Goldberg's Conjecture is true for random multigraphs

TL;DR

This paper proves that Goldberg's conjecture on the chromatic index of multigraphs holds with high probability for random multigraphs, showing that their chromatic index equals the maximum degree or the ceiling of the density, depending on the number of edges.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Goldberg's conjecture is true for random multigraphs, providing probabilistic evidence and precise thresholds for the chromatic index in such graphs.

Findings

For even n, typical random multigraphs have chromatic index equal to maximum degree.

For odd n, the chromatic index equals maximum degree when edges are below a threshold.

For odd n, the chromatic index equals the ceiling of the density above a certain edge count.

Abstract

In the 70s, Goldberg, and independently Seymour, conjectured that for any multigraph $G$, the chromatic index $\chi'(G)$ satisfies $\chi'(G)\leq \max \{\Delta(G)+1, \lceil\rho(G)\rceil\}$, where $\rho(G)=\max \{\frac {e(G[S])}{\lfloor |S|/2\rfloor} \mid S\subseteq V \}$. We show that their conjecture (in a stronger form) is true for random multigraphs. Let $M(n,m)$ be the probability space consisting of all loopless multigraphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, in which $m$ pairs from $[n]$ are chosen independently at random with repetitions. Our result states that, for a given $m:=m(n)$, $M\sim M(n,m)$ typically satisfies $\chi'(G)=\max\{\Delta(G),\lceil\rho(G)\rceil\}$. In particular, we show that if $n$ is even and $m:=m(n)$, then $\chi'(M)=\Delta(M)$ for a typical $M\sim M(n,m)$. Furthermore, for a fixed $\varepsilon>0$, if $n$ is odd, then a typical $M\sim M(n,m)$ has $\chi'(M)=\Delta(M)$ for $m\leq (1-\varepsilon)n^3\log n$, and $\chi'(M)=\lceil\rho(M)\rceil$ for $m\geq (1+\varepsilon)n^3\log n$.