Abstract
Given two graphs \(H_1\) and \(H_2\), a graph G is \((H_1,H_2)\)-free if it contains no subgraph isomorphic to \(H_1\) or \(H_2\). Let \(P_t\) and \(C_s\) be the path on t vertices and the cycle on s vertices, respectively. In this paper we show that for any \((P_6,C_4)\)-free graph G it holds that \(\chi (G)\le \frac{3}{2}\omega (G)\), where \(\chi (G)\) and \(\omega (G)\) are the chromatic number and clique number of G, respectively. Our bound is attained by \(C_5\) and the Petersen graph. The new result unifies previously known results on the existence of linear \(\chi \)-binding functions for several graph classes. Our proof is based on a novel structure theorem on \((P_6,C_4)\)-free graphs that do not contain clique cutsets. Using this structure theorem we also design a polynomial time 3/2-approximation algorithm for coloring \((P_6,C_4)\)-free graphs. Our algorithm computes a coloring with \(\frac{3}{2}\omega (G)\) colors for any \((P_6,C_4)\)-free graph G in \(O(n^2m)\) time.
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Gaspers, S., Huang, S. (2017). Linearly \(\chi \)-Bounding \((P_6,C_4)\)-Free Graphs. In: Bodlaender, H., Woeginger, G. (eds) Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science. WG 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10520. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68705-6_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68705-6_20
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