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In an oriented graph $\vec{G}$, the inversion of a subset $X$ of vertices consists in reversing the orientation of all arcs with both endvertices in $X$. The inversion graph of a labelled graph $G$, denoted by ${\mathcal{I}}(G)$, is the graph whose vertices are the labelled orientations of $G$ in which two labelled orientations $\vec{G}_1$ and $\vec{G}_2$ of $G$ are adjacent if and only if there is an inversion $X$ transforming $\vec{G}_1$ into $\vec{G}_2$. In this paper, we study the inversion diameter of a graph which is the diameter of its inversion graph denoted by $diam(\mathcal{I}(G))$. We show that the inversion diameter is tied to the star chromatic number, the acyclic chromatic number and the oriented chromatic number. Thus a graph class has bounded inversion diameter if and only if it also has bounded star chromatic number, acyclic chromatic number and oriented chromatic number. We give some upper bounds on the inversion diameter of a graph $G$ contained in one of the following graph classes: planar graphs ($diam(\mathcal{I}(G)) \leq 12$), planar graphs of girth 8 ($diam(\mathcal{I}(G)) \leq 3$), graphs with maximum degree $\Delta$ ($diam(\mathcal{I}(G)) \leq 2\Delta -1$), graphs with treewidth at mots $t$ ($diam(\mathcal{I}(G)) \leq 2t$). We also show that determining the inversion diameter of a given graph is NP-hard.

Let $D$ be a digraph. Its acyclic number $\vec{\alpha}(D)$ is the maximum order of an acyclic induced subdigraph and its dichromatic number $\vec{\chi}(D)$ is the least integer $k$ such that $V(D)$ can be partitioned into $k$ subsets inducing acyclic subdigraphs. We study ${\vec a}(n)$ and $\vec t(n)$ which are the minimum of $\vec\alpha(D)$ and the maximum of $\vec{\chi}(D)$, respectively, over all oriented triangle-free graphs of order $n$. For every $\epsilon>0$ and $n$ large enough, we show $(1/\sqrt{2} - \epsilon) \sqrt{n\log n} \leq \vec{a}(n) \leq \frac{107}{8} \sqrt n \log n$ and $\frac{8}{107} \sqrt n/\log n \leq \vec{t}(n) \leq (\sqrt 2 + \epsilon) \sqrt{n/\log n}$. We also construct an oriented triangle-free graph on 25 vertices with dichromatic number~3, and show that every oriented triangle-free graph of order at most 17 has dichromatic number at most 2., Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures

A digraph is $3$-dicritical if it cannot be vertex-partitioned into two sets inducing acyclic digraphs, but each of its proper subdigraphs can. We give a human-readable proof that the number of 3-dicritical semi-complete digraphs is finite. Further, we give a computer-assisted proof of a full characterization of 3-dicritical semi-complete digraphs. There are eight such digraphs, two of which are tournaments. We finally give a general upper bound on the maximum number of arcs in a $3$-dicritical digraph.

The dichromatic number of a digraph is the minimum integer $k$ such that it admits a $k$-dicolouring, i.e. a partition of its vertices into $k$ acyclic subdigraphs. We say that a digraph $D$ is a super-orientation of an undirected graph $G$ if $G$ is the underlying graph of $D$. If $D$ does not contain any pair of symmetric arcs, we just say that $D$ is an orientation of $G$. In this work, we give both lower and upper bounds on the dichromatic number of super-orientations of chordal graphs. We also show a family of orientations of cographs for which the dichromatic number is equal to the clique number of the underlying graph., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

