Let $C_n^k$ be the $k$-th power of a cycle on $n$ vertices (i.e. the vertices of $C_n^k$ are those of the $n$-cycle, and two vertices are connected by an edge if their distance along the cycle is at most $k$). For each vertex draw uniformly at random a subset of size $c$ from a base set $S$ of size $s=s(n)$. In this paper we solve the problem of determining the asymptotic probability of the existence of a proper colouring from the lists for all fixed values of $c,k$, and growing $n$.
Let $K_{n,n}$ be the complete bipartite graph with $n$ vertices in each side. For each vertex draw uniformly at random a list of size $k$ from a base set $S$ of size $s=s(n)$. In this paper we estimate the asymptotic probability of the existence of a proper colouring from the random lists for all fixed values of $k$ and growing $n$. We show that this property exhibits a sharp threshold for $k\geq 2$ and the location of the threshold is precisely $s(n)=2n$ for $k=2$, and approximately $s(n)=\frac{n}{2^{k-1}\ln 2}$ for $k\geq 3$.
We prove that the list chromatic index of a graph of maximum degree $Δ$ and treewidth $\leq \sqrt{2Δ} -3$ is $Δ$; and that the total chromatic number of a graph of maximum degree $Δ$ and treewidth $\leq Δ/3 +1$ is $Δ+1$. This improves results by Meeks and Scott.
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 disproves a conjecture of Wang, Wu, Yan and Xie, and answers in negative a question in Dvorak, Pekarek and Sereni. In return, we pose five open problems.
We restate theorems of Hutchinson on list-colouring extendability for outerplanar graphs in terms of non-vanishing monomials in a graph polynomial, which yields an Alon-Tarsi equivalent for her work. This allows to simplify her proofs as well as obtain more general results.
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 notion of a Galvin orientation of a line graph is introduced, generalizing the idea used by Galvin in his landmark proof of the list-edge-colouring conjecture for bipartite graphs. If L(G) has a proper Galvin orientation with respect to k, then it immediately implies that G is k-list-edge-colourable, but the converse is not true. The stronger property is studied in graphs of the form `bipartite plus an edge', the Petersen graph, cliques, and simple graphs without odd cycles of length 5 or longer.
We prove two distinct and natural refinements of a recent breakthrough result of Molloy (and a follow-up work of Bernshteyn) on the (list) chromatic number of triangle-free graphs. In both our results, we permit the amount of colour made available to vertices of lower degree to be accordingly lower. One result concerns list colouring and correspondence colouring, while the other concerns fractional colouring. Our proof of the second illustrates the use of the hard-core model to prove a Johansson-type result, which may be of independent interest.
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.
Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ vertices and let $\mathcal{L}_k$ be an arbitrary function that assigns each vertex in $G$ a list of $k$ colours. Then $G$ is $\mathcal{L}_k$-list colourable if there exists a proper colouring of the vertices of $G$ such that every vertex is coloured with a colour from its own list. We say $G$ is $k$-choosable if for every such function $\mathcal{L}_k$, $G$ is $\mathcal{L}_k$-list colourable. The minimum $k$ such that $G$ is $k$-choosable is called the list chromatic number of $G$ and is denoted by $χ_L(G)$. Let $χ_L(G) = s$ and let $t$ be a positive integer less than …
Ohba has conjectured \cite{ohb} that if the graph $G$ has $2χ(G)+1$ or fewer vertices then the list chromatic number and chromatic number of $G$ are equal. In this paper we prove that this conjecture is asymptotically correct. More precisely we obtain that for any $0<ε<1$, there exist an $n_0=n_0(ε)$ such that the list chromatic number of $G$ equals its chromatic number, provided $$n_0 \leq |V(G) | \le (2-ε)χ(G).$$
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.
