Related papers: Polynomial bounds for chromatic number. III. Exclu…

Stanley introduced the concept of chromatic symmetric functions of graphs which extends and refines the notion of chromatic polynomials of graphs, and asked whether trees are determined up to isomorphism by their chromatic symmetric…

Let $\phi(k)$ be the minimum number of vertices in a non-$k$-choosable $k$-chromatic graph. The Ohba conjecture, confirmed by Noel, Reed and Wu, asserts that $\phi(k) \ge 2k+2$. This bound is tight if $k$ is even. If $k$ is odd, then it is…

Let $G = (V,E)$ be a finite, simple, connected graph with chromatic polynomial $P_G(q)$. Sokal \cite{sokal} proved that the roots of the chromatic polynomial of $G$ are bounded in absolute value by $KD$ where, $D$ is the maximum degree of…

Ohba has conjectured \cite{ohb} that if the graph $G$ has $2\chi(G)+1$ or fewer vertices then the list chromatic number and chromatic number of $G$ are equal. In this paper we prove that this conjecture is asymptotically correct. More…

Given a graph $G$, its genus polynomial is $\Gamma_G(x) = \sum_{k\geq 0} g_k(G)x^k$, where $g_k(G)$ is the number of 2-cell embeddings of $G$ in an orientable surface of genus $k$. The Log-Concavity Genus Distribution (LCGD) Conjecture…

We give two extensions of the recent theorem of the first author that the odd distance graph has unbounded chromatic number. The first is that for any non-constant polynomial $f$ with integer coefficients and positive leading coefficient,…

Let G be a finite p-subgroup of GL(V), where p = char(F), and V is finite-dimensional over the field F. Let S(V) be the symmetric algebra of V, S(V)^G the subring of G-invariants, and V* the F-dual space of V. The following presents our…

We prove a 1985 conjecture of Gy\'arf\'as that for all $k,\ell$, every graph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains either a complete subgraph with $k$ vertices or an induced cycle of length at least $\ell$.

Let $G$ be a finite simple graph and $B \subseteq V(G)$. We introduce the \emph{bivariate $B$-restricted clique polynomial} \[ C_B(G;x,y) = \sum_{\substack{K \subseteq V \\ K \text{ is a clique}}} x^{|K|} y^{|K \cap B|}, \] where the…

The square $G^2$ of a graph $G$ is the graph defined on $V(G)$ such that two vertices $u$ and $v$ are adjacent in $G^2$ if the distance between $u$ and $v$ in $G$ is at most 2. Let $\chi(H)$ and $\chi_{\ell}(H)$ be the chromatic number and…

A univariate polynomial f over a field is decomposable if it is the composition f = g(h) of two polynomials g and h whose degree is at least 2. We determine the dimension (over an algebraically closed field) of the set of decomposables, and…

An old conjecture of Erd\H{o}s and R\'enyi, proved by Schinzel, predicted a bound for the number of terms of a polynomial $g(x) \in \mathbb{C}[x]$ when its square $g(x)^2$ has a given number of terms. Further conjectures and results arose,…

Around 10 years ago, Agol and Krushkal showed that the number of chromatic polynomials $P_{G}$ arising from graphs $G$ on $n$ vertices grows exponentially with $n$, by establishing that the (dual) flow polynomial…

The chromatic number $\chi$ of a graph is bounded from below by its clique number $\omega,$ but it can be arbitrary large. Perfect graphs are defined by $\chi=\omega$ for all induced subgraphs. An interesting relaxation are $\chi$-bounded…

A star edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring with no 2-colored path or cycle of length four. The star edge coloring problem is to find an edge coloring of a given graph $G$ with minimum number $k$ of colors such that $G$…

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 study a very large family of graphs, the members of which comprise disjoint paths of cliques with extremal cliques identified. This broad characterisation naturally generalises those of various smaller families of graphs having…

We study Dohmen--P\"onitz--Tittmann's bivariate chromatic polynomial $c_\Gamma(k,l)$ which counts all $(k+l)$-colorings of a graph $\Gamma$ such that adjacent vertices get different colors if they are $\le k$. Our first contribution is an…

By the construction of suitable graphs and the determination of their chromatic polynomials, we resolve two open questions concerning real chromatic roots. First we exhibit graphs for which the Beraha number $B_{10} = (5 + \sqrt{5})/2$ is a…

We study the computational limits of the following general hypothesis testing problem. Let H=H_n be an \emph{arbitrary} undirected graph on n vertices. We study the detection task between a ``null'' Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi random graph G(n,p)…