For integers $k,g \ge 3$ let $n_g(k)$ denote the minimum order of a graph with chromatic number $k$ and girth at least $g$. Exoo and Goedgebeur (DMTCS 2019) proved $26 \le n_6(4) \le 66$; their 66-vertex witness has remained the smallest known 4-chromatic graph of girth 6. We improve both bounds to $29 \le n_6(4) \le 64$. The upper bound is witnessed by an explicit 4-chromatic graph of girth 6 on 64 vertices with 152 edges; it is vertex- and edge-critical, and its automorphism group is cyclic of order 8 and acts semiregularly. The lower bound is an exhaustive isomorph-free computation in the SAT modulo symmetries framework with co-certificate learning, driven by the Liu-Postle edge-density bound for 4-critical graphs of girth five; it re-derives $n_6(4) \ge 26$ by a disjoint method and is validated on the known values $n_4(4)=11$ and $n_5(4)=21$. We complement the bounds with structural obstructions: no smaller witness arises from either known witness by local modifications; no 4-chromatic Cayley graph of girth 6 exists on 54-63 vertices (for orders 59 and 61 no vertex-transitive witness exists at all); and no witness on at most 63 vertices admits a semiregular automorphism group with two or three vertex orbits, for any finite group. Since every known witness of an $n_g(4)$ record with $g \ge 6$ is a lift of a small base graph along a semiregular action, these results close the most symmetric part of that regime below 64 vertices. All properties of the new graph are verified by independent programs and formally certified in the Lean 4 proof assistant: the non-3-colourability is established inside Lean by a formally verified checker that re-validates a 219,532-node refutation certificate, with a machine-checked soundness theorem.
For an integer $k\geq2$, let $\chi_k'(G)$ denote the minimum number of colors in an edge-coloring of a graph $G$ such that every nonzero degree in each color subgraph is congruent to $1\pmod{k}$. A graph is a $0_k$-graph if every vertex degree is divisible by $k$. We disprove a conjecture of Berthe et al.\ (On modular edge colorings of graphs, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 40 (2026) 897--904), which states that $\chi_k'(G)\leq k+o(k)$ for every $0_k$-graph $G$. We prove a lower bound for $0_k$-graphs with degree set $\{k,2k\}$ and a specified vertex partition. With a suitable choice of the part sizes, if the number of edges inside one part is $o(k^2)$, then $\chi_k'(G)\geq(4-2\sqrt2+o(1))k$. This gives connected bipartite and connected nonbipartite counterexamples. In particular, the same examples also disprove the earlier conjecture of Botler, Colucci, and Kohayakawa (The mod $k$ chromatic index of graphs is $O(k)$, J. Graph Theory 102 (2023) 197--200), which states that $\chi_k'(G)\leq k+C$ for some absolute constant $C$.
Martinsson and Steiner recently proved that the fractional chromatic number of any $d$-degenerate triangle-free graph $G$ satisfies $\chi_f(G) = O\left(\frac{d}{\log d}\right)$. They further conjectured a sharp leading constant $1 + o(1)$. In this paper, we confirm their upper bound conjecture for graphs having girth at least $5$. Our proof is constructive: it gives an efficient randomized algorithm that, with high probability, computes a fractional coloring of weight at most $(1 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log d}$ in such graphs. Furthermore, we establish their conjectured lower bound in a stronger form: for any constant $g \ge 4$, there exist $d$-degenerate graphs having girth at least $g$ with $\chi_f(G) \ge (1 - o(1))\frac{d}{\log d}$. This lower bound is achieved by analyzing a random graph based on the uniform attachment model. Notably, our results reveal that this model lacks the typical computational complexity barriers found in Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graphs, where there is a conjectured factor-$2$ algorithmic gap for this problem.