The dichromatic number $\vec{\chi}(D)$ of a digraph $D$ is the minimum number of colours needed to colour the vertices of a digraph such that each colour class induces an acyclic subdigraph. A digraph $D$ is $k$-dicritical if $\vec{\chi}(D) = k$ and each proper subdigraph $H$ of $D$ satisfies $\vec{\chi}(H) < k$. For integers $k$ and $n$, we define $d_k(n)$ (respectively $o_k(n)$) as the minimum number of arcs possible in a $k$-dicritical digraph (respectively oriented graph). Kostochka and Stiebitz have shown that $d_4(n) \geq \frac{10}{3}n -\frac{4}{3}$. They also conjectured that there is a constant $c$ such that $o_k(n) \geq cd_k(n)$ for $k\geq 3$ and $n$ large enough. This conjecture is known to be true for $k=3$ (Aboulker et al.). In this work, we prove that every $4$-dicritical oriented graph on $n$ vertices has at least $(\frac{10}{3}+\frac{1}{51})n-1$ arcs, showing the conjecture for $k=4$. We also characterise exactly the $k$-dicritical digraphs on $n$ vertices with exactly $\frac{10}{3}n -\frac{4}{3}$ arcs., Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures

The {\it inversion} of a set $X$ of vertices in a digraph $D$ consists of reversing the direction of all arcs of $D\langle X\rangle$. We study $sinv'_k(D)$ (resp. $sinv_k(D)$) which is the minimum number of inversions needed to transform $D$ into a $k$-arc-strong (resp. $k$-strong) digraph and $sinv'_k(n) = \max\{sinv'_k(D) \mid D~\mbox{is a $2k$-edge-connected digraph of order $n$}\}$. We show : $(i): \frac{1}{2} \log (n - k+1) \leq sinv'_k(n) \leq \log n + 4k -3$ ; $(ii):$ for any fixed positive integers $k$ and $t$, deciding whether a given oriented graph $D$ with $sinv'_k(D)<+\infty$ satisfies $sinv'_k(D) \leq t$ is NP-complete; $(iii):$ for any fixed positive integers $k$ and $t$, deciding whether a given oriented graph $D$ with $sinv_k(D)<+\infty$ satisfies $sinv_k(D) \leq t$ is NP-complete; $(iv):$ if $T$ is a tournament of order at least $2k+1$, then $sinv'_k(T) \leq sinv_k(T) \leq 2k$, and $sinv'_k(T) \leq \frac{4}{3}k+o(k)$; $(v):\frac{1}{2}\log(2k+1) \leq sinv'_k(T) \leq sinv_k(T)$ for some tournament $T$ of order $2k+1$; $(vi):$ if $T$ is a tournament of order at least $19k-2$ (resp. $11k-2$), then $sinv'_k(T) \leq sinv_k(T) \leq 1$ (resp. $sinv_k(T) \leq 3$); $(vii):$ for every $\epsilon>0$, there exists $C$ such that $sinv'_k(T) \leq sinv_k(T) \leq C$ for every tournament $T$ on at least $2k+1 + \epsilon k$ vertices.

Given two $k$-dicolourings of a digraph $D$, we prove that it is PSPACE-complete to decide whether we can transform one into the other by recolouring one vertex at each step while maintaining a dicolouring at any step even for $k=2$ and for digraphs with maximum degree $5$ or oriented planar graphs with maximum degree $6$. A digraph is said to be $k$-mixing if there exists a transformation between any pair of $k$-colourings. We show that every digraph $D$ is $k$-mixing for all $k\geq \delta^*_{\min}(D)+2$, generalizing a result due to Dyer et al. We also prove that every oriented graph $\vec{G}$ is $k$-mixing for all $k\geq \delta^*_{\max}(\vec{G}) +1$ and for all $k\geq \delta^*_{\rm avg}(\vec{G})+1$. We conjecture that, for every digraph $D$, the dicolouring graph of $D$ on $k\geq \delta_{\min}^*(D)+2$ colours has diameter at most $O(|V(D)|^2)$ and give some evidences. We first prove that the dicolouring graph of any digraph $D$ on $k\geq 2\delta_{\min}^*(D) + 2$ colours has linear diameter, extending a result from Bousquet and Perarnau. We also prove that the conjecture is true when $k\geq \frac{3}{2}(\delta_{\min}^*(D)+1)$. Restricted to the special case of oriented graphs, we prove that the dicolouring graph of any subcubic oriented graph on $k\geq 2$ colours is connected and has diameter at most $2n$. We conjecture that every non $2$-mixing oriented graph has maximum average degree at least $4$, and we provide some support for this conjecture by proving it on the special case of $2$-freezable oriented graphs. More generally, we show that every $k$-freezable oriented graph on $n$ vertices must contain at least $kn + k(k-2)$ arcs, and we give a family of $k$-freezable oriented graphs that reach this bound. In the general case, we prove as a partial result that every non $2$-mixing oriented graph has maximum average degree at least $\frac{7}{2}$., Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures

