The independence number of an edge-chromatic critical graph
Douglas R. Woodall · Journal of Graph Theory · 2010
A graph G with maximum degree Δ and edge chromatic number χ′(G)>Δ is edge-Δ-critical if χ′(G−e)=Δ for every edge e of G. It is proved here that the vertex independence number of an edge-Δ-critical graph of order n is less than . For large Δ, this improves on the best bound previously known, which was roughly ; the bound conjectured by Vizing, which would be best possible, is . © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66:98-103, 2011