Results on the Grundy chromatic number of graphs

Given a graph G, by a Grundy k-coloring of G we mean any proper k-vertex coloring of G such that for each two colors i and j, i < j , every vertex ofG colored by j has a neighbor with color i. The maximum k for which there exists a Grundy k-coloring is denoted by (G) and called Grundy (chromatic) number of G. We first discuss the fixed-parameter complexity of determining (G) k, for any fixed integer k and show that it is a polynomial time problem. But in general, Grundy number is an NP-complete problem. We show that it is NP-complete even for the complement of bipartite graphs and describe the Grundy number of these graphs in terms of the minimum edge dominating number of their complements. Next we obtain some additive Nordhaus–Gaddum-type inequalities concerning (G) and (Gc), for a few family of graphs. We introduce well-colored graphs, which are graphs G for which applying every greedy coloring results in a coloring of G with (G) colors. Equivalently G is well colored if (G)= (G). We prove that the recognition problem of well-colored graphs is a coNP-complete problem. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.