Local chromatic number, Ky Fan's theorem, and circular colorings (Q879165)

For any proper coloring \(c\) of a graph \(G\), let \(n(c,v)\) be the number of colors appearing within distance 1 of vertex \(v\) in \(G\). The local chromatic number of \(G\) is defined as the minimum over \(c\) of the maximum over \(v\) of \(n(c,v)\). The local chromatic number is bounded above by the chromatic number and below by the fractional chromatic number. Using topological results by Borsuk-Ulam and Ky Fan, the local chromatic number is studied for many cases when there is a large gap between the chromatic and the fractional chromatic numbers.