On Colorings of Graph Powers

In this paper, some results concerning the colorings of graph powers are presented. The notion of helical graphs is introduced. We show that such graphs are hom-universal with respect to high odd-girth graphs whose $(2t+1)$st power is bounded by a Kneser graph. Also, we consider the problem of existence of homomorphism to odd cycles. We prove that such homomorphism to a $(2k+1)$-cycle exists if and only if the chromatic number of the $(2k+1)$st power of $S_2(G)$ is less than or equal to 3, where $S_2(G)$ is the 2-subdivision of $G$. We also consider Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il's Pentagon problem. This problem is about the existence of high girth cubic graphs which are not homomorphic to the cycle of size five. Several problems which are closely related to Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il's problem are introduced and their relations are presented

Some snarks are worse than others

Many conjectures and open problems in graph theory can either be reduced to cubic graphs or are directly stated for cubic graphs. Furthermore, it is known that for a lot of problems, a counterexample must be a snark, i.e. a bridgeless cubic graph which is not 3--edge-colourable. In this paper we deal with the fact that the family of potential counterexamples to many interesting conjectures can be narrowed even further to the family ${\cal S}_{\geq 5}$ of bridgeless cubic graphs whose edge set cannot be covered with four perfect matchings. The Cycle Double Cover Conjecture, the Shortest Cycle Cover Conjecture and the Fan-Raspaud Conjecture are examples of statements for which ${\cal S}_{\geq 5}$ is crucial. In this paper, we study parameters which have the potential to further refine ${\cal S}_{\geq 5}$ and thus enlarge the set of cubic graphs for which the mentioned conjectures can be verified. We show that ${\cal S}_{\geq 5}$ can be naturally decomposed into subsets with increasing complexity, thereby producing a natural scale for proving these conjectures. More precisely, we consider the following parameters and questions: given a bridgeless cubic graph, (i) how many perfect matchings need to be added, (ii) how many copies of the same perfect matching need to be added, and (iii) how many 2--factors need to be added so that the resulting regular graph is Class I? We present new results for these parameters and we also establish some strong relations between these problems and some long-standing conjectures.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

Circular edge-colorings of cubic graphs with girth six

We show that the circular chromatic index of a (sub)cubic graph with girth at least six is at most 7/2.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Between 2- and 3-colorability

We consider the question of the existence of homomorphisms between $G_{n,p}$ and odd cycles when $p=c/n,\,1<c\leq 4$. We show that for any positive integer $\ell$, there exists $\epsilon=\epsilon(\ell)$ such that if $c=1+\epsilon$ then w.h.p. $G_{n,p}$ has a homomorphism from $G_{n,p}$ to $C_{2\ell+1}$ so long as its odd-girth is at least $2\ell+1$. On the other hand, we show that if $c=4$ then w.h.p. there is no homomorphism from $G_{n,p}$ to $C_5$. Note that in our range of interest, $\chi(G_{n,p})=3$ w.h.p., implying that there is a homomorphism from $G_{n,p}$ to $C_3$