English

On graphs with maximum difference between game chromatic number and chromatic number

Combinatorics 2024-11-11 v3

Abstract

In the vertex colouring game on a graph GG, Maker and Breaker alternately colour vertices of GG from a palette of kk colours, with no two adjacent vertices allowed the same colour. Maker seeks to colour the whole graph while Breaker seeks to make some vertex impossible to colour. The game chromatic number of GG, χg(G)\chi_g(G), is the minimal number kk of colours for which Maker has a winning strategy for the vertex colouring game. Matsumoto proved in 2019 that χg(G)χ(G)n/21\chi_g(G)-\chi(G)\leq\lfloor n/2\rfloor - 1, and conjectured that the only equality cases are some graphs of small order and the Tur\'{a}n graph T(2r,r)T(2r,r) (i.e. K2rK_{2r} minus a perfect matching). We resolve this conjecture in the affirmative by considering a modification of the vertex colouring game wherein Breaker may remove a vertex instead of colouring it. Matsumoto further asked whether a similar result could be proved for the vertex marking game, and we provide an example to show that no such nontrivial result can exist.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.01583,
  title  = {On graphs with maximum difference between game chromatic number and chromatic number},
  author = {Lawrence Hollom},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.01583},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 pages plus 3 page appendix

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:12:13.937Z