Improper interval edge colorings of graphs

Abstract

A $k$-improper edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a mapping $\alpha:E(G)\longrightarrow \mathbb{N}$ such that at most $k$ edges of $G$ with a common endpoint have the same color. An improper edge coloring of a graph $G$ is called an improper interval edge coloring if the colors of the edges incident to each vertex of $G$ form an integral interval. In this paper we introduce and investigate a new notion, the interval coloring impropriety (or just impropriety) of a graph $G$ defined as the smallest $k$ such that $G$ has a $k$-improper interval edge coloring; we denote the smallest such $k$ by $\mu_{\mathrm{int}}(G)$. We prove upper bounds on $\mu_{\mathrm{int}}(G)$ for general graphs $G$ and for particular families such as bipartite, complete multipartite and outerplanar graphs; we also determine $\mu_{\mathrm{int}}(G)$ exactly for $G$ belonging to some particular classes of graphs. Furthermore, we provide several families of graphs with large impropriety; in particular, we prove that for each positive integer $k$, there exists a graph $G$ with $\mu_{\mathrm{int}}(G) =k$. Finally, for graphs with at least two vertices we prove a new upper bound on the number of colors used in an improper interval edge coloring.