arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Borut Lužar.
Since its beginnings, every Cycles and Colourings workshop holds one or two open problem sessions; this document contains the problems (together with notes regarding the current state of the art and related bibliography) presented by participants of the 33rd edition of the workshop which took place in Nový Smokovec, Slovakia during August 31st - September 5th, 2025 (see the workshop webpage https://candc.upjs.sk).
A normal edge-coloring of a cubic graph is a proper edge-coloring, in which every edge is adjacent to edges colored with four distinct colors or to edges colored with two distinct colors. It is conjectured that $5$ colors suffice for a normal edge-coloring of any bridgeless cubic graph and this statement is equivalent to the Petersen Coloring Conjecture. In this paper, we extend the result of Mazzuoccolo and Mkrtchyan (Normal 6-edge-colorings of some bridgeless cubic graphs, Discrete Appl. Math. 277 (2020), 252--262), who proved that every cycle permutation graph admits a normal edge-coloring with at most $6$ colors. In particular, we show that every cubic graph with oddness $2$ admits a normal edge-coloring with at most $6$ colors.
A strong edge-coloring of a graph is a proper edge-coloring, in which the edges of every path of length 3 receive distinct colors; in other words, every pair of edges at distance at most 2 must be colored differently. The least number of colors needed for a strong edge-coloring of a graph is the strong chromatic index. We consider the list version of the coloring and prove that the list strong chromatic index of graphs with maximum degree 3 is at most 10. This bound is tight and improves the previous bound of 11 colors. We also consider the question whether the strong chromatic index and the list strong chromatic index always coincide. We answer it in negative by presenting an infinite family of graphs for which the two invariants differ. For the special case of the Petersen graph, we show that its list strong chromatic index equals 7, while its strong chromatic index is 5. Up to our best knowledge, this is the first known edge-coloring for which there are graphs with distinct values of the chromatic index and its list version. In relation to the above, we also initiate the study of the list version of the normal edge-coloring. A normal edge-coloring of a cubic graph is a proper edge-coloring, in which every edge is adjacent to edges colored with 4 colors or to edges colored with 2 colors. It is conjectured that 5 colors suffice for a normal edge-coloring of any bridgeless cubic graph which is equivalent to the Petersen Coloring Conjecture. Similarly to strong edge-coloring, list normal edge-coloring is much more restrictive and consequently for many graphs the list normal chromatic index is greater than the normal chromatic index. We show that there are cubic graphs with list normal chromatic index at least $9$, there are bridgeless cubic graphs with its value at least 8, and there are cyclically 4-edge-connected cubic graphs with value at least 7.
We show that every cubic graph on $n$ vertices contains a spanning subgraph in which the number of vertices of each degree deviates from $\frac{n}{4}$ by at most $\frac{1}{2}$, up to three exceptions. This resolves the conjecture of Alon and Wei (Irregular subgraphs, Combin. Probab. Comput. 32(2) (2023), 269--283) for cubic graphs.
We consider the robust chromatic number $χ_1(G)$ of planar graphs $G$ and show that there exists an infinite family of planar graphs $G$ with $χ_1(G) = 3$, thus solving a recent problem of Bacsó~et~al. (The robust chromatic number of graphs, Graphs Combin. 40 (2024), #89).
A {\em packing coloring} of a graph $G$ is a mapping assigning a positive integer (a color) to every vertex of $G$ such that every two vertices of color $k$ are at distance at least $k+1$. The least number of colors needed for a packing coloring of $G$ is called the {\em packing chromatic number} of $G$. In this paper, we continue the study of the packing chromatic number of hypercubes and we improve the upper bounds reported by Torres and Valencia-Pabon ({\em P. Torres, M. Valencia-Pabon, The packing chromatic number of hypercubes, Discrete Appl. Math. 190--191 (2015), 127--140}) by presenting recursive constructions of subsets of distant vertices making use of the properties of the extended Hamming codes. We also answer in negative a question on packing coloring of Cartesian products raised by Brešar, Klavžar, and Rall ({\em Problem 5, Brešar et al., On the packing chromatic number of Cartesian products, hexagonal lattice, and trees. Discrete Appl. Math. 155 (2007), 2303--2311.}).
A graph is {\em locally irregular} if no two adjacent vertices have the same degree. A {\em locally irregular edge-coloring} of a graph $G$ is such an (improper) edge-coloring that the edges of any fixed color induce a locally irregular graph. Among the graphs admitting a locally irregular edge-coloring, i.e., {\em decomposable graphs}, only one is known to require $4$ colors, while for all the others it is believed that $3$ colors suffice. In this paper, we prove that decomposable claw-free graphs with maximum degree $3$, all cycle permutation graphs, and all generalized Petersen graphs admit a locally irregular edge-coloring with at most $3$ colors. We also discuss when $2$ colors suffice for a locally irregular edge-coloring of cubic graphs and present an infinite family of cubic graphs of girth $4$ which require $3$ colors.
