Good upper bounds for the total rainbow connection of graphs

TL;DR

This paper establishes new upper bounds for the total rainbow connection number in graphs based on minimum degree and order, showing it can be constant when degree is proportional to size.

Contribution

It provides improved bounds for the total rainbow connection number depending on minimum degree, including tight bounds for specific degree values, advancing understanding of graph connectivity.

Findings

Bound of trc(G) ≤ 6n/(δ+1)+28 for high minimum degree

Bound of trc(G) ≤ 7n/(δ+1)+32 for moderate minimum degree

Examples show bounds are tight up to additive factors for δ ≥ √(n-2)-1

Abstract

A total-colored graph is a graph $G$ such that both all edges and all vertices of $G$ are colored. A path in a total-colored graph $G$ is a total rainbow path if its edges and internal vertices have distinct colors. A total-colored graph $G$ is total-rainbow connected if any two vertices of $G$ are connected by a total rainbow path of $G$. The total rainbow connection number of $G$, denoted by $trc(G)$, is defined as the smallest number of colors that are needed to make $G$ total-rainbow connected. These concepts were introduced by Liu et al. Notice that for a connected graph $G$, $2diam(G)-1\leq trc(G)\leq 2n-3$, where $diam(G)$ denotes the diameter of $G$ and $n$ is the order of $G$. In this paper we show, for a connected graph $G$ of order $n$ with minimum degree $\delta$, that $trc(G)\leq6n/{(\delta+1)}+28$ for $\delta\geq\sqrt{n-2}-1$ and $n\geq 291$, while $trc(G)\leq7n/{(\delta+1)}+32$ for $16\leq\delta\leq\sqrt{n-2}-2$ and $trc(G)\leq7n/{(\delta+1)}+4C(\delta)+12$ for $6\leq\delta\leq15$, where $C(\delta)=e^{\frac{3\log({\delta}^3+2{\delta}^2+3)-3(\log3-1)}{\delta-3}}-2$. This implies that when $\delta$ is in linear with $n$, then the total rainbow number $trc(G)$ is a constant. We also show that $trc(G)\leq 7n/4-3$ for $\delta=3$, $trc(G)\leq8n/5-13/5$ for $\delta=4$ and $trc(G)\leq3n/2-3$ for $\delta=5$. Furthermore, an example shows that our bound can be seen tight up to additive factors when $\delta\geq\sqrt{n-2}-1$.