A sufficient condition for planar graphs of maximum degree 6 to be totally 7-colorable (Q2183240)

Summary: A total \(k\)-coloring of a graph is an assignment of \(k\) colors to its vertices and edges such that no two adjacent or incident elements receive the same color. The total coloring conjecture (TCC) states that every simple graph \(G\) has a total \(\left( \Delta \left( G\right) + 2\right)\)-coloring, where \(\Delta\left( G\right)\) is the maximum degree of \(G\). This conjecture has been confirmed for planar graphs with maximum degree at least 7 or at most 5, i.e., the only open case of TCC is that of maximum degree 6. It is known that every planar graph \(G\) of \(\Delta\left( G\right)\geq9\) or \(\Delta\left( G\right)\in\left\{ 7,8\right\}\) with some restrictions has a total \(\left( \Delta \left( G\right) + 1\right)\)-coloring. In particular, in (Shen and Wang, 2009), the authors proved that every planar graph with maximum degree 6 and without 4-cycles has a total 7-coloring. In this paper, we improve this result by showing that every diamond-free and house-free planar graph of maximum degree 6 is totally 7-colorable if every 6-vertex is not incident with two adjacent four cycles or three cycles of size \(p\), \(q\), \(\ell\) for some \(\left\{ p, q, \ell\right\}\in\left\{ \left\{ 3,4,4\right\}, \left\{ 3,3,4\right\}\right\}\).