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What is a guarenteed amount of colors, depending on the graph's arboricity

Submitted by: @import:stackexchange-cs··
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thegraphwhatamountcolorsguarenteedarboricitydepending

Problem

Let $G=(V,E)$ and denote $d=d(G)$ its maximal degree and $a=a(G)$ its arboricity. My question is: what is the smallest amount of colors $f(a)$, such that a $f(a)$-coloring is guarenteed to exist?

For example, $f(d)=d+1$, because a $d+1$-coloring always exists.

My assumption is that $f(a)=2a$. Because each forest can be colored by $2$ colors (Am I correct?), and by using unique color palleteus, we get a $2a$-coloring.

I would like to ask:

  • Is my explanation correct?



  • Is there a smaller function (depending only on $a$)?

Solution

Your explanation is correct.

And, you can not do better than $f(a) = 2a$. For example, take a complete graph on $4$ vertices: $a,b,c,d$. The Arboricity is $2$ since $(a,b), (b,c),$ and $(c,d)$ forms the first tree, and the remaining edges form the second tree. The graph is colorable with exactly four colors.

In fact, the Arboricity of a complete graph on $n$ vertices ($n = even$) is $n/2$ [link]. Therefore, the function $f(a) = 2a$ is the best possible you can get.

Context

StackExchange Computer Science Q#141204, answer score: 4

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