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Graph colouring with no large monochronomatic components. (English) Zbl 1171.05021
Summary: For a graph $$G$$ and an integer $$t$$ we let $$mcc_t(G)$$ be the smallest $$m$$ such that there exists a colouring of the vertices of $$G$$ by $$t$$ colours with no monochromatic connected subgraph having more than $$m$$ vertices. Let $$\mathcal F$$ be any non-trivial minor-closed family of graphs. We show that $$mcc_2(G) = O(n^{2/3})$$ for any $$n$$-vertex graph $$G\in{\mathcal F}$$. This bound is asymptotically optimal and it is attained for planar graphs. More generally, for every such $$\mathcal F$$, and every fixed $$t$$ we show that $$mcc_t(G) = O(n^{2/(t+1)})$$. On the other hand, we have examples of graphs $$G$$ with no $$K_{t+3}$$ minor and with $$mcc_t(G) =\Omega(n^{2/(2t-1)})$$.
It is also interesting to consider graphs of bounded degrees. P. Haxell, T. Szabó and G. Tardo [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 88, No. 2, 281–297 (2003; Zbl 1033.05083)] proved $$mcc_t(G)\leq 20000$$ for every graph $$G$$ of maximum degree 5. We show that there are $$n$$-vertex 7-regular graphs $$G$$ with $$mcc_2(G) =\Omega(n)$$, and more sharply, for every $$\varepsilon > 0$$ there exists $$c_\varepsilon > 0$$ and $$n$$-vertex graphs of maximum degree 7, average degree at most $$6 + \varepsilon$$ for all subgraphs, and with $$mcc_2(G)\geq c_\varepsilon n$$. For 6-regular graphs it is known only that the maximum order of magnitude of $$mcc_2$$ is between $$\sqrt n$$ and $$n$$.

##### MSC:
 05C15 Coloring of graphs and hypergraphs 05C83 Graph minors 05C55 Generalized Ramsey theory
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