The {\it inversion} of a set $X$ of vertices in a digraph $D$ consists in reversing the direction of all arcs of $D\langle X\rangle$. The {\it inversion number} of an oriented graph $D$, denoted by ${\rm inv}(D)$, is the minimum number of inversions needed to transform $D$ into an acyclic oriented graph. In this paper, we study a number of problems involving the inversion number of oriented graphs. Firstly, we give bounds on ${\rm inv}(n)$, the maximum of the inversion numbers of the oriented graphs of order $n$. We show $n - \mathcal{O}(\sqrt{n\log n}) \ \leq \ {\rm inv}(n) \ \leq \ n - \lceil \log (n+1) \rceil$. Secondly, we disprove a conjecture of Bang-Jensen et al. asserting that, for every pair of oriented graphs $L$ and $R$, we have ${\rm inv}(L\Rightarrow R) ={\rm inv}(L) + {\rm inv}(R)$, where $L\Rightarrow R$ is the oriented graph obtained from the disjoint union of $L$ and $R$ by adding all arcs from $L$ to $R$. Finally, we investigate whether, for all pairs of positive integers $k_1,k_2$, there exists an integer $f(k_1,k_2)$ such that if $D$ is an oriented graph with ${\rm inv}(D) \geq f(k_1,k_2)$ then there is a partition $(V_1, V_2)$ of $V(D)$ such that ${\rm inv}(D\langle V_i\rangle) \geq k_i$ for $i=1,2$. We show that $f(1,k)$ exists and $f(1,k)\leq k+10$ for all positive integers $k$. Further, we show that $f(k_1,k_2)$ exists for all pairs of positive integers $k_1,k_2$ when the oriented graphs in consideration are restricted to be tournaments.

The dichromatic number $\dic(D)$ of a digraph $D$ is the least integer $k$ such that $D$ can be partitioned into $k$ directed acyclic digraphs. A digraph is $k$-dicritical if $\dic(D) = k$ and each proper subgraph $D'$ of $D$ satisfies $\dic(D') \leq k-1$. An oriented graph is a digraph with no directed cycle of length $2$. For integers $k$ and $n$, we denote by $o_k(n)$ the minimum number of edges of a $k$-critical oriented graph on $n$ vertices (with the convention $o_k(n)=+\infty$ if there is no $k$-dicritical oriented graph of order $n$). The main result of this paper is a proof that $o_3(n) \geq \frac{7n+2}{3}$ together with a construction witnessing that $o_3(n) \leq \left \lceil \frac{5n}{2} \right \rceil$ for all $n \geq 12$. We also give a construction showing that for all sufficiently large $n$ and all $k\geq 3$, $o_k(n) < (2k-3)n$, disproving a conjecture of Hoshino and Kawarabayashi. Finally, we prove that, for all $k\geq 2$, $o_k(n) \geq \pth{ k - \frac{3}{4}-\frac{1}{4k-6}} n + \frac{3}{4(2k-3)}$, improving the previous best known lower bound of Bang-Jensen, Bellitto, Schweser and Stiebitz.

