English

Faster 3-colouring algorithm for graphs of diameter 3

Combinatorics 2026-05-26 v2 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

We show that given an nn-vertex graph GG of diameter 3 we can decide if GG is 33-colourable in time 2O(n2/3ε)2^{O(n^{2/3-\varepsilon})} for any ε<1/33\varepsilon < 1/33. This improves on the previous best algorithm of 2O((nlogn)2/3)2^{O((n\log n)^{2/3})} from D\k{e}bski, Piecyk and Rz\k{a}\.zewski [Faster 3-coloring of small-diameter graphs, ESA 2021].

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.13072,
  title  = {Faster 3-colouring algorithm for graphs of diameter 3},
  author = {Carla Groenland and Hidde Koerts and Sophie Spirkl},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.13072},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Corrected typos and revised the proof of Claim 7.4

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:10:38.176Z