On the pseudoachromatic index of the complete graph III

TL;DR

This paper improves bounds on the pseudoachromatic number of complete line graphs, providing new upper bounds and explicit colorings for certain graph orders, especially when the order relates to projective planes of even order.

Contribution

It introduces improved upper bounds for the pseudoachromatic number and constructs explicit edge-colorings for complete graphs based on projective plane properties.

Findings

Enhanced upper bounds for specific graph orders.

Explicit edge-colorings achieving these bounds.

Extension of previous results for certain parameter ranges.

Abstract

Let $ \Pi_q $ be the projective plane of order $ q $, let $\psi(m):=\psi(L(K_m))$ the pseudoachromatic number of the complete line graph of order $ m $, let $ a\in \{ 3,4,\dots,\tfrac{q}{2}+1 \} $ and $ m_a=(q+1)^2-a $. In this paper, we improve the upper bound of $ \psi(m) $ given by Araujo-Pardo et al. [J Graph Theory 66 (2011), 89--97] and Jamison [Discrete Math. 74 (1989), 99--115] in the following values: if $ x\geq 2 $ is an integer and $m\in \{4x^2-x,\dots,4x^2+3x-3\}$ then $\psi(m) \leq 2x(m-x-1)$. On the other hand, if $ q $ is even and there exists $ \Pi_q $ we give a complete edge-colouring of $ K_{m_a} $ with $(m_a-a)q$ colours. Moreover, using this colouring we extend the previous results for $a=\{-1,0,1,2\}$ given by Araujo-Pardo et al. in [J Graph Theory 66 (2011), 89--97] and [Bol. Soc. Mat. Mex. (2014) 20:17--28] proving that $\psi(m_a)=(m_a-a)q$ for $ a\in \{3,4,\dots,\left\lceil \frac{1+\sqrt{4q+9}}{2}\right\rceil -1 \} $.