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Let G be a planar graph with a list assignment L. Suppose a preferred color is given for some of the vertices. We prove that if G has girth at least six and all lists have size at least three, then there exists an L-coloring respecting at least a constant fraction of the preferences., Comment: 11 pages, no figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1902.02971

Let G be a planar graph with a list assignment L. Suppose a preferred color is given for some of the vertices. We prove that if G is triangle-free and all lists have size at least four, then there exists an L-coloring respecting at least a constant fraction of the preferences., Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures

Baker devised a technique to obtain approximation schemes for many optimization problems restricted to planar graphs; her technique was later extended to more general graph classes. In particular, using the Baker's technique and the minor structure theorem, Dawar et al. gave Polynomial-Time Approximation Schemes (PTAS) for all monotone optimization problems expressible in the first-order logic when restricted to a proper minor-closed class of graphs. We define a Baker game formalizing the notion of repeated application of Baker's technique interspersed with vertex removal, prove that monotone optimization problems expressible in the first-order logic admit PTAS when restricted to graph classes in which the Baker game can be won in a constant number of rounds, and prove without use of the minor structure theorem that all proper minor-closed classes of graphs have this property., Comment: 27 pages, no figures

The Hall ratio of a graph G is the maximum of |V(H)|/alpha(H) over all subgraphs H of G. Clearly, the Hall ratio of a graph is a lower bound for the fractional chromatic number. It has been asked whether conversely, the fractional chromatic number is upper bounded by a function of the Hall ratio. We answer this question in negative, by showing two results of independent interest regarding 1-subdivisions (the 1-subdivision of a graph is obtained by subdividing each edge exactly once). * For every c > 0, every graph of sufficiently large average degree contains as a subgraph the 1-subdivision of a graph of fractional chromatic number at least c. * For every d > 0, there exists a graph G of average degree at least d such that every graph whose 1-subdivision appears as a subgraph of G has Hall ratio at most 18. We also discuss the consequences of these results in the context of graph classes with bounded expansion., Comment: 14 pages, no figures; updated for reviewer remarks

A graph G is (a:b)-colorable if there exists an assignment of b-element subsets of {1,...,a} to vertices of G such that sets assigned to adjacent vertices are disjoint. We first show that for every triangle-free planar graph G and a vertex x of G, the graph G has a set coloring phi by subsets of {1,...,6} such that |phi(v)|>=2 for each vertex v of G and |phi(x)|=3. As a corollary, every triangle-free planar graph on n vertices is (6n:2n+1)-colorable. We further use this result to prove that for every Delta, there exists a constant M_Delta such that every planar graph G of girth at least five and maximum degree Delta is (6M_Delta:2M_Delta+1)-colorable. Consequently, planar graphs of girth at least five with bounded maximum degree Delta have fractional chromatic number at most 3-3/(2M_Delta+1)., Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures

In 1980, Erd\H{o}s, Rubin and Taylor asked whether for all positive integers $a$, $b$, and $m$, every $(a:b)$-choosable graph is also $(am:bm)$-choosable. We provide a negative answer by exhibiting a $4$-choosable graph that is not $(8:2)$-choosable.

A graph G is list (b:a)-colorable if for every assignment of lists of size b to vertices of G, there exists a choice of an a-element subset of the list at each vertex such that the subsets chosen at adjacent vertices are disjoint. We prove that for every positive integer a, the family of minimal obstructions of girth at least five to list (3a:a)-colorability is strongly hyperbolic, in the sense of the hyperbolicity theory developed by Postle and Thomas. This has a number of consequences, e.g., that if a graph of girth at least five and Euler genus g is not list (3a:a)-colorable, then G contains a subgraph with O(g) vertices which is not list (3a:a) colorable., Comment: 32 pages, no figures; updated for reviewer comments, added a more detailed hyperbolicity argument as an appendix

Given a multigraph, suppose that each vertex is given a local assignment of $k$ colours to its incident edges. We are interested in whether there is a choice of one local colour per vertex such that no edge has both of its local colours chosen. The least $k$ for which this is always possible given any set of local assignments we call the {\em single-conflict chromatic number} of the graph. This parameter is closely related to separation choosability and adaptable choosability. We show that single-conflict chromatic number of simple graphs embeddable on a surface of Euler genus $g$ is $O(g^{1/4}\log g)$ as $g\to\infty$. This is sharp up to the logarithmic factor., Comment: 15 pages; in v2, changed the main terminology, added one example, adjusted Conjecture 3; to appear in Journal of Graph Theory

We study c-crossing-critical graphs, which are the minimal graphs that require at least c edge-crossings when drawn in the plane. For c=1 there are only two such graphs without degree-2 vertices, K_5 and K_3,3, but for any fixed c>1 there exist infinitely many c-crossing-critical graphs. It has been previously shown that c-crossing-critical graphs have bounded path-width and contain only a bounded number of internally disjoint paths between any two vertices. We expand on these results, providing a more detailed description of the structure of crossing-critical graphs. On the way towards this description, we prove a new structural characterisation of plane graphs of bounded path-width. Then we show that every c-crossing-critical graph can be obtained from a c-crossing-critical graph of bounded size by replicating bounded-size parts that already appear in narrow "bands" or "fans" in the graph. This also gives an algorithm to generate all the c-crossing-critical graphs of at most given order n in polynomial time per each generated graph.

