Acyclic edge coloring of planar graphs

Abstract

An acyclic edge coloring of a graph $ G $ is a proper edge coloring such that no bichromatic cycles are produced. The acyclic chromatic index of $ G $, denoted by $ \chi^{'}_{a}(G) $, is the smallest integer $ k $ such that $ G $ is acyclically edge $ k $-colorable. In this paper, we consider the planar graphs without 3-cycles and intersecting 4-cycles, and prove that $ \chi^{'}_{a}(G)\leq\Delta(G)+1 $ if $ \Delta(G)\geq 8 $.

Keywords

• acyclic edge coloring
• planar graph
• cycle
• girth
• maximum degree