FirstFit online coloring in the random order model

Abstract

The average performance of FirstFit online coloring on trees in the random order model is completely determined in recent works of Frei et al. and Bosek et al., showing $Θ(\log n /\log\log n)$ number of colors, improving the $Θ(\log n)$ colors in the adversarial model. We provide a few further results on slightly more general graph classes. Firstly, we extend their method to obtain a simple path-counting principle for sparse graph classes, which immediately yields for example that cactus graphs and uniform hypertrees exhibit a similar improvement. We then show that FirstFit uses only $O(1)$ colors on crown graphs, a standard example where adversarial arrival forces $Θ(n)$ colors. We further show that density alone (even linear minimum degree) is insufficient to guarantee $O(1)$ colors even on bipartite graphs. Finally, we identify graph classes, including unit interval graphs and some graphs of high chromatic number, for which random arrival provides only limited improvement. We end with some open problems.