Graphs with girth $2\ell+1$ and without longer odd holes are $3$-colorable

Abstract

For a number $\ell\geq 2$, let $\mathcal{G}_{\ell}$ denote the family of graphs which have girth $2\ell+1$ and have no odd hole with length greater than $2\ell+1$. Plummer and Zha conjectured that every 3-connected and internally 4-connected graph in $\mathcal{G}_2$ is 3-colorable. Wu, Xu, and Xu conjectured that every graph in $\bigcup_{\ell\geq2}\mathcal{G}_{\ell}$ is 3-colorable. Chudnovsky et al. and Wu et al., respectively, proved that every graph in $\mathcal{G}_2$ and $\mathcal{G}_3$ is 3-colorable. In this paper, we prove that every graph in $\bigcup_{\ell\geq5}\mathcal{G}_{\ell}$ is 3-colorable.