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In this paper, we give a polynomial time algorithm which determines if a given graph containing a triangle and no induced seven-vertex path is 3-colorable, and gives an explicit coloring if one exists. In previous work, we gave a polynomial…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2015-03-25 Maria Chudnovsky , Peter Maceli , Mingxian Zhong

An ISK4 in a graph G is an induced subgraph of G that is isomorphic to a subdivision of K4 (the complete graph on four vertices). A wheel is a graph that consists of a chordless cycle, together with a vertex that has at least three…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-02-09 Martin Milanič , Irena Penev , Nicolas Trotignon

In the 1970s, Erdos asked whether the chromatic number of intersection graphs of line segments in the plane is bounded by a function of their clique number. We show the answer is no. Specifically, for each positive integer $k$, we construct…

Here we prove that a graph without some three induced subgraphs has chromatic number at the most equal to its maximum clique size plus one. Further we show that the bounds are tight and give examples to show that each of the three forbidden…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-07-29 Medha Dhurandhar

More than twenty years ago Erd\H{o}s conjectured~\cite{E1} that a triangle-free graph $G$ of chromatic number $k \geq k_0(\varepsilon)$ contains cycles of at least $k^{2 - \varepsilon}$ different lengths as $k \rightarrow \infty$. In this…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-04-18 Alexandr Kostochka , Benny Sudakov , Jacques Verstraete

A hole in a graph is a chordless cycle of length at least 4. A theta is a graph formed by three internally vertex-disjoint paths of length at least 2 between the same pair of distinct vertices. A wheel is a graph formed by a hole and a node…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-10-23 Marko Radovanović , Nicolas Trotignon , Kristina Vušković

We prove that for every $n$, there is a graph $G$ with $\chi(G) \geq n$ and $\omega(G) \leq 3$ such that every induced subgraph $H$ of $G$ with $\omega(H) \leq 2$ satisfies $\chi(H) \leq 4$. This disproves a well-known conjecture. Our…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-09-16 Alvaro Carbonero , Patrick Hompe , Benjamin Moore , Sophie Spirkl

We prove that for every tree $T$ which is not an edge, for almost every graph $G$ which does not contain $T$ as an induced subgraph, $V(G)$ has a partition into $\alpha(T)-1$ parts certifying this fact. Each part induces a graph which is…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-06-03 Bruce Reed , Yelena Yuditsky

The $3$-colourability problem is a well-known NP-complete problem and it remains NP-complete for $bull$-free graphs, where $bull$ is the graph consisting of $K_3$ with two pendant edges attached to two of its vertices. In this paper we…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-04-22 Nadzieja Hodur , Monika Pilśniak , Magdalena Prorok , Ingo Schiermeyer

A hole is a chordless cycle with at least four vertices. A hole is odd if it has an odd number of vertices. A dart is a graph which vertices $a, b, c, d, e$ and edges $ab, bc, bd, be, cd, de$. Dart-free graphs have been actively studied in…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-04-30 Chính T. Hoàng

A graph is even-hole-free if it has no induced even cycles of length 4 or more. A cap is a cycle of length at least 5 with exactly one chord and that chord creates a triangle with the cycle. In this paper, we consider (cap, even hole)-free…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2016-11-28 Kathie Cameron , Murilo V. G. da Silva , Shenwei Huang , Kristina Vušković

Since planar triangle-free graphs are 3-colourable, such a graph with n vertices has an independent set of size at least n/3. We prove that unless the graph contains a certain obstruction, its independence number is at least n/(3-epsilon)…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2017-02-10 Zdeněk Dvořák , Jordan Venters

A graph is $H$-free if it has no induced subgraph isomorphic to $H$. We characterize all graphs $H$ for which there are only finitely many minimal non-three-colorable $H$-free graphs. Such a characterization was previously known only in the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2018-02-08 Maria Chudnovsky , Jan Goedgebeur , Oliver Schaudt , Mingxian Zhong

We prove that every triangle-free graph of tree-width t has chromatic number at most ceil((t + 3)/2), and demonstrate that this bound is tight. The argument also establishes a connection between coloring graphs of tree-width t and on-line…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2017-06-12 Zdeněk Dvořák , Ken-ichi Kawarabayashi

For a graph $G$, let $\chi(G)$ and $\omega(G)$ respectively denote the chromatic number and clique number of $G$. We give an explicit structural description of ($P_5$,gem)-free graphs, and show that every such graph $G$ satisfies…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-10-07 M. Chudnovsky , T. Karthick , P. Maceli , Frederic Maffray

We study a conjecture due to Dallard, Krnc, Kwon, Milani\v{c}, Munaro, \v{S}torgel, and Wiederrecht stating that for any positive integer $d$ and any planar graph $H$, the class of all $K_{1,d}$-free graphs without $H$ as an induced minor…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-06-11 Mujin Choi , Claire Hilaire , Martin Milanič , Sebastian Wiederrecht

We present an algorithm to color a graph $G$ with no triangle and no induced $7$-vertex path (i.e., a $\{P_7,C_3\}$-free graph), where every vertex is assigned a list of possible colors which is a subset of $\{1,2,3\}$. While this is a…

A graph is $P_t$-free if it contains no induced subgraph isomorphic to a $t$-vertex path. A graph is not bipartite if and only if it contains an induced subgraph isomorphic to a $k$-vertex cycle, where $k$ is odd. We focus on the 3-coloring…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-12-09 Yidong Zhou , Mingxian Zhong , Shenwei Huang

We give an exact characterization of 3-colorability of triangle-free graphs drawn in the torus, in the form of 186 "templates" (graphs with certain faces filled by arbitrary quadrangulations) such that a graph from this class is not…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-09-03 Zdeněk Dvořák , Jakub Pekárek

The triangle graph of a graph $G$, denoted by ${\cal T}(G)$, is the graph whose vertices represent the triangles ($K_3$ subgraphs) of $G$, and two vertices of ${\cal T}(G)$ are adjacent if and only if the corresponding triangles share an…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2015-10-20 Aparna Lakshmanan S. , Csilla Bujtás , Zsolt Tuza