Let $D$ be an oriented graph. The inversion of a set $X$ of vertices in $D$ consists in reversing the direction of all arcs with both ends in $X$. The inversion number of $D$, denoted by ${\rm inv}(D)$, is the minimum number of inversions needed to make $D$ acyclic. Denoting by $\tau(D)$, $\tau' (D)$, and $\nu(D)$ the cycle transversal number, the cycle arc-transversal number and the cycle packing number of $D$ respectively, one shows that ${\rm inv}(D) \leq \tau' (D)$, ${\rm inv}(D) \leq 2\tau(D)$ and there exists a function $g$ such that ${\rm inv}(D)\leq g(\nu(D))$. We conjecture that for any two oriented graphs $L$ and $R$, ${\rm inv}(L\rightarrow R) ={\rm inv}(L) +{\rm inv}(R)$ where $L\rightarrow R$ is the dijoin of $L$ and $R$. This would imply that the first two inequalities are tight. We prove this conjecture when ${\rm inv}(L)\leq 1$ and ${\rm inv}(R)\leq 2$ and when ${\rm inv}(L) ={\rm inv}(R)=2$ and $L$ and $R$ are strongly connected. We also show that the function $g$ of the third inequality satisfies $g(1)\leq 4$. We then consider the complexity of deciding whether ${\rm inv}(D)\leq k$ for a given oriented graph $D$. We show that it is NP-complete for $k=1$, which together with the above conjecture would imply that it is NP-complete for every $k$. This contrasts with a result of Belkhechine et al. which states that deciding whether ${\rm inv}(T)\leq k$ for a given tournament $T$ is polynomial-time solvable.

In this paper, we give bounds on the dichromatic number $\vec{\chi}(\Sigma)$ of a surface $\Sigma$, which is the maximum dichromatic number of an oriented graph embeddable on $\Sigma$. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of $\vec{\chi}(\Sigma)$ by showing that there exist constants $a_1$ and $a_2$ such that, $a_1\frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} \leq \vec{\chi}(\Sigma) \leq a_2 \frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} $ for every surface $\Sigma$ with Euler characteristic $c\leq -2$. We then give more explicit bounds for some surfaces with high Euler characteristic. In particular, we show that the dichromatic numbers of the projective plane $\mathbb{N}_1$, the Klein bottle $\mathbb{N}_2$, the torus $\mathbb{S}_1$, and Dyck's surface $\mathbb{N}_3$ are all equal to $3$, and that the dichromatic numbers of the $5$-torus $\mathbb{S}_5$ and the $10$-cross surface $\mathbb{N}_{10}$ are equal to $4$. We also consider the complexity of deciding whether a given digraph or oriented graph embeddable on a fixed surface is $k$-dicolourable. In particular, we show that for any fixed surface, deciding whether a digraph embeddable on this surface is $2$-dicolourable is NP-complete, and that deciding whether a planar oriented graph is $2$-dicolourable is NP-complete unless all planar oriented graphs are $2$-dicolourable (which was conjectured by Neumann-Lara)., Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, improved asymptotic bounds

In this short note we prove that every tournament contains the $k$-th power of a directed path of linear length. This improves upon recent results of Yuster and of Gir\~ao. We also give a complete solution for this problem when $k=2$, showing that there is always a square of a directed path of length $\lceil 2n/3 \rceil-1$, which is best possible., Comment: 6 pages; updated affiliations; accepted at CPC

We prove that every digraph of independence number at most 2 and arc-connectivity at least 2 has an out-branching $B^+$ and an in-branching $B^-$ which are arc-disjoint (we call such branchings good pair). This is best possible in terms of the arc-connectivity as there are infinitely many strong digraphs with independence number 2 and arbitrarily high minimum in-and out-degrees that have good no pair. The result settles a conjecture by Thomassen for digraphs of independence number 2. We prove that every digraph on at most 6 vertices and arc-connectivity at least 2 has a good pair and give an example of a 2-arc-strong digraph $D$ on 10 vertices with independence number 4 that has no good pair. We also show that there are infinitely many digraphs with independence number 7 and arc-connectivity 2 that have no good pair. Finally we pose a number of open problems.