The optimality of the Erdős-Rado theorem for pairs is witnessed by the colouring $Δ_κ: [2^κ]^2 \rightarrow κ$ recording the least point of disagreement between two functions. This colouring has no monochromatic triangles or, more generally, odd cycles. We investigate a number of questions investigating the extent to which $Δ_κ$ is an \emph{extremal} such triangle-free or odd-cycle-free colouring. We begin by introducing the notion of $Δ$-regressive and almost $Δ$-regressive colourings and studying the structures that must appear as monochromatic subgraphs for such colourings. We also consider …
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…
An edge colouring of a graph is said to be an $r$-local colouring if the edges incident to any vertex are coloured with at most $r$ colours. Generalising a result of Bessy and Thomassé, we prove that the vertex set of any $2$-locally coloured complete graph may be partitioned into two disjoint monochromatic cycles of different colours. Moreover, for any natural number $r$, we show that the vertex set of any $r$-locally coloured complete graph may be partitioned into $O(r^2 \log r)$ disjoint monochromatic cycles. This generalises a result of Erdős, Gyárfás and Pyber.
An edge-coloured cycle is $rainbow$ if all edges of the cycle have distinct colours. For $k\geq 1$, let $\mathcal{F}_{k}$ denote the family of all graphs with the property that any $k$ vertices lie on a cycle. For $G\in \mathcal{F}_{k}$, a $k$-$rainbow$ $cycle$ $colouring$ of $G$ is an edge-colouring such that any $k$ vertices of $G$ lie on a rainbow cycle in $G$. The $k$-$rainbow$ $cycle$ $index$ of $G$, denoted by $crx_{k}(G)$, is the minimum number of colours needed in a $k$-rainbow cycle colouring of $G$. In this paper, we restrict our attention to the computational aspects of $k$-rainbow …
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…
We examine the computational complexity of approximately counting the list H-colourings of a graph. We discover a natural graph-theoretic trichotomy based on the structure of the graph H. If H is an irreflexive bipartite graph or a reflexive complete graph then counting list H-colourings is trivially in polynomial time. Otherwise, if H is an irreflexive bipartite permutation graph or a reflexive proper interval graph then approximately counting list H-colourings is equivalent to #BIS, the problem of approximately counting independent sets in a bipartite graph. This is a well-studied problem wh…
For any odd $t\ge 9$, we present a polynomial-time algorithm that solves the $3$-colouring problem, and finds a $3$-colouring if one exists, in $P_{t}$-free graphs of odd girth at least $t-2$. In particular, our algorithm works for $(P_9, C_3, C_5)$-free graphs, thus making progress towards determining the complexity of $3$-colouring in $P_t$-free graphs, which is open for $t\ge 8$.
For a positive integer $k$ and graph $G=(V,E)$, a $k$-colouring of $G$ is a mapping $c: V\rightarrow\{1,2,\ldots,k\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ whenever $uv\in E$. The $k$-Colouring problem is to decide, for a given $G$, whether a $k$-colouring of $G$ exists. The $k$-Precolouring Extension problem is to decide, for a given $G=(V,E)$, whether a colouring of a subset of $V$ can be extended to a $k$-colouring of $G$. A $k$-list assignment of a graph is an allocation of a list -a subset of $\{1,\ldots,k\}$- to each vertex, and the List $k$-Colouring problem is to decide, for a given $G$, whether $…
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…
We consider distance colourings in graphs of maximum degree at most $d$ and how excluding one fixed cycle length $\ell$ affects the number of colours required as $d\to\infty$. For vertex-colouring and $t\ge 1$, if any two distinct vertices connected by a path of at most $t$ edges are required to be coloured differently, then a reduction by a logarithmic (in $d$) factor against the trivial bound $O(d^t)$ can be obtained by excluding an odd cycle length $\ell \ge 3t$ if $t$ is odd or by excluding an even cycle length $\ell \ge 2t+2$. For edge-colouring and $t\ge 2$, if any two distinct edges con…
In this paper, the on-line list colouring of binomial random graphs G(n,p) is studied. We show that the on-line choice number of G(n,p) is asymptotically almost surely asymptotic to the chromatic number of G(n,p), provided that the average degree d=p(n-1) tends to infinity faster than (log log n)^1/3(log n)^2n^(2/3). For sparser graphs, we are slightly less successful; we show that if d>(log n)^(2+epsilon) for some epsilon>0, then the on-line choice number is larger than the chromatic number by at most a multiplicative factor of C, where C in [2,4], depending on the range of d. Also, for d=O(1…
A graph $G$ is called $3$-choice critical if $G$ is not $2$-choosable but any proper subgraph is $2$-choosable. A characterization of $3$-choice critical graphs was given by Voigt in [On list Colourings and Choosability of Graphs, Habilitationsschrift, Tu Ilmenau(1998)]. Voigt conjectured that if $G$ is a bipartite $3$-choice critical graph, then $G$ is $(4m, 2m)$-choosable for every integer $m$. This conjecture was disproved by Meng, Puleo and Zhu in [On (4, 2)-Choosable Graphs, Journal of Graph Theory 85(2):412-428(2017)]. They showed that if $G=Θ_{r,s,t}$ where $r,s,t$ have the same parity …
The Unfriendly Partition Conjecture posits that every countable graph admits a 2-colouring in which for each vertex there are at least as many bichromatic edges containing that vertex as monochromatic ones. This is not known in general, but it is known that a 3-colouring with this property always exists. Anholcer, Bosek and Grytczuk recently gave a list-colouring version of this conjecture, and proved that such a colouring exists for lists of size 4. We improve their result to lists of size 3; the proof extends to directed acyclic graphs. We also discuss some generalisations.
