Abstract. A sequence a = a 1 a 2 ...an is said to be non-repetitive if no two adjacent blocks of a are exactly the same. For instance the sequence 1232321 contains a repetition 2323, while 123132123213 is non-repetitive. A theorem of Thue asserts that, using only three symbols, one can produce arbitrarily long non-repetitive sequences. In this paper we consider a natural generalization of Thue's sequences for colorings of graphs. A coloring of the set of edges of a given graph G is non-repetitive if the sequence of colors on any path in G is non-repetitive. We call the minimal number of colors needed for such a coloring the Thue number of G and denote it by π(G).The main problem we consider is the relation between the numbers π(G) and ∆(G). We show, by an application of the Lovász Local Lemma, that the Thue number stays bounded for graphs with bounded maximum degree, in particular, π(G) ≤ c∆(G) 2 for some absolute constant c. For certain special classes of graphs we obtain linear upper bounds on π(G), by giving explicit colorings. For instance, the Thue number of the complete graph Kn is at most 2n − 3, and π(T ) ≤ 4(∆(T ) − 1) for any tree T with at least two edges. We conclude by discussing some generalizations and proposing several problems and conjectures.
Suppose the edges of a graph G are assigned 3-element lists of real weights. Is it possible to choose a weight for each edge from its list so that the sums of weights around adjacent vertices were different? We prove that the answer is positive for several classes of graphs, including complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs, and trees (except K 2 ). The argument is algebraic and uses permanents of matrices and Combinatorial Nullstellensatz. We also consider a directed version of the problem. We prove by an elementary argument that for digraphs the answer to the above question is positive even with lists of size two. Conjecture 2. Every graph without an isolated edge is 3-weight choosable.We prove Conjecture 2 for several classes of graphs, including cliques, complete bipartite graphs, and trees, by providing general recursive constructions preserving the desired algebraic properties. We also consider a natural oriented version of the problem. By an elementary argument we show that any directed graph is 2-weight Journal of Graph Theory
A sequence is nonrepetitive if it does not contain two adjacent identical blocks. The remarkable construction of Thue asserts that three symbols are enough to build an arbitrarily long nonrepetitive sequence. It is still not settled whether the following extension holds: for every sequence of three‐element sets L1,…,Ln there exists a nonrepetitive sequence s1,…,sn with si∈Li. We propose a new non‐constructive way to build long nonrepetitive sequences and provide an elementary proof that sets of size 4 suffice confirming the best known bound. The simple double counting in the heart of the argument is inspired by the recent algorithmic proof of the Lovász local lemma due to Moser and Tardos. Furthermore we apply this approach and present game‐theoretic type results on nonrepetitive sequences. Nonrepetitive game is played by two players who pick, one by one, consecutive terms of a sequence over a given set of symbols. The first player tries to avoid repetitions, while the second player, in contrast, wants to create them. Of course, by simple imitation, the second player can force lots of repetitions of size 1. However, as proved by Pegden, there is a strategy for the first player to build an arbitrarily long sequence over 37 symbols with no repetitions of size greater than 1. Our techniques allow to reduce 37–6. Another game we consider is the erase‐repetition game. Here, whenever a repetition occurs, the repeated block is immediately erased and the next player to move continues the play. We prove that there is a strategy for the first player to build an arbitrarily long nonrepetitive sequence over 8 symbols. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2012
A vertex coloringfof a graphGisnonrepetitiveif there are no integerr≥1and a simple pathv1,…,v2rinGsuch thatf(vi)=f(vr+i)for alli=1,…,r. This notion is a graph-theoretic variant of nonrepetitive sequences of Thue. The paper surveys problems and results on this topic.
A sequence S =s 1 s 2 . . . s n is said to be nonrepetitive if no two adjacent blocks of S are the same. A celebrated 1906 theorem of Thue asserts that there are arbitrarily long nonrepetitive sequences over the set {0, 1, 2}. This result is the starting point of Combinatorics on Words-a wide area with many deep results, sophisticated methods, important applications and intriguing open problems.The main purpose of this survey is to present a range of new directions relating Thue sequences more closely to Graph Theory, Combinatorial Geometry, and Number Theory. For instance, one may consider graph colorings avoiding repetitions on paths, or colorings of points in the plane avoiding repetitions on straight lines. Besides presenting a variety of new challenges we also recall some older problems of this area.
The Ramsey game we consider in this paper is played on an unbounded set of vertices by two players, called Builder and Painter. In one move Builder introduces a new edge and Painter paints it red or blue. The goal of Builder is to force Painter to create a monochromatic copy of a fixed target graph $H$, keeping the constructed graph in a prescribed class ${\cal G}$. The main problem is to recognize the winner for a given pair $H,{\cal G}$. In particular, we prove that Builder has a winning strategy for any $k$-colorable graph $H$ in the game played on $k$-colorable graphs. Another class of graphs with this strange self-unavoidability property is the class of forests. We show that the class of outerplanar graphs does not have this property. The question of whether planar graphs are self-unavoidable is left open. We also consider a multicolor version of Ramsey on-line game. To extend our main result for $3$-colorable graphs we introduce another Ramsey type game, which seems interesting in its own right.
Abstract. A sequence a = a 1 a 2 ...an is said to be non-repetitive if no two adjacent blocks of a are exactly the same. For instance the sequence 1232321 contains a repetition 2323, while 123132123213 is non-repetitive. A theorem of Thue asserts that, using only three symbols, one can produce arbitrarily long non-repetitive sequences. In this paper we consider a natural generalization of Thue's sequences for colorings of graphs. A coloring of the set of edges of a given graph G is non-repetitive if the sequence of colors on any path in G is non-repetitive. We call the minimal number of colors needed for such a coloring the Thue number of G and denote it by π(G).The main problem we consider is the relation between the numbers π(G) and ∆(G). We show, by an application of the Lovász Local Lemma, that the Thue number stays bounded for graphs with bounded maximum degree, in particular, π(G) ≤ c∆(G) 2 for some absolute constant c. For certain special classes of graphs we obtain linear upper bounds on π(G), by giving explicit colorings. For instance, the Thue number of the complete graph Kn is at most 2n − 3, and π(T ) ≤ 4(∆(T ) − 1) for any tree T with at least two edges. We conclude by discussing some generalizations and proposing several problems and conjectures.
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