A digraph is eulerian if it is connected and every vertex has its in-degree equal to its out-degree. Having a spanning eulerian subdigraph is thus a weakening of having a hamiltonian cycle. In this paper, we first characterize the pairs $(D,a)$ of a semicomplete digraph $D$ and an arc $a$ such that $D$ has a spanning eulerian subdigraph containing $a$. In particular, we show that if $D$ is $2$-arc-strong, then every arc is contained in a spanning eulerian subdigraph. We then characterize the pairs $(D,a)$ of a semicomplete digraph $D$ and an arc $a$ such that $D$ has a spanning eulerian subdigraph avoiding $a$. In particular, we prove that every $2$-arc-strong semicomplete digraph has a spanning eulerian subdigraph avoiding any prescribed arc. We also prove the existence of a (minimum) function $f(k)$ such that every $f(k)$-arc-strong semicomplete digraph contains a spanning eulerian subdigraph avoiding any prescribed set of $k$ arcs: we prove $f(k)\leq (k+1)^2/4 +1$, conjecture $f(k)=k+1$ and establish this conjecture for $k\leq 3$ and when the $k$ arcs that we delete form a forest of stars. A digraph $D$ is eulerian-connected if for any two distinct vertices $x,y$, the digraph $D$ has a spanning $(x,y)$-trail. We prove that every $2$-arc-strong semicomplete digraph is eulerian-connected. All our results may be seen as arc analogues of well-known results on hamiltonian cycles in semicomplete digraphs.

A digraph is {\it $n$-unavoidable} if it is contained in every tournament of order $n$. We first prove that every arborescence of order $n$ with $k$ leaves is $(n+k-1)$-unavoidable. We then prove that every oriented tree of order $n$ ($n\geq 2$) with $k$ leaves is $(\frac{3}{2}n+\frac{3}{2}k -2)$-unavoidable and $(\frac{9}{2}n -\frac{5}{2}k -\frac{9}{2})$-unavoidable, and thus $(\frac{21}{8} n- \frac{47}{16})$-unavoidable. Finally, we prove that every oriented tree of order $n$ with $k$ leaves is $(n+ 144k^2 - 280k + 124)$-unavoidable.

Given a system $(G_1, \ldots ,G_m)$ of graphs on the same vertex set $V$, a cooperative coloring is a choice of vertex sets $I_1, \ldots ,I_m$, such that $I_j$ is independent in $G_j$ and $\bigcup_{j=1}^{m}I_j = V$. For a class $\mathcal{G}$ of graphs, let $m_{\mathcal{G}}(d)$ be the minimal $m$ such that every $m$ graphs from $\mathcal{G}$ with maximum degree $d$ have a cooperative coloring. We prove that $\Omega(\log\log d) \le m_\mathcal{T}(d) \le O(\log d)$ and $\Omega(\log d)\le m_\mathcal{B}(d) \le O(d/\log d)$, where $\mathcal{T}$ is the class of trees and $\mathcal{B}$ is the class of bipartite graphs., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted to the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, corrections suggested by the referees have been incorporated

The problem of when a given digraph contains a subdivision of a fixed digraph $F$ is considered. Bang-Jensen et al. laid out foundations for approaching this problem from the algorithmic point of view. In this paper we give further support to several open conjectures and speculations about algorithmic complexity of finding $F$-subdivisions. In particular, up to 5 exceptions, we completely classify for which 4-vertex digraphs $F$, the $F$-subdivision problem is polynomial-time solvable and for which it is NP-complete. While all NP-hardness proofs are made by reduction from some version of the 2-linkage problem in digraphs, some of the polynomial-time solvable cases involve relatively complicated algorithms., Comment: To appear in Journal of Graph Theory

