Optimal Colorings with Rainbow Paths

TL;DR

This paper proves that for any connected graph with chromatic number k, there exists a k-coloring where every vertex lies on a full rainbow path, addressing open questions about rainbow paths in proper colorings.

Contribution

It establishes the existence of special k-colorings ensuring full rainbow paths through all vertices, solving two open problems in graph coloring theory.

Findings

Every vertex lies on a full rainbow path in some k-coloring.

If the graph contains a cycle of length k, a coloring exists where each vertex starts a full rainbow path.

Additional results on optimal colorings with rainbow paths are provided.

Abstract

Let $G$ be a connected graph of chromatic number $k$. For a $k$-coloring $f$ of $G$, a full $f$-rainbow path is a path of order $k$ in $G$ whose vertices are all colored differently by $f$. We show that $G$ has a $k$-coloring $f$ such that every vertex of $G$ lies on a full $f$-rainbow path, which provides a positive answer to a question posed by Lin (Simple proofs of results on paths representing all colors in proper vertex-colorings, Graphs Combin. 23 (2007) 201-203). Furthermore, we show that if $G$ has a cycle of length $k$, then $G$ has a $k$-coloring $f$ such that, for every vertex $u$ of $G$, some full $f$-rainbow path begins at $u$, which solves a problem posed by Bessy and Bousquet (Colorful paths for 3-chromatic graphs, arXiv 1503.00965v1). Finally, we establish some more results on the existence of optimal colorings with (directed) full rainbow paths.