English

A note on the orientation covering number

Combinatorics 2022-02-28 v1

Abstract

Given a graph GG, its orientation covering number σ(G)\sigma(G) is the smallest non-negative integer kk with the property that we can choose kk orientations of GG such that whenever x,y,zx, y, z are vertices of GG with xy,xzE(G)xy,xz\in E(G) then there is a chosen orientation in which both xyxy and xzxz are oriented away from xx. Esperet, Gimbel and King showed that σ(G)σ(Kχ(G))\sigma(G)\leq \sigma\left(K_{\chi(G)}\right), where χ(G)\chi(G) is the chromatic number of GG, and asked whether we always have equality. In this note we prove that it is indeed always the case that σ(G)=σ(Kχ(G))\sigma(G)=\sigma(K_{\chi(G)}). We also determine the exact value of σ(Kn)\sigma(K_n) explicitly for `most' values of nn.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.04450,
  title  = {A note on the orientation covering number},
  author = {Barnabás Janzer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.04450},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

3 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:12:07.857Z