English

Refined list version of Hadwiger's conjecture

Combinatorics 2022-09-16 v1

Abstract

Assume λ={k1,k2,,kq}\lambda=\{k_1,k_2, \ldots, k_q\} is a partition of kλ=i=1qkik_{\lambda} = \sum_{i=1}^q k_i. A λ\lambda-list assignment of GG is a kλk_\lambda-list assignment LL of GG such that the colour set vV(G)L(v)\bigcup_{v \in V(G)}L(v) can be partitioned into λ=q|\lambda|= q sets C1,C2,,CqC_1,C_2,\ldots,C_q such that for each ii and each vertex vv of GG, L(v)Ciki|L(v) \cap C_i| \ge k_i. We say GG is \emph{λ\lambda-choosable} if GG is LL-colourable for any λ\lambda-list assignment LL of GG. The concept of λ\lambda-choosability is a refinement of choosability that puts kk-choosability and kk-colourability in the same framework. If λ|\lambda| is close to kλk_\lambda, then λ\lambda-choosability is close to kλk_\lambda-colourability; if λ|\lambda| is close to 11, then λ\lambda-choosability is close to kλk_\lambda-choosability. This paper studies Hadwiger's Conjecture in the context of λ\lambda-choosability. Hadwiger's Conjecture is equivalent to saying that every KtK_t-minor-free graph is {1(t1)}\{1 \star (t-1)\}-choosable for any positive integer tt. We prove that for t5t \ge 5, for any partition λ\lambda of t1t-1 other than {1(t1)}\{1 \star (t-1)\}, there is a KtK_t-minor-free graph GG that is not λ\lambda-choosable. We then construct several types of KtK_t-minor-free graphs that are not λ\lambda-choosable, where kλ(t1)k_\lambda - (t-1) gets larger as kλλk_\lambda-|\lambda| gets larger. In partcular, for any qq and any ϵ>0\epsilon > 0, there exists t0t_0 such that for any tt0t \ge t_0, for any partition λ\lambda of (2ϵ)t\lfloor (2-\epsilon)t \rfloor with λ=q|\lambda| =q, there is a KtK_t-minor-free graph that is not λ\lambda-choosable. The q=1q=1 case of this result was recently proved by Steiner, and our proof uses a similar argument. We also generalize this result to (a,b)(a,b)-list colouring.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.07013,
  title  = {Refined list version of Hadwiger's conjecture},
  author = {Yangyan Gu and Yiting Jiang and David R. Wood and Xuding Zhu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.07013},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T01:19:53.930Z