English

Distinguishing finite and infinite trees of arbitrary cardinality

Combinatorics 2025-06-20 v1

Abstract

Let GG be a finite or infinite graph and m(G)m(G) the minimum number of vertices moved by the non-identity automorphisms of GG. We are interested in bounds on the supremum Δ(G)\Delta(G) of the degrees of the vertices of GG that assure the existence of vertex colorings of GG with two colors that are preserved only by the identity automorphism, and, in particular, in the number a(G)a(G) of such colorings that are mutually inequivalent. For trees TT with finite m(T)m(T) we obtain the bound Δ(T)2m(T)/2\Delta(T)\leq2^{m(T)/2} for the existence of such a coloring, and show that a(T)=2Ta(T)= 2^{|T|} if TT is infinite. Similarly, we prove that a(G)=2Ga(G) = 2^{|G|} for all tree-like graphs GG with Δ(G)20\Delta(G)\le 2^{\aleph_0}. For rayless or one-ended trees TT with arbitrarily large infinite m(T)m(T), we prove directly that a(T)=2Ta(T)= 2^{|T|} if Δ(T)2m(T)\Delta(T)\le 2^{m(T)}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.14402,
  title  = {Distinguishing finite and infinite trees of arbitrary cardinality},
  author = {Wilfried Imrich and Rafał Kalinowski and Florian Lehner and Monika Pilśniak and Marcin Stawiski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.14402},
  year   = {2025}
}