The panchromatic–bipanchromatic number equality conjecture

Let HH be a hypergraph. Write χp(H)\chi_p(H) for its panchromatic number, χp2(H)\chi^2_p(H) for its bipanchromatic number, and let αχp(H)(H)\alpha_{\chi_p(H)}(H) be the minimum number of unique colors among all panchromatic χp(H)\chi_p(H)-colorings of HH. The panchromatic–bipanchromatic equality conjecture. Every hypergraph HH satisfies

χp2(H)=χp(H)αχp(H)(H)2.\chi^2_p(H)=\chi_p(H)-\left\lceil\frac{\alpha_{\chi_p(H)}(H)}{2}\right\rceil.

The equality would give a general relation between panchromatic and bipanchromatic coloring numbers. The source reports computational tests on randomly generated hypergraphs in the stated parameter ranges, but provides no proof or disproof.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Mohammed Lalou, Nader Mbarek, Abdallah Skender and Olivier Togni, “Completely Independent Spanning Trees in Split Graphs: Structural Properties and Complexity”, arXiv:2512.15486 (2026).

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