A possibly infinite series of surfaces with known 1-chromatic number (Q1367034)

A graph is called 1-immersable into a surface if it can be represented on this surface so that each edge is crossed over by no more than one other edge. The 1-chromatic number \(\chi_1(S)\) of a surface \(S\) is the maximum chromatic number for all graphs 1-immersable into \(S\). The nonorientable surface of genus \(q\) is denoted by \(N_q\) and \(F(S)=\lfloor\frac{1}{2}(9+\sqrt{81-32E(S)})\rfloor\), where \(E(S)\) is the Euler characteristic of \(S\): \(E(S)=2-q\) if \(S=N_q\). \textit{G. Ringel} [The theory and applications of graphs, 4th int. conf., Kalamozoo/Mich. 1980, 507-515 (1981; Zbl 0469.05030)] derived a Heawood-type upper formula \(\chi_1(S)\leq F(S)\) for \(S\not\cong S_0\). It was proved that the 1-chromatic number equals Ringel's upper bound for \(N_2\), but \textit{H. Schumacher} [Abh. Math. Sem. Univ. Hamb. 54, 5-14 (1984; Zbl 0557.05037)] showed that \(\chi_1(N_{1})=7<8=F(N_1)\). In this paper the problem of construction of an infinite series of surfaces whose 1-chromatic numbers equal Ringel's upper bound is considered. The main result of the paper is the following: If 2 is a primitive root modulo \(4n+5\), \(n\geq 1\), \(n\not \equiv 1\) mod 3, then \(\chi_1(N_{8n^2})=F(N_{8n^2})\) (given an integer \(p\), an integer \(r\) is said to be a primitive root modulo \(p\) if \(p-1\) is the least positive integer \(t\) such that \(r^{t}\equiv 1\) mod \(p\)). Notice that the interval [1, 8000] contains exactly 637 values of \(n\) satisfying the hypothesis of this theorem which is proved in the following way: By means of current graphs a 1-immersion of \(K_{8n+4}\) into \(N_{8n^2}\), \(n\geq 1\), is constructed, thereby proving \(8n+4\leq\chi_1(N_{8n^2})\); finally it is shown that \(F(N_{8n^2})=8n+4\).