Fractional \(f\)-edge cover chromatic index of graphs (Q2014721)

In this paper the authors give an exact formula for the fractional \(f\)-edge cover chromatic index \(\chi^\prime_{fcf}(G)\) for any graph \(G\), that is, \(\displaystyle\chi^\prime_{fcf}(G) = \min\{\min\limits_{v\in V(G)}d_f(v),\lambda_f(G)\}\), where \(\displaystyle\lambda_f(G)=\min\limits_S\frac{|C[S]|}{\lceil(\sum\limits_{v\in S}f(v))/2\rceil}\) and the minimum is taken over all nonempty subsets \(S\) of \(V(G)\) and \(|C[S]|\) is the set of edges that have at least one end in \(S\). Notation: Let \(G\) be a graph, and let \(f\) be an integer function on \(V(G)\) with \(1\leq f(v)\leq d(v)\) for each vertex \(v\in V(G)\). An \(f\)-edge cover coloring is a coloring of edges of \(E(G)\) such that each color appears at each vertex \(v\) at least \(f(v)\) times. The maximum number of colors needed to \(f\)-edge cover \(G\) is called the \(f\)-edge cover chromatic index of \(G\) and denoted by \(\chi^\prime_{fc}(G)\). It is well known that any simple graph \(G\) has the \(f\)-edge cover chromatic index equal to \(\delta_f(G)\) or \(\displaystyle\delta_f(G)-1\), where \(\delta_f(G)=\min\{\lfloor\frac{d(v)}{f(v)}\rfloor:v\in V(G)\}\). The fractional \(f\)-edge cover chromatic index of a graph \(G\), denoted by \(\chi^\prime_{fcf}(G)\), is the fractional \(f\)-matching number of the \(f\)-edge cover hypergraph \(H\) of \(G\) whose vertices are the edges of \(G\) and whose hyperedges are the \(f\)-edge covers of \(G\).