A matching $M$ in a graph $G$ is {\em semistrong} if every edge of $M$ has an endvertex of degree one in the subgraph induced by the vertices of $M$. A {\em semistrong edge-coloring} of a graph $G$ is a proper edge-coloring in which every color class induces a semistrong matching. In this paper, we continue investigation of properties of semistrong edge-colorings initiated by Gyárfás and Hubenko ({Semistrong edge coloring of graphs}. \newblock {\em J. Graph Theory}, 49 (2005), 39--47). We establish tight upper bounds for general graphs and for graphs with maximum degree $3$. We also present bounds about semistrong edge-coloring which follow from results regarding other, at first sight non-related, problems. We conclude the paper with several open problems.
An $\ell$-facial edge-coloring of a plane graph is a coloring of its edges such that any two edges at distance at most $\ell$ on a boundary walk of any face receive distinct colors. It is the edge-coloring variant of the $\ell$-facial vertex coloring, which arose as a generalization of the well-known cyclic coloring. It is conjectured that at most $3\ell + 1$ colors suffice for an $\ell$-facial edge-coloring of any plane graph. The conjecture has only been confirmed for $\ell \le 2$, and in this paper, we prove its validity for $\ell = 3$.
A {\em conflict-free coloring} of a graph {\em with respect to open} (resp., {\em closed}) {\em neighborhood} is a coloring of vertices such that for every vertex there is a color appearing exactly once in its open (resp., closed) neighborhood. Similarly, a {\em unique-maximum coloring} of a graph {\em with respect to open} (resp., {\em closed}) {\em neighborhood} is a coloring of vertices such that for every vertex the maximum color appearing in its open (resp., closed) neighborhood appears exactly once. There is a vast amount of literature on both notions where the colorings need not be proper, i.e., adjacent vertices are allowed to have the same color. In this paper, we initiate a study of both colorings in the proper settings with the focus given mainly to planar graphs. We establish upper bounds for the number of colors in the class of planar graphs for all considered colorings and provide constructions of planar graphs attaining relatively high values of the corresponding chromatic numbers. As a main result, we prove that every planar graph admits a proper unique-maximum coloring with respect to open neighborhood with at most 10 colors, and give examples of planar graphs needing at least $6$ colors for such a coloring. We also establish tight upper bounds for outerplanar graphs. Finally, we provide several new bounds also for the improper setting of considered colorings.
The Grötzsch Theorem states that every triangle-free planar graph admits a proper $3$-coloring. Among many of its generalizations, the one of Grünbaum and Aksenov, giving $3$-colorability of planar graphs with at most three triangles, is perhaps the most known. A lot of attention was also given to extending $3$-colorings of subgraphs to the whole graph. In this paper, we consider $3$-colorings of planar graphs with at most one triangle. Particularly, we show that precoloring of any two non-adjacent vertices and precoloring of a face of length at most $4$ can be extended to a $3$-coloring of the graph. Additionally, we show that for every vertex of degree at most $3$, a precoloring of its neighborhood with the same color extends to a $3$-coloring of the graph. The latter result implies an affirmative answer to a conjecture on adynamic coloring. All the presented results are tight.
We present BiqBin, an exact solver for linearly constrained binary quadratic problems. Our approach is based on an exact penalty method to first efficiently transform the original problem into an instance of Max-Cut, and then to solve the Max-Cut problem by a branch-and-bound algorithm. All the main ingredients are carefully developed using new semidefinite programming relaxations obtained by strengthening the existing relaxations with a set of hypermetric inequalities, applying the bundle method as the bounding routine and using new strategies for exploring the branch-and-bound tree. Furthermore, an efficient C implementation of a sequential and a parallel branch-and-bound algorithm is presented. The latter is based on a load coordinator-worker scheme using MPI for multi-node parallelization and is evaluated on a high-performance computer. The new solver is benchmarked against BiqCrunch, GUROBI, and SCIP on four families of (linearly constrained) binary quadratic problems. Numerical results demonstrate that BiqBin is a highly competitive solver. The serial version outperforms the other three solvers on the majority of the benchmark instances. We also evaluate the parallel solver and show that it has good scaling properties. The general audience can use it as an on-line service available at http://www.biqbin.eu.