Peter Allen, Abhishek Dhawan, Jonathan A. Noel· 1 citation
For a simple graph $G$ of order $n$, let $S_2(G)=\lambda_1(G)+\lambda_2(G)$ denote its spectral sum. We determine, for every $n\geq5$, the exact maximum of $S_2(G)$ and all equality cases. The unique maximizer, up to isomorphism, is the complement of the disjoint union of a suitably balanced complete bipartite graph and isolated vertices, with the sizes of its three parts determined by $n$ modulo $7$. Denoting this graph by $K_n^\star$, we further show that $ S_2(K_n^\star)\leq\frac{8n}{7}-2,$ with equality exactly when $7\mid n$. This proves a conjecture of Kumar, Liu, Monterde, Pragada and Tait, which strengthens the Aouchiche--Hansen 2010 conjecture by extending it from connected graphs to all graphs and by asserting uniqueness of the extremal graph. The result also subsumes the 2008 conjecture of Ebrahimi B., Mohar, Nikiforov, and Ahmady. The proof combines Ky Fan's variational principle with a spectral inequality for weighted Ferrers quotients to reduce the problem to an explicit family whose complements have incidence rank one. Exact integer optimization and a separate equality analysis then yield the maximum and uniqueness.
The vertex arboricity $\mathrm{va}(G)$ of a multigraph $G$ is the minimum number $k$ for which $V(G)$ can be partitioned into $k$ subsets, each of which induces an acyclic subgraph of $G$. By definition, if $\mathrm{va}(G)= k$, then the chromatic number, $\chi(G)$, satisfies $k\leq \chi(G)\leq 2k$. Fundamental results by Borodin from 1976 and Bollob\'as and Manvel from 1979 imply an analog of Gallai's lower bound on the number of edges in a $(2k-1)$-critical graph. We consider a slight generalization of vertex arboricity in the setting of DP-coloring. Using this framework, we derive lower bounds on the number of edges in graphs critical for vertex arboricity and for list arboricity that are better than Gallai's bound, along with similar bounds in our DP-setting.
Peter Bradshaw, Alexandr V. Kostochka, Zimu Xiang· 0 citations
A $(k,d)$-edge coloring of a loopless multigraph $G$ is an edge coloring using at most $k$ colors such that the subgraph formed by each color class has maximum degree at most $d$. The least such $k$ is denoted by $\chi'_d(G)$. Let $G$ be a loopless non-bipartite multigraph with maximum degree $\Delta(G)$ and odd girth $g_0(G)$, and let $d\ge1$ be odd. We prove that \[ \chi'_d(G)\le\left\lceil\frac{g_0(G)\Delta(G)-1}{dg_0(G)-1}\right\rceil. \] For $d=1$, this is Goldberg's odd-girth refinement of Shannon's theorem, while for $g_0(G)=3$ it is the defective Shannon bound of Aboulker, Aubian, and Huang. For every odd $d>1$, every odd $g_0\ge3$, and every $\Delta>d$, an almost full ring multigraph $R(\Delta,g_0)$, an odd cycle with edge multiplicities alternating between $\lfloor\Delta/2\rfloor$ and $\lceil\Delta/2\rceil$, except that two consecutive edges have multiplicity $\lfloor\Delta/2\rfloor$, attains equality. We also derive a range in which the defective Goldberg--Seymour conjecture holds.
For a graph $G$, let $h(G)$ be the minimum cardinality of a vertex set meeting every maximum independent set of $G$. We establish two complementary reduction principles for the Bollob\'as--Erd\H{o}s--Tuza conjecture: the conjecture for arbitrary graphs is equivalent to its restriction to regular graphs of any fixed positive linear degree, and, within every hereditary graph class, a uniform sublinear bound is equivalent to a sublinear bound on graphs of every fixed positive linear vertex connectivity. We prove the sharp general estimate \[ h(G)\le \left\lfloor\frac{|V(G)|}{2\alpha(G)+\delta(G)-|V(G)|}\right\rfloor \] whenever the denominator is positive, with equality for balanced complete multipartite graphs. Consequently, every $3$-colorable graph of order $n$ with $\kappa(G)\ge\rho n$ and $\rho>1/3$ has a hitting set of size at most $\lfloor(\rho-1/3)^{-1}\rfloor$; direct use of a $3$-coloring improves this to $6$ when $\kappa(G)>4n/9$ and to the sharp bound $3$ when $\kappa(G)>n/2$. For dense regular graphs with independence ratio greater than $1/4$, we obtain a logarithmic bound, while constructions with linear degree and linear independence number show that $h(G)=\Omega(\sqrt n)$ can still occur. We also prove a logarithmic bound for near-regular $3$-colorable graphs and exhibit a critical family at connectivity $n/3$ that explains the limitations of the degree-surplus and degree-ratio methods.