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Proper conflict-free degree-choosability of outerplanar graphs

Combinatorics 2025-09-09 v1

Abstract

A proper coloring ϕ\phi of GG is called a proper conflict-free coloring of GG if for every non-isolated vertex vv of GG, there is a color cc such that ϕ1(c)NG(v)=1|\phi^{-1}(c)\cap N_G(v)|=1. As an analogy to degree-choosability of graphs, the authors recently, in a previous paper, introduced the notion of proper conflict-free (degree+k)({\rm degree}+k)-choosability of graphs. For a non-negative integer kk, a graph GG is proper conflict-free (degree+k)({\rm degree}+k)-choosable if for any list assignment LL of GG with L(v)dG(v)+k|L(v)|\geq d_G(v)+k for every vertex vV(G)v\in V(G), GG admits a proper conflict-free coloring ϕ\phi such that ϕ(v)L(v)\phi(v)\in L(v) for every vertex vV(G)v\in V(G). In this paper, we show that every connected outerplanar graph other than the 55-cycle is proper conflict-free (degree+2)({\rm degree}+2)-choosable. This bound is tight in the sense that there are infinitely many connected outerplanar graphs that are not proper conflict-free (degree+1)({\rm degree}+1)-choosable. We conclude the paper with two questions for further work.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.06280,
  title  = {Proper conflict-free degree-choosability of outerplanar graphs},
  author = {Masaki Kashima and Riste Škrekovski and Rongxing Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.06280},
  year   = {2025}
}

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10 pages