English

Coloring ($P_5$, kite)-free graphs

Combinatorics 2022-04-20 v1

Abstract

Let PnP_n and KnK_n denote the induced path and complete graph on nn vertices, respectively. The {\em kite} is the graph obtained from a P4P_4 by adding a vertex and making it adjacent to all vertices in the P4P_4 except one vertex with degree 1. A graph is (P5P_5, kite)-free if it has no induced subgraph isomorphic to a P5P_5 or a kite. For a graph GG, the chromatic number of GG (denoted by χ(G)\chi(G)) is the minimum number of colors needed to color the vertices of GG such that no two adjacent vertices receive the same color, and the clique number of GG is the size of a largest clique in GG. Here, we are interested in the class of (P5P_5, kite)-free graphs with small clique number. It is known that every (P5P_5,~kite, K3K_3)-free graph GG satisfies χ(G)3\chi(G)\leq 3, every (P5P_5,~kite, K4K_4)-free graph GG satisfies χ(G)4\chi(G)\leq 4, and that every (P5P_5,~kite, K5K_5)-free graph GG satisfies χ(G)6\chi(G)\leq 6. In this paper, we showed the following: \bullet Every (P5P_5, kite, K6K_6)-free graph GG satisfies χ(G)7\chi(G)\leq 7. \bullet Every (P5P_5, kite, K7K_7)-free graph GG satisfies χ(G)9\chi(G)\leq 9. We also give examples to show that the above bounds are tight.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.08631,
  title  = {Coloring ($P_5$, kite)-free graphs},
  author = {Shenwei Huang and Yiao Ju and T. Karthick},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.08631},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

15 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:51:38.653Z