English

Coloring graphs with two odd cycle lengths

Combinatorics 2018-02-01 v2

Abstract

In this paper we determine the chromatic number of graphs with two odd cycle lengths. Let GG be a graph and L(G)L(G) be the set of all odd cycle lengths of GG. We prove that: (1) If L(G)={3,3+2l}L(G)=\{3,3+2l\}, where l2l\geq 2, then χ(G)=max{3,ω(G)}\chi(G)=\max\{3,\omega(G)\}; (2) If L(G)={k,k+2l}L(G)=\{k,k+2l\}, where k5k\geq 5 and l1l\geq 1, then χ(G)=3\chi(G)=3. These, together with the case L(G)={3,5}L(G)=\{3,5\} solved in \cite{W}, give a complete solution to the general problem addressed in \cite{W,CS,KRS}. Our results also improve a classical theorem of Gy\'{a}rf\'{a}s which asserts that χ(G)2L(G)+2\chi(G)\le 2|L(G)|+2 for any graph GG.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.06393,
  title  = {Coloring graphs with two odd cycle lengths},
  author = {Jie Ma and Bo Ning},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.06393},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

26 pages,accepted version for publication in SIAM J. Discrete Math

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:14:23.725Z