Local Girth Choosability of Planar Graphs

Abstract

In 1994, Thomassen famously proved that every planar graph is 5-choosable, resolving a conjecture initially posed by Vizing and, independently, Erd˝os, Rubin, and Taylor in the 1970s. Later, Thomassen proved that every planar graph of girth at least five is 3-choosable. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a local girth list assignment: a list assignment wherein the list size of a vertex depends not on the girth of the graph, but rather on the length of the shortest cycle in which the vertex is contained. We give a local list colouring theorem unifying the two theorems of Thomassen mentioned above. In particular, we show that if G is a planar graph and L is a list assignment for G such that |L(v)| ≥ 3 for all v ∈ V(G); |L(v)| ≥ 4 for every vertex v contained in a 4-cycle; and |L(v)| ≥ 5 for every v contained in a triangle, then G admits an L-colouring.