Coloring and covering problems on graphs

The \emph{separation dimension} of a graph $G$, written $\pi(G)$, is the minimum number of linear orderings of $V(G)$ such that every two nonincident edges are ``separated'' in some ordering, meaning that both endpoints of one edge appear before both endpoints of the other. We introduce the \emph{fractional separation dimension} $\pi_f(G)$, which is the minimum of $a/b$ such that some $a$ linear orderings (repetition allowed) separate every two nonincident edges at least $b$ times. In contrast to separation dimension, we show fractional separation dimension is bounded: always $\pi_f(G)\le 3$, with equality if and only if $G$ contains $K_4$. There is no stronger bound even for bipartite graphs, since $\pi_f(K_{m,m})=\pi_f(K_{m+1,m})=\frac{3m}{m+1}$. We also compute $\pi_f(G)$ for cycles and some complete tripartite graphs. We show that $\pi_f(G)<\sqrt{2}$ when $G$ is a tree and present a sequence of trees on which the value tends to $4/3$. We conjecture that when $n=3m$ the $K_4$-free $n$-vertex graph maximizing $\pi_f(G)$ is $K_{m,m,m}$. We also consider analogous problems for circular orderings, where pairs of nonincident edges are separated unless their endpoints alternate. Let $\pi^\circ(G)$ be the number of circular orderings needed to separate all pairs, and let $\pi_f^\circ(G)$ be the fractional version. Among our results: (1) $\pi^\circ(G)=1$ if and only $G$ is outerplanar. (2) $\pi^\circ(G)\le2$ when $G$ is bipartite. (3) $\pi^\circ(K_n)\ge\log_2\log_3(n-1)$. (4) $\pi_f^\circ(G)\le\frac{3}{2}$, with equality if and only if $K_4\subseteq G$. (5) $\pi_f^\circ(K_{m,m})=\frac{3m-3}{2m-1}$. A \emph{star $k$-coloring} is a proper $k$-coloring where the union of any two color classes induces a star forest. While every planar graph is 4-colorable, not every planar graph is star 4-colorable. One method to produce a star 4-coloring is to partition the vertex set into a 2-independent set and a forest; such a partition is called an \emph{\Ifp}. We use discharging to prove that every graph with maximum average degree less than $\frac{5}{2}$ has an \Ifp, which is sharp and improves the result of Bu, Cranston, Montassier, Raspaud, and Wang (2009). As a corollary, we gain that every planar graph with girth at least 10 has a star 4-coloring. A proper vertex coloring of a graph $G$ is \emph{$r$-dynamic} if for each $v\in V(G)$, at least $\min\{r,d(v)\}$ colors appear in $N_G(v)$. We investigate $3$-dynamic versions of coloring and list coloring. We prove that planar and toroidal graphs are 3-dynamically 10-choosable, and this bound is sharp for toroidal graphs. Given a proper total $k$-coloring $c$ of a graph $G$, we define the \emph{sum value} of a vertex $v$ to be $c(v) + \sum_{uv \in E(G)} c(uv)$. The smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ has a proper total $k$-coloring whose sum values form a proper coloring is the \emph{neighbor sum distinguishing total chromatic number} $\chi''_{\Sigma}(G)$. Pil{\'s}niak and Wo{\'z}niak~(2013) conjectured that $\chi''_{\Sigma}(G)\leq \Delta(G)+3$ for any simple graph with maximum degree $\Delta(G)$. We prove this bound to be asymptotically correct by showing that $\chi''_{\Sigma}(G)\leq \Delta(G)(1+o(1))$. The main idea of our argument relies on Przyby{\l}o's proof (2014) for neighbor sum distinguishing edge-coloring

Separation Dimension of Graphs and Hypergraphs

Separation dimension of a hypergraph H, denoted by , is the smallest natural number k so that the vertices of H can be embedded in such that any two disjoint edges of H can be separated by a hyperplane normal to one of the axes. We show that the separation dimension of a hypergraph H is equal to the boxicity of the line graph of H. This connection helps us in borrowing results and techniques from the extensive literature on boxicity to study the concept of separation dimension. In this paper, we study the separation dimension of hypergraphs and graphs