An upper bound on the fractional chromatic number of triangle-free subcubic graphs

An $(a:b)$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a function $f$ which maps the vertices of $G$ into $b$-element subsets of some set of size $a$ in such a way that $f(u)$ is disjoint from $f(v)$ for every two adjacent vertices $u$ and $v$ in $G$. The fractional chromatic number $\chi_f(G)$ is the infimum of $a/b$ over all pairs of positive integers $a,b$ such that $G$ has an $(a:b)$-coloring. Heckman and Thomas conjectured that the fractional chromatic number of every triangle-free graph $G$ of maximum degree at most three is at most 2.8. Hatami and Zhu proved that $\chi_f(G) \leq 3-3/64 \approx 2.953$. Lu and Peng improved the bound to $\chi_f(G) \leq 3-3/43 \approx 2.930$. Recently, Ferguson, Kaiser and Kr\'{a}l' proved that $\chi_f(G) \leq 32/11 \approx 2.909$. In this paper, we prove that $\chi_f(G) \leq 43/15 \approx 2.867$

The game chromatic number of random graphs

Given a graph G and an integer k, two players take turns coloring the vertices of G one by one using k colors so that neighboring vertices get different colors. The first player wins iff at the end of the game all the vertices of G are colored. The game chromatic number \chi_g(G) is the minimum k for which the first player has a winning strategy. In this paper we analyze the asymptotic behavior of this parameter for a random graph G_{n,p}. We show that with high probability the game chromatic number of G_{n,p} is at least twice its chromatic number but, up to a multiplicative constant, has the same order of magnitude. We also study the game chromatic number of random bipartite graphs

Some results on (a:b)-choosability

A solution to a problem of Erd\H{o}s, Rubin and Taylor is obtained by showing that if a graph $G$ is $(a:b)$-choosable, and $c/d > a/b$, then $G$ is not necessarily $(c:d)$-choosable. Applying probabilistic methods, an upper bound for the $k^{th}$ choice number of a graph is given. We also prove that a directed graph with maximum outdegree $d$ and no odd directed cycle is $(k(d+1):k)$-choosable for every $k \geq 1$. Other results presented in this article are related to the strong choice number of graphs (a generalization of the strong chromatic number). We conclude with complexity analysis of some decision problems related to graph choosability

On the expansion constant and distance constrained colourings of hypergraphs

For any two non-negative integers h and k, h > k, an L(h, k)-colouring of a graph G is a colouring of vertices such that adjacent vertices admit colours that at least differ by h and vertices that are two distances apart admit colours that at least differ by k. The smallest positive integer {\delta} such that G permits an L(h, k)-colouring with maximum colour {\delta} is known as the L(h, k)-chromatic number (L(h, k)-colouring number) denoted by {\lambda}_{h,k}(G). In this paper, we discuss some interesting invariants in hypergraphs. In fact, we study the relation between the spectral gap and L(2, 1)-chromatic number of hypergraphs. We derive some inequalities which relates L(2, 1)-chromatic number of a k-regular simple graph to its spectral gap and expansion constant. The upper bound of L(h, k)-chromatic number in terms of various hypergraph invariants such as strong chromatic number, strong independent number and maximum degree is obtained. We determine the sharp upper bound for L(2, 1)-chromatic number of hypertrees in terms of its maximum degree. Finally, we conclude this paper with a discussion on L(2, 1)-colouring in cartesian product of some classes of hypergraphs