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The results of this note were stated in the first author PhD manuscript in 2006 but never published. The writing of a proof given there was slightly careless and the proof itself scattered across the document, the goal of this note is to give a short and clear proof using Farkas Lemma. The first result is a characterization of the acyclic chromatic number of a digraph in terms of cyclic ordering. Using this theorem we prove that for any digraph, one can sequentially reverse the orientations of the arcs of a family of directed cycles so that the resulting digraph has acyclic chromatic number at most 2.

Scott and Seymour conjectured the existence of a function $f \colon \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}$ such that, for every graph $G$ and tournament $T$ on the same vertex set, $\chi(G) \geqslant f(k)$ implies that $\chi(G[N_T^+(v)]) \geqslant k$ for some vertex $v$. In this note we disprove this conjecture even if $v$ is replaced by a vertex set of size $\mathcal{O}(\log{\lvert V(G)\rvert})$. As a consequence, we answer in the negative a question of Harutyunyan, Le, Thomass\'{e}, and Wu concerning the corresponding statement where the graph $G$ is replaced by another tournament, and disprove a related conjecture of Nguyen, Scott, and Seymour. We also show that the setting where chromatic number is replaced by degeneracy exhibits a quite different behaviour., Comment: 7 pages; funding information added

The dichromatic number of an oriented graph is the minimum size of a partition of its vertices into acyclic induced subdigraphs. We prove that oriented graphs with no induced directed path on six vertices and no triangle have bounded dichromatic number. This is one (small) step towards the general conjecture asserting that for every oriented tree T and every integer k, any oriented graph that does not contain an induced copy of T nor a clique of size k has dichromatic number at most some function of k and T., Comment: 9 pages. Thie version corrects some mistakes on page 2 in the introduction, we were incorrectly citing some of the previous papers on the topic

We extend the Grundy number and the ochromatic number, parameters on graph colorings, to digraph colorings, we call them {\emph{digrundy number}} and {\emph{diochromatic number}}, respectively. First, we prove that for every digraph the diochromatic number equals the digrundy number (as it happen for graphs). Then, we prove the interpolation property and the Nordhaus-Gaddum relations for the digrundy number, and improve the Nordhaus-Gaddum relations for the dichromatic and diachromatic numbers bounded previously by the authors in [Electron. J. Combin. 25 (2018) no. 3, Paper {\#} 3.51, 17 pp.], Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

We prove a conjecture by Aboulker, Charbit and Naserasr by showing that every oriented graph in which the out-neighborhood of every vertex induces a transitive tournament can be partitioned into two acyclic induced subdigraphs. We prove multiple extensions of this result to larger classes of digraphs defined by a finite list of forbidden induced subdigraphs. We thereby resolve several special cases of an extension of the famous Gy\'{a}rf\'{a}s-Sumner conjecture to directed graphs by Aboulker et al., Comment: 23 pages

The Grundy number of a graph $G$ is the maximum number of colors used by the First-Fit coloring of $G$ and is denoted by $\Gamma(G)$. Similarly, the ${\rm b}$-chromatic number ${\rm{b}}(G)$ of $G$ expresses the worst case behavior of another well-known coloring procedure i.e. color-dominating coloring of $G$. We obtain some families of graphs $\mathcal{F}$ for which there exists a function $f(x)$ such that $\Gamma(G)\leq f({\rm{b}}(G))$, for each graph $G$ from the family. Call any such family $(\Gamma,b)$-bounded family. We conjecture that the family of ${\rm b}$-monotone graphs is $(\Gamma,b)$-bounded and validate the conjecture for some families of graphs.

A majority coloring of a directed graph is a vertex-coloring in which every vertex has the same color as at most half of its out-neighbors. Kreutzer, Oum, Seymour, van der Zypen and Wood proved that every digraph has a majority 4-coloring and conjectured that every digraph admits a majority 3-coloring. We verify this conjecture for digraphs with chromatic number at most 6 or dichromatic number at most 3. We obtain analogous results for list coloring: We show that every digraph with list chromatic number at most 6 or list dichromatic number at most 3 is majority 3-choosable. We deduce that digraphs with maximum out-degree at most 4 or maximum degree at most 7 are majority 3-choosable. On the way to these results we investigate digraphs admitting a majority 2-coloring. We show that every digraph without odd directed cycles is majority 2-choosable. We answer an open question posed by Kreutzer et al. negatively, by showing that deciding whether a given digraph is majority 2-colorable is NP-complete. Finally we deal with a fractional relaxation of majority coloring proposed by Kreutzer et al. and show that every digraph has a fractional majority 3.9602-coloring. We show that every digraph with minimum out-degree $\Omega\left((1/\varepsilon)^2\ln(1/\varepsilon)\right)$ has a fractional majority $(2+\varepsilon)$-coloring., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures

