we determine the winner of the game on a concrete class of such graphs, called an octahedral path.
We refine Catalan numbers and Fuß-Catalan numbers by introducing colour statistics for triangulations of polygons and $d$-dimensional generalisations there-of which we call Fuß-Catalan complexes. Our refinements consist in showing that the number of triangulations, respectively Fuß-Catalan complexes, with a given colour distribution of its vertices is given by closed product formulae. The crucial ingredient in the proof is the Lagrange-Good inversion formula.
Tutte proved that if $G_{pt}$ is a planar triangulation and $P(G_{pt},q)$ is its chromatic polynomial, then $|P(G_{pt},τ+1)| \le (τ-1)^{n-5}$, where $τ=(1+\sqrt{5} \,)/2$ and $n$ is the number of vertices in $G_{pt}$. Here we study the ratio $r(G_{pt})=|P(G_{pt},τ+1)|/(τ-1)^{n-5}$ for a variety of planar triangulations. We construct infinite recursive families of planar triangulations $G_{pt,m}$ depending on a parameter $m$ linearly related to $n$ and show that if $P(G_{pt,m},q)$ only involves a single power of a polynomial, then $r(G_{pt,m})$ approaches zero exponentially fast as $n \to \inft…
Higher chromatic numbers $χ_s$ of simplicial complexes naturally generalize the chromatic number $χ_1$ of a graph. In any fixed dimension $d$, the $s$-chromatic number $χ_s$ of $d$-complexes can become arbitrarily large for $s\leq\lceil d/2\rceil$ [6,18]. In contrast, $χ_{d+1}=1$, and only little is known on $χ_s$ for $\lceil d/2\rceil<s\leq d$. A particular class of $d$-complexes are triangulations of $d$-manifolds. As a consequence of the Map Color Theorem for surfaces [29], the 2-chromatic number of any fixed surface is finite. However, by combining results from the literature, we will see …
An $r$-dynamic $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper $k$-coloring such that for any vertex $v$, there are at least $\min\{r, deg_G(v) \}$ distinct colors in $N_G(v)$. The $r$-dynamic chromatic number $χ_r^d(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the least $k$ such that there exists an $r$-dynamic $k$-coloring of $G$. The list $r$-dynamic chromatic number of a graph $G$ is denoted by $ch_r^d(G)$. Loeb et al. $[11]$ showed that $ch_3^d(G)\leq 10$ for every planar graph $G$, and there is a planar graph $G$ with $χ_3^d(G)= 7$. In this paper, we study a special class of planar graphs which have better upper bound…
Erdős proved that there are graphs with arbitrarily large girth and chromatic number. We study the extension of this for generalized chromatic numbers.
It is known (Bollobás (1978); Kostochka and Mazurova (1977)) that there exist graphs of maximum degree $Δ$ and of arbitrarily large girth whose chromatic number is at least $c Δ/ \log Δ$. We show an analogous result for digraphs where the chromatic number of a digraph $D$ is defined as the minimum integer $k$ so that $V(D)$ can be partitioned into $k$ acyclic sets, and the girth is the length of the shortest cycle in the corresponding undirected graph. It is also shown, in the same vein as an old result of Erdos (1962), that there are digraphs with arbitrarily large chromatic number where ever…
The DP-coloring problem is a generalization of the list-coloring problem in which the goal is to find an independent transversal in a certain topological cover of a graph $G$. In the online DP-coloring problem, the cover of $G$ is revealed one component at a time, and the independent transversal of the cover must be constructed in parts based on incomplete information. Kim, Kostochka, Li, and Zhu asked whether the chromatic numbers corresponding to these two graph coloring problems can have an arbitrarily large difference in a single graph. We answer this question in the affirmative by constru…
We prove that there are intersection graphs of axis-aligned boxes in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and intersection graphs of straight lines in $\mathbb{R}^3$ that have arbitrarily large girth and chromatic number.
We show that for loopless $6$-regular triangulations on the torus the gap between the choice number and chromatic number is at most $2$. We also show that the largest gap for graphs embeddable in an orientable surface of genus $g$ is of the order $Θ(\sqrt{g})$, and moreover for graphs with chromatic number of the order $o(\sqrt{g}/\log_{2}(g))$ the largest gap is of the order $o(\sqrt{g})$.