A graph G is (a:b)-colorable if there exists an assignment of b-element subsets of {1,...,a} to vertices of G such that sets assigned to adjacent vertices are disjoint. We show that every planar graph without cycles of length 4 or 5 is (11:3)-colorable, a weakening of recently disproved Steinberg's conjecture. In particular, each such graph with n vertices has an independent set of size at least 3n/11., Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures; incorporated reviewer remarks

The theory of Dvorak, Kral, and Thomas (2015) shows that a 4-critical triangle-free graph embedded in the torus has only a bounded number of faces of length greater than 4 and that the size of these faces is also bounded. We study the natural reduction in such embedded graphs - identification of opposite vertices in 4-faces. We give a computer-assisted argument showing that there are exactly four 4-critical triangle-free irreducible toroidal graphs in which this reduction cannot be applied without creating a triangle. Using this result, we show that every 4-critical triangle-free graph embedded in the torus has at most four 5-faces, or a 6-face and two 5-faces, or a 7-face and a 5-face, in addition to at least seven 4-faces. This result serves as a basis for the exact description of $4$-critical triangle-free toroidal graphs, which we present in a followup paper., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. Extended abstract appeared in proceedings of Eurocomb'17

A well-known result of Alon shows that the coloring number of a graph is bounded by a function of its choosability. We explore this relationship in a more general setting with relaxed assumptions on color classes, encoded by a graph parameter., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures

Dvorak (2013) gave a bound on the minimum size of a distance r dominating set in the terms of the maximum size of a distance 2r independent set and generalized coloring numbers, thus obtaining a constant factor approximation algorithm for the parameters in any class of graphs with bounded expansion. We improve and clarify this dependence using an LP-based argument inspired by the work of Bansal and Umboh (2017)., Comment: 14 pages, no figures

For real numbers c,epsilon>0, let G_{c,epsilon} denote the class of graphs G such that each subgraph H of G has a balanced separator of order at most c|V(H)|^{1-epsilon}. A class of graphs has strongly sublinear separators if it is a subclass of G_{c,epsilon} for some c,epsilon>0. We investigate properties of such graph classes, leading in particular to an approximate algorithm to determine membership in G_{c,epsilon}: there exist c'>0 such that for each input graph G, this algorithm in polynomial time determines either that G belongs to G_{c',epsilon^2/160}, or that G does not belong to G_{c,epsilon}., Comment: 18 pages, no figures; updated according to reviewer comments

The clustered chromatic number of a graph class is the minimum integer $t$ such that for some $C$ the vertices of every graph in the class can be colored in $t$ colors so that every monochromatic component has size at most $C$. We show that the clustered chromatic number of the class of graphs embeddable on a given surface is four, proving the conjecture of Esperet and Ochem. Additionally, we study the list version of the concept and characterize the minor-closed classes of graphs of bounded treewidth with given clustered list chromatic number. We further strengthen the above results to solve some extremal problems on bootstrap percolation of minor-closed classes.

A graph is $k$-degenerate if every subgraph has minimum degree at most $k$. We provide lower bounds on the size of a maximum induced 2-degenerate subgraph in a triangle-free planar graph. We denote the size of a maximum induced 2-degenerate subgraph of a graph $G$ by $\alpha_2(G)$. We prove that if $G$ is a connected triangle-free planar graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, then $\alpha_2(G) \geq \frac{6n - m - 1}{5}$. By Euler's Formula, this implies $\alpha_2(G) \geq \frac{4}{5}n$. We also prove that if $G$ is a triangle-free planar graph on $n$ vertices with at most $n_3$ vertices of degree at most three, then $\alpha_2(G) \geq \frac{7}{8}n - 18 n_3$., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures -- v2 revised according to referee comments

We prove that, in several settings, a graph has exponentially many nowhere-zero flows. These results may be seen as a counting alternative to the well-known proofs of existence of $Z_3$-, $Z_4$-, and $Z_6$-flows. In the dual setting, proving exponential number of 3-colorings of planar triangle-free graphs is a related open question due to Thomassen. As a part of the proof we obtain a new splitting lemma for 6-edge-connected graphs, that may be of independent interest., Comment: 15 pages; shorter version appears as extended abstract from Eurocomb 2017

