English

Strengthening the Directed Brooks' Theorem for oriented graphs and consequences on digraph redicolouring

Combinatorics 2023-05-26 v2 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

Let D=(V,A)D=(V,A) be a digraph. We define Δmax(D)\Delta_{\max}(D) as the maximum of {max(d+(v),d(v))vV}\{ \max(d^+(v),d^-(v)) \mid v \in V \} and Δmin(D)\Delta_{\min}(D) as the maximum of {min(d+(v),d(v))vV}\{ \min(d^+(v),d^-(v)) \mid v \in V \}. It is known that the dichromatic number of DD is at most Δmin(D)+1\Delta_{\min}(D) + 1. In this work, we prove that every digraph DD which has dichromatic number exactly Δmin(D)+1\Delta_{\min}(D) + 1 must contain the directed join of Kr\overleftrightarrow{K_r} and Ks\overleftrightarrow{K_s} for some r,sr,s such that r+s=Δmin(D)+1r+s = \Delta_{\min}(D) + 1, except if Δmin(D)=2\Delta_{\min}(D) = 2 in which case DD must contain a digon. In particular, every oriented graph G\vec{G} with Δmin(G)2\Delta_{\min}(\vec{G}) \geq 2 has dichromatic number at most Δmin(G)\Delta_{\min}(\vec{G}). Let G\vec{G} be an oriented graph of order nn such that Δmin(G)1\Delta_{\min}(\vec{G}) \leq 1. Given two 2-dicolourings of G\vec{G}, we show that we can transform one into the other in at most nn steps, by recolouring one vertex at each step while maintaining a dicolouring at any step. Furthermore, we prove that, for every oriented graph G\vec{G} on nn vertices, the distance between two kk-dicolourings is at most 2Δmin(G)n2\Delta_{\min}(\vec{G})n when kΔmin(G)+1k\geq \Delta_{\min}(\vec{G}) + 1. We then extend a theorem of Feghali, Johnson and Paulusma to digraphs. We prove that, for every digraph DD with Δmax(D)=Δ3\Delta_{\max}(D) = \Delta \geq 3 and every kΔ+1k\geq \Delta +1, the kk-dicolouring graph of DD consists of isolated vertices and at most one further component that has diameter at most cΔn2c_{\Delta}n^2, where cΔ=O(Δ2)c_{\Delta} = O(\Delta^2) is a constant depending only on Δ\Delta.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2301.04881,
  title  = {Strengthening the Directed Brooks' Theorem for oriented graphs and consequences on digraph redicolouring},
  author = {Lucas Picasarri-Arrieta},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.04881},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

13 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:10:02.116Z