The Chromatic Structure of Dense Graphs

This thesis focusses on extremal graph theory, the study of how local constraints on a graph affect its macroscopic structure. We primarily consider the chromatic structure: whether a graph has or is close to having some (low) chromatic number. Chapter 2 is the slight exception. We consider an induced version of the classical Turán problem. Introduced by Loh, Tait, Timmons, and Zhou, the induced Turán number ex(n, {H, F-ind}) is the greatest number of edges in an n-vertex graph with no copy of H and no induced copy of F. We asymptotically determine ex(n, {H, F-ind}) for H not bipartite and F neither an independent set nor a complete bipartite graph. We also improve the upper bound for ex(n, {H, K_{2, t}-ind}) as well as the lower bound for the clique number of graphs that have some fixed edge density and no induced K_{2, t}. The next three chapters form the heart of the thesis. Chapters 3 and 4 consider the Erdős-Simonovits question for locally r-colourable graphs: what are the structure and chromatic number of graphs with large minimum degree and where every neighbourhood is r-colourable? Chapter 3 deals with the locally bipartite case and Chapter 4 with the general case. While the subject of Chapters 3 and 4 is a natural local to global colouring question, it is also essential for determining the minimum degree stability of H-free graphs, the focus of Chapter 5. Given a graph H of chromatic number r + 1, this asks for the minimum degree that guarantees that an H-free graph is close to r-partite. This is analogous to the classical edge stability of Erdős and Simonovits. We also consider the question for the family of graphs to which H is not homomorphic, showing that it has the same answer. Chapter 6 considers sparse analogues of the results of Chapters 3 to 5 obtaining the thresholds at which the sparse problem degenerates away from the dense one. Finally, Chapter 7 considers a chromatic Ramsey problem first posed by Erdős: what is the greatest chromatic number of a triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices or with m edges? We improve the best known bounds and obtain tight (up to a constant factor) bounds for the list chromatic number, answering a question of Cames van Batenburg, de Joannis de Verclos, Kang, and Pirot

The t-stability number of a random graph

Given a graph G = (V,E), a vertex subset S is called t-stable (or t-dependent) if the subgraph G[S] induced on S has maximum degree at most t. The t-stability number of G is the maximum order of a t-stable set in G. We investigate the typical values that this parameter takes on a random graph on n vertices and edge probability equal to p. For any fixed 0 < p < 1 and fixed non-negative integer t, we show that, with probability tending to 1 as n grows, the t-stability number takes on at most two values which we identify as functions of t, p and n. The main tool we use is an asymptotic expression for the expected number of t-stable sets of order k. We derive this expression by performing a precise count of the number of graphs on k vertices that have maximum degree at most k. Using the above results, we also obtain asymptotic bounds on the t-improper chromatic number of a random graph (this is the generalisation of the chromatic number, where we partition of the vertex set of the graph into t-stable sets).Comment: 25 pages; v2 has 30 pages and is identical to the journal version apart from formatting and a minor amendment to Lemma 8 (and its proof on p. 21

The Eigen-chromatic Ratio of Classes of Graphs: Asymptotes, Areas and Molecular Stability

In this paper, we present a new ratio associated with classes of graphs, called the eigen-chromatic ratio, by combining the two graph theoretical concepts of energy and chromatic number. The energy of a graph, the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of a graph, arose historically as a result of the energy of the benzene ring being identical to that of the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of the cycle graph on n vertices (see [18]). The chromatic number of a graph is the smallest number of colour classes that we can partition the vertices of a graph such that each edge of the graph has ends that do not belong to the same colour class, and applications to the real world abound (see [30]). Applying this idea to molecular graph theory, for example, the water molecule would have its two hydrogen atoms coloured with the same colour different to that of the oxygen molecule. Ratios involving graph theoretical concepts form a large subset of graph theoretical research (see [3], [16], [48]). The eigen-chromatic ratio of a class of graph provides a form of energy distribution among the colour classes determined by the chromatic number of such a class of graphs. The asymptote associated with this eigen-chromatic ratio allows for the behavioural analysis in terms of stability of molecules in molecular graph theory where a large number of atoms are involved. This asymptote can be associated with the concept of graphs being hyper- or hypo- energetic (see [48])

b-coloring is NP-hard on co-bipartite graphs and polytime solvable on tree-cographs

A b-coloring of a graph is a proper coloring such that every color class contains a vertex that is adjacent to all other color classes. The b-chromatic number of a graph G, denoted by \chi_b(G), is the maximum number t such that G admits a b-coloring with t colors. A graph G is called b-continuous if it admits a b-coloring with t colors, for every t = \chi(G),\ldots,\chi_b(G), and b-monotonic if \chi_b(H_1) \geq \chi_b(H_2) for every induced subgraph H_1 of G, and every induced subgraph H_2 of H_1. We investigate the b-chromatic number of graphs with stability number two. These are exactly the complements of triangle-free graphs, thus including all complements of bipartite graphs. The main results of this work are the following: - We characterize the b-colorings of a graph with stability number two in terms of matchings with no augmenting paths of length one or three. We derive that graphs with stability number two are b-continuous and b-monotonic. - We prove that it is NP-complete to decide whether the b-chromatic number of co-bipartite graph is at most a given threshold. - We describe a polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm to compute the b-chromatic number of co-trees. - Extending several previous results, we show that there is a polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm for computing the b-chromatic number of tree-cographs. Moreover, we show that tree-cographs are b-continuous and b-monotonic

A proof of the stability of extremal graphs, Simonovits' stability from Szemer\'edi's regularity

The following sharpening of Tur\'an's theorem is proved. Let $T_{n,p}$ denote the complete $p$--partite graph of order $n$ having the maximum number of edges. If $G$ is an $n$-vertex $K_{p+1}$-free graph with $e(T_{n,p})-t$ edges then there exists an (at most) $p$-chromatic subgraph $H_0$ such that $e(H_0)\geq e(G)-t$. Using this result we present a concise, contemporary proof (i.e., one applying Szemer\'edi's regularity lemma) for the classical stability result of Simonovits.Comment: 4 pages plus reference