Related papers: Harary polynomials

Sudoku grids can be thought of as graphs where the vertices are the squares of the grid, and edges join vertices in the same row, column, or sub-grid. A Sudoku puzzle corresponds to a partial proper coloring of the Sudoku graph. We provide…

A conflict-free k-coloring of a graph assigns one of k different colors to some of the vertices such that, for every vertex v, there is a color that is assigned to exactly one vertex among v and v's neighbors. Such colorings have…

Let $\Delta(G)$ and $\chi'(G)$ be the maximum degree and chromatic index of a graph $G$, respectively. Appearing in different forms, Gupta\,(1967), Goldberg\,(1973), Andersen\,(1977), and Seymour\,(1979) made the following conjecture: Every…

The $k$-Coloring problem on hereditary graph classes has been a deeply researched problem over the last decade. A hereditary graph class is characterized by a (possibly infinite) list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. We say that a…

Let $H=(V(H),E(H))$ be a graph. A $k$-coloring of $H$ is a mapping $\pi : V(H) \longrightarrow \{1,2,\ldots, k\}$, if each color class induces a $K_2$-free subgraph. For a graph $G$ of order at least $2$, a $G$-free $k$-coloring of $H$, is…

We prove a canonical polynomial Van der Waerden's Theorem. More precisely, we show the following. Let $\{p_1(x),\ldots,p_k(x)\}$ be a set of polynomials such that $p_i(x)\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ and $p_i(0)=0$, for every $i\in \{1,\ldots,k\}$.…

The generalized coloring numbers of Kierstead and Yang (Order 2003) offer an algorithmically-useful characterization of graph classes with bounded expansion. In this work, we consider the hardness and approximability of these parameters.…

Given a group $G$ of automorphisms of a graph $\Gamma$, the orbital chromatic polynomial $OP_{\Gamma,G}(x)$ is the polynomial whose value at a positive integer $k$ is the number of orbits of $G$ on proper $k$-colorings of $\Gamma.$ In…

We resolve the Ramsey problem for $\{x,y,z:x+y=p(z)\}$ for all polynomials $p$ over $\mathbb{Z}$. In particular, we characterise all polynomials that are $2$-Ramsey, that is, those $p(z)$ such that any $2$-colouring of $\mathbb{N}$ contains…

We investigate the List $H$-Coloring problem, the generalization of graph coloring that asks whether an input graph $G$ admits a homomorphism to the undirected graph $H$ (possibly with loops), such that each vertex $v \in V(G)$ is mapped to…

Zero forcing is an iterative graph coloring process, where given a set of initially colored vertices, a colored vertex with a single uncolored neighbor causes that neighbor to become colored. A zero forcing set is a set of initially colored…

Many hard combinatorial problems can be modeled by a system of polynomial equations. N. Alon coined the term polynomial method to describe the use of nonlinear polynomials when solving combinatorial problems. We continue the exploration of…

As one of the first applications of the polynomial method in combinatorics, Alon and Tarsi gave a way to prove that a graph is choosable (colorable from any lists of prescribed size). We describe an efficient way to implement this approach,…

Let $F$ be a family of connected bipartite graphs, each with at least three vertices. A proper vertex colouring of a graph $G$ with no bichromatic subgraph in $F$ is $\F$-free. The $F$-free chromatic number $\chi(G,F)$ of a graph $G$ is the…

Given a graph $G$, a coloring $c:V(G)\longrightarrow \{1,\ldots,k\}$ such that $c(u)=c(v)=i$ implies that vertices $u$ and $v$ are at distance greater than $i$, is called a packing coloring of $G$. The minimum number of colors in a packing…

The Colouring problem asks whether the vertices of a graph can be coloured with at most $k$ colours for a given integer $k$ in such a way that no two adjacent vertices receive the same colour. A graph is $(H_1,H_2)$-free if it has no…

Let $P(G,\lambda)$ denote the number of proper vertex colorings of $G$ with $\lambda$ colors. The chromatic polynomial $P(C_n,\lambda)$ for the cycle graph $C_n$ is well-known as $$P(C_n,\lambda) = (\lambda-1)^n+(-1)^n(\lambda-1)$$ for all…

In this paper, we introduce the concept of the weighted (harmonic) chromatic polynomials of graphs and discuss some of its properties. We also present the notion of the weighted (harmonic) Tutte--Grothendieck polynomials of graphs and give…

A double star is a tree with two internal vertices. It is known that the Gy\'arf\'as-Sumner conjecture holds for double stars, that is, for every double star $H$, there is a function $f$ such that if $G$ does not contain $H$ as an induced…

We define a $P$-compelling coloring as a proper coloring of the vertices of a graph such that every subset consisting of one vertex of each color has property $P$. The $P$-compelling chromatic number is the minimum number of colors in such…