English

Degree-choosability of proper conflict-free list coloring of sparse graphs

Combinatorics 2026-01-23 v1

Abstract

Given a graph GG and a mapping f:V(G)Nf:V(G) \to \mathbb{N}, an ff-list assignment of GG is a function that maps each vV(G)v \in V(G) to a set of at least f(v)f(v) colors. For an ff-list assignment LL of a graph GG, a proper conflict-free LL-coloring of GG is a proper coloring ϕ\phi of GG such that for every vertex vV(G)v \in V(G), ϕ(v)L(v)\phi(v) \in L(v) and some appears precisely once in the neighborhood of vv. We say that GG is proper conflict-free ff-choosable if for every ff-list assignment LL of GG, there exists a proper conflict-free LL-coloring of GG. If GG is proper conflict-free ff-choosable and there is a constant kk such that f(v)=dG(v)+kf(v)= d_G(v)+k for every vertex vv of GG, then we say GG is proper conflict-free (degree+k)({\rm degree}+k)-choosable. In this paper, we consider graphs with a bounded maximum average degree. We show that every graph with the maximum average degree less than 103\frac{10}{3} is proper conflict-free (degree+3)({\rm degree}+3)-choosable, and that every graph with the maximum average degree less than 187\frac{18}{7} is proper conflict-free (degree+2)({\rm degree}+2)-choosable. As a result, every planar graph with girth at least 55 is proper conflict-free (degree+3)({\rm degree}+3)-choosable, and every planar graph with girth at least 99 is proper conflict-free (degree+2)({\rm degree}+2)-choosable.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.15611,
  title  = {Degree-choosability of proper conflict-free list coloring of sparse graphs},
  author = {Masaki Kashima and Riste Škrekovski and Rongxing Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.15611},
  year   = {2026}
}