The Chromatic Number of Joins of Signed Graphs

Abstract

We introduce joins of signed graphs and explore the chromatic number of the all-positive and all-negative joins. We prove an analogue to the theorem that the chromatic number of the join of two graphs equals the sum of their chromatic numbers. Given two signed graphs, the chromatic number of the all-positive and all-negative join is usually less than the sum of their chromatic numbers, by an amount that depends on the new concept of deficiency of a signed-graph coloration.