In the way of proving Kneser's conjecture, László Lovász settled out a new lower bound for the chromatic number. He showed that if neighborhood complex $\mathcal{N}(G)$ of a graph $G$ is topologically $k$-connected, then its chromatic number is at least $k+3$. Then he completed his proof by showing that this bound is tight for the Kneser graph. However, there are some graphs where this bound is not useful at all, even comparing by the obvious bound; the clique number. For instance, if a graph contains no complete bipartite graph $\mathcal{K}_{l, m}$, then its Lovász's bound is at most $l+m-1$.…
The anagram-free chromatic number is a new graph parameter introduced independently Kamčev, Łuczak, and Sudakov (2017) and Wilson and Wood (2017). In this note, we show that there are planar graphs of pathwidth 3 with arbitrarily large anagram-free chromatic number. More specifically, we describe $2n$-vertex planar graphs of pathwidth 3 with anagram-free chromatic number $Ω(\log n)$. We also describe $kn$ vertex graphs with pathwidth $2k-1$ having anagram-free chromatic number in $Ω(k\log n)$.
A wheel is a graph consisting of an induced cycle of length at least four and a single additional vertex with at least three neighbours on the cycle. We prove that no Burling graph contains an induced wheel. Burling graphs are triangle-free and have arbitrarily large chromatic number, so this answers a question of Trotignon and disproves a conjecture of Scott and Seymour.
A graph $G = (V,E)$ is word-representable if there is a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if the edge $(x, y)$ is in $G$. It is known [6] that all $3$-colourable graphs are word-representable, while among those with a higher chromatic number some are word-representable while others are not. There has been some recent research on the word-representability of polyomino triangulations. Akrobotu et al.[1] showed that a triangulation of a convex polyomino is word-representable if and only if it is $3$-colourable; and Glen and Kitaev[5] extended this r…
A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$, $x\neq y$, alternate in $w$ if and only if $(x,y)\in E$. Halldórsson et al.\ have shown that a graph is word-representable if and only if it admits a so-called semi-transitive orientation. A corollary to this result is that any 3-colorable graph is word-representable. Akrobotu et al.\ have shown that a triangulation of a grid graph is word-representable if and only if it is 3-colorable. This result does not hold for triangulations of grid-covered cylinder graphs, namely, ther…
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…
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. Sloper showed that there are $4$-regular graphs with arbitrarily large packing chromatic number. The question whether the packing chromatic number of subcubic graphs is bounded appears in several papers. We answer this question in the negative. Moreover, we show that for every fixed $k$ a…
A note on vertex-critical induced subgraphs of shift graphs
University of West Bohemia(西波希米亚大学);CNRS(法国国家科学研究中心);IRIF(IRIF实验室);Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana(卢布尔雅那大学数学物理学院);Faculty of Information Studies in Novo Mesto(诺沃梅斯托信息研究学院);Rudolfovo – Science and Technology Centre(鲁多维福科学与技术中心);University of Southern Denmark(南丹麦大学)
We investigate the local chromatic number of shift graphs and prove that it is close to their chromatic number. This implies that the gap between the directed local chromatic number of an oriented graph and the local chromatic number of the underlying undirected graph can be arbitrarily large. We also investigate the minimum possible directed local chromatic number of oriented versions of ``topologically t-chromatic'' graphs. We show that this minimum for large enough t-chromatic Schrijver graphs and t-chromatic generalized Mycielski graphs of appropriate parameters is the upper integer part o…
The $k$th power $G^k$ of a graph $G$ is the graph defined on $V(G)$ such that two vertices $u$ and $v$ are adjacent in $G^k$ if the distance between $u$ and $v$ in $G$ is at most $k$. Let $χ(H)$ and $χ_l(H)$ be the chromatic number and the list chromatic number of $H$, respectively. A graph $H$ is called {\em chromatic-choosable} if $χ_l (H) = χ(H)$. It is an interesting problem to find graphs that are chromatic-choosable. A natural question raised by Xuding Zhu (2012) is whether there exists a constant integer $k$ such that $G^k$ is chromatic-choosable for every graph $G$. Motivated by the Li…
The Vapnik-Červonenkis dimension is a complexity measure of set-systems, or hypergraphs. Its application to graphs is usually done by considering the sets of neighborhoods of the vertices (cf. Alon et al. (2006) and Chepoi, Estellon, and Vaxes (2007)), hence providing a set-system. But the graph structure is lost in the process. The aim of this paper is to introduce the notion of paired VC-dimension, a generalization of VC-dimension to set-systems endowed with a graph structure, hence a collection of pairs of subsets. The classical VC-theory is generally used in combinatorics to bound the tran…
We consider two graph colouring problems in which edges at distance at most $t$ are given distinct colours, for some fixed positive integer $t$. We obtain two upper bounds for the distance-$t$ chromatic index, the least number of colours necessary for such a colouring. One is a bound of $(2-\eps)Δ^t$ for graphs of maximum degree at most $Δ$, where $\eps$ is some absolute positive constant independent of $t$. The other is a bound of $O(Δ^t/\log Δ)$ (as $Δ\to\infty$) for graphs of maximum degree at most $Δ$ and girth at least $2t+1$. The first bound is an analogue of Molloy and Reed's bound on t…
Self-polar polytopes are convex polytopes that are equal to an orthogonal transformation of their polar sets. These polytopes were first studied by Lovász as a means of establishing the chromatic number of distance graphs on spheres, and they can also be used to construct triangle-free graphs with arbitrarily high chromatic number. We investigate the existence, construction, facial structure, and practical applications of self-polar polytopes, as well as the place of these polytopes within the broader set of self-dual polytopes.
