{"title":"Coloring minimal Cayley graphs","authors":"Ignacio García-Marco , Kolja Knauer","doi":"10.1016/j.ejc.2024.104108","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In 1978 Babai raised the question whether all minimal Cayley graphs have bounded chromatic number; in 1994 he conjectured a negative answer. In this paper we show that any minimal Cayley graph of a (finitely generated) generalized dihedral or nilpotent group has chromatic number at most 3, while 4 colors are sometimes necessary for soluble groups. On the other hand we address a related question proposed by Babai in 1978 by constructing graphs of unbounded chromatic number that admit a proper edge coloring such that each cycle has some color at least twice. The latter can be viewed as a step towards confirming Babai’s 1994 conjecture – a problem that remains open.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50490,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Combinatorics","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104108"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Combinatorics","FirstCategoryId":"100","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195669824001938","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MATHEMATICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In 1978 Babai raised the question whether all minimal Cayley graphs have bounded chromatic number; in 1994 he conjectured a negative answer. In this paper we show that any minimal Cayley graph of a (finitely generated) generalized dihedral or nilpotent group has chromatic number at most 3, while 4 colors are sometimes necessary for soluble groups. On the other hand we address a related question proposed by Babai in 1978 by constructing graphs of unbounded chromatic number that admit a proper edge coloring such that each cycle has some color at least twice. The latter can be viewed as a step towards confirming Babai’s 1994 conjecture – a problem that remains open.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Combinatorics is a high standard, international, bimonthly journal of pure mathematics, specializing in theories arising from combinatorial problems. The journal is primarily open to papers dealing with mathematical structures within combinatorics and/or establishing direct links between combinatorics and other branches of mathematics and the theories of computing. The journal includes full-length research papers on important topics.