List-coloring the Square of a Subcubic Graph
Abstract
The {\em square} $G^2$ of a graph $G$ is the graph with the same vertex set as $G$ and with two vertices adjacent if their distance in $G$ is at most 2. Thomassen showed that every planar graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta(G)=3$ satisfies $\chi(G^2)\leq 7$. Kostochka and Woodall conjectured that for every graph, the list-chromatic number of $G^2$ equals the chromatic number of $G^2$, that is $\chi_l(G^2)=\chi(G^2)$ for all $G$. If true, this conjecture (together with Thomassen's result) implies that every planar graph $G$ with $\Delta(G)=3$ satisfies $\chi_l(G^2)\leq 7$. We prove that every connected graph (not necessarily planar) with $\Delta(G)=3$ other than the Petersen graph satisfies $\chi_l(G^2)\leq 8$ (and this is best possible). In addition, we show that if $G$ is a planar graph with $\Delta(G)=3$ and girth $g(G)\geq 7$, then $\chi_l(G^2)\leq 7$. Dvořák, Škrekovski, and Tancer showed that if $G$ is a planar graph with $\Delta(G) = 3$ and girth $g(G) \geq 10$, then $\chi_l(G^2)\leq 6$. We improve the girth bound to show that if $G$ is a planar graph with $\Delta(G)=3$ and $g(G) \geq 9$, then $\chi_l(G^2) \leq 6$. All of our proofs can be easily translated into linear-time coloring algorithms.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- February 2015
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1503.00157
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1503.00157
- Bibcode:
- 2015arXiv150300157C
- Keywords:
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- Mathematics - Combinatorics;
- 05C15
- E-Print:
- This is the accepted version of the journal paper referenced below, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jgt.20273/abstract. The abstract incorrectly stated that Thomassen solved Wegner's Conjecture for $\Delta(G)=3$