Strong chromatic index of sparse graphs

A coloring of the edges of a graph $G$ is strong if each color class is an induced matching of $G$. The strong chromatic index of $G$, denoted by $\chi_{s}^{\prime}(G)$, is the least number of colors in a strong edge coloring of $G$. In this note we prove that $\chi_{s}^{\prime}(G)\leq (4k-1)\Delta (G)-k(2k+1)+1$ for every $k$-degenerate graph $G$. This confirms the strong version of conjecture stated recently by Chang and Narayanan [3]. Our approach allows also to improve the upper bound from [3] for chordless graphs. We get that $$ for any chordless graph $G$. Both bounds remain valid for the list version of the strong edge coloring of these graphs

Strong chromatic index of k-degenerate graphs

A {\em strong edge coloring} of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring in which every color class is an induced matching. The {\em strong chromatic index} \chiup_{s}'(G) of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of colors in a strong edge coloring of $G$. In this note, we improve a result by D{\k e}bski \etal [Strong chromatic index of sparse graphs, arXiv:1301.1992v1] and show that the strong chromatic index of a $k$-degenerate graph $G$ is at most $(4k-2) \cdot \Delta(G) - 2k^{2} + 1$. As a direct consequence, the strong chromatic index of a $2$-degenerate graph $G$ is at most $6\Delta(G) - 7$, which improves the upper bound $10\Delta(G) - 10$ by Chang and Narayanan [Strong chromatic index of 2-degenerate graphs, J. Graph Theory 73 (2013) (2) 119--126]. For a special subclass of $2$-degenerate graphs, we obtain a better upper bound, namely if $G$ is a graph such that all of its $3^{+}$-vertices induce a forest, then \chiup_{s}'(G) \leq 4 \Delta(G) -3; as a corollary, every minimally $2$-connected graph $G$ has strong chromatic index at most $4 \Delta(G) - 3$. Moreover, all the results in this note are best possible in some sense.Comment: 3 pages in Discrete Mathematics, 201

Distance edge-colourings and matchings

AbstractWe consider a distance generalisation of the strong chromatic index and the maximum induced matching number. We study graphs of bounded maximum degree and Erdős–Rényi random graphs. We work in three settings. The first is that of a distance generalisation of an Erdős–Nešetřil problem. The second is that of an upper bound on the size of a largest distance matching in a random graph. The third is that of an upper bound on the distance chromatic index for sparse random graphs. One of our results gives a counterexample to a conjecture of Skupień

Strong edge-colouring of sparse planar graphs

A strong edge-colouring of a graph is a proper edge-colouring where each colour class induces a matching. It is known that every planar graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ has a strong edge-colouring with at most $4\Delta+4$ colours. We show that $3\Delta+1$ colours suffice if the graph has girth 6, and $4\Delta$ colours suffice if $\Delta\geq 7$ or the girth is at least 5. In the last part of the paper, we raise some questions related to a long-standing conjecture of Vizing on proper edge-colouring of planar graphs

Fractional total colourings of graphs of high girth

Reed conjectured that for every epsilon>0 and Delta there exists g such that the fractional total chromatic number of a graph with maximum degree Delta and girth at least g is at most Delta+1+epsilon. We prove the conjecture for Delta=3 and for even Delta>=4 in the following stronger form: For each of these values of Delta, there exists g such that the fractional total chromatic number of any graph with maximum degree Delta and girth at least g is equal to Delta+1

Colouring Graphs with Sparse Neighbourhoods: Bounds and Applications

Let $G$ be a graph with chromatic number $\chi$, maximum degree $\Delta$ and clique number $\omega$. Reed's conjecture states that $\chi \leq \lceil (1-\varepsilon)(\Delta + 1) + \varepsilon\omega \rceil$ for all $\varepsilon \leq 1/2$. It was shown by King and Reed that, provided $\Delta$ is large enough, the conjecture holds for $\varepsilon \leq 1/130,000$. In this article, we show that the same statement holds for $\varepsilon \leq 1/26$, thus making a significant step towards Reed's conjecture. We derive this result from a general technique to bound the chromatic number of a graph where no vertex has many edges in its neighbourhood. Our improvements to this method also lead to improved bounds on the strong chromatic index of general graphs. We prove that $\chi'_s(G)\leq 1.835 \Delta(G)^2$ provided $\Delta(G)$ is large enough.Comment: Submitted for publication in July 201