Edge coloring of graphs of signed class 1 and 2

TL;DR

This paper introduces new classes of graphs based on the chromatic index of signed graphs, showing which graphs have a signature-independent chromatic index and characterizing their properties.

Contribution

It defines classes $1^\ ext{\pm}$ and $2^\pm$ of graphs where the chromatic index is signature-independent, and characterizes these classes with examples and necessary conditions.

Findings

All wheels, necklaces, and certain bipartite graphs are of class $1^\pm$.

Graphs of class $2^\pm$ must have odd maximum degree.

Provides conditions for a graph to be of class $2^\pm$.

Abstract

Recently, Behr introduced a notion of the chromatic index of signed graphs and proved that for every signed graph $(G$, $\sigma)$ it holds that \[ \Delta(G)\leq\chi'(G\text{, }\sigma)\leq\Delta(G)+1\text{,} \] where $\Delta(G)$ is the maximum degree of $G$ and $\chi'$ denotes its chromatic index. In general, the chromatic index of $(G$, $\sigma)$ depends on both the underlying graph $G$ and the signature $\sigma$. In the paper we study graphs $G$ for which $\chi'(G$, $\sigma)$ does not depend on $\sigma$. To this aim we introduce two new classes of graphs, namely $1^\pm$ and $2^\pm$, such that graph $G$ is of class $1^\pm$ (respectively, $2^\pm$) if and only if $\chi'(G$, $\sigma)=\Delta(G)$ (respectively, $\chi'(G$, $\sigma)=\Delta(G)+1$) for all possible signatures $\sigma$. We prove that all wheels, necklaces, complete bipartite graphs $K_{r,t}$ with $r\neq t$ and almost all cacti graphs are of class $1^\pm$. Moreover, we give sufficient and necessary conditions for a graph to be of class $2^\pm$, i.e. we show that these graphs must have odd maximum degree and give examples of such graphs with arbitrary odd maximum degree bigger that $1$.