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Conflict-free chromatic number vs conflict-free chromatic index

Combinatorics 2020-09-07 v1

Abstract

A vertex coloring of a given graph GG is conflict-free if the closed neighborhood of every vertex contains a unique color (i.e. a color appearing only once in the neighborhood). The minimum number of colors in such a coloring is the conflict-free chromatic number of GG, denoted χCF(G)\chi_{CF}(G). What is the maximum possible conflict-free chromatic number of a graph with a given maximum degree Δ\Delta? Trivially, χCF(G)χ(G)Δ+1\chi_{CF}(G)\leq \chi(G)\leq \Delta+1, but it is far from optimal - due to results of Glebov, Szab\'o and Tardos, and of Bhyravarapu, Kalyanasundaram and Mathew, the answer in known to be Θ(ln2Δ)\Theta\left(\ln^2\Delta\right). We show that the answer to the same question in the class of line graphs is Θ(lnΔ)\Theta\left(\ln\Delta\right) - that is, the extremal value of the conflict-free chromatic index among graphs with maximum degree Δ\Delta is much smaller than the one for conflict-free chromatic number. The same result for χCF(G)\chi_{CF}(G) is also provided in the class of near regular graphs, i.e. graphs with minimum degree δαΔ\delta \geq \alpha \Delta.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2009.02239,
  title  = {Conflict-free chromatic number vs conflict-free chromatic index},
  author = {Michał Dębski and Jakub Przybyło},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.02239},
  year   = {2020}
}

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10 pages