Injective colorings of graphs with low average degree

Let \mad(G) denote the maximum average degree (over all subgraphs) of $G$ and let $\chi_i(G)$ denote the injective chromatic number of $G$. We prove that if $\Delta\geq 4$ and \mad(G)<\frac{14}5, then $\chi_i(G)\leq\Delta+2$. When $\Delta=3$, we show that \mad(G)<\frac{36}{13} implies $\chi_i(G)\le 5$. In contrast, we give a graph $G$ with $\Delta=3$, \mad(G)=\frac{36}{13}, and $\chi_i(G)=6$.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Lower Bounds for the Graph Homomorphism Problem

The graph homomorphism problem (HOM) asks whether the vertices of a given $n$-vertex graph $G$ can be mapped to the vertices of a given $h$-vertex graph $H$ such that each edge of $G$ is mapped to an edge of $H$. The problem generalizes the graph coloring problem and at the same time can be viewed as a special case of the $2$-CSP problem. In this paper, we prove several lower bound for HOM under the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH) assumption. The main result is a lower bound $2^{\Omega\left( \frac{n \log h}{\log \log h}\right)}$. This rules out the existence of a single-exponential algorithm and shows that the trivial upper bound $2^{{\mathcal O}(n\log{h})}$ is almost asymptotically tight. We also investigate what properties of graphs $G$ and $H$ make it difficult to solve HOM$(G,H)$. An easy observation is that an ${\mathcal O}(h^n)$ upper bound can be improved to ${\mathcal O}(h^{\operatorname{vc}(G)})$ where $\operatorname{vc}(G)$ is the minimum size of a vertex cover of $G$. The second lower bound $h^{\Omega(\operatorname{vc}(G))}$ shows that the upper bound is asymptotically tight. As to the properties of the "right-hand side" graph $H$, it is known that HOM$(G,H)$ can be solved in time $(f(\Delta(H)))^n$ and $(f(\operatorname{tw}(H)))^n$ where $\Delta(H)$ is the maximum degree of $H$ and $\operatorname{tw}(H)$ is the treewidth of $H$. This gives single-exponential algorithms for graphs of bounded maximum degree or bounded treewidth. Since the chromatic number $\chi(H)$ does not exceed $\operatorname{tw}(H)$ and $\Delta(H)+1$, it is natural to ask whether similar upper bounds with respect to $\chi(H)$ can be obtained. We provide a negative answer to this question by establishing a lower bound $(f(\chi(H)))^n$ for any function $f$. We also observe that similar lower bounds can be obtained for locally injective homomorphisms.Comment: 19 page

Injective colorings of sparse graphs

Let $mad(G)$ denote the maximum average degree (over all subgraphs) of $G$ and let $\chi_i(G)$ denote the injective chromatic number of $G$. We prove that if $mad(G) \leq 5/2$, then $\chi_i(G)\leq\Delta(G) + 1$; and if $mad(G) < 42/19$, then $\chi_i(G)=\Delta(G)$. Suppose that $G$ is a planar graph with girth $g(G)$ and $\Delta(G)\geq 4$. We prove that if $g(G)\geq 9$, then $\chi_i(G)\leq\Delta(G)+1$; similarly, if $g(G)\geq 13$, then $\chi_i(G)=\Delta(G)$.Comment: 10 page