Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4650593 Discrete Mathematics 2008 11 Pages PDF
Abstract

The distance graph G(D)G(D) has the set of integers as vertices and two vertices are adjacent in G(D)G(D) if their difference is contained in the set D⊂ZD⊂Z. A conjecture of Zhu states that if the chromatic number of G(D)G(D) achieves its maximum value |D|+1|D|+1 then the graph has a triangle. The conjecture is proven to be true if |D|⩽3|D|⩽3. We prove that the chromatic number of a distance graph with D={a,b,c,d}D={a,b,c,d} is five only if either D={1,2,3,4k}D={1,2,3,4k} or D={a,b,a+b,b-a}D={a,b,a+b,b-a}. This confirms a stronger version of Zhu's conjecture for |D|=4|D|=4, namely, if the chromatic number achieves its maximum value then the graph contains K4K4.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Mathematics Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics
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