A note on circular chromatic number of graphs with large girth and similar problems

In this short note, we extend the result of Galluccio, Goddyn, and Hell, which states that graphs of large girth excluding a minor are nearly bipartite. We also prove a similar result for the oriented chromatic number, from which follows in particular that graphs of large girth excluding a minor have oriented chromatic number at most $5$, and for the $p$th chromatic number $\chi_p$, from which follows in particular that graphs $G$ of large girth excluding a minor have $\chi_p(G)\leq p+2$

On (n,m)(n,m)-chromatic numbers of graphs having bounded sparsity parameters

An $(n,m)$-graph is characterised by having $n$ types of arcs and $m$ types of edges. A homomorphism of an $(n,m)$-graph $G$ to an $(n,m)$-graph $H$, is a vertex mapping that preserves adjacency, direction, and type. The $(n,m)$-chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $\chi_{n,m}(G)$, is the minimum value of $|V(H)|$ such that there exists a homomorphism of $G$ to $H$. The theory of homomorphisms of $(n,m)$-graphs have connections with graph theoretic concepts like harmonious coloring, nowhere-zero flows; with other mathematical topics like binary predicate logic, Coxeter groups; and has application to the Query Evaluation Problem (QEP) in graph database. In this article, we show that the arboricity of $G$ is bounded by a function of $\chi_{n,m}(G)$ but not the other way around. Additionally, we show that the acyclic chromatic number of $G$ is bounded by a function of $\chi_{n,m}(G)$, a result already known in the reverse direction. Furthermore, we prove that the $(n,m)$-chromatic number for the family of graphs with a maximum average degree less than $2+ \frac{2}{4(2n+m)-1}$, including the subfamily of planar graphs with girth at least $8(2n+m)$, equals $2(2n+m)+1$. This improves upon previous findings, which proved the $(n,m)$-chromatic number for planar graphs with girth at least $10(2n+m)-4$ is $2(2n+m)+1$. It is established that the $(n,m)$-chromatic number for the family $\mathcal{T}_2$ of partial $2$-trees is both bounded below and above by quadratic functions of $(2n+m)$, with the lower bound being tight when $(2n+m)=2$. We prove $14 \leq \chi_{(0,3)}(\mathcal{T}_2) \leq 15$ and $14 \leq \chi_{(1,1)}(\mathcal{T}_2) \leq 21$ which improves both known lower bounds and the former upper bound. Moreover, for the latter upper bound, to the best of our knowledge we provide the first theoretical proof.Comment: 18 page

Pushable chromatic number of graphs with degree constraints

Pushable homomorphisms and the pushable chromatic number $\chi_p$ of oriented graphs were introduced by Klostermeyer and MacGillivray in 2004. They notably observed that, for any oriented graph $\overrightarrow{G}$, we have $\chi_p(\overrightarrow{G}) \leq \chi_o(\overrightarrow{G}) \leq 2 \chi_p(\overrightarrow{G})$, where $\chi_o(\overrightarrow{G})$ denotes the oriented chromatic number of $\overrightarrow{G}$. This stands as first general bounds on $\chi_p$. This parameter was further studied in later works.This work is dedicated to the pushable chromatic number of oriented graphs fulfilling particular degree conditions. For all $\Delta \geq 29$, we first prove that the maximum value of the pushable chromatic number of an oriented graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ lies between $2^{\frac{\Delta}{2}-1}$ and $(\Delta-3) \cdot (\Delta-1) \cdot 2^{\Delta-1} + 2$ which implies an improved bound on the oriented chromatic number of the same family of graphs. For subcubic oriented graphs, that is, when $\Delta \leq 3$, we then prove that the maximum value of the pushable chromatic number is~$6$ or~$7$. We also prove that the maximum value of the pushable chromatic number of oriented graphs with maximum average degree less than~$3$ lies between~$5$ and~$6$. The former upper bound of~$7$ also holds as an upper bound on the pushable chromatic number of planar oriented graphs with girth at least~$6$

Complexity of planar signed graph homomorphisms to cycles

We study homomorphism problems of signed graphs. A signed graph is an undirected graph where each edge is given a sign, positive or negative. An important concept for signed graphs is the operation of switching at a vertex, which is to change the sign of each incident edge. A homomorphism of a graph is a vertex-mapping that preserves the adjacencies; in the case of signed graphs, we also preserve the edge-signs. Special homomorphisms of signed graphs, called s-homomorphisms, have been studied. In an s-homomorphism, we allow, before the mapping, to perform any number of switchings on the source signed graph. This concept has been extensively studied, and a full complexity classification (polynomial or NP-complete) for s-homomorphism to a fixed target signed graph has recently been obtained. Such a dichotomy is not known when we restrict the input graph to be planar (not even for non-signed graph homomorphisms). We show that deciding whether a (non-signed) planar graph admits a homomorphism to the square $C_t^2$ of a cycle with $t\ge 6$, or to the circular clique $K_{4t/(2t-1)}$ with $t\ge2$, are NP-complete problems. We use these results to show that deciding whether a planar signed graph admits an s-homomorphism to an unbalanced even cycle is NP-complete. (A cycle is unbalanced if it has an odd number of negative edges). We deduce a complete complexity dichotomy for the planar s-homomorphism problem with any signed cycle as a target. We also study further restrictions involving the maximum degree and the girth of the input signed graph. We prove that planar s-homomorphism problems to signed cycles remain NP-complete even for inputs of maximum degree~$3$ (except for the case of unbalanced $4$-cycles, for which we show this for maximum degree~$4$). We also show that for a given integer $g$, the problem for signed bipartite planar inputs of girth $g$ is either trivial or NP-complete.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure