Erdős–Lovász–Tihany Conjecture

From papers

Let GG be a finite simple graph, and let ω(G)\omega(G) and χ(G)\chi(G) denote its clique number and chromatic number. For integers s,t2s,t\ge 2, call GG (s,t)(s,t)-splittable if its vertex set can be partitioned into sets SS and TT such that

χ(G[S])sandχ(G[T])t.\chi(G[S])\ge s\quad\text{and}\quad \chi(G[T])\ge t.

Erdős–Lovász–Tihany Conjecture. If

ω(G)<χ(G)=s+t1,\omega(G)<\chi(G)=s+t-1,

then GG is (s,t)(s,t)-splittable.

The conjecture is a central problem concerning chromatic partitions of graphs. The supplied status evidence records that several cases have been proved, including (2,2)(2,2), (2,3)(2,3), (3,3)(3,3), (2,4)(2,4), (3,4)(3,4) and (3,5)(3,5); the general conjecture remains open.

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Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Zi-Xia Song, “The Erdős-Lovász Tihany Conjecture holds for all even-hole-free graphs”, arXiv:2607.20376 (2026).

Additional references

3 papers in this index state this conjecture (2016–2026). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2406.15164, arXiv:1610.00636.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.