From Rainbow to the Lonely Runner.ppt

From Rainbow to the Lonely Runner Daphne Liu Department of Mathematics California State Univ., Los Angeles January 24, 2007 Overview: Plane Coloring Problem Color all the points on the xy-plane so that any two points of unit distance apart get different colors. Graphs and Chromatic Number A graph G contains two parts: Example At least we need four colors for coloring the plane Assume three colors, red, blue and green, are used. Known Facts Circular Chromatic Number Let G be a graph. Let r be a real number and Sr be a circle on the xy-plane centered at (0,0) with circumference r. Example, C5 Known Results: Distance GraphsEggleton, Erd?s et. al. [1985 – 1987] For a given set D of positive integers, the distance graph G(Z, D) has: Lonely Runner Conjecture Suppose k runners running on a circular field of circumference r. Suppose each runner keeps a constant speed and all runners have different speeds. A runner is called “lonely” at some moment if he or she has (circular) distance at least r/k apart from all other runners. Parameter involved in the Lonely Runner Conjecture For any real x, let || x || denote the shortest distance from x to an integer. For instance, ||3.2|| = 0.2 and ||4.9||=0.1. Example D = {1, 3, 4} (Four runners) Wills Conjecture For any D, Relations Density of Sequences w/ Missing Differences Let D be a set of positive integers. Example, D = {1, 4, 5}. Theorem Conjecture (L Zhu, 2004, JGT) If D = {a, b, a+b} and gcd(a, b)=1, then Conjecture [L. Zhu, 2004] Conjecture: If D = {x, y, y-x, y+x} where x=2k+1 and y=2m+1, m k, gcd(x,y)=1, then * * Distance Graphs Fractional Chromatic Number Circular Chromatic Number Lonely Runner Conjecture Plane coloring What is the smallest number of colors needed to accomplish the above ? Seven colors are enough [Moser Moser, 1968] 1 A proper vertex coloring: Chromatic number of G: Vertices and edges. A function that assigns to each ve