Neumann-Lara and \v{S}krekovski conjectured that every planar digraph is $2$-colourable. We show that this conjecture is equivalent to the more general statement that all oriented $K_5$-minor-free graphs are $2$-colourable., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures

We study two parameters that arise from the dichromatic number and the vertex-arboricity in the same way that the achromatic number comes from the chromatic number. The adichromatic number of a digraph is the largest number of colors its vertices can be colored with such that every color induces an acyclic subdigraph but merging any two colors yields a monochromatic directed cycle. Similarly, the a-vertex arboricity of an undirected graph is the largest number of colors that can be used such that every color induces a forest but merging any two yields a monochromatic cycle. We study the relation between these parameters and their behavior with respect to other classical parameters such as degeneracy and most importantly feedback vertex sets., Comment: 17 pages, no figures

A vertex coloring of a strong digraph $D$ is a \emph{strong vertex-monochromatic connection coloring (SVMC-coloring)} if for every pair $u, v$ of vertices in $D$ there exists an $(u,v)$-path having all its internal vertices of the same color. Let $smc_v(D)$ denote the maximum number of colors used in an SVMC-coloring of a digraph $D$. In this paper we determine the value of $smc_v(D)$, whenever $D$ is the line digraph of a digraph. Also, if $T$ is a tournament, we give conditions to find the exact value of $smc_v(T)$., Comment: submitted to Discrete Mathematicas

In 1982 V\'{i}ctor Neumann-Lara introduced the dichromatic number of a digraph $D$ as the smallest integer $k$ such that the vertices $V$ of $D$ can be colored with $k$ colors and each color class induces an acyclic digraph. Later a flow theory for the dichromatic number transferring Tutte's theory of nowhere-zero flows (NZ-flows) from classic graph colorings has been developed by Hochst\"attler. The purpose of this paper is to pursue this analogy by introducing a new definition of algebraic Neumann-Lara-flows (NL-flows) and a closed formula for their polynomial. Furthermore we generalize the Equivalence Theorem for nowhere-zero flows to NL-flows in the setting of regular oriented matroids. Finally we discuss computational aspects of computing the NL-flow polynomial for orientations of complete digraphs and obtain a closed formula in the acyclic case., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures

We introduce a new notion of circular colourings for digraphs. The idea of this quantity, called star dichromatic number $\vec{\chi}^\ast(D)$ of a digraph $D$, is to allow a finer subdivision of digraphs with the same dichromatic number into such which are "easier" or "harder" to colour by allowing fractional values. This is related to a coherent notion for the vertex arboricity of graphs introduced by Wang et al. and resembles the concept of the star chromatic number of graphs introduced by Vince in the framework of digraph colouring. After presenting basic properties of the new quantity, including range, simple classes of digraphs, general inequalities and its relation to integer counterparts as well as other concepts of fractional colouring, we compare our notion with the notion of circular colourings for digraphs introduced by Bokal et al. and point out similarities as well as differences in certain situations. As it turns out, the star dichromatic number is a lower bound for the circular dichromatic number of Bokal et al., but the gap between the numbers may be arbitrarily close to $1$. We conclude with a discussion of the case of planar digraphs and point out some open problems., Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure

We consider the extension to directed graphs of the concept of achromatic number in terms of acyclic vertex colorings. The achromatic number have been intensely studied since it was introduced by Harary, Hedetniemi and Prins in 1967. The dichromatic number is a generalization of the chromatic number for digraphs defined by Neumann-Lara in 1982. A coloring of a digraph is an acyclic coloring if each subdigraph induced by each chromatic class is acyclic, and a coloring is complete if for any pair of chromatic classes $x,y$, there is an arc from $x$ to $y$ and an arc from $y$ to $x$. The dichromatic and diachromatic numbers are, respectively, the smallest and the largest number of colors in a complete acyclic coloring. We give some general results for the diachromatic number and study it for tournaments. We also show that the interpolation property for complete acyclic colorings does hold and establish Nordhaus-Gaddum relations., Comment: 12 pages

