On Rosa-type labelings and cyclic graph decompositions

A labeling (or valuation) of a graph G is an assignment of integers to the vertices of G subject to certain conditions. A hierarchy of graph labelings was introduced by Rosa in the late 1960s. Rosa showed that certain basic labelings of a graph G with n edges yielded cyclic G-decompositions of K _2n+1 while other stricter labelings yielded cyclic G-decompositions of K _2nx+1 for all natural numbers x. Rosa-type labelings are labelings with applications to cyclic graph decompositions. We survey various Rosa-type labelings and summarize some of the related results. (Communicated by Peter Horák)     

On antimagic directed graphs

An antimagic labeling of an undirected graph G with n vertices and m edges is a bijection from the set of edges of G to the integers {1, …, m} such that all n vertex sums are pairwise distinct, where a vertex sum is the sum of labels of all edges incident with that vertex. A graph is called antimagic if it admits an antimagic labeling. In (N. Hartsfield and G. Ringel, Pearls in Graph Theory, Academic Press, Boston, 1990, pp. 108–109), Hartsfield and Ringel conjectured that every simple connected graph, other than K₂, is antimagic. Despite considerable effort in recent years, this conjecture is still open. In this article we study a natural variation; namely, we consider antimagic labelings of directed graphs. In particular, we prove that every directed graph whose underlying undirected graph is “dense” is antimagic, and that almost every undirected d‐regular graph admits an orientation which is antimagic. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 64: 219–232, 2010     

On sequential labelings of graphs

A valuation on a simple graph G is an assignment of labels to the vertices of G which induces an assignment of labels to the edges of G. β-valuations, also called graceful labelings, and α-valuations, a subclass of graceful labelings, have an extensive literature; harmonious labelings have been introduced recently by Graham and Sloane. This paper introduces sequential labelings, a subclass of harmonious labelings, and shows that any tree admitting an α-valuation also admits a sequential labeling and hence is harmonious. Constructions are given for new families of graceful and sequential graphs, generalizing some earlier results. Finally, a conjecture of Frucht is shown to be wrong by exhibiting several graceful labelings of wheels in which the center label is larger than previously thought possible.     

On the adjacent vertex-distinguishing acyclic edge coloring of some graphs

A proper edge coloring of a graph G is called adjacent vertex-distinguishing acyclic edge coloring if there is no 2-colored cycle in G and the coloring set of edges incident with u is not equal to the coloring set of edges incident with v, where uv ∈ E(G). The adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge chromatic number of G, denoted by x′ _Aa (G), is the minimal number of colors in an adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge coloring of G. If a graph G has an adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge coloring, then G is called adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic. In this paper, we obtain adjacent vertex-distinguishing acyclic edge coloring of some graphs and put forward some conjectures.     

Antimagic labeling of generalized pyramid graphs

An antimagic labeling of a graph withq edges is a bijection from the set of edges to the set of positive integers{1,2,...,q}such that all vertex weights are pairwise distinct,where the vertex weight of a vertex is the sum of the labels of all edges incident with that vertex.A graph is antimagic if it has an antimagic labeling.In this paper,we provide antimagic labelings for a family of generalized pyramid graphs.     

Cores of Imprimitive Symmetric Graphs of Order a Product of Two Distinct Primes

A retract of a graph Γ is an induced subgraph Ψ of Γ such that there exists a homomorphism from Γ to Ψ whose restriction to Ψ is the identity map. A graph is a core if it has no nontrivial retracts. In general, the minimal retracts of a graph are cores and are unique up to isomorphism; they are called the core of the graph. A graph Γ is G‐symmetric if G is a subgroup of the automorphism group of Γ that is transitive on the vertex set and also transitive on the set of ordered pairs of adjacent vertices. If in addition the vertex set of Γ admits a nontrivial partition that is preserved by G, then Γ is an imprimitive G‐symmetric graph. In this paper cores of imprimitive symmetric graphs Γ of order a product of two distinct primes are studied. In many cases the core of Γ is determined completely. In other cases it is proved that either Γ is a core or its core is isomorphic to one of two graphs, and conditions on when each of these possibilities occurs is given.     