Robin Thomas asked whether for every proper minor-closed class C, there exists a polynomial-time algorithm approximating the chromatic number of graphs from C up to a constant additive error independent on the class C. We show this is not the case: unless P=NP, for every integer k>=1, there is no polynomial-time algorithm to color a K_{4k+1}-minor-free graph G using at most chi(G)+k-1 colors. More generally, for every k>=1 and 1<=\beta<=4/3, there is no polynomial-time algorithm to color a K_{4k+1}-minor-free graph G using less than beta.chi(G)+(4-3beta)k colors. As far as we know, this is the first non-trivial non-approximability result regarding the chromatic number in proper minor-closed classes. We also give somewhat weaker non-approximability bound for K_{4k+1}-minor-free graphs with no cliques of size 4. On the positive side, we present additive approximation algorithm whose error depends on the apex number of the forbidden minor, and an algorithm with additive error 6 under the additional assumption that the graph has no 4-cycles., Comment: 22 pages, no figures

We prove that for every graph H and for every integer s, the class of graphs that do not contain K_s, K_{s,s}, or any subdivision of H as an induced subgraph has bounded expansion; this strengthens a result of Kuhn and Osthus. The argument also gives another characterization of graph classes with bounded expansion and of nowhere-dense graph classes., Comment: 8 pages, no figures

We prove that every triangle-free graph of tree-width t has chromatic number at most ceil((t + 3)/2), and demonstrate that this bound is tight. The argument also establishes a connection between coloring graphs of tree-width t and on-line coloring of graphs of path-width t., Comment: 10 pages, no figures; updated according to referee suggestions

Baker devised a powerful technique to obtain approximation schemes for various problems restricted to planar graphs. Her technique can be directly extended to various other graph classes, among the most general ones the graphs avoiding a fixed apex graph as a minor. Further generalizations (e.g., to all proper minor closed graph classes) are known, but they use a combination of techniques and usually focus on somewhat restricted classes of problems. We present a new type of graph decompositions (thin systems of overlays) generalizing Baker's technique and leading to straightforward polynomial-time approximation schemes. We also show that many graph classes (all proper minor-closed classes, and all subgraph-closed classes with bounded maximum degree and strongly sublinear separators) admit such decompositions., Comment: 30 pages, no figures

Since planar triangle-free graphs are 3-colourable, such a graph with n vertices has an independent set of size at least n/3. We prove that unless the graph contains a certain obstruction, its independence number is at least n/(3-epsilon) for some fixed epsilon>0. We also provide a reduction rule for this obstruction, which enables us to transform any plane triangle-free graph G into a plane triangle-free graph G' such that alpha(G')-|G'|/3=alpha(G)-|G|/3 and |G'|<=(alpha(G)-|G|/3)/epsilon. We derive a number of algorithmic consequences as well as a structural description of n-vertex plane triangle-free graphs whose independence number is close to n/3., Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure

Thomassen conjectured that triangle-free planar graphs have an exponential number of $3$-colorings. We show this conjecture to be equivalent to the following statement: there exists a positive real $\alpha$ such that whenever $G$ is a planar graph and $A$ is a subset of its edges whose deletion makes $G$ triangle-free, there exists a subset $A'$ of $A$ of size at least $\alpha|A|$ such that $G-(A\setminus A')$ is $3$-colorable. This equivalence allows us to study restricted situations, where we can prove the statement to be true.

Let G be a graph with a list assignment L. Suppose a preferred color is given for some of the vertices; how many of these preferences can be respected when L-coloring G? We explore several natural questions arising in this context, and propose directions for further research., Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures; revision according to referee suggestions

By Brook's Theorem, every n-vertex graph of maximum degree at most Delta >= 3 and clique number at most Delta is Delta-colorable, and thus it has an independent set of size at least n/Delta. We give an approximate characterization of graphs with independence number close to this bound, and use it to show that the problem of deciding whether such a graph has an indepdendent set of size at least n/Delta+k has a kernel of size O(k)., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures; fixes an error pointed out by Andrea Munaro

We present a polynomial-time 9/7-approximation algorithm for the graphic TSP for cubic graphs, which improves the previously best approximation factor of 1.3 for 2-connected cubic graphs and drops the requirement of 2-connectivity at the same time. To design our algorithm, we prove that every simple 2-connected cubic n-vertex graph contains a spanning closed walk of length at most 9n/7-1, and that such a walk can be found in polynomial time.

Steinberg and Tovey proved that every n-vertex planar triangle-free graph has an independent set of size at least (n+1)/3, and described an infinite class of tight examples. We show that all n-vertex planar triangle-free graphs except for this one infinite class have independent sets of size at least (n+2)/3., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures

Plummer and Toft conjectured in 1987 that the vertices of every 3-connected plane graph with maximum face size D can be colored using at most D+2 colors in such a way that no face is incident with two vertices of the same color. The conjecture has been proven for D=3, D=4 and D>=18. We prove the conjecture for D=16 and D=17., Comment: Accepted to the European Journal of Combinatorics

We give a linear-time algorithm to decide 3-colorability of a triangle-free graph embedded in a fixed surface, and a quadratic-time algorithm to output a 3-coloring in the affirmative case. The algorithms also allow to prescribe the coloring of a bounded number of vertices., Comment: 22 pages, no figures; updated for reviewer remarks, reworked the final section. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1509.01013