Star Coloring High Girth Planar Graphs

Abstract

A star coloring of a graph is a proper coloring such that no path on four vertices is 2-colored. We prove that every planar graph with girth at least 9 can be star colored using 5 colors, and that every planar graph with girth at least 14 can be star colored using 4 colors; the figure 4 is best possible. We give an example of a girth 7 planar graph that requires 5 colors to star color.