Complete coloring

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Complete coloring of the Clebsch graph with 8 colors. Every pair of colors appears on at least one edge. No complete coloring with more colors exists: in any 9-coloring some color would appear only at one vertex, and there would not be enough neighboring vertices to cover all pairs involving that color. Therefore, the achromatic number of the Clebsch graph is 8. Complete coloring clebsch graph.svg
Complete coloring of the Clebsch graph with 8 colors. Every pair of colors appears on at least one edge. No complete coloring with more colors exists: in any 9-coloring some color would appear only at one vertex, and there would not be enough neighboring vertices to cover all pairs involving that color. Therefore, the achromatic number of the Clebsch graph is 8.

In graph theory, complete coloring is the opposite of harmonious coloring in the sense that it is a vertex coloring in which every pair of colors appears on at least one pair of adjacent vertices. Equivalently, a complete coloring is minimal in the sense that it cannot be transformed into a proper coloring with fewer colors by merging pairs of color classes. The achromatic number ψ(G) of a graph G is the maximum number of colors possible in any complete coloring of G.

Contents

Complexity theory

Finding ψ(G) is an optimization problem. The decision problem for complete coloring can be phrased as:

INSTANCE: a graph and positive integer
QUESTION: does there exist a partition of into or more disjoint sets such that each is an independent set for and such that for each pair of distinct sets is not an independent set.

Determining the achromatic number is NP-hard; determining if it is greater than a given number is NP-complete, as shown by Yannakakis and Gavril in 1978 by transformation from the minimum maximal matching problem. [1]

Note that any coloring of a graph with the minimum number of colors must be a complete coloring, so minimizing the number of colors in a complete coloring is just a restatement of the standard graph coloring problem.

Algorithms

For any fixed k, it is possible to determine whether the achromatic number of a given graph is at least k, in linear time. [2]

The optimization problem permits approximation and is approximable within a approximation ratio. [3]

Special classes of graphs

The NP-completeness of the achromatic number problem holds also for some special classes of graphs: bipartite graphs, [2] complements of bipartite graphs (that is, graphs having no independent set of more than two vertices), [1] cographs and interval graphs, [4] and even for trees. [5]

For complements of trees, the achromatic number can be computed in polynomial time. [6] For trees, it can be approximated to within a constant factor. [3]

The achromatic number of an n-dimensional hypercube graph is known to be proportional to , but the constant of proportionality is not known precisely. [7]

Related Research Articles

Bipartite graph Graph in which every vertex is connected to at least one other

In the mathematical field of graph theory, a bipartite graph is a graph whose vertices can be divided into two disjoint and independent sets and such that every edge connects a vertex in to one in . Vertex sets and are usually called the parts of the graph. Equivalently, a bipartite graph is a graph that does not contain any odd-length cycles.

This is a glossary of graph theory. Graph theory is the study of graphs, systems of nodes or vertices connected in pairs by lines or edges.

Graph coloring Assignment of colors to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints.

In graph theory, graph coloring is a special case of graph labeling; it is an assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints. In its simplest form, it is a way of coloring the vertices of a graph such that no two adjacent vertices are of the same color; this is called a vertex coloring. Similarly, an edge coloring assigns a color to each edge so that no two adjacent edges are of the same color, and a face coloring of a planar graph assigns a color to each face or region so that no two faces that share a boundary have the same color.

Independent set (graph theory) Unrelated vertices in graphs

In graph theory, an independent set, stable set, coclique or anticlique is a set of vertices in a graph, no two of which are adjacent. That is, it is a set of vertices such that for every two vertices in , there is no edge connecting the two. Equivalently, each edge in the graph has at most one endpoint in . A set is independent if and only if it is a clique in the graph’s complement. The size of an independent set is the number of vertices it contains. Independent sets have also been called "internally stable sets", of which "stable set" is a shortening.

Vertex cover Set of vertices that includes at least one endpoint of every edge in a graph

In graph theory, a vertex cover of a graph is a set of vertices that includes at least one endpoint of every edge of the graph. In computer science, the problem of finding a minimum vertex cover is a classical optimization problem. It is NP-hard, so it cannot be solved by a polynomial-time algorithm if P ≠ NP. Moreover, it is hard to approximate - it cannot be approximated up to a factor smaller than 2 if the unique games conjecture is true. On the other hand, it has several simple 2-factor approximations. It is a typical example of an NP-hard optimization problem that has an approximation algorithm. Its decision version, the vertex cover problem, was one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems and is therefore a classical NP-complete problem in computational complexity theory. Furthermore, the vertex cover problem is fixed-parameter tractable and a central problem in parameterized complexity theory.

In the mathematical discipline of graph theory, a matching or independent edge set in an undirected graph is a set of edges without common vertices. Finding a matching in a bipartite graph can be treated as a network flow problem.

Perfect graph

In graph theory, a perfect graph is a graph in which the chromatic number of every induced subgraph equals the order of the largest clique of that subgraph. Equivalently stated in symbolic terms an arbitrary graph is perfect if and only if for all we have .

Exact coloring

In graph theory, an exact coloring is a (proper) vertex coloring in which every pair of colors appears on exactly one pair of adjacent vertices. That is, it is a partition of the vertices of the graph into disjoint independent sets such that, for each pair of distinct independent sets in the partition, there is exactly one edge with endpoints in each set.

