On the dichromatic number of surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates the maximum dichromatic number of graphs on surfaces, providing asymptotic bounds related to surface Euler characteristics and exact values for specific surfaces, along with complexity results for related coloring problems.

Contribution

It establishes asymptotic bounds for the dichromatic number on surfaces and determines exact values for several key surfaces, advancing understanding of graph colorings on topological surfaces.

Findings

Asymptotic bounds: $a_1\frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} \leq \vec{\chi}(\Sigma) \leq a_2 \frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)}$

Exact dichromatic numbers for specific surfaces: projective plane, Klein bottle, torus, Dyck's surface are 3; 5-torus and 10-cross surface are 4.

Deciding 2-dicolourability is NP-complete for any fixed surface.

Abstract

In this paper, we give bounds on the dichromatic number $\vec{\chi}(\Sigma)$ of a surface $\Sigma$, which is the maximum dichromatic number of an oriented graph embeddable on $\Sigma$. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of $\vec{\chi}(\Sigma)$ by showing that there exist constants $a_1$ and $a_2$ such that, $a_1\frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} \leq \vec{\chi}(\Sigma) \leq a_2 \frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} $ for every surface $\Sigma$ with Euler characteristic $c\leq -2$. We then give more explicit bounds for some surfaces with high Euler characteristic. In particular, we show that the dichromatic numbers of the projective plane $\mathbb{N}_1$, the Klein bottle $\mathbb{N}_2$, the torus $\mathbb{S}_1$, and Dyck's surface $\mathbb{N}_3$ are all equal to $3$, and that the dichromatic numbers of the $5$-torus $\mathbb{S}_5$ and the $10$-cross surface $\mathbb{N}_{10}$ are equal to $4$. We also consider the complexity of deciding whether a given digraph or oriented graph embeddable on a fixed surface is $k$-dicolourable. In particular, we show that for any fixed surface, deciding whether a digraph embeddable on this surface is $2$-dicolourable is NP-complete, and that deciding whether a planar oriented graph is $2$-dicolourable is NP-complete unless all planar oriented graphs are $2$-dicolourable (which was conjectured by Neumann-Lara).