Xin Zhang, On equitable tree-colorings of graphs

An equitable tree-k-coloring of a graph is a vertex coloring using k distinct colors such that every color class (i.e, the set of vertices in a common color) induces a forest and the sizes of any two color classes differ by at most one. The minimum integer k such that a graph G is equitably tree-k-colorable is the equitable vertex arboricity of G, denoted by va_eq(G). A graph that is equitably tree-k-colorable may admits no equitable tree-k′-coloring for some k′>k. For example, the complete bipartite graph K_9,9 has an equitable tree-2-coloring but is not equitably tree-3-colorable. In view of this a new chromatic parameter so-called the equitable vertex arborable threshold is introduced. Precisely, it is the minimum integer k such that G has an equitable tree-k′-coloring for any integer k′≥k, and is denoted by va^∗_eq(G). The concepts of the equitable vertex arboricity and the equitable vertex arborable threshold were introduced by J.-L. Wu, X. Zhang and H. Li in 2013. In 2016, X. Zhang also introduced the list analogue of the equitable tree-k-coloring. There are many interesting conjectures on the equitable (list) tree-colorings, one of which, for example, conjectures that every graph with maximum degree at most Δ is equitably tree-k-colorable for any integer k≥(Δ+1)/2, i.e, va^∗_eq(G)≤⌈(Δ+1)/2⌉. In this talk, I review the recent progresses on the studies of the equitable tree-colorings from theoretical results to practical algorithms, and also share some interesting problems for further research.