A proper edge coloring of a graph is strong if it creates no bichromatic path of length three. It is well known that for a strong edge coloring of a $k$-regular graph at least $2k-1$ colors are needed. We show that a $k$-regular graph admits a strong edge coloring with $2k-1$ colors if and only if it covers the Kneser graph $K(2k-1,k-1)$. In particular, a cubic graph is strongly $5$-edge-colorable whenever it covers the Petersen graph. One of the implications of this result is that a conjecture about strong edge colorings of subcubic graphs proposed by Faudree et al. [Ars Combin. 29 B (1990), 205--211] is false.
A star edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge-coloring without bichromatic paths or cycles of length four. The smallest integer $k$ such that $G$ admits a star edge-coloring with $k$ colors is the star chromatic index of $G$. In the seminal paper on the topic, Dvořák, Mohar, and Šámal asked if the star chromatic index of complete graphs is linear in the number of vertices and gave an almost linear upper bound. Their question remains open, and consequently, to better understand the behavior of the star chromatic index, this parameter has been studied for a number of other classes of graphs. In this paper, we consider star edge-colorings of square grids; namely, the Cartesian products of paths and cycles and the Cartesian products of two cycles. We improve previously established bounds and, as a main contribution, we prove that the star chromatic index of graphs in both classes is either $6$ or $7$ except for prisms. Additionally, we give a number of exact values for many considered graphs.
Deciding whether a planar graph (even of maximum degree $4$) is $3$-colorable is NP-complete. Determining subclasses of planar graphs being $3$-colorable has a long history, but since Grötzsch's result that triangle-free planar graphs are such, most of the effort was focused to solving Havel's and Steinberg's conjectures. In this paper, we prove that every planar graph of maximum degree $4$ obtained as a subgraph of the medial graph of any bipartite plane graph is $3$-choosable. These graphs are allowed to have close triangles (even incident), and have no short cycles forbidden, hence representing an entirely different class than the graphs inferred by the above mentioned conjectures.
A $d$-subsequence of a sequence $φ= x_1\dots x_n$ is a subsequence $x_i x_{i+d} x_{i+2d} \dots$, for any positive integer $d$ and any $i$, $1 \le i \le n$. A \textit{$k$-Thue sequence} is a sequence in which every $d$-subsequence, for $1 \le d \le k$, is non-repetitive, i.e. it contains no consecutive equal subsequences. In 2002, Grytczuk proposed a conjecture that for any $k$, $k+2$ symbols are enough to construct a $k$-Thue sequences of arbitrary lengths. So far, the conjecture has been confirmed for $k \in \{1,2,3,5\}$. Here, we present two different proving techniques, and confirm it for all $k$, with $2 \le k \le 8$.
In this paper we consider the scientific and career performance of principal investigators (PI's) of publicly funded research projects compared to scientific performance of all researchers. Our study is based on high quality data about (i) research projects awarded in Slovenia in the period 1994-2016 (7508 projects with 2725 PI's in total) and (ii) about scientific productivity of all researchers in Slovenia that were active in the period 1970-2016 - there are 19598 such researchers in total, including the PI's. We compare average productivity, collaboration, internationality and interdisciplinarity of PI's and of all active researchers. Our analysis shows that for all four indicators the average performance of PI's is much higher compared to average performance of all active researchers. Additionally, we analyze careers of both groups of researchers. The results show that the PI's have on average longer and more fruitful career compared to all active researchers, with regards to all career indicators. The PI's that have received a postdoc grant have at the beginning outstanding scientific performance, but later deviate towards average. On long run, the PI's leading the research programs (the most prestigious grants) on average demonstrate the best scientific performance. In the last part of the paper we study 23 co-authorship networks, spanned by all active researchers in the periods 1970-1994, ..., 1970-2016. We find out that they are well connected and that PI's are well distributed across these networks forming their backbones. Even more, PI's generate new PI's, since more than 90% of new PI's are connected (have at least one joint scientific publication) with existing PI's. We believe that our study sheds new light to the relations between the public funding of the science and the scientific output and can be considered as an affirmative answer to the question posed in the title.
A facial unique-maximum coloring of a plane graph is a vertex coloring where on each face $α$ the maximal color appears exactly once on the vertices of $α$. If the coloring is required to be proper, then the upper bound for the minimal number of colors required for such a coloring is set to $5$. Fabrici and Göring [Fabrici and Goring 2016] even conjectured that $4$ colors always suffice. Confirming the conjecture would hence give a considerable strengthening of the Four Color Theorem. In this paper, we prove that the conjecture holds for subcubic plane graphs, outerplane graphs and plane quadrangulations. Additionally, we consider the facial edge-coloring analogue of the aforementioned coloring and prove that every $2$-connected plane graph admits such a coloring with at most $4$ colors.