On twin edge colorings in m-ary trees

Let k ≥ 2 be an integer and G be a connected graph of order at least 3. A twin k-edge coloring of G is a proper edge coloring of G that uses colors from ℤk and that induces a proper vertex coloring on G where the color of a vertex v is the sum (in ℤk) of the colors of the edges incident with v. The smallest integer k for which G has a twin k-edge coloring is the twin chromatic index of G and is denoted by χ′t(G). In this paper, we study the twin edge colorings in m-ary trees for m ≥ 2; in particular, the twin chromatic indexes of full m-ary trees that are not stars, r-regular trees for even r ≥ 2, and generalized star graphs that are not paths nor stars are completely determined. Moreover, our results confirm the conjecture that χ′t(G)≤Δ(G)+2 for every connected graph G (except C5) of order at least 3, for all trees of order at least 3

Group twin coloring of graphs

For a given graph $G$, the least integer $k\geq 2$ such that for every Abelian group $\mathcal{G}$ of order $k$ there exists a proper edge labeling $f:E(G)\rightarrow \mathcal{G}$ so that $\sum_{x\in N(u)}f(xu)\neq \sum_{x\in N(v)}f(xv)$ for each edge $uv\in E(G)$ is called the \textit{group twin chromatic index} of $G$ and denoted by $\chi'_g(G)$. This graph invariant is related to a few well-known problems in the field of neighbor distinguishing graph colorings. We conjecture that $\chi'_g(G)\leq \Delta(G)+3$ for all graphs without isolated edges, where $\Delta(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$, and provide an infinite family of connected graph (trees) for which the equality holds. We prove that this conjecture is valid for all trees, and then apply this result as the base case for proving a general upper bound for all graphs $G$ without isolated edges: $\chi'_g(G)\leq 2(\Delta(G)+{\rm col}(G))-5$, where ${\rm col}(G)$ denotes the coloring number of $G$. This improves the best known upper bound known previously only for the case of cyclic groups $\mathbb{Z}_k$

Locally identifying coloring in bounded expansion classes of graphs

A proper vertex coloring of a graph is said to be locally identifying if the sets of colors in the closed neighborhood of any two adjacent non-twin vertices are distinct. The lid-chromatic number of a graph is the minimum number of colors used by a locally identifying vertex-coloring. In this paper, we prove that for any graph class of bounded expansion, the lid-chromatic number is bounded. Classes of bounded expansion include minor closed classes of graphs. For these latter classes, we give an alternative proof to show that the lid-chromatic number is bounded. This leads to an explicit upper bound for the lid-chromatic number of planar graphs. This answers in a positive way a question of Esperet et al [L. Esperet, S. Gravier, M. Montassier, P. Ochem and A. Parreau. Locally identifying coloring of graphs. Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 19(2), 2012.]

A Victorian Age Proof of the Four Color Theorem

In this paper we have investigated some old issues concerning four color map problem. We have given a general method for constructing counter-examples to Kempe's proof of the four color theorem and then show that all counterexamples can be rule out by re-constructing special 2-colored two paths decomposition in the form of a double-spiral chain of the maximal planar graph. In the second part of the paper we have given an algorithmic proof of the four color theorem which is based only on the coloring faces (regions) of a cubic planar maps. Our algorithmic proof has been given in three steps. The first two steps are the maximal mono-chromatic and then maximal dichromatic coloring of the faces in such a way that the resulting uncolored (white) regions of the incomplete two-colored map induce no odd-cycles so that in the (final) third step four coloring of the map has been obtained almost trivially.Comment: 27 pages, 18 figures, revised versio