Strong total chromatic numbers of complete hypergraphs (Q1842162)

The classical notion of total graph colouring is extended to the complete \(h\)-uniform (\(h\)-partite) hypergraph \(K^ h_ n\) \((K^ h_{n_ 1,n_ 2,\dots, n_ h})\). The author shows: (i) Let \(n\) and \(h\) be integers with \(2\leq h\leq n\). Then the strong total chromatic number of \(K^ h_ n\) equals \[ \Bigl(\begin{smallmatrix} n-1\\ h-1\end{smallmatrix}\Bigr)+ h,\quad\text{if }n\equiv 0\pmod h;\quad\text{and}\quad \Biggl\lceil{(\begin{smallmatrix} n\\ h\end{smallmatrix})\over \lfloor n/h\rfloor}\Biggr\rceil,\quad\text{if }n\not\equiv 0\pmod h. \] (ii) Let \(h\geq 2\) and \(n_ 1,n_ 2,\dots, n_ h\geq 1\) be integers with \(n_ 1\leq n_ 2\leq\cdots\leq n_ h\), and let \(k= \max\{i: n_ i= n_ 1\}\). Then the strong total chromatic number of \(K^ h_{n_ 1,n_ 2,\dots, n_ h}\) is equal to \(n_ 2n_ 3\dots n_ h+ k\). In the case \(n\not\equiv 0\pmod h\) this improves Meyer's result, see \textit{J. C. Meyer} [Nombre chromatique total d'un hypergraphe, J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 24, 44-50 (1978; Zbl 0311.05139)].