Given $\eta \in [0, 1]$, a colouring $C$ of $V(G)$ is an $\eta$-majority colouring if at most $\eta d^+(v)$ out-neighbours of $v$ have colour $C(v)$, for any $v \in V(G)$. We show that every digraph $G$ equipped with an assignment of lists $L$, each of size at least $k$, has a $2/k$-majority $L$-colouring. For even $k$ this is best possible, while for odd $k$ the constant $2/k$ cannot be replaced by any number less than $2/(k+1)$. This generalizes a result of Anholcer, Bosek and Grytczuk, who proved the cases $k=3$ and $k=4$ and gave a weaker result for general $k$., Comment: 3 pages

Let $k$ and $\ell$ be positive integers. A cycle with two blocks $c(k,\ell)$ is an oriented cycle which consists of two internally (vertex) disjoint directed paths of lengths at least $k$ and $\ell$, respectively, from a vertex to another one. A problem of Addario-Berry, Havet and Thomass\'e (2007) asked if, given positive integers $k$ and $\ell$ such that $k+\ell\ge 4$, any strongly connected digraph $D$ containing no $c(k,\ell)$ has chromatic number at most $k+\ell-1$. In this paper, we show that such digraph $D$ has chromatic number at most $O((k+\ell)^2)$, improving the previous upper bound $O((k+\ell)^4)$ obtained by Cohen, Havet, Lochet and Nisse (2016). In fact, we are able to find a digraph which shows that the answer to the above problem is no. We also show that if in addition $D$ is Hamiltonian, then its underlying simple graph is $(k+\ell-1)$-degenerate and thus the chromatic number of $D$ is at most $k+\ell$, which is tight., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

The digraph chromatic number of a directed graph $D$, denoted $\chi_A(D)$, is the minimum positive integer $k$ such that there exists a partition of the vertices of $D$ into $k$ disjoint sets, each of which induces an acyclic subgraph. For any $m \geq 1$, a digraph is weakly $m$-degenerate if each of its induced subgraphs has a vertex of in-degree or out-degree less than $m$. We introduce a generalization of the digraph chromatic number, namely $\chi_m(D)$, which is the minimum number of sets into which the vertices of a digraph $D$ can be partitioned so that each set induces a weakly $m$-degenerate subgraph. We show that for all digraphs $D$ without directed 2-cycles, $\chi_m(D) \leq \frac{2{\Delta}(D)}{4m+1} + O(1)$. Because $\chi_1(D) = \chi_A(D)$, we obtain as a corollary that $\chi_A(D) \leq 2/5 \cdot {\Delta}(D) + O(1)$. We then use this bound to show that $\chi_A(D) \leq \sqrt{2/3} \cdot \tilde{\Delta}(D) + O(1)$, substantially improving a bound of Harutyunyan and Mohar that states that $\chi_A(D) \leq (1 - e^{-13})\cdot \tilde\Delta(D)$ for large enough $\tilde\Delta(D)$., Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure

In this paper, we aim to introduce the group version of edge coloring and list edge coloring, and prove that all 2-degenerate graphs along with some planar graphs without adjacent short cycles is group $(\Delta(G)+1)$-edge-choosable while some planar graphs with large girth and maximum degree is group $\Delta(G)$-edge-choosable., Comment: 9 pages, a very minor revision to its first version

We consider vertex coloring of an acyclic digraph $\Gdag$ in such a way that two vertices which have a common ancestor in $\Gdag$ receive distinct colors. Such colorings arise in a natural way when bounding space for various genetic data for efficient analysis. We discuss the corresponding {\em down-chromatic number} and derive an upper bound as a function of $D(\Gdag)$, the maximum number of descendants of a given vertex, and the degeneracy of the corresponding hypergraph. Finally we determine an asymptotically tight upper bound of the down-chromatic number in terms of the number of vertices of $\Gdag$ and $D(\Gdag)$., Comment: 15 pages