Minimum Sum Edge Colorings of Multicycles

In the minimum sum edge coloring problem, we aim to assign natural numbers to edges of a graph, so that adjacent edges receive different numbers, and the sum of the numbers assigned to the edges is minimum. The {\em chromatic edge strength} of a graph is the minimum number of colors required in a minimum sum edge coloring of this graph. We study the case of multicycles, defined as cycles with parallel edges, and give a closed-form expression for the chromatic edge strength of a multicycle, thereby extending a theorem due to Berge. It is shown that the minimum sum can be achieved with a number of colors equal to the chromatic index. We also propose simple algorithms for finding a minimum sum edge coloring of a multicycle. Finally, these results are generalized to a large family of minimum cost coloring problems

Bounded colorings of multipartite graphs and hypergraphs

Let $c$ be an edge-coloring of the complete $n$-vertex graph $K_n$. The problem of finding properly colored and rainbow Hamilton cycles in $c$ was initiated in 1976 by Bollob\'as and Erd\H os and has been extensively studied since then. Recently it was extended to the hypergraph setting by Dudek, Frieze and Ruci\'nski. We generalize these results, giving sufficient local (resp. global) restrictions on the colorings which guarantee a properly colored (resp. rainbow) copy of a given hypergraph $G$. We also study multipartite analogues of these questions. We give (up to a constant factor) optimal sufficient conditions for a coloring $c$ of the complete balanced $m$-partite graph to contain a properly colored or rainbow copy of a given graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta$. Our bounds exhibit a surprising transition in the rate of growth, showing that the problem is fundamentally different in the regimes $\Delta \gg m$ and $\Delta \ll m$ Our main tool is the framework of Lu and Sz\'ekely for the space of random bijections, which we extend to product spaces