Improved Bounds for Centered Colorings

Abstract

A vertex coloring $\phi$ of a graph $G$ is $p$-centered if for every connected subgraph $H$ of $G$ either $\phi$ uses more than $p$ colors on $H$ or there is a color that appears exactly once on $H$. Centered colorings form one of the families of parameters that allow to capture notions of sparsity of graphs: A class of graphs has bounded expansion if and only if there is a function $f$ such that for every $p\geq1$, every graph in the class admits a $p$-centered coloring using at most $f(p)$ colors. In this paper, we give upper bounds for the maximum number of colors needed in a $p$-centered coloring of graphs from several widely studied graph classes. We show that: (1) planar graphs admit $p$-centered colorings with $O(p^3\log p)$ colors where the previous bound was $O(p^{19})$; (2) bounded degree graphs admit $p$-centered colorings with $O(p)$ colors while it was conjectured that they may require exponential number of colors. All these upper bounds imply polynomial algorithms for computing the colorings. Prior to this work there were no non-trivial lower bounds known. We show that: (4) there are graphs of treewidth $t$ that require $\binom{p+t}{t}$ colors in any $p$-centered coloring. This bound matches the upper bound; (5) there are planar graphs that require $\Omega(p^2\log p)$ colors in any $p$-centered coloring. We also give asymptotically tight bounds for outerplanar graphs and planar graphs of treewidth $3$. We prove our results with various proof techniques. The upper bound for planar graphs involves an application of a recent structure theorem while the upper bound for bounded degree graphs comes from the entropy compression method. We lift the result for bounded degree graphs to graphs avoiding a fixed topological minor using the Grohe-Marx structure theorem.

Universality in minor-closed graph classes

“…Every finite planar graph G is isomorphic to a subgraph of H P , for some planar graph H with treewidth at most 8 and for some path P . Theorem 5.6 has been used to solve several open problems regarding queue layouts [63], non-repetitive colourings [61], centred colourings [58], clustered colourings [62], adjacency labellings (equivalently, strongly universal graphs) [22,60,72], and vertex rankings [25].…”

Shallow Minors, Graph Products and Beyond Planar Graphs

“…Debski et al [17] established that χ p (G ⊠ H) χ p (G)χ(H p ) for all graphs G and H. Pilipczuk and Siebertz [65, Lemma 14] showed that χ p (G)…”

“…Every planar graph is isomorphic to a subgraph of H ⊠ P for some graph H of treewidth at most 8 and for some path P . This breakthrough has been the key tool to resolve several major open problems regarding queue layouts [27], nonrepetitive colourings [26], centred colourings [17], adjacency labelling schemes [10,25,37], and infinite graphs [49]. Treewidth measures how similar a graph is to a tree and is an important parameter in algorithmic and structural graph theory (see [7,44,67]).…”

Structural Properties of Graph Products

“…• H ⊠ P for some graph H of treewidth at most 8 and for some path P ; • H ⊠ P ⊠ K 3 for some graph H of treewidth at most 3 and for some path P . This breakthrough has been the key tool to resolve several major open problems regarding queue layouts [25], nonrepetitive colourings [24], centred colourings [17], and adjacency labelling schemes [7,23,29]. Treewidth measures how similar a graph is to a tree and is an important parameter in algorithmic and structural graph theory (see [4,36,54]).…”