Chromatic numbers of Cayley graphs of abelian groups: A matrix method

Abstract

In this paper, we take a modest first step towards a systematic study of chromatic numbers of Cayley graphs on abelian groups. We lose little when we consider these graphs only when they are connected and of finite degree. As in the work of Heuberger and others, in such cases the graph can be represented by an m×r integer matrix, where we call m the dimension and r the rank. Adding or subtracting rows produces a graph homomorphism to a graph with a matrix of smaller dimension, thereby giving an upper bound on the chromatic number of the original graph. In this article we develop the foundations of this method. As a demonstration of its utility, we provide an alternate proof of Payan's theorem, which states that a cubelike graph (i.e., a Cayley graph on the product Z2×⋯×Z2 of the integers modulo 2 with itself finitely many times) cannot have chromatic number 3. In a series of follow-up articles using the method of Heuberger matrices, we completely determine the chromatic number in cases with small dimension and rank, as well as prove a generalization of Zhu's theorem on the chromatic number of 6-valent integer distance graphs.