The Non-Crossing Graph

Abstract

Two sets are non-crossing if they are disjoint or one contains the other. The non-crossing graph ${\rm NC}_n$ is the graph whose vertex set is the set of nonempty subsets of $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ with an edge between any two non-crossing sets. Various facts, some new and some already known, concerning the chromatic number, fractional chromatic number, independence number, clique number and clique cover number of this graph are presented. For the chromatic number of this graph we show: $$ n(\log_e n -\Theta(1)) \le \chi({\rm NC}_n) \le n (\lceil\log_2 n\rceil-1). $$