Local chromatic number of quadrangulations of surfaces

The local chromatic number of a graph G, as introduced in [4], is the minimum integer k such that G admits a proper coloring (with an arbitrary number of colors) in which the neighborhood of each vertex uses less than k colors. In [17] a connection of the local chromatic number to topological properties of (a box complex of) the graph was established and in [18] it was shown that a topological condition implying the usual chromatic number being at least four has the stronger consequence that the local chromatic number is also at least four. As a consequence one obtains a generalization of the following theorem of Youngs [19]: If a quadrangulation of the projective plane is not bipartite it has chromatic number four. The generalization states that in this case the local chromatic number is also four. Both papers [1] and [13] generalize Youngs’ result to arbitrary non-orientable surfaces replacing the condition of the graph being not bipartite by a more technical condition of an odd quadrangulation. This paper investigates when these general results are true for the local chromatic number instead of the chromatic number. Surprisingly, we find out that (unlike in the case of the chromatic number) this depends on the genus of the surface. For the non-orientable surfaces of genus at most four, the local chromatic number of any odd quadrangulation is at least four, but this is not true for non-orientable surfaces of genus 5 or higher. We also prove that face subdivisions of odd quadrangulations and Fisk triangulations of arbitrary surfaces exhibit the same behavior for the local chromatic number as they do for the usual chromatic number

A generalization of the Erdös–Ko–Rado theorem

AbstractIn this note, we investigate some properties of local Kneser graphs defined in [János Körner, Concetta Pilotto, Gábor Simonyi, Local chromatic number and sperner capacity, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 95 (1) (2005) 101–117]. In this regard, as a generalization of the Erdös–Ko–Rado theorem, we characterize the maximum independent sets of local Kneser graphs. Next, we provide an upper bound for their chromatic number

Colouring quadrangulations of projective spaces

A graph embedded in a surface with all faces of size 4 is known as a quadrangulation. We extend the definition of quadrangulation to higher dimensions, and prove that any graph G which embeds as a quadrangulation in the real projective space P^n has chromatic number n+2 or higher, unless G is bipartite. For n=2 this was proved by Youngs [J. Graph Theory 21 (1996), 219-227]. The family of quadrangulations of projective spaces includes all complete graphs, all Mycielski graphs, and certain graphs homomorphic to Schrijver graphs. As a corollary, we obtain a new proof of the Lovasz-Kneser theorem

Local chromatic number and topology

The local chromatic number of a graph, introduced by Erdős et al., is the minimum number of colors that must appear in the closed neighborhood of some vertex in any proper coloring of the graph. This talk would like to survey some of our recent results on this parameter. We give a lower bound for the local chromatic number in terms of the lower bound of the chromatic number provided by the topological method introduced by Lovász. We show that this bound is tight in many cases. In particular, we determine the local chromatic number of certain odd chromatic Schrijver graphs and generalized Mycielski graphs. We further elaborate on the case of $4$-chromatic graphs and, in particular, on surface quadrangulations

Graph Theory

This is the report on an Oberwolfach conference on graph theory, held 16-22 January 2005. There were three main components to the event: 5-minute presentations, lectures, and workshops. All participants were asked to give a 5-minute presentation of their interests on the first day, and subsequent days were divided into lectures and workshops. The latter ranged over many different topics, but the main three topics were: infinite graphs, topological methods and their use to prove theorems in graph theory, and Rota’s conjecture for matroids

The Local Chromatic Number

A graph vertex colouring is called k-local if the number of colours used in the closed neighbourhood of each vertex is at most k. The local chromatic number of a graph is the smallest k for which the graph has a proper k-local colouring. So unlike the chromatic number which is the minimum total number of colours required in a proper colouring, the local chromatic number is minimum number of colours that must appear in the closed neighbourhood of some vertex in a proper colouring. In this thesis we will examine basic properties of the local chromatic number, and techniques used to determine or bound it. We will examine a theory that was sparked by Lovász's original proof of the Kneser conjecture, using topological tools to give lower bounds on the chromatic number, and see how it is applicable to give lower bounds on the local chromatic number as well. The local chromatic number lies between the fractional chromatic number and the chromatic number, and thus it is particularly interesting to study when the gap between these two parameters is large. We will examine the local chromatic number for specific classes of graphs, and give a slight generalization of a result by Simonyi and Tardos that gives an upper bound on the local chromatic number for a class of graphs called Schrijver graphs. Finally we will discuss open conjectures about the chromatic number and investigate versions adapted to the local chromatic number