A note on one-sided interval edge colorings of bipartite graphs

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Publication:2666587



Abstract: For a bipartite graph G with parts X and Y, an X-interval coloring is a proper edge coloring of G by integers such that the colors on the edges incident to any vertex in X form an interval. Denote by chi'int(G,X) the minimum k such that G has an X-interval coloring with k colors. The author and Toft conjectured [Discrete Mathematics 339 (2016), 2628--2639] that there is a polynomial P(x) such that if G has maximum degree at most Delta, then chi'int(G,X)leqP(Delta). In this short note, we prove this conjecture; in fact, we prove that a cubic polynomial suffices. We also deduce some improved upper bounds on chi'int(G,X) for bipartite graphs with small maximum degree.


For a proper edge coloring \(\varphi\) of a graph \(G\) and \(v \in V(G)\) the palette of \(v\), \(\varphi(v)\), is the set of colors appearing on edges incident to \(v\). An interval coloring of a graph \(G\) is a proper edge coloring by integers such that the palette of \(v\) is an interval of integers for any \(v \in V(G)\). For a bipartite graph \(G=(X,Y; E)\) with parts \(X\) and \(Y\) and edge set \(E=E(G)\), an \(X\)-interval coloring of \(G\) is a proper edge coloring such that the palette of \(v\) is an interval of integers for any \(v \in X\). The smallest integer \(t\) for which there is an \(X\)-interval \(t\)-coloring of \(G\) is denoted by \(\chi_{\textrm{int}}^\prime(G,X)\). The invariant is motivated by the problem of finding a timetable where lectures of either teachers or classes are scheduled at consecutive times. The author proves that there exists a cubic polynomial \(P(\Delta)\) such that for every bipartite graph \(G=(X,Y;E)\) with maximum degree \(\Delta\), \(\chi_{\textrm{int}}^\prime(G,X) \leq P(\Delta)\). This bound is then improved for particular families of bipartite graphs. It is proved that \(\chi_{\textrm{int}}^\prime(G,X) \leq 17\) in any bipartite graph \(G=(X,Y;E)\) with \(\Delta(G)=6\).











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