Edge and total colourings of graphs

Die vorliegenden Arbeit enthält Ergebnisse zu Kanten- und Totalfärbungen von Graphen sowie verschiedenen Variationen dieser Färbungen. Eine Kantenfärbung eines Graphen G ist eine Zuordnung von Farben zu den Kanten von G, so dass adjazente Kanten unterschiedliche Farben erhalten. Eine Totalfärbung ist eine Färbung der Knoten und Kanten von G, so dass adjazente Knoten, adjazente Kanten sowie ein Knoten und eine inzidente Kante jeweils unterschiedlich gefärbt werden. Der chromatische Index bzw. die totalchromatische Zahl von G bezeichnen die kleinste Anzahl von Farben, mit denen G kantenfärbbar bzw. totalfärbbar ist. In dieser Arbeit wird unter anderem die totalchromatische Zahl zirkulanter Graphen mit Maximalgrad 3 bestimmt sowie ein Algorithmus entwickelt, der alle planaren kritischen Graphen der Kantenfärbung mit bis zu 12 Knoten konstruiert und darstellt. Das Konzept der Kreisfärbung von Graphen wird von Knoten- auf Kanten- und Totalfärbung übertragen; Eigenschaften des kreischromatischen Index und der kreistotalchromatischen Zahl werden bewiesen und exakte Werte für einige Graphenklassen ermittelt. Die listenchromatische Vermutung wird für outerplanare Graphen mit Maximalgrad >4 bewiesen. Die Konzepte der (a,b)- und (a,b,r)-Listen- färbung werden von Knotenfärbung auf Kantenfärbung übertragen; es werden Eigenschaften dieser Färbungen und Ergebnisse für einzelne Graphenklassen hergeleitet.This thesis contains results for edge and total colourings as well as for some variations of these colourings. An edge colouring of a graph G is an assignment of colours to the edges of G such that adjacent edges are coloured differently. A total colouring is a colouring of the vertices and edges of G such that adjacent vertices, adjacent edges as well as a vertex and an incident edge are coloured differently. The chromatic index or the total chromatic number of G denote the minimum number of colours such that G admits an edge colouring or a total colouring, respectively. Results in this thesis are - among others - the total chromatic number of circulant graphs with maximum degree 3 and an algorithm to construct and draw all planar critical graphs with at most 12 vertices. The concept of circular colourings is transferred from vertex to edge and total colourings. Properties of the circular chromatic index and the circular total chromatic number are proven and exact values are determined for some classes of graphs. The list chromatic conjecture is confirmed for outerplanar graphs with maximum degree >4; the concepts of (a,b)- and (a,b,r)-list colourings are transferred from vertex to edge colouring and properties of these colourings as well as results for special classes of graphs are given

The Complexity of Change

Many combinatorial problems can be formulated as "Can I transform configuration 1 into configuration 2, if certain transformations only are allowed?". An example of such a question is: given two k-colourings of a graph, can I transform the first k-colouring into the second one, by recolouring one vertex at a time, and always maintaining a proper k-colouring? Another example is: given two solutions of a SAT-instance, can I transform the first solution into the second one, by changing the truth value one variable at a time, and always maintaining a solution of the SAT-instance? Other examples can be found in many classical puzzles, such as the 15-Puzzle and Rubik's Cube. In this survey we shall give an overview of some older and more recent work on this type of problem. The emphasis will be on the computational complexity of the problems: how hard is it to decide if a certain transformation is possible or not?Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure

Aspects of graph colouring

The four-colour conjecture of 1852, and the total colouring conjecture of 1965, have sparked off many new concepts and conjectures. In this thesis we investigate many of the outstanding conjectures, establishing various related results, and present many conjectures of our own. We give a brief historical introduction (Chapter 1) and establish some notation, terminology and techniques (Chapter 2). Next, in Chapter 3, we examine the use of latin squares to represent edge and total colourings. In Chapters 4 - 6 we deal with vertex, edge and total colourings respectively. Various ways of measuring different aspects of graphs are presented, in particular, the ‘colouring difference’ between two edge-colourings of a graph (Chapter 5) and the ‘beta parameter’ (defined in Chapter 2 and used in Chapters 3 and 6); this is a measure of how far from a type 1 graph a type 2 graph can be. In Chapter 6 we derive an upper bound for the beta value of any near type 1 graph and give the exact results for all Kn. The number of ways of colouring Kn and Kn,,n are also quantified. Chapter 6 also examines Hilton’s concept of conformability. It is shown that every graph with at least A spines is conformable, and an extension to the concept, which we call G*-conformability, is introduced. We then give new necessary conditions for a cubic graph to be type 1 in relation to G*-conformability. Various methods of manipulating graphs are considered and we present: a method to compatibly triangulate a graph G-e; a method of introducing a fourth colour thus allowing a sequence of Kempe interchanges from any edge 3-colouring of a cubic graph to any other; and a method to re-colour a near type 1 graph within a certain bound on beta. We end this thesis with a brief discussion on possible practical uses for colouring graphs. A list of the main results and conjectures is given at the end of each chapter, but a short list of the principle theorems proven is given below