The local chromatic number of a graph was introduced by Erdős et al. [4]. In [17] a connection to topological properties of (a box complex of) the graph was established and in [18] it was shown that if a graph is strongly topologically 4-chromatic then its local chromatic number is at least four. As a consequence one obtains a generalization of the following theorem of Youngs: If a quadrangulation of the projective plane is not bipartite it has chromatic number four. The generalization states that in this case the local chromatic number is also four. Both papers [1] and [13] generalize Youngs'…
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 …
It has been known since the work of Tutte that the value of the chromatic polynomial of planar triangulations at $(3+\sqrt{5})/2$ has a number of remarkable properties. We investigate to what extent Tutte's relations characterize planar graphs. A version of the Tutte linear relation for the flow polynomial at $(3-\sqrt{5})/2$ is shown to give a planarity criterion for $3$-connected cubic graphs. A conjecture is formulated that the golden identity for the flow polynomial characterizes planarity of cubic graphs as well. In addition, Tutte's upper bound on the chromatic polynomial of planar trian…
A classic result of Asplund and Grünbaum states that intersection graphs of axis-aligned rectangles in the plane are $χ$-bounded. This theorem can be equivalently stated in terms of path-decompositions as follows: There exists a function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{N}$ such that every graph that has two path-decompositions such that each bag of the first decomposition intersects each bag of the second in at most $k$ vertices has chromatic number at most $f(k)$. Recently, Dujmović, Joret, Morin, Norin, and Wood asked whether this remains true more generally for two tree-decompositions. In this note…
Let $G = (V,E)$ be a connected simple graph of order $p$ and size $q$. A graph $G$ is called local antimagic if $G$ admits a local antimagic labeling. A bijection $f : E \to \{1,2,\ldots,q\}$ is called a local antimagic labeling of $G$ if for any two adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$, we have $f^+(u) \ne f^+(v)$, where $f^+(u) = \sum_{e\in E(u)} f(e)$, and $E(u)$ is the set of edges incident to $u$. Thus, any local antimagic labeling induces a proper vertex coloring of $G$ if vertex $v$ is assigned the color $f^+(v)$. The local antimagic chromatic number, denoted $χ_{la}(G)$, is the minimum number…
Several games that arise from graph coloring have been introduced and studied. Let $φ$ denote a graph invariant that arises from such a game. If $G$ is a graph and $φ(G-x)\neq φ(G)=k$, $k \geq 1$, holds true for every vertex $x \in V(G)$, then $G$ is called a $k$-$φ$-game-vertex-critical graph. We study the concept of $φ$-game-vertex-criticality for $φ\in \{χ_g, χ_i, χ_{ig}^{A}, χ_{ig}^{AB}\}$, where $χ_g$ denotes the standard game chromatic number, $χ_i$ denotes the indicated game chromatic number and $χ_{ig}^{A}$, $χ_{ig}^{AB}$ denote two versions of the independence game chromatic number. S…
Université Paris Cité(巴黎西岱大学);CNRS(法国国家科学研究中心);IRIF(信息与随机研究所);Zhejiang Normal University(浙江师范大学);Hainan Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences(海南比勒费尔德应用科技大学)
A {\it local antimagic labeling} of a connected graph $G$ with at least three vertices, is a bijection $f:E(G) \rightarrow \{1,2,\ldots , |E(G)|\}$ such that for any two adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$, the condition $ω_{f}(u) \neq ω_{f}(v)$ holds; where $ω_{f}(u)=\sum _{x\in N(u)} f(xu)$. Assigning $ω_{f}(u)$ to $u$ for each vertex $u$ in $V(G)$, induces naturally a proper vertex coloring of $G$; and $|f|$ denotes the number of colors appearing in this proper vertex coloring. The {\it local antimagic chromatic number} of $G$, denoted by $χ_{la}(G)$, is defined as the minimum of $|f|$, wh…
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…
Several classical constructions illustrate the fact that the chromatic number of a graph can be arbitrarily large compared to its clique number. However, until very recently, no such construction was known for intersection graphs of geometric objects in the plane. We provide a general construction that for any arc-connected compact set $X$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ that is not an axis-aligned rectangle and for any positive integer $k$ produces a family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets, each obtained by an independent horizontal and vertical scaling and translation of $X$, such that no three sets in $\mathcal{F}$…
