English

Acyclic subgraphs with high chromatic number

Combinatorics 2018-11-15 v1

Abstract

For an oriented graph GG, let f(G)f(G) denote the maximum chromatic number of an acyclic subgraph of GG. Let f(n)f(n) be the smallest integer such that every oriented graph GG with chromatic number larger than f(n)f(n) has f(G)>nf(G) > n. Let g(n)g(n) be the smallest integer such that every tournament GG with more than g(n)g(n) vertices has f(G)>nf(G) > n. It is straightforward that Ω(n)g(n)f(n)n2\Omega(n) \le g(n) \le f(n) \le n^2. This paper provides the first nontrivial lower and upper bounds for g(n)g(n). In particular, it is proved that 14n8/7g(n)n2(212)n+2\frac{1}{4}n^{8/7} \le g(n) \le n^2-(2-\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}})n+2. It is also shown that f(2)=3f(2)=3, i.e. every orientation of a 44-chromatic graph has a 33-chromatic acyclic subgraph. Finally, it is shown that a random tournament GG with nn vertices has f(G)=Θ(nlogn)f(G) = \Theta(\frac{n}{\log n}) whp.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1811.05734,
  title  = {Acyclic subgraphs with high chromatic number},
  author = {Safwat Nassar and Raphael Yuster},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1811.05734},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T05:15:06.606Z