Related papers: Hodge theory in combinatorics

We establish a connection between root multiplicities for Borcherds-Kac-Moody algebras and graph coloring. We show that the generalized chromatic polynomial of the graph associated to a given Borcherds algebra can be used to give a closed…

Kneser's 1955 conjecture -- proven by Lov\'asz in 1978 -- asserts that in any partition of the $k$-subsets of $\{1, 2, \dots, n\}$ into $n-2k-3$ parts, one part contains two disjoint sets. Schrijver showed that one can restrict to…

In 1972, Erd\"{o}s - Faber - Lov\'{a}sz (EFL) conjectured that, if $\textbf{H}$ is a linear hypergraph consisting of $n$ edges of cardinality $n$, then it is possible to color the vertices with $n$ colors so that no two vertices with the…

By Lovasz' proof of the Kneser conjecture, the chromatic number of a graph G is bounded from below by the index of the Z_2-space Hom(K_2,G) plus two. We show that the cohomological index of Hom(K_2,G) is also greater than the cohomological…

In this paper, we prove a generalization of a conjecture of Erd\"{o}s, about the chromatic number of certain Kneser-type hypergraphs. For integers $n,k,r,s$ with $n\ge rk$ and $2\le s\le r$, the $r$-uniform general Kneser hypergraph…

Let $\text{ch}(G)$ denote the choice number of a graph $G$ (also called "list chromatic number" or "choosability" of $G$). Noel, Reed, and Wu proved the conjecture of Ohba that $\text{ch}(G)=\chi(G)$ when $|V(G)|\le 2\chi(G)+1$. We extend…

In 1972, Erd\"{o}s - Faber - Lov\'{a}sz (EFL) conjectured that, if $\textbf{H}$ is a linear hypergraph consisting of $n$ edges of cardinality $n$, then it is possible to color the vertices with $n$ colors so that no two vertices with the…

J. Makowsky and B. Zilber (2004) showed that many variations of graph colorings, called CP-colorings in the sequel, give rise to graph polynomials. This is true in particular for harmonious colorings, convex colorings, mcc_t-colorings, and…

It was conjectured by Ohba and confirmed recently by Noel et al. that, for any graph $G$, if $|V(G)|\le 2\chi(G)+1$ then $\chi_l(G)=\chi(G)$. This indicates that the graphs with high chromatic number are chromatic-choosable. We show that…

Given a graph G (or more generally a matroid embedded in a projective space), we construct a sequence of varieties whose geometry encodes combinatorial information about G. For example, the chromatic polynomial of G (giving at each m>0 the…

In 1998, Reed conjectured that for any graph $G$, $\chi(G) \leq \lceil \frac{\omega(G) + \Delta(G)+1}{2}\rceil$, where $\chi(G)$, $\omega(G)$, and $\Delta(G)$ respectively denote the chromatic number, the clique number and the maximum…

Let G be a finite connected graph. The Kirchhoff polynomial of G is a certain homogeneous polynomial whose degree is equal to the first betti number of G. These polynomials appear in the study of electrical circuits and in the evaluation of…

An equitable $k$-coloring of a graph is a proper $k$-coloring where the sizes of any two different color classes differ by at most one. In 1973, Meyer conjectured that every connected graph $G$ has an equitable $k$-coloring for some $k\leq…

Various results ensure the existence of large complete bipartite graphs in properly colored graphs when some condition related to a topological lower bound on the chromatic number is satisfied. We generalize three theorems of this kind,…

For a graph $G$, let $\chi(G)$ denote its chromatic number and $\sigma(G)$ denote the order of the largest clique subdivision in $G$. Let H(n) be the maximum of $\chi(G)/\sigma(G)$ over all $n$-vertex graphs $G$. A famous conjecture of…

Let \( G \) be a graph of order \( n \) with maximum degree $\Delta$, and let $P(G,x)$ denote its chromatic polynomial. We investigate several properties of $P(G,x)$ related to its derivatives and higher-order derivatives. First, we study…

Nordhaus and Gaddum proved in 1956 that the sum of the chromatic number $\chi$ of a graph $G$ and its complement is at most $|G|+1$. The Nordhaus-Gaddum graphs are the class of graphs satisfying this inequality with equality, and are…

For studying topological obstructions to graph colorings, Hom-complexes were introduced by Lov\'{a}sz. A graph $T$ is called a test graph if for every graph $H$, the $k$-connectedness of $|Hom(T, H)|$ implies $\chi (H)\geq k + 1 + \chi(T)$.…

The Erd\H{o}s--Faber--Lov\'{a}sz Conjecture, posed in 1972, states that if a graph $G$ is the union of $n$ cliques of order $n$ (referred to as defining $n$-cliques) such that two cliques can share at most one vertex, then the vertices of…

Let $G$ be a simple graph with maximum degree $\Delta$. We call $G$ \emph{overfull} if $|E(G)|>\Delta \lfloor |V(G)|/2\rfloor$. The \emph{core} of $G$, denoted $G_{\Delta}$, is the subgraph of $G$ induced by its vertices of degree $\Delta$.…