Star Colouring of Bounded Degree Graphs and Regular Graphs

A $k$-star colouring of a graph $G$ is a function $f:V(G)\to\{0,1,\dots,k-1\}$ such that $f(u)\neq f(v)$ for every edge $uv$ of $G$, and every bicoloured connected subgraph of $G$ is a star. The star chromatic number of $G$, $\chi_s(G)$, is the least integer $k$ such that $G$ is $k$-star colourable. We prove that $\chi_s(G)\geq \lceil (d+4)/2\rceil$ for every $d$-regular graph $G$ with $d\geq 3$. We reveal the structure and properties of even-degree regular graphs $G$ that attain this lower bound. The structure of such graphs $G$ is linked with a certain type of Eulerian orientations of $G$. Moreover, this structure can be expressed in the LC-VSP framework of Telle and Proskurowski (SIDMA, 1997), and hence can be tested by an FPT algorithm with the parameter either treewidth, cliquewidth, or rankwidth. We prove that for $p\geq 2$, a $2p$-regular graph $G$ is $(p+2)$-star colourable only if $n:=|V(G)|$ is divisible by $(p+1)(p+2)$. For each $p\geq 2$ and $n$ divisible by $(p+1)(p+2)$, we construct a $2p$-regular Hamiltonian graph on $n$ vertices which is $(p+2)$-star colourable. The problem $k$-STAR COLOURABILITY takes a graph $G$ as input and asks whether $G$ is $k$-star colourable. We prove that 3-STAR COLOURABILITY is NP-complete for planar bipartite graphs of maximum degree three and arbitrarily large girth. Besides, it is coNP-hard to test whether a bipartite graph of maximum degree eight has a unique 3-star colouring up to colour swaps. For $k\geq 3$, $k$-STAR COLOURABILITY of bipartite graphs of maximum degree $k$ is NP-complete, and does not even admit a $2^{o(n)}$-time algorithm unless ETH fails

Few Long Lists for Edge Choosability of Planar Cubic Graphs

It is known that every loopless cubic graph is 4-edge choosable. We prove the following strengthened result. Let G be a planar cubic graph having b cut-edges. There exists a set F of at most 5b/2 edges of G with the following property. For any function L which assigns to each edge of F a set of 4 colours and which assigns to each edge in E(G)-F a set of 3 colours, the graph G has a proper edge colouring where the colour of each edge e belongs to L(e).Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Hamiltonian cycles and 1-factors in 5-regular graphs

It is proven that for any integer $g \ge 0$ and $k \in \{ 0, \ldots, 10 \}$, there exist infinitely many 5-regular graphs of genus $g$ containing a 1-factorisation with exactly $k$ pairs of 1-factors that are perfect, i.e. form a hamiltonian cycle. For $g = 0$, this settles a problem of Kotzig from 1964. Motivated by Kotzig and Labelle's "marriage" operation, we discuss two gluing techniques aimed at producing graphs of high cyclic edge-connectivity. We prove that there exist infinitely many planar 5-connected 5-regular graphs in which every 1-factorisation has zero perfect pairs. On the other hand, by the Four Colour Theorem and a result of Brinkmann and the first author, every planar 4-connected 5-regular graph satisfying a condition on its hamiltonian cycles has a linear number of 1-factorisations each containing at least one perfect pair. We also prove that every planar 5-connected 5-regular graph satisfying a stronger condition contains a 1-factorisation with at most nine perfect pairs, whence, every such graph admitting a 1-factorisation with ten perfect pairs has at least two edge-Kempe equivalence classes. The paper concludes with further results on edge-Kempe equivalence classes in planar 5-regular graphs.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures; corrected figure

Filling the complexity gaps for colouring planar and bounded degree graphs.

We consider a natural restriction of the List Colouring problem, k-Regular List Colouring, which corresponds to the List Colouring problem where every list has size exactly k. We give a complete classification of the complexity of k-Regular List Colouring restricted to planar graphs, planar bipartite graphs, planar triangle-free graphs and to planar graphs with no 4-cycles and no 5-cycles. We also give a complete classification of the complexity of this problem and a number of related colouring problems for graphs with bounded maximum degree

Filling the complexity gaps for colouring planar and bounded degree graphs

We consider a natural restriction of the List Colouring problem, k-Regular List Colouring, which corresponds to the List Colouring problem where every list has size exactly k. We give a complete classification of the complexity of k-Regular List Colouring restricted to planar graphs, planar bipartite graphs, planar triangle-free graphs and to planar graphs with no 4-cycles and no 5-cycles. We also give a complete classification of the complexity of this problem and a number of related colouring problems for graphs with bounded maximum degree