Total coloring of outer-1-planar graphs with near-independent crossings (Q1680477)

The total coloring of graphs is an extension of vertex coloring and edge coloring, which has been studied widely due to the well-known total coloring conjecture (TCT). TCT says that every graph has a total coloring using at most \(\Delta+2\) colors and remains open even for planar graphs with maximum degree 6. Finding graphs that have a total (\(\Delta+1\))-coloring is an interesting work. This paper deals with a special class of outer planar graphs, called outer-1-planar with near-independent crossings (Nicop) and shows that every such graph of maximum degree 4 has a total 5-coloring, which extend a known result that every Nicop graph has total (\(\Delta+1\))-coloring. The topic is interesting and the conclusions are meaningful. Reviewer's remark: What is perhaps even more interesting is to characterize subcubic graphs with a total 4-coloring, because such graphs may possess more interesting structures.