Total coloring Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
In graph theory, total coloring is a type of coloring on the vertices and edges of a graph. When used without any qualification, a total coloring is always assumed to be proper in the sense that no adjacent vertices, no incident edges, and no edge and its endvertices are assigned the same color. The total chromatic number χ″(G) a graph G is the least number of colors needed in any total coloring of G.The total graph T = T(G) of a graph G is a graph such that (i) the vertex set of T corresponds to the vertices and edges of G and (ii) two vertices are adjacent in T if and only if their corresponding elements are either adjacent or incident in G. Then total coloring becomes a (proper) vertex coloring of the total graph.
Some properties of χ″(G):
- χ″(G) ≥ Δ(G) + 1.
- χ″(G) ≤ Δ(G) + 1026. (Molloy, Reed 1998)
- χ″(G) ≤ Δ(G) + 8 ln8(Δ(G)) for sufficiently large Δ(G). (Hind, Molloy, Reed 1998)
- χ″(G) ≤ ch′(G) + 2.
Total coloring arises naturally since it is simply a mix of vertex and edge colorings. The next step is to look for any Brooks-typed or Vizing-typed upper bound on the total chromatic number in terms of maximum degree. It turns out that the total coloring version of maximum degree upper bound is a difficult problem and has eluded mathematicians for 40 years. The most well-known speculation is the following.
Total coloring conjecture. (Behzad, Vizing)
- χ″(G) ≤ Δ(G) + 2.
Results related to total coloring have been obtained. For example, Kilakos and Reed (1993) proved that the fractional chromatic number of the total graph of a graph G is at most Δ(G) + 2.
