The Distance Coloring of Graphs

TL;DR

This paper establishes upper bounds for the chromatic number of power graphs of connected graphs with maximum degree at least 3, using structural properties and spectral radius, with characterizations of equality cases.

Contribution

It provides new bounds on the distance chromatic number of graphs based on degree, girth, connectivity, and spectral radius, extending previous results and characterizing equality cases.

Findings

Upper bound for $oldsymbol{ ext{chromatic number}}$ of power graphs depending on maximum degree.

Spectral radius bounds for the case $oldsymbol{ ext{distance} ext{ } 2}$ coloring.

Characterization of graphs achieving equality in bounds.

Abstract

Let $G$ be a connected graph with maximum degree $\Delta \ge 3$. We investigate the upper bound for the chromatic number $\chi_\gamma(G)$ of the power graph $G^\gamma$. It was proved that $\chi_\gamma(G) \le\Delta\frac{(\Delta-1)^{\gamma}-1}{\Delta-2}+1=:M+1$ with equality if and only $G$ is a Moore graph. If $G$ is not a Moore graph, and $G$ holds one of the following conditions: (1) $G$ is non-regular, (2) the girth $g(G) \le 2\gamma-1$, (3) $g(G) \ge 2\gamma+2$, and the connectivity $\kappa(G) \ge 3$ if $\gamma \ge 3$, $\kappa(G) \ge 4$ but $g(G) >6$ if $\gamma =2$, (4) $\Delta$ is sufficiently large than a given number only depending on $\gamma$, then $\chi_\gamma(G) \le M-1$. By means of the spectral radius $\lambda_1(G)$ of the adjacency matrix of $G$, it was shown that $\chi_2(G) \le \lambda_1(G)^2+1$, with equality holds if and only if $G$ is a star or a Moore graph with diameter 2 and girth 5, and $\chi_\gamma(G) < \lambda_1(G)^\gamma+1$ if $\gamma \ge 3$.