Strong edge colorings of graphs and the covers of Kneser graphs

A proper edge coloring of a graph is strong if it creates no bichromatic path of length three. It is well known that for a strong edge coloring of a $k$-regular graph at least $2k-1$ colors are needed. We show that a $k$-regular graph admits a strong edge coloring with $2k-1$ colors if and only if it covers the Kneser graph $K(2k-1,k-1)$. In particular, a cubic graph is strongly $5$-edge-colorable whenever it covers the Petersen graph. One of the implications of this result is that a conjecture about strong edge colorings of subcubic graphs proposed by Faudree et al. [Ars Combin. 29 B (1990), 205--211] is false

All finite transitive graphs admit self-adjoint free semigroupoid algebras

In this paper we show that every non-cycle finite transitive directed graph has a Cuntz-Krieger family whose WOT-closed algebra is $B(\mathcal{H})$. This is accomplished through a new construction that reduces this problem to in-degree $2$-regular graphs, which is then treated by applying the periodic Road Coloring Theorem of B\'eal and Perrin. As a consequence we show that finite disjoint unions of finite transitive directed graphs are exactly those finite graphs which admit self-adjoint free semigroupoid algebras.Comment: Added missing reference. 16 pages 2 figure