Cograph

In graph theory, a cograph, or complement-reducible graph, or P4-free graph, is a graph that can be generated from the single-vertex graph K1 by complementation and disjoint union. That is, the family of cographs is the smallest class of graphs that includes K1 and is closed under complementation and disjoint union.

Hypercube graph

In graph theory, the hypercube graphQn is the graph formed from the vertices and edges of an n-dimensional hypercube. For instance, the cubical graph Q3 is the graph formed by the 8 vertices and 12 edges of a three-dimensional cube. Qn has 2n vertices, 2n−1n edges, and is a regular graph with n edges touching each vertex.

Induced path

In the mathematical area of graph theory, an induced path in an undirected graph G is a path that is an induced subgraph of G. That is, it is a sequence of vertices in G such that each two adjacent vertices in the sequence are connected by an edge in G, and each two nonadjacent vertices in the sequence are not connected by any edge in G. An induced path is sometimes called a snake, and the problem of finding long induced paths in hypercube graphs is known as the snake-in-the-box problem.

Boxicity

In graph theory, boxicity is a graph invariant, introduced by Fred S. Roberts in 1969.

Clique-width

In graph theory, the clique-width of a graph is a parameter that describes the structural complexity of the graph; it is closely related to treewidth, but unlike treewidth it can be bounded even for dense graphs. It is defined as the minimum number of labels needed to construct by means of the following 4 operations :

  1. Creation of a new vertex v with label i
  2. Disjoint union of two labeled graphs G and H
  3. Joining by an edge every vertex labeled i to every vertex labeled j, where
  4. Renaming label i to label j

In graph theory, a clique cover or partition into cliques of a given undirected graph is a partition of the vertices of the graph into cliques, subsets of vertices within which every two vertices are adjacent. A minimum clique cover is a clique cover that uses as few cliques as possible. The minimum k for which a clique cover exists is called the clique cover number of the given graph.

Maximum cut

For a graph, a maximum cut is a cut whose size is at least the size of any other cut. That is, it is a partition of the graph's vertices into two complementary sets S and T, such that the number of edges between the set S and the set T is as large as possible. The problem of finding a maximum cut in a graph is known as the Max-Cut Problem.

In the mathematical fields of graph theory and combinatorial optimization, the bipartite dimension or biclique cover number of a graph G = (VE) is the minimum number of bicliques, needed to cover all edges in E. A collection of bicliques covering all edges in G is called a biclique edge cover, or sometimes biclique cover. The bipartite dimension of G is often denoted by the symbol d(G).

Edge dominating set

In graph theory, an edge dominating set for a graph G = (VE) is a subset D ⊆ E such that every edge not in D is adjacent to at least one edge in D. An edge dominating set is also known as a line dominating set. Figures (a)–(d) are examples of edge dominating sets.

In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, a chordal completion of a given undirected graph G is a chordal graph, on the same vertex set, that has G as a subgraph. A minimal chordal completion is a chordal completion such that any graph formed by removing an edge would no longer be a chordal completion. A minimum chordal completion is a chordal completion with as few edges as possible.

Frankl–Rödl graph

In graph theory and computational complexity theory, a Frankl–Rödl graph is a graph defined by connecting pairs of vertices of a hypercube that are at a specified even distance from each other. The graphs of this type are parameterized by the dimension of the hypercube and by the distance between adjacent vertices.

Well-colored graph

In graph theory, a subfield of mathematics, a well-colored graph is an undirected graph for which greedy coloring uses the same number of colors regardless of the order in which colors are chosen for its vertices. That is, for these graphs, the chromatic number and Grundy number are equal.

References

  1. 1 2 Michael R. Garey and David S. Johnson (1979), Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness , W.H. Freeman, ISBN   978-0-7167-1045-5 A1.1: GT5, pg.191.
  2. 1 2 Farber, M.; Hahn, G.; Hell, P.; Miller, D. J. (1986), "Concerning the achromatic number of graphs", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 40 (1): 21–39, doi: 10.1016/0095-8956(86)90062-6 .
  3. 1 2 Chaudhary, Amitabh; Vishwanathan, Sundar (2001), "Approximation algorithms for the achromatic number", Journal of Algorithms, 41 (2): 404–416, CiteSeerX   10.1.1.1.5562 , doi:10.1006/jagm.2001.1192, S2CID   9817850 .
  4. Bodlaender, H. (1989), "Achromatic number is NP-complete for cographs and interval graphs", Inf. Process. Lett., 31 (3): 135–138, doi:10.1016/0020-0190(89)90221-4, hdl: 1874/16576 .
  5. Manlove, D.; McDiarmid, C. (1995), "The complexity of harmonious coloring for trees", Discrete Applied Mathematics, 57 (2–3): 133–144, doi: 10.1016/0166-218X(94)00100-R .
  6. Yannakakis, M.; Gavril, F. (1980), "Edge dominating sets in graphs", SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 38 (3): 364–372, doi:10.1137/0138030 .
  7. Roichman, Y. (2000), "On the Achromatic Number of Hypercubes", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 79 (2): 177–182, doi: 10.1006/jctb.2000.1955 .