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abstract: Every graph can be colored with one more color than its maximum degree. A well-known theorem of Brooks gives the precise conditions under which a graph can be colored with maximum degree colors. It is natural to ask for the required conditions on a graph to color with one less color than the maximum degree; in 1977 Borodin and Kostochka conjectured a solution for graphs with maximum degree at least 9: as long as the graph doesn't contain a maximum-degree-sized clique, it can be colored with one fewer than the maximum degree colors. This study attacks the conjecture on multiple fronts. The first technique is an extension of a vertex shuffling procedure of Catlin and is used to prove the conjecture for graphs with edgeless high vertex subgraphs. This general approach also bears more theoretical fruit. The second technique is an extension of a method Kostochka used to reduce the Borodin-Kostochka conjecture to the maximum degree 9 case. Results on the existence of independent transversals are used to find an independent set intersecting every maximum clique in a graph. The third technique uses list coloring results to exclude induced subgraphs in a counterexample to the conjecture. The classification of such excludable graphs that decompose as the join of two graphs is the backbone of many of the results presented here. The fourth technique uses the structure theorem for quasi-line graphs of Chudnovsky and Seymour in concert with the third technique to prove the Borodin-Kostochka conjecture for claw-free graphs. The fifth technique adds edges to proper induced subgraphs of a minimum counterexample to gain control over the colorings produced by minimality. The sixth technique adapts a recoloring technique originally developed for strong coloring by Haxell and by Aharoni, Berger and Ziv to general coloring. Using this recoloring technique, the Borodin-Kostochka conjectured is proved for graphs where every vertex is in a large clique. The final technique is naive probabilistic coloring as employed by Reed in the proof of the Borodin-Kostochka conjecture for large maximum degree. The technique is adapted to prove the Borodin-Kostochka conjecture for list coloring for large maximum degree. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Mathematics 2013

Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à différentes notions de colorations sous contraintes. Nous nous intéressons plus spécialement à la coloration acyclique, à la coloration forte d'arêtes et à la coloration d'arêtes sommets adjacents distinguants.Dans le Chapitre 2, nous avons étudié la coloration acyclique. Tout d'abord nous avons cherché à borner le nombre chromatique acyclique pour la classe des graphes de degré maximum borné. Ensuite nous nous sommes attardés sur la coloration acyclique par listes. La notion de coloration acyclique par liste des graphes planaires a été introduite par Borodin, Fon-Der Flaass, Kostochka, Raspaud et Sopena. Ils ont conjecturé que tout graphe planaire est acycliquement 5-liste coloriable. De notre côté, nous avons proposé des conditions suffisantes de 3-liste coloration acyclique des graphes planaires. Dans le Chapitre 3, nous avons étudié la coloration forte d'arêtes des graphes subcubiques en majorant l'indice chromatique fort en fonction du degré moyen maximum. Nous nous sommes également intéressés à la coloration forte d'arêtes des graphes subcubiques sans cycles de longueurs données et nous avons également obtenu une majoration optimale de l'indice chromatique fort pour la famille des graphes planaires extérieurs. Nous avons aussi présenté différents résultats de complexité pour la classe des graphes planaires subcubiques. Enfin, au Chapitre 4, nous avons abordé la coloration d'arêtes sommets adjacents distinguants en déterminant les majorations de l'indice avd-chromatique en fonction du degré moyen maximum. Notre travail s'inscrit dans la continuité de celui effectué par Wang et Wang en 2010. Plus précisément, nous nous sommes focalisés sur la famille des graphes de degré maximum au moins 5. / In this thesis, we are interested in various coloring of graphs under constraints. We study acyclic coloring, strong edge coloring and adjacent vertex-distinguishing edge coloring.In Chapter 2, we consider acyclic coloring and we bound the acyclic chromatic number by a function of the maximum degree of the graph. We also study acyclic list coloring. The notion of acyclic list coloring of planar graphs was introduced by Borodin, Fon-Der Flaass, Kostochka, Raspaud, and Sopena. They conjectured that every planar graph is acyclically 5-choosable. We obtain some sufficient conditions for planar graphs to be acyclically 3-choosable.In Chapter 3, we study strong edge coloring of graphs. We prove some upper bounds of the strong chromatic index of subcubic graphs as a function of the maximum average degree. We also obtain a tight upper bound for the minimum number of colors in a strong edge coloring of outerplanar graphs as a function of the maximum degree. We also prove that the strong edge k-colouring problem, when k=4,5,6, is NP-complete for subcubic planar bipartite graphs with some girth condition. Finally, in Chapter 4, we focus on adjacent vertex-distinguishing edge coloring, or avd-coloring, of graphs. We bound the avd-chromatic number of graphs by a function of the maximum average degree. This work completes a result of Wang and Wang in 2010.