Strong Cliques in Claw-Free Graphs

Abstract

For a graph G, $$L(G)^2$$ L ( G ) 2 is the square of the line graph of G – that is, vertices of $$L(G)^2$$ L ( G ) 2 are edges of G and two edges $$e,f\in E(G)$$ e , f ∈ E ( G ) are adjacent in $$L(G)^2$$ L ( G ) 2 if at least one vertex of e is adjacent to a vertex of f and $$e\ne f$$ e ≠ f . The strong chromatic index of G, denoted by $$s'(G)$$ s ′ ( G ) , is the chromatic number of $$L(G)^2$$ L ( G ) 2 . A strong clique in G is a clique in $$L(G)^2$$ L ( G ) 2 . Finding a bound for the maximum size of a strong clique in a graph with given maximum degree is a problem connected to a famous conjecture of Erdős and Nešetřil concerning strong chromatic index of graphs. In this note we prove that a size of a strong clique in a claw-free graph with maximum degree $$\varDelta $$ Δ is at most $$\varDelta ^2 + \frac{1}{2}\varDelta $$ Δ 2 + 1 2 Δ . This result improves the only known result $$1.125\varDelta ^2+\varDelta $$ 1.125 Δ 2 + Δ , which is a bound for the strong chromatic index of claw-free graphs.