Let ${\mathcal D}_d$ be the class of $d$-degenerate graphs and let $L$ be a list assignment for a graph $G$. A colouring of $G$ such that every vertex receives a colour from its list and the subgraph induced by vertices coloured with one color is a $d$-degenerate graph is called the $(L,{\mathcal D}_d)$-colouring of $G$. For a $k$-uniform list assignment $L$ and $d\in\mathbb{N}_0$, a graph $G$ is equitably $(L,{\mathcal D}_d)$-colorable if there is an $(L,{\mathcal D}_d)$-colouring of $G$ such that the size of any colour class does not exceed $\left\lceil|V(G)|/k\right\rceil$. An equitable $(L…
Král' and Sgall (2005) introduced a refinement of list colouring where every colour list must be subset to one predetermined palette of colours. We call this $(k,\ell)$-choosability when the palette is of size at most $\ell$ and the lists must be of size at least $k$. They showed that, for any integer $k\ge 2$, there is an integer $C=C(k,2k-1)$, satisfying $C = O(16^{k}\ln k)$ as $k\to \infty$, such that, if a graph is $(k,2k-1)$-choosable, then it is $C$-choosable, and asked if $C$ is required to be exponential in $k$. We demonstrate it must satisfy $C = Ω(4^k/\sqrt{k})$. For an integer $\ell…
A colouring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a mapping $c\colon V\to \{1,2,\ldots\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for every two adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$. The {\sc List $k$-Colouring} problem is to decide whether a graph $G=(V,E)$ with a list $L(u)\subseteq \{1,\ldots,k\}$ for each $u\in V$ has a colouring $c$ such that $c(u)\in L(u)$ for every $u\in V$. Let $P_t$ be the path on $t$ vertices and let $K_{1,s}^1$ be the graph obtained from the $(s+1)$-vertex star $K_{1,s}$ by subdividing each of its edges exactly once.Recently, Chudnovsky, Spirkl and Zhong (DM 2020) proved that List $3$-Colouring…
The Four Colour Theorem asserts that the vertices of every plane graph can be properly coloured with four colors. Fabrici and Göring conjectured the following stronger statement to also hold: the vertices of every plane graph can be properly coloured with the numbers 1,...,4 in such a way that every face contains a unique vertex coloured with the maximal color appearing on that face. They proved that every plane graph has such a colouring with the numbers 1,...,6. We prove that every plane graph has such a colouring with the numbers 1,...,5 and we also prove the list variant of the statement f…
Let $χ_l(G)$ denote the list chromatic number of the $r$-uniform hypergraph~$G$. Extending a result of Alon for graphs, Saxton and the second author used the method of containers to prove that, if $G$ is simple and $d$-regular, then $χ_l(G)\ge (1/(r-1)+o(1))\log_r d$. To see how close this inequality is to best possible, we examine $χ_l(G)$ when $G$ is a random $r$-partite hypergraph with $n$ vertices in each class. The value when $r=2$ was determined by Alon and Krivelevich, here we show that $χ_l(G)= (g(r,α)+o(1))\log_r d$ almost surely, where $d$ is the expected average degree of~$G$ and $α…
A fundamental connection between list vertex colourings of graphs and Property B (also known as hypergraph 2-colourability) was already known to Erdős, Rubin and Taylor. In this article, we draw similar connections for improper list colourings. This extends results of Kostochka, Alon, and Král' and Sgall for, respectively, multipartite graphs, graphs of large minimum degree, and list assignments with bounded list union.
