English

Incidence coloring game and arboricity of graphs

Discrete Mathematics 2013-06-04 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

An incidence of a graph GG is a pair (v,e)(v,e) where vv is a vertex of GG and ee an edge incident to vv. Two incidences (v,e)(v,e) and (w,f)(w,f) are adjacent whenever v=wv = w, or e=fe = f, or vw=evw = e or ff. The incidence coloring game [S.D. Andres, The incidence game chromatic number, Discrete Appl. Math. 157 (2009), 1980-1987] is a variation of the ordinary coloring game where the two players, Alice and Bob, alternately color the incidences of a graph, using a given number of colors, in such a way that adjacent incidences get distinct colors. If the whole graph is colored then Alice wins the game otherwise Bob wins the game. The incidence game chromatic number ig(G)i_g(G) of a graph GG is the minimum number of colors for which Alice has a winning strategy when playing the incidence coloring game on GG. Andres proved that %3/2Δ(G)\lceil 3/2 \Delta(G)\rceil \le i_g(G) \le 2\Delta(G) + 4k - 2forevery for every kdegenerategraph-degenerate graph G.. %The arboricity a(G)ofagraph of a graph Gistheminimumnumberofforestsintowhichitssetofedgescanbepartitioned. is the minimum number of forests into which its set of edges can be partitioned. %If Gis is kdegenerate,then-degenerate, then a(G) \le k \le 2a(G) - 1.Weshowinthispaperthat. We show in this paper that i_g(G) \le \lfloor\frac{3\Delta(G) - a(G)}{2}\rfloor + 8a(G) - 2foreverygraph for every graph G,where, where a(G)standsforthearboricityof stands for the arboricity of G,thusimprovingtheboundgivenbyAndressince, thus improving the bound given by Andres since a(G) \le kforevery for every kdegenerategraph-degenerate graph G.Sincethereexistsgraphswith. Since there exists graphs with i_g(G) \ge \lceil\frac{3\Delta(G)}{2}\rceil$, the multiplicative constant of our bound is best possible.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.1304.0166,
  title  = {Incidence coloring game and arboricity of graphs},
  author = {Clément Charpentier and Eric Sopena},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.0166},
  year   = {2013}
}

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10 pages