A lower bound on the number of edges in DP-critical graphs

Abstract

A graph $G$ is $k$-critical (list $k$-critical, DP $k$-critical) if $χ(G)= k$ ($χ_\ell(G)= k$, $χ_\mathrm{DP}(G)= k$) and for every proper subgraph $G'$ of $G$, $χ(G') \left(k - 1 + \left \lceil \frac{k^2 - 7}{2k-7} \right \rceil^{-1}\right)\frac{n}{2}.$$ This is the first bound on $f_\mathrm{DP}(n,k)$ that is asymptotically better than the well-known bound on $f(n,k)$ by Gallai from 1963. The result also yields a slightly better bound on $f_{\ell}(n,k)$ than the ones known before.