A counterexample to a conjecture on facial unique-maximal colorings

Abstract

A facial unique-maximum coloring of a plane graph is a proper vertex coloring by natural numbers where on each face $\alpha$ the maximal color appears exactly once on the vertices of $\alpha$. Fabrici and G\"oring proved that six colors are enough for any plane graph and conjectured that four colors suffice. This conjecture is a strengthening of the Four Color theorem. Wendland later decreased the upper bound from six to five. In this note, we disprove the conjecture by giving an infinite family of counterexamples. Thus we conclude that facial unique-maximum chromatic number of the sphere is five.