Every connected subcubic graph except the Petersen graph is packing $(1,1,2,2)$-colorable
Abstract
For a non-decreasing sequence of positive integers, a packing -coloring of a graph is a partition of into such that each has pairwise distance at least . The packing chromatic number (PCN) of a graph is the minimum such that has a packing -coloring. The -subdivision of is obtained by replacing each edge of with a path of two edges. In 2016, Gastineau and Togni asked an open question whether the -subdivision of every subcubic graph has PCN at most , and later Bre\v sar, Klav\v zar, Rall, and Wash conjectured it is true. Balogh, Kostochka, and Liu proved the first upper bound of , and it was later improved to by Liu, Zhang, and Zhang. In this paper, we prove that every connected subcubic graph except the Petersen graph is packing -colorable. Our result implies a solution to the conjecture of Bre\v sar, Klav\v zar, Rall, and Wash, and answers the question of Gastineau and Togni in the affirmative. Furthermore, our result answers an open question of Kostochka and Liu and solves a conjecture of Liu, Zhang, and Zhang.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.23434,
title = {Every connected subcubic graph except the Petersen graph is packing $(1,1,2,2)$-colorable},
author = {Xinmin Hou and Xujun Liu and Xiangyang Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.23434},
year = {2026}
}