Local Irregularity Conjecture vs. cacti

Abstract

A graph in which the two end-vertices of every edge have distinct degrees is called locally irregular. An edge coloring of a graph G such that every color induces a locally irregular subgraph of G is said to be locally irregular. A graph G which admits a locally irregular edge coloring is called colorable. The Local Irregularity Conjecture claims that 3 colors are enough for locally irregular edge coloring of any colorable graph. Not so long ago the only known graphs which do not admit a locally irregular 3-edge coloring were the non-colorable graphs, all of which are cacti. This fact motivated us to study locally irregular 3-edge colorings of cacti, which first resulted with the finding of the bow-tie graph B, a colorable cactus graph which requires 4 colors for a locally irregular edge coloring. As the graph B disproves the stated form of the Local Irregularity Conjecture, here we continue the study of locally irregular 3-edge colorings of cacti in relation to the conjecture. In this paper we confirm that all other cacti are locally irregular 3-edge colorable. This result makes us to believe that B is the only counterexample to the conjecture not only in the class of cacti, but also in general.