Oriented Colouring Graphs of Bounded Degree and Degeneracy

This paper considers upper bounds on the oriented chromatic number, $\chi_o$, of graphs in terms of their maximum degree $\Delta$ and/or their degeneracy $d$. In particular we show that asymptotically, $\chi_o \leq \chi_2 f(d) 2^d$ where $f(d) \geq (\frac{1}{\log_2(e) -1} + \epsilon) d^2$ and $\chi_2 \leq 2^{\frac{f(d)}{d}}$. This improves a result of MacGillivray, Raspaud, and Swartz of the form $\chi_o \leq 2^{\chi_2} -1$. The rest of the paper is devoted to improving prior bounds for $\chi_o$ in terms of $\Delta$ and $d$ by refining the asymptotic arguments involved.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

A Study of kk-dipath Colourings of Oriented Graphs

We examine $t$-colourings of oriented graphs in which, for a fixed integer $k \geq 1$, vertices joined by a directed path of length at most $k$ must be assigned different colours. A homomorphism model that extends the ideas of Sherk for the case $k=2$ is described. Dichotomy theorems for the complexity of the problem of deciding, for fixed $k$ and $t$, whether there exists such a $t$-colouring are proved.Comment: 14 page

On Colouring Oriented Graphs of Large Girth

We prove that for every oriented graph $D$ and every choice of positive integers $k$ and $\ell$, there exists an oriented graph $D^*$ along with a surjective homomorphism $\psi\colon D^* \to D$ such that: (i) girth$(D^*) \geq\ell$; (ii) for every oriented graph $C$ with at most $k$ vertices, there exists a homomorphism from $D^*$ to $C$ if and only if there exists a homomorphism from $D$ to C; and (iii) for every $D$-pointed oriented graph $C$ with at most $k$ vertices and for every homomorphism $\varphi\colon D^* \to C$ there exists a unique homomorphism $f\colon D \to C$ such that $\varphi=f \circ \psi$. Determining the chromatic number of an oriented graph $D$ is equivalent to finding the smallest integer $k$ such that $D$ admits a homomorphism to an order-$k$ tournament, so our main theorem yields results on the girth and chromatic number of oriented graphs. While our main proof is probabilistic (hence nonconstructive), for any given $\ell\geq 3$ and $k\geq 5$, we include a construction of an oriented graph with girth $\ell$ and chromatic number $k$

On the oriented chromatic number of dense graphs

Let $G$ be a graph with $n$ vertices, $m$ edges, average degree $\delta$, and maximum degree $\Delta$. The \emph{oriented chromatic number} of $G$ is the maximum, taken over all orientations of $G$, of the minimum number of colours in a proper vertex colouring such that between every pair of colour classes all edges have the same orientation. We investigate the oriented chromatic number of graphs, such as the hypercube, for which $\delta\geq\log n$. We prove that every such graph has oriented chromatic number at least $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$. In the case that $\delta\geq(2+\epsilon)\log n$, this lower bound is improved to $\Omega(\sqrt{m})$. Through a simple connection with harmonious colourings, we prove a general upper bound of \Oh{\Delta\sqrt{n}} on the oriented chromatic number. Moreover this bound is best possible for certain graphs. These lower and upper bounds are particularly close when $G$ is ($c\log n$)-regular for some constant $c>2$, in which case the oriented chromatic number is between $\Omega(\sqrt{n\log n})$ and $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{n}\log n)$

Oriented coloring on recursively defined digraphs

Coloring is one of the most famous problems in graph theory. The coloring problem on undirected graphs has been well studied, whereas there are very few results for coloring problems on directed graphs. An oriented k-coloring of an oriented graph G=(V,A) is a partition of the vertex set V into k independent sets such that all the arcs linking two of these subsets have the same direction. The oriented chromatic number of an oriented graph G is the smallest k such that G allows an oriented k-coloring. Deciding whether an acyclic digraph allows an oriented 4-coloring is NP-hard. It follows, that finding the chromatic number of an oriented graph is an NP-hard problem. This motivates to consider the problem on oriented co-graphs. After giving several characterizations for this graph class, we show a linear time algorithm which computes an optimal oriented coloring for an oriented co-graph. We further prove how the oriented chromatic number can be computed for the disjoint union and order composition from the oriented chromatic number of the involved oriented co-graphs. It turns out that within oriented co-graphs the oriented chromatic number is equal to the length of a longest oriented path plus one. We also show that the graph isomorphism problem on oriented co-graphs can be solved in linear time.Comment: 14 page

Oriented Colourings of Graphs with Maximum Degree Three and Four

We show that any orientation of a graph with maximum degree three has an oriented 9-colouring, and that any orientation of a graph with maximum degree four has an oriented 69-colouring. These results improve the best known upper bounds of 11 and 80, respectively