The game of arboricity

Abstract

Using a fixed set of colors $C$, Ann and Ben color the edges of a graph $G$ so that no monochromatic cycle may appear. Ann wins if all edges of $G$ have been colored, while Ben wins if completing a coloring is not possible. The minimum size of $C$ for which Ann has a winning strategy is called the $\textit{game arboricity}$ of $G$, denoted by $A_g(G)$. We prove that $A_g(G) \leq 3k$ for any graph $G$ of arboricity $k$, and that there are graphs such that $A_g(G) \geq 2k-2$. The upper bound is achieved by a suitable version of the activation strategy, used earlier for the vertex coloring game. We also provide other strategie based on induction.

Keywords

• arboricity
• two-player strategies
• activation strategy
• [info.info-dm] computer science [cs]/discrete mathematics [cs.dm]
• [math.math-co] mathematics [math]/combinatorics [math.co]