On the \(b\)-continuity of the lexicographic product of graphs (Q1684933)

A \(b\)-coloring is a proper vertex coloring of a graph such that each color class contains a vertex that has a neighbor in all other color classes. The \(b\)-chromatic number of a graph \(G\) is the largest integer \(\chi_b(G)\) for which \(G\) has a \(b\)-coloring with \(\chi_b(G)\) colors. A graph \(G\) is said to be \(b\)-continuous if and only if for every integer \(k \in \{ \chi(G), \ldots , \chi_b(G) \}\), there exists a \(b\)-coloring with \(k\) colors. The main question that the paper addresses is whether it is true that the lexicographic product \(G[H]\) is \(b\)-continuous whenever \(G\) and \(H\) are. The authors show that an important step toward the answer is to investigate whether this is true when \(H = K_t\) for \(t >0\). It is proven that the answer is positive whenever \(H = K_t\) and \(G\) is a \(P_4\)-sparse graph. They also investigate the \(b\)-spectrum of \(G[K_t]\), when \(G\) is chordal and determine the value of \(\chi_b(T [K_t])\), when \(T\) is a tree.