Graph coloring with no large monochromatic components

For a graph G and an integer t we let mcc_t(G) be the smallest m such that there exists a coloring of the vertices of G by t colors with no monochromatic connected subgraph having more than m vertices. Let F be any nontrivial minor-closed family of graphs. We show that \mcc_2(G) = O(n^{2/3}) for any n-vertex graph G \in F. This bound is asymptotically optimal and it is attained for planar graphs. More generally, for every such F and every fixed t we show that mcc_t(G)=O(n^{2/(t+1)}). On the other hand we have examples of graphs G with no K_{t+3} minor and with mcc_t(G)=\Omega(n^{2/(2t-1)}). It is also interesting to consider graphs of bounded degrees. Haxell, Szabo, and Tardos proved \mcc_2(G) \leq 20000 for every graph G of maximum degree 5. We show that there are n-vertex 7-regular graphs G with \mcc_2(G)=\Omega(n), and more sharply, for every \epsilon>0 there exists c_\epsilon>0 and n-vertex graphs of maximum degree 7, average degree at most 6+\epsilon for all subgraphs, and with mcc_2(G)\ge c_\eps n. For 6-regular graphs it is known only that the maximum order of magnitude of \mcc_2 is between \sqrt n and n. We also offer a Ramsey-theoretic perspective of the quantity \mcc_t(G).Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Minimizing the regularity of maximal regular antichains of 2- and 3-sets

Let $n\geqslant 3$ be a natural number. We study the problem to find the smallest $r$ such that there is a family $\mathcal{A}$ of 2-subsets and 3-subsets of $[n]=\{1,2,...,n\}$ with the following properties: (1) $\mathcal{A}$ is an antichain, i.e. no member of $\mathcal A$ is a subset of any other member of $\mathcal A$, (2) $\mathcal A$ is maximal, i.e. for every $X\in 2^{[n]}\setminus\mathcal A$ there is an $A\in\mathcal A$ with $X\subseteq A$ or $A\subseteq X$, and (3) $\mathcal A$ is $r$-regular, i.e. every point $x\in[n]$ is contained in exactly $r$ members of $\mathcal A$. We prove lower bounds on $r$, and we describe constructions for regular maximal antichains with small regularity.Comment: 7 pages, updated reference

Which Classes of Origin Graphs Are Generated by Transducers.

We study various models of transducers equipped with origin information. We consider the semantics of these models as particular graphs, called origin graphs, and we characterise the families of such graphs recognised by streaming string transducers