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Thresholds for colouring the random Borsuk graph

Probability 2026-03-10 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

We consider the chromatic number of the random Borsuk graph. The random Borsuk graph is obtained by sampling nn points i.i.d. uniformly at random on the dd-dimensional sphere SdS^d, and joining a pair of points by an edge whenever their geodesic distance is >πα>\pi-\alpha where the parameter α=α(n)\alpha=\alpha(n) may depend on nn. Kahle and Martinez-Figueroa have shown that the switch from being (d+1)(d+1)-colourable to needing d+2\geq d+2 colours occurs in the regime where the average degree is of logarithmic order. We show that for each 2kd2\leq k\leq d, the switch from being kk-colourable to needing >k> k colours occurs in the regime when the average degree is constant. What is more, we show that for k=2k=2 there is a sharp threshold of the form α(n)=cn1/d\alpha(n) = c \cdot n^{-1/d}, where the constant cc can be expressed in terms of the critical intensity for continuum AB percolation on Rd\mathbb{R}^d. For k=3,,d+1k=3,\dots,d+1 we show that there is a sharp threshold for "almost all nn".

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.05467,
  title  = {Thresholds for colouring the random Borsuk graph},
  author = {Álvaro Acitores Montero and Matthias Irlbeck and Tobias Müller and Matěj Stehlík},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.05467},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:05:24.339Z