A general framework for coloring problems: old results, new results, and open problems

In this survey paper we present a general framework for coloring problems that was introduced in a joint paper which the author presented at WG2003. We show how a number of different types of coloring problems, most of which have been motivated from frequency assignment, fit into this framework. We give a survey of the existing results, mainly based on and strongly biased by joint work of the author with several different groups of coauthors, include some new results, and discuss several open problems for each of the variants

Injective colorings of sparse graphs

Let $mad(G)$ denote the maximum average degree (over all subgraphs) of $G$ and let $\chi_i(G)$ denote the injective chromatic number of $G$. We prove that if $mad(G) \leq 5/2$, then $\chi_i(G)\leq\Delta(G) + 1$; and if $mad(G) < 42/19$, then $\chi_i(G)=\Delta(G)$. Suppose that $G$ is a planar graph with girth $g(G)$ and $\Delta(G)\geq 4$. We prove that if $g(G)\geq 9$, then $\chi_i(G)\leq\Delta(G)+1$; similarly, if $g(G)\geq 13$, then $\chi_i(G)=\Delta(G)$.Comment: 10 page

Computing the Girth of a Planar Graph in Linear Time

The girth of a graph is the minimum weight of all simple cycles of the graph. We study the problem of determining the girth of an n-node unweighted undirected planar graph. The first non-trivial algorithm for the problem, given by Djidjev, runs in O(n^{5/4} log n) time. Chalermsook, Fakcharoenphol, and Nanongkai reduced the running time to O(n log^2 n). Weimann and Yuster further reduced the running time to O(n log n). In this paper, we solve the problem in O(n) time.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, accepted to SIAM Journal on Computin

Approximately Counting Embeddings into Random Graphs

Let H be a graph, and let C_H(G) be the number of (subgraph isomorphic) copies of H contained in a graph G. We investigate the fundamental problem of estimating C_H(G). Previous results cover only a few specific instances of this general problem, for example, the case when H has degree at most one (monomer-dimer problem). In this paper, we present the first general subcase of the subgraph isomorphism counting problem which is almost always efficiently approximable. The results rely on a new graph decomposition technique. Informally, the decomposition is a labeling of the vertices such that every edge is between vertices with different labels and for every vertex all neighbors with a higher label have identical labels. The labeling implicitly generates a sequence of bipartite graphs which permits us to break the problem of counting embeddings of large subgraphs into that of counting embeddings of small subgraphs. Using this method, we present a simple randomized algorithm for the counting problem. For all decomposable graphs H and all graphs G, the algorithm is an unbiased estimator. Furthermore, for all graphs H having a decomposition where each of the bipartite graphs generated is small and almost all graphs G, the algorithm is a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme. We show that the graph classes of H for which we obtain a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme for almost all G includes graphs of degree at most two, bounded-degree forests, bounded-length grid graphs, subdivision of bounded-degree graphs, and major subclasses of outerplanar graphs, series-parallel graphs and planar graphs, whereas unbounded-length grid graphs are excluded.Comment: Earlier version appeared in Random 2008. Fixed an typo in Definition 3.

Coloring, List Coloring, and Painting Squares of Graphs (and other related problems)

We survey work on coloring, list coloring, and painting squares of graphs; in particular, we consider strong edge-coloring. We focus primarily on planar graphs and other sparse classes of graphs.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures and tables, plus 195-entry bibliography, comments are welcome, published as a Dynamic Survey in Electronic Journal of Combinatoric