For a given $2$-partition $(V_1,V_2)$ of the vertices of a (di)graph $G$, we study properties of the spanning bipartite subdigraph $B_G(V_1,V_2)$ of $G$ induced by those arcs/edges that have one end in each $V_i$. We determine, for all pairs of non-negative integers $k_1,k_2$, the complexity of deciding whether $G$ has a 2-partition $(V_1,V_2)$ such that each vertex in $V_i$ has at least $k_i$ (out-)neighbours in $V_{3-i}$. We prove that it is ${\cal NP}$-complete to decide whether a digraph $D$ has a 2-partition $(V_1,V_2)$ such that each vertex in $V_1$ has an out-neighbour in $V_2$ and each vertex in $V_2$ has an in-neighbour in $V_1$. The problem becomes polynomially solvable if we require $D$ to be strongly connected. We give a characterisation, based on the so-called strong component digraph of a non-strong digraph of the structure of ${\cal NP}$-complete instances in terms of their strong component digraph. When we want higher in-degree or out-degree to/from the other set the problem becomes ${\cal NP}$-complete even for strong digraphs. A further result is that it is ${\cal NP}$-complete to decide whether a given digraph $D$ has a $2$-partition $(V_1,V_2)$ such that $B_D(V_1,V_2)$ is strongly connected. This holds even if we require the input to be a highly connected eulerian digraph., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

Let $k$ be a fixed integer. We determine the complexity of finding a $p$-partition $(V_1, \dots, V_p)$ of the vertex set of a given digraph such that the maximum out-degree of each of the digraphs induced by $V_i$, ($1\leq i\leq p$) is at least $k$ smaller than the maximum out-degree of $D$. We show that this problem is polynomial-time solvable when $p\geq 2k$ and ${\cal NP}$-complete otherwise. The result for $k=1$ and $p=2$ answers a question posed in \cite{bangTCS636}. We also determine, for all fixed non-negative integers $k_1,k_2,p$, the complexity of deciding whether a given digraph of maximum out-degree $p$ has a $2$-partition $(V_1,V_2)$ such that the digraph induced by $V_i$ has maximum out-degree at most $k_i$ for $i\in [2]$. It follows from this characterization that the problem of deciding whether a digraph has a 2-partition $(V_1,V_2)$ such that each vertex $v\in V_i$ has at least as many neighbours in the set $V_{3-i}$ as in $V_i$, for $i=1,2$ is ${\cal NP}$-complete. This solves a problem from \cite{kreutzerEJC24} on majority colourings., Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure

For a (possibly infinite) fixed family of graphs F, we say that a graph G overlays F on a hypergraph H if V(H) is equal to V(G) and the subgraph of G induced by every hyperedge of H contains some member of F as a spanning subgraph.While it is easy to see that the complete graph on |V(H)| overlays F on a hypergraph H whenever the problem admits a solution, the Minimum F-Overlay problem asks for such a graph with the minimum number of edges.This problem allows to generalize some natural problems which may arise in practice. For instance, if the family F contains all connected graphs, then Minimum F-Overlay corresponds to the Minimum Connectivity Inference problem (also known as Subset Interconnection Design problem) introduced for the low-resolution reconstruction of macro-molecular assembly in structural biology, or for the design of networks.Our main contribution is a strong dichotomy result regarding the polynomial vs. NP-hard status with respect to the considered family F. Roughly speaking, we show that the easy cases one can think of (e.g. when edgeless graphs of the right sizes are in F, or if F contains only cliques) are the only families giving rise to a polynomial problem: all others are NP-complete.We then investigate the parameterized complexity of the problem and give similar sufficient conditions on F that give rise to W[1]-hard, W[2]-hard or FPT problems when the parameter is the size of the solution.This yields an FPT/W[1]-hard dichotomy for a relaxed problem, where every hyperedge of H must contain some member of F as a (non necessarily spanning) subgraph.

