Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2405.19543

Coloring minimal Cayley graphs

Ignacio García-Marco·Kolja Knauer
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

In 1978 Babai raised the question whether all minimal Cayley graphs have bounded chromatic number; in 1994 he conjectured a negative answer. In this paper we show that any minimal Cayley graph of a (finitely generated) generalized dihedral or nilpotent group has chromatic number at most 3, while 4 colors are sometimes necessary for soluble groups. On the other hand we address a related question proposed by Babai in 1978 by constructing graphs of unbounded chromatic number that admit a proper edge coloring such that each cycle has some color at least twice. The latter can be viewed as a step towards confirming Babai's 1994 conjecture -- a problem that remains open.

Explore related subjects

math.CO

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Ignacio García-Marco, Kolja Knauer. 2024-12-06. Coloring minimal Cayley graphs. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19543

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Adjunctions, Box Products, and Forcing Families

Sidorenko's conjecture states that the number of copies of any given bipartite graph in another graph of given density is asymptotically minimized by a random graph. For bipartite graphs containing a cycle, the forcing conjecture further asserts that asymptotic equality characterizes quasi-random graphs. We establish an adjoint identity for a general class of graph-substitution operators and use it to obtain Sidorenko and forcing results for balanced blow-ups, subdivisions, Cartesian products, and strong products.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

On the Cost Number of Graphs with Determining Number Two

A distinguishing vertex coloring of a graph $G$ is a vertex coloring such that only the identity automorphism of $G$ preserves the coloring. A graph is $2$-distinguishable if it admits a distinguishing vertex coloring with two colors, and its cost $ρ(G)$ is the minimum size of a color class in such a coloring. The determining number of a graph $G$, denoted by $Det(G)$, is the minimum size of a subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ such that only the trivial automorphism fixes every element of $S$ pointwise. Boutin (J. Combin. Math. Combin. Comput. 85: 161-171, 2013) asked if $ρ(G)$ and $Det(G)$ can be arbitrarily far apart. While the case for $Det(G) = 1$ is trivial, the answer remained unknown for $Det(G) \ge 2$. In this manuscript, we show that if $Det(G)=2$ then not only is $ρ(G)$ bounded, but in fact $ρ(G) \leq 4$. This is the first resolution of Boutin's question for any nontrivial fixed determining number. Moreover, for every fixed $Det(G)= n$, we construct examples giving a lower bound on any possible upper bound for $ρ(G)$ in terms of $n$.

math.CO↗