On two conjectures about the proper connection number of graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates two conjectures about the proper connection number of graphs, providing counterexamples to one and proving the other for specific graph classes, thereby advancing understanding of edge-coloring properties related to connectivity.

Contribution

The paper disproves a conjecture about the proper connection number for certain graphs and proves a related conjecture for 2-connected graphs with diameter 3.

Findings

Counterexamples to the conjecture for graphs with connectivity 2 and minimum degree at least 3.

Proof that 3-edge-connected noncomplete graphs have proper connection number 2.

Verification that 2-connected noncomplete graphs with diameter 3 have proper connection number 2.

Abstract

A path in an edge-colored graph is called proper if no two consecutive edges of the path receive the same color. For a connected graph $G$, the proper connection number $pc(G)$ of $G$ is defined as the minimum number of colors needed to color its edges so that every pair of distinct vertices of $G$ are connected by at least one proper path in $G$. In this paper, we consider two conjectures on the proper connection number of graphs. The first conjecture states that if $G$ is a noncomplete graph with connectivity $\kappa(G) = 2$ and minimum degree $\delta(G)\ge 3$, then $pc(G) = 2$, posed by Borozan et al.~in [Discrete Math. 312(2012), 2550-2560]. We give a family of counterexamples to disprove this conjecture. However, from a result of Thomassen it follows that 3-edge-connected noncomplete graphs have proper connection number 2. Using this result, we can prove that if $G$ is a 2-connected noncomplete graph with $diam(G)=3$, then $pc(G) = 2$, which solves the second conjecture we want to mention, posed by Li and Magnant in [Theory \& Appl. Graphs 0(1)(2015), Art.2].