In 1985, Mader conjectured the existence of a function $f$ such that every digraph with minimum out-degree at least $f(k)$ contains a subdivision of the transitive tournament of order $k$. This conjecture is still completely open, as the existence of $f(5)$ remains unknown. In this paper, we show that if $D$ is an oriented path, or an in-arborescence (i.e., a tree with all edges oriented towards the root) or the union of two directed paths from $x$ to $y$ and a directed path from $y$ to $x$, then every digraph with minimum out-degree large enough contains a subdivision of $D$. Additionally, we study Mader's conjecture considering another graph parameter. The dichromatic number of a digraph $D$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that $D$ can be partitioned into $k$ acyclic subdigraphs. We show that any digraph with dichromatic number greater than $4^m (n-1)$ contains every digraph with $n$ vertices and $m$ arcs as a subdivision.

A well-known conjecture of Erd\H{o}s and S\'os states that every graph with average degree exceeding $m-1$ contains every tree with $m$ edges as a subgraph. We propose a variant of this conjecture, which states that every graph of maximum degree exceeding $m$ and minimum degree at least $\lfloor \frac{2m}{3}\rfloor$ contains every tree with $m$ edges. As evidence for our conjecture we show (i) for every $m$ there is a $g(m)$ such that the weakening of the conjecture obtained by replacing $m$ by $g(m)$ holds, and (ii) there is a $\gamma>0$ such that the weakening of the conjecture obtained by replacing $\lfloor \frac{2m}{3}\rfloor$ by $(1-\gamma)m$ holds.

An oriented cycle is an orientation of a undirected cycle. We first show that for any oriented cycle $C$, there are digraphs containing no subdivision of $C$ (as a subdigraph) and arbitrarily large chromatic number. In contrast, we show that for any $C$ a cycle with two blocks, every strongly connected digraph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains a subdivision of $C$. We prove a similar result for the antidirected cycle on four vertices (in which two vertices have out-degree $2$ and two vertices have in-degree $2$).

A famous conjecture of Gy\'arf\'as and Sumner states for any tree $T$ and integer $k$, if the chromatic number of a graph is large enough, either the graph contains a clique of size $k$ or it contains $T$ as an induced subgraph. We discuss some results and open problems about extensions of this conjecture to oriented graphs. We conjecture that for every oriented star $S$ and integer $k$, if the chromatic number of a digraph is large enough, either the digraph contains a clique of size $k$ or it contains $S$ as an induced subgraph. As an evidence, we prove that for any oriented star $S$, every oriented graph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains either a transitive tournament of order $3$ or $S$ as an induced subdigraph. We then study for which sets ${\cal P}$ of orientations of $P_4$ (the path on four vertices) similar statements hold. We establish some positive and negative results., Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures

A graph $G$ has maximal local edge-connectivity $k$ if the maximum number of edge-disjoint paths between every pair of distinct vertices $x$ and $y$ is at most $k$. We prove Brooks-type theorems for $k$-connected graphs with maximal local edge-connectivity $k$, and for any graph with maximal local edge-connectivity 3. We also consider several related graph classes defined by constraints on connectivity. In particular, we show that there is a polynomial-time algorithm that, given a 3-connected graph $G$ with maximal local connectivity 3, outputs an optimal colouring for $G$. On the other hand, we prove, for $k \ge 3$, that $k$-colourability is NP-complete when restricted to minimally $k$-connected graphs, and 3-colourability is NP-complete when restricted to $(k-1)$-connected graphs with maximal local connectivity $k$. Finally, we consider a parameterization of $k$-colourability based on the number of vertices of degree at least $k+1$, and prove that, even when $k$ is part of the input, the corresponding parameterized problem is FPT., Comment: The latest version has minor corrections and clarifications

A wheel is a graph formed by a chordless cycle and a vertex that has at least three neighbors in the cycle. We prove that every 3-connected graph that does not contain a wheel as a subgraph is in fact minimally 3-connected. We give a new proof of a theorem of Thomassen and Toft: every graph that does not contain a wheel as a subgraph is 3-colorable., Comment: Unpublished

We consider the following problem for oriented graphs and digraphs: Given an oriented graph (digraph) $G$, does it contain an induced subdivision of a prescribed digraph $D$? The complexity of this problem depends on $D$ and on whether $G$ must be an oriented graph or is allowed to contain 2-cycles. We give a number of examples of polynomial instances as well as several NP-completeness proofs.

