Related papers: Graphs with large girth and chromatic number are h…

Systems of polynomial equations over an algebraically-closed field K can be used to concisely model many combinatorial problems. In this way, a combinatorial problem is feasible (e.g., a graph is 3-colorable, hamiltonian, etc.) if and only…

We consider the graph $k$-colouring problem encoded as a set of polynomial equations in the standard way over $0/1$-valued variables. We prove that there are bounded-degree graphs that do not have legal $k$-colourings but for which the…

Systems of polynomial equations over the complex or real numbers can be used to model combinatorial problems. In this way, a combinatorial problem is feasible (e.g. a graph is 3-colorable, hamiltonian, etc.) if and only if a related system…

We study the problem of online coloring for graphs with large odd girth. The best previously known algorithm uses $O(n^{1/2})$ colors, which was discovered by Kierstead in 1998. This algorithm works when the odd girth is 7 or more. In this…

In a seminal paper, De Loera et. al introduce the algorithm NulLA (Nullstellensatz Linear Algebra) and use it to measure the difficulty of determining if a graph is not 3-colorable. The crux of this relies on a correspondence between…

For a fixed integer, the $k$-Colouring problem is to decide if the vertices of a graph can be coloured with at most $k$ colours for an integer $k$, such that no two adjacent vertices are coloured alike. A graph $G$ is $H$-free if $G$ does…

We prove that polynomial calculus (and hence also Nullstellensatz) over any field requires linear degree to refute that sparse random regular graphs, as well as sparse Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi random graphs, are $3$-colourable. Using the known…

A graph is called $k$-critical if its chromatic number is $k$ but any proper subgraph has chromatic number less than $k$. An old and important problem in graph theory asks to determine the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex…

A graph G is (d_1,..,d_l)-colorable if the vertex set of G can be partitioned into subsets V_1,..,V_l such that the graph G[V_i] induced by the vertices of V_i has maximum degree at most d_i for all 1 <= i <= l. In this paper, we focus on…

We show that every (sub)cubic n-vertex graph with sufficiently large girth has fractional chromatic number at most 2.2978 which implies that it contains an independent set of size at least 0.4352n. Our bound on the independence number is…

Let $n_g(k)$ denote the smallest order of a $k$-chromatic graph of girth at least $g$. We consider the problem of determining $n_g(k)$ for small values of $k$ and $g$. After giving an overview of what is known about $n_g(k)$, we provide…

A strong edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is a coloring of edges of $G$ such that every color class forms an induced matching. The strong chromatic index is the minimum number of colors needed to color the graph. The Ore-degree $\theta(G)$ of a…

We give an upper bound for the online chromatic number of graphs with high girth and for graphs with high oddgirth generalizing Kier- stead's algorithm for graphs that contain neither a C3 or C5 as an induced subgraph.

Suppose that the vertices of a graph $G$ are colored with two colors in an unknown way. The color that occurs on more than half of the vertices is called the majority color (if it exists), and any vertex of this color is called a majority…

We give a randomized algorithm that properly colors the vertices of a triangle-free graph G on n vertices using O(\Delta(G)/ log \Delta(G)) colors, where \Delta(G) is the maximum degree of G. The algorithm takes O(n\Delta2(G)log\Delta(G))…

It is well known that for any integers $k$ and $g$, there is a graph with chromatic number at least $k$ and girth at least $g$. In 1960's, Erd\H{o}s and Hajnal conjectured that for any $k$ and $g$, there exists a number $h(k,g)$, such that…

Erd\"os conjectured that if $G$ is a triangle free graph of chromatic number at least $k\geq 3$, then it contains an odd cycle of length at least $k^{2-o(1)}$ \cite{sudakovverstraete, verstraete}. Nothing better than a linear bound…

We initiate the study of applying the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz to the DP-coloring of graphs even though, as is well-known, the Alon-Tarsi theorem does not apply to DP-coloring. We define the notion of good covers of prime order which…

A b-coloring of the vertices of a graph is a proper coloring where each color class contains a vertex which is adjacent to each other color class. The b-chromatic number of $G$ is the maximum integer $b(G)$ for which $G$ has a b-coloring…

It is known (Bollob\'{a}s (1978); Kostochka and Mazurova (1977)) that there exist graphs of maximum degree $\Delta$ and of arbitrarily large girth whose chromatic number is at least $c \Delta / \log \Delta$. We show an analogous result for…