On the choosability of HH-minor-free graphs

Given a graph $H$, let us denote by $f_\chi(H)$ and $f_\ell(H)$, respectively, the maximum chromatic number and the maximum list chromatic number of $H$-minor-free graphs. Hadwiger's famous coloring conjecture from 1943 states that $f_\chi(K_t)=t-1$ for every $t \ge 2$. In contrast, for list coloring it is known that $2t-o(t) \le f_\ell(K_t) \le O(t (\log \log t)^6)$ and thus, $f_\ell(K_t)$ is bounded away from the conjectured value $t-1$ for $f_\chi(K_t)$ by at least a constant factor. The so-called $H$-Hadwiger's conjecture, proposed by Seymour, asks to prove that $f_\chi(H)=\textsf{v}(H)-1$ for a given graph $H$ (which would be implied by Hadwiger's conjecture). In this paper, we prove several new lower bounds on $f_\ell(H)$, thus exploring the limits of a list coloring extension of $H$-Hadwiger's conjecture. Our main results are: For every $\varepsilon>0$ and all sufficiently large graphs $H$ we have $f_\ell(H)\ge (1-\varepsilon)(\textsf{v}(H)+\kappa(H))$, where $\kappa(H)$ denotes the vertex-connectivity of $H$. For every $\varepsilon>0$ there exists $C=C(\varepsilon)>0$ such that asymptotically almost every $n$-vertex graph $H$ with $\left\lceil C n\log n\right\rceil$ edges satisfies $f_\ell(H)\ge (2-\varepsilon)n$. The first result generalizes recent results on complete and complete bipartite graphs and shows that the list chromatic number of $H$-minor-free graphs is separated from the natural lower bound $(\textsf{v}(H)-1)$ by a constant factor for all large graphs $H$ of linear connectivity. The second result tells us that even when $H$ is a very sparse graph (with an average degree just logarithmic in its order), $f_\ell(H)$ can still be separated from $(\textsf{v}(H)-1)$ by a constant factor arbitrarily close to $2$. Conceptually these results indicate that the graphs $H$ for which $f_\ell(H)$ is close to $(\textsf{v}(H)-1)$ are typically rather sparse.Comment: 14 page

Limits of degeneracy for colouring graphs with forbidden minors

Motivated by Hadwiger's conjecture, Seymour asked which graphs $H$ have the property that every non-null graph $G$ with no $H$ minor has a vertex of degree at most $|V(H)|-2$. We show that for every monotone graph family $\mathcal{F}$ with strongly sublinear separators, all sufficiently large bipartite graphs $H \in \mathcal{F}$ with bounded maximum degree have this property. None of the conditions that $H$ belongs to $\mathcal{F}$, that $H$ is bipartite and that $H$ has bounded maximum degree can be omitted.Comment: 22 page

Proper conflict-free list-coloring, odd minors, subdivisions, and layered treewidth

Proper conflict-free coloring is an intermediate notion between proper coloring of a graph and proper coloring of its square. It is a proper coloring such that for every non-isolated vertex, there exists a color appearing exactly once in its (open) neighborhood. Typical examples of graphs with large proper conflict-free chromatic number include graphs with large chromatic number and bipartite graphs isomorphic to the $1$-subdivision of graphs with large chromatic number. In this paper, we prove two rough converse statements that hold even in the list-coloring setting. The first is for sparse graphs: for every graph $H$, there exists an integer $c_H$ such that every graph with no subdivision of $H$ is (properly) conflict-free $c_H$-choosable. The second applies to dense graphs: every graph with large conflict-free choice number either contains a large complete graph as an odd minor or contains a bipartite induced subgraph that has large conflict-free choice number. These give two incomparable (partial) answers of a question of Caro, Petru\v{s}evski and \v{S}krekovski. We also prove quantitatively better bounds for minor-closed families, implying some known results about proper conflict-free coloring and odd coloring in the literature. Moreover, we prove that every graph with layered treewidth at most $w$ is (properly) conflict-free $(8w-1)$-choosable. This result applies to $(g,k)$-planar graphs, which are graphs whose coloring problems have attracted attention recently.Comment: Hickingbotham recently independently announced a paper (arXiv:2203.10402) proving a result similar to the ones in this paper. Please see the notes at the end of this paper for details. v2: add results for odd minors, which applies to graphs with unbounded degeneracy, and change the title of the pape

Coloring Graphs with Forbidden Minors

A graph H is a minor of a graph G if H can be obtained from a subgraph of G by contracting edges. My research is motivated by the famous Hadwiger\u27s Conjecture from 1943 which states that every graph with no Kt-minor is (t − 1)-colorable. This conjecture has been proved true for t ≤ 6, but remains open for all t ≥ 7. For t = 7, it is not even yet known if a graph with no K7-minor is 7-colorable. We begin by showing that every graph with no Kt-minor is (2t − 6)- colorable for t = 7, 8, 9, in the process giving a shorter and computer-free proof of the known results for t = 7, 8. We also show that this result extends to larger values of t if Mader\u27s bound for the extremal function for Kt-minors is true. Additionally, we show that any graph with no K−8 - minor is 9-colorable, and any graph with no K=8-minor is 8-colorable. The Kempe-chain method developed for our proofs of the above results may be of independent interest. We also use Mader\u27s H-Wege theorem to establish some sufficient conditions for a graph to contain a K8-minor. Another motivation for my research is a well-known conjecture of Erdos and Lovasz from 1968, the Double-Critical Graph Conjecture. A connected graph G is double-critical if for all edges xy ∈ E(G), χ(G−x−y) = χ(G)−2. Erdos and Lovasz conjectured that the only double-critical t-chromatic graph is the complete graph Kt. This conjecture has been show to be true for t ≤ 5 and remains open for t ≥ 6. It has further been shown that any non-complete, double-critical, t-chromatic graph contains Kt as a minor for t ≤ 8. We give a shorter proof of this result for t = 7, a computer-free proof for t = 8, and extend the result to show that G contains a K9-minor for all t ≥ 9. Finally, we show that the Double-Critical Graph Conjecture is true for double-critical graphs with chromatic number t ≤ 8 if such graphs are claw-free