Equitable coloring of sparse graphs

Abstract: An equitable coloring of a graph is a proper coloring where the sizes of any two different color classes do not differ by more than one. We use $\mathcal{G}{m_1, m_2}$ to represent the class of graphs $G$ that satisfy the following conditions: for any subgraph $H$ of $G$, the inequality $e(H) \leq m_1 v(H)$ holds, and for any bipartite subgraph $H$ of $G$, the inequality $e(H) \leq m_2 v(H)$ holds. A graph $G$ is $\alpha$-sparse if $e(H) \leq \alpha v(H)$ for every subgraph $H$ of $G$. In this paper, we show that there is a small constant $r_0\in [4m_1, 6.21m_1]$ solely determined by both $m_1$ and $m_2$, such that for any graph $G\in \mathcal{G}{m_1, m_2}$ (where the ratio $m_1/m_2$ is between $1$ and $1.8$ inclusive) with a maximum degree $\Delta(G)\geq r_0$, an equitable $r$-coloring is guaranteed for all $r\geq \Delta(G)$. By setting $m_1=m_2=\alpha$ in this result, we conclude that every $\alpha$-sparse graph $G$ has an equitable $r$-coloring for every $r\geq \Delta(G)$ provided $\Delta(G)\geq 6.21\alpha$. Consequently, the celebrated Equitable $\Delta$-Color Conjecture and Chen-Lih-Wu Conjecture are verified for sparse graphs with large maximum degree. The local crossing number of a drawing of a graph is the largest number of crossings on a single edge, and the local crossing number of that graph is the minimum of such values among all possible drawings. As an interesting application of our main result, we confirm Equitable $\Delta$-Color Conjecture and Chen-Lih-Wu Conjecture for non-planar graphs $G$ with local crossing number not exceeding $\Delta(G)^2 / 383$.