We show that every graph with two crossings is 5-choosable. We also prove that every graph which can be made planar by removing one edge is 5-choosable.

A mapping from the vertex set of a graph G = (V,E) into an interval of integers {0,...,k} is an L(2,1)-labelling of G of span k if any two adjacent vertices are mapped onto integers that are at least 2 apart, and every two vertices with a common neighbour are mapped onto distinct integers. It is known that for any fixed k >= 4, deciding the existence of such a labelling is an NP-complete problem while it is polynomial for k <= 3. For even k >= 8, it remains NP-complete when restricted to planar graphs. In this paper, we show that it remains NP-complete for any k >= 4 by reduction from Planar Cubic Two-Colourable Perfect Matching. Schaefer stated without proof that Planar Cubic Two-Colourable Perfect Matching is NP-complete. In this paper we give a proof of this., Comment: 16 pages, includes figures generated using PSTricks. To appear in Discrete Applied Mathematics. Some very minor corrections incorporated

In 1977, Wegner conjectured that the chromatic number of the square of every planar graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta\ge8$ is at most $\bigl\lfloor\frac32\Delta\bigr\rfloor+1$. We show that it is at most $\frac32 \Delta (1+o(1))$ (where the $o(1)$ is as $\Delta\to+\infty$), and indeed that this is true for the list chromatic number and for more general classes of graphs., Comment: 34 pages

A digraph is $m$-labelled if every arc is labelled by an integer in $\{1, \dots,m\}$. Motivated by wavelength assignment for multicasts in optical networks, we introduce and study $n$-fibre colourings of labelled digraphs. These are colourings of the arcs of $D$ such that at each vertex $v$, and for each colour $\alpha$, $in(v,\alpha)+out(v,\alpha)\leq n$ with $in(v,\alpha)$ the number of arcs coloured $\alpha$ entering $v$ and $out(v,\alpha)$ the number of labels $l$ such that there is at least one arc of label $l$ leaving $v$ and coloured with $\alpha$. The problem is to find the minimum number of colours $\lambda_n(D)$ such that the $m$-labelled digraph $D$ has an $n$-fibre colouring. In the particular case when $D$ is $1$-labelled, $\lambda_1(D)$ is called the directed star arboricity of $D$, and is denoted by $dst(D)$. We first show that $dst(D)\leq 2\Delta^-(D)+1$, and conjecture that if $\Delta^-(D)\geq 2$, then $dst(D)\leq 2\Delta^-(D)$. We also prove that for a subcubic digraph $D$, then $dst(D)\leq 3$, and that if $\Delta^+(D), \Delta^-(D)\leq 2$, then $dst(D)\leq 4$. Finally, we study $\lambda_n(m,k)=\max\{\lambda_n(D) \tq D \mbox{is $m$-labelled} \et \Delta^-(D)\leq k\}$. We show that if $m\geq n$, then $\ds \left\lceil\frac{m}{n}\left\lceil \frac{k}{n}\right\rceil + \frac{k}{n} \right\rceil\leq \lambda_n(m,k) \leq\left\lceil\frac{m}{n}\left\lceil \frac{k}{n}\right\rceil + \frac{k}{n} \right\rceil + C \frac{m^2\log k}{n}$ for some constant $C$. We conjecture that the lower bound should be the right value of $\lambda_n(m,k)$., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. Final version