More Tales of Hoffman: bounds for the vector chromatic number of a graph

Abstract

Let $\chi(G)$ denote the chromatic number of a graph and $\chi_v(G)$ denote the vector chromatic number. For all graphs $\chi_v(G) \le \chi(G)$ and for some graphs $\chi_v(G) \ll \chi(G)$. Galtman proved that Hoffman's well-known lower bound for $\chi(G)$ is in fact a lower bound for $\chi_v(G)$. We prove that two more spectral lower bounds for $\chi(G)$ are also lower bounds for $\chi_v(G)$. We then use one of these bounds to derive a new characterization of $\chi_v(G)$.