ACYCLIC EDGE-COLORING OF PLANAR GRAPHS: Δ COLORS SUFFICE WHEN δ IS LARGE.

An acyclic edge-coloring of a graph G is a proper edge-coloring of G such that the subgraph induced by any two color classes is acyclic. The acyclic chromatic index, &#967';α (G), is the smallest number of colors allowing an acyclic edge-coloring of G. Clearly &#967';α(G) ≥ Δ(G) for every graph G. Cohen, Havet, and Müller conjectured that there exists a constant M such that every planar graph with Δ(G) ≥ M has χ'α (G) = Δ(G). We prove this conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]