Extension from precoloured sets of edges

We consider precolouring extension problems for proper edge-colourings of graphs and multigraphs, in an attempt to prove stronger versions of Vizing's and Shannon's bounds on the chromatic index of (multi)graphs in terms of their maximum degree Δ. We are especially interested in the following question: when is it possible to extend a precoloured matching to a colouring of all edges of a (multi)graph? This question turns out to be related to the notorious List Colouring Conjecture and other classic notions of choosability

Circular choosability

International audienceWe study circular choosability, a notion recently introduced by Mohar and by Zhu. First, we provide a negative answer to a question of Zhu about circular cliques. We next prove that cch(G) = O(ch(G) + ln |V(G)|) for every graph G. We investigate a generalisation of circular choosability, the circular f-choosability, where f is a function of the degrees. We also consider the circular choice number of planar graphs. Mohar asked for the value of τ := sup {cch(G) : G is planar}, and we prove that 68, thereby providing a negative answer to another question of Mohar. We also study the circular choice number of planar and outerplanar graphs with prescribed girth, and graphs with bounded density

Mixing graph colourings

This thesis investigates some problems related to graph colouring, or, more precisely, graph re-colouring. Informally, the basic question addressed can be phrased as follows. Suppose one is given a graph G whose vertices can be properly k-coloured, for some k ≥ 2. Is it possible to transform any k-colouring of G into any other by recolouring vertices of G one at a time, making sure a proper k-colouring of G is always maintained? If the answer is in the affirmative, G is said to be k-mixing. The related problem of deciding whether, given two k-colourings of G, it is possible to transform one into the other by recolouring vertices one at a time, always maintaining a proper k-colouring of G, is also considered. These questions can be considered as having a bearing on certain mathematical and ‘real-world’ problems. In particular, being able to recolour any colouring of a given graph to any other colouring is a necessary pre-requisite for the method of sampling colourings known as Glauber dynamics. The results presented in this thesis may also find application in the context of frequency reassignment: given that the problem of assigning radio frequencies in a wireless communications network is often modelled as a graph colouring problem, the task of re-assigning frequencies in such a network can be thought of as a graph recolouring problem. Throughout the thesis, the emphasis is on the algorithmic aspects and the computational complexity of the questions described above. In other words, how easily, in terms of computational resources used, can they be answered? Strong results are obtained for the k = 3 case of the first question, where a characterisation theorem for 3-mixing graphs is given. For the second question, a dichotomy theorem for the complexity of the problem is proved: the problem is solvable in polynomial time for k ≤ 3 and PSPACE-complete for k ≥ 4. In addition, the possible length of a shortest sequence of recolourings between two colourings is investigated, and an interesting connection between the tractability of the problem and its underlying structure is established. Some variants of the above problems are also explored

Extremal and Structural Problems of Graphs

In this dissertation, we are interested in studying several parameters of graphs and understanding their extreme values. We begin in Chapter~$2$ with a question on edge colouring. When can a partial proper edge colouring of a graph of maximum degree $\Delta$ be extended to a proper colouring of the entire graph using an `optimal' set of colours? Albertson and Moore conjectured this is always possible provided no two precoloured edges are within distance $2$. The main result of Chapter~$2$ comes close to proving this conjecture. Moreover, in Chapter~$3$, we completely answer the previous question for the class of planar graphs. Next, in Chapter~$4$, we investigate some Ramsey theoretical problems. We determine exactly what minimum degree a graph $G$ must have to guarantee that, for any two-colouring of $E(G)$, we can partition $V(G)$ into two parts where each part induces a connected monochromatic subgraph. This completely resolves a conjecture of Bal and Debiasio. We also prove a `covering' version of this result. Finally, we study another variant of these problems which deals with coverings of a graph by monochromatic components of distinct colours. The following saturation problem proposed by Barrus, Ferrara, Vandenbussche, and Wenger is considered in Chapter~$5$. Given a graph $H$ and a set of colours $\{1,2,\ldots,t\}$ (for some integer $t\geq |E(H)|$), we define $sat_{t}(n, R(H))$ to be the minimum number of $t$-coloured edges in a graph on $n$ vertices which does not contain a rainbow copy of $H$ but the addition of any non-edge in any colour from $\{1,2,\ldots,t\}$ creates such a copy. We prove several results concerning these extremal numbers. In particular, we determine the correct order of $sat_{t}(n, R(H))$, as a function of $n$, for every connected graph $H$ of minimum degree greater than $1$ and for every integer $t\geq e(H)$. In Chapter~$6$, we consider the following question: under what conditions does a Hamiltonian graph on $n$ vertices possess a second cycle of length at least $n-o(n)$? We prove that the `weak' assumption of a minimum degree greater or equal to $3$ guarantees the existence of such a long cycle. We solve two problems related to majority colouring in Chapter~$7$. This topic was recently studied by Kreutzer, Oum, Seymour, van der Zypen and Wood. They raised the problem of determining, for a natural number $k$, the smallest positive integer $m = m(k)$ such that every digraph can be coloured with $m$ colours, where each vertex has the same colour as at most a proportion of $\frac{1}{k}$ of its out-neighbours. Our main theorem states that $m(k) \in \{2k-1, 2k\}$. We study the following problem, raised by Caro and Yuster, in Chapter~$8$. Does every graph $G$ contain a `large' induced subgraph $H$ which has $k$ vertices of degree exactly $\Delta(H)$? We answer in the affirmative an approximate version of this question. Indeed, we prove that, for every $k$, there exists $g(k)$ such that any $n$ vertex graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta$ contains an induced subgraph $H$ with at least $n-g(k)\sqrt{\Delta}$ vertices such that $V(H)$ contains at least $k$ vertices of the same degree $d \ge \Delta(H)-g(k)$. This result is sharp up to the order of $g(k)$. %Subsequently, we investigate a concept called $\textit{path-pairability}$. A graph is said to be path-pairable if for any pairing of its vertices there exist a collection of edge-disjoint paths routing the the vertices of each pair. A question we are concerned here asks whether every planar path pairable graph on $n$ vertices must possess a vertex of degree linear in $n$. Indeed, we answer this question in the affirmative. We also sketch a proof resolving an analogous question for graphs embeddable on surfaces of bounded genus. Finally, in Chapter~$9$, we move on to examine $k$-linked tournaments. A tournament $T$ is said to be $k$-linked if for any two disjoint sets of vertices $\{x_1,\ldots ,x_k\}$ and $\{y_1,\dots,y_k\}$ there are directed vertex disjoint paths $P_1,\dots, P_k$ such that $P_i$ joins $x_i$ to $y_i$ for $i = 1,\ldots, k$. We prove that any $4k$ strongly-connected tournament with sufficiently large minimum out-degree is $k$-linked. This result comes close to proving a conjecture of Pokrovskiy

