Paper 3, Section II, F

Graph Theory
Part II, 2009

(a) State Brooks' theorem concerning the chromatic number χ(G)\chi(G) of a graph GG. Prove it in the case when GG is 3-connected.

[If you wish to assume that GG is regular, you should explain why this assumption is justified.]

(b) State Vizing's theorem concerning the edge-chromatic number χ(G)\chi^{\prime}(G) of a graph GG.

(c) Are the following statements true or false? Justify your answers.

(1) If GG is a connected graph on more than two vertices then χ(G)χ(G)\chi(G) \leqslant \chi^{\prime}(G).

(2) For every ordering of the vertices of a graph GG, if we colour GG using the greedy algorithm (on this ordering) then the number of colours we use is at most 2χ(G)2 \chi(G).

(3) For every ordering of the edges of a graph GG, if we edge-colour GG using the greedy algorithm (on this ordering) then the number of colours we use is at most 2χ(G)2 \chi^{\prime}(G).