Abstract
Let D = (V, A) be a simple finite digraph, and let \({\pi(D)}\), the panchromatic number of D, be the maximum number of colours k such that for each (effective, or onto) colouring of its arcs \({\varsigma : A \to [k]}\) a monochromatic path kernel N ⊂ V, as introduced in Galeana-Sánchez (Discrete Math 184: 87–99, 1998), exists. It is not hard to see that D has a kernel—in the sense of Von Neumann and Morgenstern (Theory of games and economic behaviour. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1944)—if and only if \({\pi(D) = |A|}\). In this note this invariant is introduced and some of its structural bounds are studied. For example, the celebrated theorem of Sands et al. (J Comb Theory Ser 33: 271–275, 1982), in terms of this invariant, settles that \({\pi(D) \geq 2}\). It will be proved that
where \({\chi(\cdot)}\) denotes the chromatic number, \({L(\cdot)}\) denotes the line digraph, \({\theta(\cdot)}\) denotes the minimum partition into complete graphs of the underlying graph and \({\text{d}_c(\cdot)}\) denotes the dichromatic number. We also introduce the notion of a panchromatic digraph which is a digraph D such that for every k ≤ |A| and every k-colouring of its arcs, it has a monochromatic path kernel. Some classes of panchromatic digraphs are further characterised.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bang-Jensen J., Gutin G.: Digraphs: Theory, Algorithms and Applications. Springer, London (2001)
Berge C., Duchet P.: Recent problems and results about kernels and directed graphs. Discret. Math. 86, 27–31 (1990)
Boros E., Gurvich V.: Perfect graphs, kernels and cores of cooperative games. Discret. Math. 306, 2336–2354 (2006)
Fraenkel A.S.: Combinatorial Games: selected bibliography with a succinct gourmet introduction. Electron. J. Comb. 14, DS2 (2007)
Galeana-Sánchez H.: On monochromatic paths and monochromatic cycles in edge coloured tournaments. Discret. Math. 156, 103–112 (1996)
Galeana-Sánchez H.: Kernels in edge-couloured digraphs. Discret. Math. 184, 87–99 (1998)
Galeana-Sánchez H., Rojas-Monroy R.: A counterexample to a conjecture on edge-coloured tournaments. Discret. Math. 282, 275–276 (2004)
Hahn G., Ille P., Woodrow R.: Absorbing sets in arc-coloured tournaments. Discret. Math. 283, 93–99 (2004)
Minggang S.: On monochromatic paths in m-coloured tournaments. J. Comb. Theory Ser. B 45, 108–111 (1988)
Sands B., Sauer N., Woodrow R.: On monochromatic paths in edge-coloured digraphs. J. Comb. Theory Ser. B 33, 271–275 (1982)
Von Neumann J., Morgenstern O.: Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour. Princeton University Press, Princeton (1944)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Galeana, H., Strausz, R. On Panchromatic Digraphs and the Panchromatic Number. Graphs and Combinatorics 31, 115–125 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00373-013-1367-z
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00373-013-1367-z