Edge and total choosability of near-outerplanar graphs

It is proved that, if G is a K4-minor-free graph with maximum degree ∆ ≥ 4, then G is totally (∆ + 1)-choosable; that is, if every element (vertex or edge) of G is assigned a list of ∆ + 1 colours, then every element can be coloured with a colour from its own list in such a way that every two adjacent or incident elements are coloured with different colours. Together with other known results, this shows that the List-Total-Colouring Conjecture, that ch’’(G) = χ’(G) for every graph G, is true for all K4-minor-free graphs. The List-Edge-Colouring Conjecture is also known to be true for these graphs. As a fairly straightforward consequence, it is proved that both conjectures hold also for all K2,3-minor free graphs and all ( K2 + (K1 U K2))-minor-free graphs

Nonrepetitive Colouring via Entropy Compression

A vertex colouring of a graph is \emph{nonrepetitive} if there is no path whose first half receives the same sequence of colours as the second half. A graph is nonrepetitively $k$-choosable if given lists of at least $k$ colours at each vertex, there is a nonrepetitive colouring such that each vertex is coloured from its own list. It is known that every graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ is $c\Delta^2$-choosable, for some constant $c$. We prove this result with $c=1$ (ignoring lower order terms). We then prove that every subdivision of a graph with sufficiently many division vertices per edge is nonrepetitively 5-choosable. The proofs of both these results are based on the Moser-Tardos entropy-compression method, and a recent extension by Grytczuk, Kozik and Micek for the nonrepetitive choosability of paths. Finally, we prove that every graph with pathwidth $k$ is nonrepetitively $O(k^{2})$-colourable.Comment: v4: Minor changes made following helpful comments by the referee

Defective and Clustered Graph Colouring

Consider the following two ways to colour the vertices of a graph where the requirement that adjacent vertices get distinct colours is relaxed. A colouring has "defect" $d$ if each monochromatic component has maximum degree at most $d$. A colouring has "clustering" $c$ if each monochromatic component has at most $c$ vertices. This paper surveys research on these types of colourings, where the first priority is to minimise the number of colours, with small defect or small clustering as a secondary goal. List colouring variants are also considered. The following graph classes are studied: outerplanar graphs, planar graphs, graphs embeddable in surfaces, graphs with given maximum degree, graphs with given maximum average degree, graphs excluding a given subgraph, graphs with linear crossing number, linklessly or knotlessly embeddable graphs, graphs with given Colin de Verdi\`ere parameter, graphs with given circumference, graphs excluding a fixed graph as an immersion, graphs with given thickness, graphs with given stack- or queue-number, graphs excluding $K_t$ as a minor, graphs excluding $K_{s,t}$ as a minor, and graphs excluding an arbitrary graph $H$ as a minor. Several open problems are discussed.Comment: This is a preliminary version of a dynamic survey to be published in the Electronic Journal of Combinatoric