English

Obstructions for homomorphisms to odd cycles in series-parallel graphs

Combinatorics 2025-03-26 v1

Abstract

For a graph HH, an HH-colouring of a graph GG is a vertex map ϕ:V(G)V(H)\phi:V(G) \to V(H) such that adjacent vertices are mapped to adjacent vertices. A graph GG is C2k+1C_{2k+1}-critical if GG has no C2k+1C_{2k+1}-colouring but every proper subgraph of GG has a C2k+1C_{2k+1}-colouring. We prove a structural characterisation of C2k+1C_{2k+1}-critical graphs when k2k \geq 2. In the case that k=2k = 2, we use the aforementioned charazterisation to show a C3C_3-free series-parallel graph GG has a C5C_5-colouring if either GG has neither C8C_8 nor C10C_{10}, or GG has no two 55-cycles sharing a vertex.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.19411,
  title  = {Obstructions for homomorphisms to odd cycles in series-parallel graphs},
  author = {Eun-Kyung Cho and Ilkyoo Choi and Boram Park and Mark Siggers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.19411},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:33:27.528Z