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.
An adjacent vertex distinguishing edge colouring of a graph $G$ without isolated edges is its proper edge colouring such that no pair of adjacent vertices meets the same set of colours in $G$. We show that such colouring can be chosen from any set of lists associated to the edges of $G$ as long as the size of every list is at least $Δ+CΔ^{\frac{1}{2}}(\logΔ)^4$, where $Δ$ is the maximum degree of $G$ and $C$ is a constant. The proof is probabilistic. The same is true in the environment of total colourings.
For $k\geq 1$, a $k$-colouring $c$ of $G$ is a mapping from $V(G)$ to $\{1,2,\ldots,k\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ for any two non-adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$. The $k$-Colouring problem is to decide if a graph $G$ has a $k$-colouring. For a family of graphs ${\cal H}$, a graph $G$ is ${\cal H}$-free if $G$ does not contain any graph from ${\cal H}$ as an induced subgraph. Let $C_s$ be the $s$-vertex cycle. In previous work (MFCS 2019) we examined the effect of bounding the diameter on the complexity of $3$-Colouring for $(C_3,\ldots,C_s)$-free graphs and $H$-free graphs where $H$ is some pol…
We say that a vertex colouring $φ$ of a graph $G$ is nonrepetitive if there is no positive integer $n$ and a path on $2n$ vertices $v_{1}\ldots v_{2n}$ in $G$ such that the associated sequence of colours $φ(v_{1})\ldotsφ(v_{2n})$ satisfy $φ(v_{i})=φ(v_{i+n})$ for all $i=1,2,\dots,n$. The minimum number of colours in a nonrepetitive vertex colouring of $G$ is the Thue chromatic number $π(G)$. For the case of vertex list colourings the Thue choice number $π_{l}(G)$ of $G$ denotes the smallest integer $k$ such that for every list assignment $L:V(G)\rightarrow 2^{\mathbb{N}}$ with minimum list len…
The adaptable choosability of a multigraph $G$, denoted $\mathrm{ch}_a(G)$, is the smallest integer $k$ such that any edge labelling, $τ$, of $G$ and any assignment of lists of size $k$ to the vertices of $G$ permits a list colouring, $σ$, of $G$ such that there is no edge $e = uv$ where $τ(e) = σ(u) = σ(v)$. Here we show that for a multigraph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ$ and no cycles of length 3 or 4, $\mathrm{ch}_a(G) \leq (2\sqrt{2}+o(1))\sqrt{Δ/\lnΔ}$. Under natural restrictions we can show that the same bound holds for the conflict choosability of $G$, which is a closely related parameter…
The arboricity of a graph G is the minimum number of colours needed to colour the edges of G so that every cycle gets at least two colours. Given a positive integer p, we define the generalized p-arboricity Arb_p(G) of a graph G as the minimum number of colours needed to colour the edges of a multigraph G in such a way that every cycle C gets at least min(|C|; p + 1) colours. In the particular case where G has girth at least p + 1, Arb_p(G) is the minimum size of a partition of the edge set of G such that the union of any p parts induce a forest. If we require further that the edge colouring b…
Two colourings of a graph are orthogonal if they have the property that when two vertices are coloured with the same colour in one colouring, then those vertices receive distinct colours in the other colouring. In this paper, orthogonal colourings of Cayley graphs are discussed. Firstly, the orthogonal chromatic number of cycle graphs are completely determined. Secondly, the orthogonal chromatic number of certain circulant graphs is explored. Lastly, orthogonal colourings of product graphs and Hamming graphs are studied.
A graph $G$ has the Perfect-Matching-Hamiltonian property (PMH-property) if for each one of its perfect matchings, there is another perfect matching of $G$ such that the union of the two perfect matchings yields a Hamiltonian cycle of $G$. The study of graphs that have the PMH-property, initiated in the 1970s by Las Vergnas and Häggkvist, combines three well-studied properties of graphs, namely matchings, Hamiltonicity and edge-colourings. In this work, we study these concepts for cubic graphs in an attempt to characterise those cubic graphs for which every perfect matching corresponds to one …
