Acyclic Edge coloring of Planar Graphs

An acyclic edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles. The acyclic chromatic index of a graph is the minimum number k such that there is an acyclic edge coloring using k colors and is denoted by a(G). It was conjectured by Alon, Sudakov and Zaks (and much earlier by Fiamcik) that a(G) ≤ ∆ + 2, where ∆ = ∆(G) denotes the maximum degree of the graph. We prove that if G is a planar graph with maximum degree ∆, then a(G) ≤ ∆+ 12.