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…
We propose a new coloring game on a graph, called the independence coloring game, which is played by two players with opposite goals. The result of the game is a proper coloring of vertices of a graph $G$, and Alice's goal is that as few colors as possible are used during the game, while Bob wants to maximize the number of colors. The game consists of rounds, and in round $i$, where $i=1,2,,\ldots$, the players are taking turns in selecting a previously unselected vertex of $G$ and giving it color $i$ (hence, in each round the selected vertices form an independent set). The game ends when all …
The chromatic number of an planar graph is not greater than four and this is known by the famous four color theorem and is equal to two when the planar graph is bipartite. When the planar graph is even-triangulated or all cycles are greater than three we know by the Heawood and the Grotszch theorems that the chromatic number is three. There are many conjectures and partial results on three colorability of planar graphs when the graph has specific cycles lengths or cycles with three edges (triangles) have special distance distributions. In this paper we have given a new three colorability crite…
This paper introduces a conceptual framework, in the context of quantum topology and the algebras underlying it, for analyzing relations obeyed by the chromatic polynomial χ(Q) of planar graphs. Using it we give new proofs and substantially extend a number of classical results concerning the combinatorics of the chromatic polynomial. In particular, we show that Tutte's golden identity is a consequence of level-rank duality for SO(N) topological quantum field theories and Birman-Murakami-Wenzl algebras. This identity is a remarkable feature of the chromatic polynomial relating χ({ϕ+2}) for any …
For any connected graph $G$, let $P(G,m)$ and $P_{DP}(G,m)$ denote the chromatic polynomial and DP color function of $G$, respectively. It is known that $P_{DP}(G,m)\le P(G,m)$ holds for every positive integer $m$. Let $DP_\approx$ (resp. $DP_<$) be the set of graphs $G$ for which there exists an integer $M$ such that $P_{DP}(G,m)=P(G,m)$ (resp. $P_{DP}(G,m)<P(G,m)$) holds for all integers $m \ge M$. Determining the sets $DP_\approx$ and $DP_<$ is a key problem on the study of the DP color function. For any edge set $E_0$ of $G$, let $\ell_G(E_0)$ be the length of a shortest cycle $C$ in $G$ s…
In a search for triangle-free graphs with arbitrarily large chromatic numbers, Mycielski developed a graph transformation that transforms a graph into a new graph which is called the Mycielskian of that graph. In this paper we provide some sharp bounds for the Randic index of the Mycielskian graphs. Also, we determine the degree distance index of the Mycielskian of each graph with diameter two.
The local chromatic number of a graph was introduced by Erdos et al. in 1986. It is in between the chromatic and fractional chromatic numbers. This motivates the study of the local chromatic number of graphs for which these quantities are far apart. Such graphs include Kneser graphs, their vertex color-critical subgraphs, the Schrijver (or stable Kneser) graphs; Mycielski graphs, and their generalizations; and Borsuk graphs. We give more or less tight bounds for the local chromatic number of many of these graphs. We use an old topological result of Ky Fan which generalizes the Borsuk-Ulam theo…
We establish a quadratic identity for the Yamada polynomial of ribbon cubic graphs in 3-space, extending the Tutte golden identity for planar cubic graphs. An application is given to the structure of the flow polynomial of cubic graphs at zero. The golden identity for the flow polynomial is conjectured to characterize planarity of cubic graphs, and we prove this conjecture for a certain infinite family of non-planar graphs. Further, we establish exponential growth of the number of chromatic polynomials of planar triangulations, answering a question of D. Treumann and E. Zaslow. The structure u…
The {\em disjointness graph} of a set system is a graph whose vertices are the sets, two being connected by an edge if and only if they are disjoint. It is known that the disjointness graph $G$ of any system of segments in the plane is {\em $χ$-bounded}, that is, its chromatic number $χ(G)$ is upper bounded by a function of its clique number $ω(G)$. Here we show that this statement does not remain true for systems of polygonal chains of length $2$. We also construct systems of polygonal chains of length $3$ such that their disjointness graphs have arbitrarily large girth and chromatic number. …