Title
Local chromatic number of quadrangulations of surfaces
Abstract
The local chromatic number of a graph G, as introduced in [4], is the minimum integer k such that G admits a proper coloring (with an arbitrary number of colors) in which the neighborhood of each vertex uses less than k colors. In [17] a connection of the local chromatic number to topological properties of (a box complex of) the graph was established and in [18] it was shown that a topological condition implying the usual chromatic number being at least four has the stronger consequence that the local chromatic number is also at least four. As a consequence one obtains a generalization of the following theorem of Youngs [19]: If a quadrangulation of the projective plane is not bipartite it has chromatic number four. The generalization states that in this case the local chromatic number is also four.Both papers [1] and [13] generalize Youngs' result to arbitrary non-orientable surfaces replacing the condition of the graph being not bipartite by a more technical condition of an odd quadrangulation. This paper investigates when these general results are true for the local chromatic number instead of the chromatic number. Surprisingly, we find out that (unlike in the case of the chromatic number) this depends on the genus of the surface. For the non-orientable surfaces of genus at most four, the local chromatic number of any odd quadrangulation is at least four, but this is not true for non-orientable surfaces of genus 5 or higher.We also prove that face subdivisions of odd quadrangulations and Fisk triangulations of arbitrary surfaces exhibit the same behavior for the local chromatic number as they do for the usual chromatic number.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1007/s00493-013-2771-y
Combinatorica
Keywords
Field
DocType
arbitrary surface,non-orientable surface,chromatic number,arbitrary number,odd quadrangulation,odd quadrangulations,graph g,local chromatic number,usual chromatic number,arbitrary non-orientable,projective plane
Integer,Discrete mathematics,Graph,Combinatorics,Chromatic scale,Vertex (geometry),Bipartite graph,Subdivision,Projective plane,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
33
4
0209-9683
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.37
8
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Bojan Mohar11523192.05
Gábor Simonyi224929.78
Gábor Tardos31261140.58