Chromatic properties of the Euclidean plane

Let $G$ be the unit distance graph in the plane. A well-known problem in combinatorial geometry is that of determining the chromatic number of $G$. It is known that $4\le χ(G)\le 7$. The upper bound of 7 is obtained using tilings of the plane. The present paper studies two problems where we seek proper colourings of $G$, adding restrictions inspired by tilings: Let $H(ε)$ be the graph whose vertices are the points of ${\mathbb R}^2$, with an edge between two points if their distance lies in the interval $[1,1+ε]$. We show that for small $ε$, $0<ε\le \frac{3\sqrt{2}}{4}-1$, we have $6\le χ(H(ε))\le 7$. This improves the result of Exoo and Grytczuk et al. that $5\le χ(H(ε))$ for small $ε$. Suppose that $G$ is properly coloured, but so that two solidly coloured regions meet along a straight line in some neighbourhood. Then at least 5 colours must be used.

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