From Edge-Coloring to Strong Edge-Coloring

In this paper we study a generalization of both proper edge-coloring and strong edge-coloring: $k$-intersection edge-coloring, introduced by Muthu, Narayanan and Subramanian. In this coloring, the set $S(v)$ of colors used by edges incident to a vertex $v$ does not intersect $S(u)$ on more than $k$ colors when $u$ and $v$ are adjacent. We provide some sharp upper and lower bounds for $\chi'_{k\text{-int}}$ for several classes of graphs. For $l$-degenerate graphs we prove that $\chi'_{k\text{-int}}(G)\leq (l+1)\Delta -l(k-1)-1$. We improve this bound for subcubic graphs by showing that $\chi'_{2\text{-int}}(G)\leq 6$. We show that calculating $\chi'_{k\text{-int}}(K_n)$ for arbitrary values of $k$ and $n$ is related to some problems in combinatorial set theory and we provide bounds that are tight for infinitely many values of $n$. Furthermore, for complete bipartite graphs we prove that $\chi'_{k\text{-int}}(K_{n,m}) = \left\lceil \frac{mn}{k}\right\rceil$. Finally, we show that computing $\chi'_{k\text{-int}}(G)$ is NP-complete for every $k\geq 1$.An addendum was added to this paper on Jul 4, 2015.