A note on coverings of plane graphs

For any plane graph G the number of edges in a minimum edge covering of the faces of G is at most the vertex independence number of G and the numbre of vertices in a minimum vertex covering of the faces of G is at most the edge independence number of G. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An upper bound for the adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge chromatic number of a graph

A proper k-edge coloring of a graph G is called adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge coloring if there is no 2-colored cycle in G and the color set of edges incident to u is not equal to the color set of edges incident to υ, where uυ ∈ E(G). The adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge chromatic number of G, denoted by χ′ _aa (G), is the minimal number of colors in an adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge coloring of G. In this paper we prove that if G(V, E) is a graph with no isolated edges, then χ′ _aa (G) ≤ 32Δ. Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (3ZS051-A25-025)     

A Structure Theorem for Strong Immersions

A graph H is strongly immersed in G if H is obtained from G by a sequence of vertex splittings (i.e., lifting some pairs of incident edges and removing the vertex) and edge removals. Equivalently, vertices of H are mapped to distinct vertices of G (branch vertices) and edges of H are mapped to pairwise edge‐disjoint paths in G, each of them joining the branch vertices corresponding to the ends of the edge and not containing any other branch vertices. We describe the structure of graphs avoiding a fixed graph as a strong immersion. The theorem roughly states that a graph which excludes a fixed graph as a strong immersion has a tree‐like decomposition into pieces glued together on small edge cuts such that each piece of the decomposition has a path‐like linear decomposition isolating the high degree vertices.     

Sufficient conditions for graphs to be λ′‐optimal,super‐edge‐connected,and maximally edge‐connected

The restricted‐edge‐connectivity of a graph G, denoted by λ′(G), is defined as the minimum cardinality over all edge‐cuts S of G, where G‐S contains no isolated vertices. The graph G is called λ′‐optimal, if λ′(G) = ξ(G), where ξ(G) is the minimum edge‐degree in G. A graph is super‐edge‐connected, if every minimum edge‐cut consists of edges adjacent to a vertex of minimum degree. In this paper, we present sufficient conditions for arbitrary, triangle‐free, and bipartite graphs to be λ′‐optimal, as well as conditions depending on the clique number. These conditions imply super‐edge‐connectivity, if δ (G) ≥ 3, and the equality of edge‐connectivity and minimum degree. Different examples will show that these conditions are best possible and independent of other results in this area. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 48: 228–246, 2005     

Some Remarks on Rainbow Connectivity

An edge (vertex) colored graph is rainbow‐connected if there is a rainbow path between any two vertices, i.e. a path all of whose edges (internal vertices) carry distinct colors. Rainbow edge (vertex) connectivity of a graph G is the smallest number of colors needed for a rainbow edge (vertex) coloring of G. In this article, we propose a very simple approach to studying rainbow connectivity in graphs. Using this idea, we give a unified proof of several known results, as well as some new ones.     

The edge chromatic number of a directed/mixed multigraph

We consider colorings of the directed and undirected edges of a mixed multigraph G by an ordered set of colors. We color each undirected edge in one color and each directed edge in two colors, such that the color of the first half of a directed edge is smaller than the color of the second half. The colors used at the same vertex are all different. A bound for the minimum number of colors needed for such colorings is obtained. In the case where G has only directed edges, we provide a polynomal algorithm for coloring G with a minimum number of colors. An unsolved problem is formulated. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 31: 267–273, 1999     

Antimagic Labelings of Join Graphs

An antimagic labeling of a graph with q edges is a bijection from the set of edges of the graph to the set of positive integers \({\{1, 2,\dots,q\}}\) such that all vertex weights are pairwise distinct, where a vertex weight is the sum of labels of all edges incident with the vertex. The join graph G + H of the graphs G and H is the graph with \({V(G + H) = V(G) \cup V(H)}\) and \({E(G + H) = E(G) \cup E(H) \cup \{uv : u \in V(G) {\rm and} v \in V(H)\}}\). The complete bipartite graph K _m,n is an example of join graphs and we give an antimagic labeling for \({K_{m,n}, n \geq 2m + 1}\). In this paper we also provide constructions of antimagic labelings of some complete multipartite graphs.     

Game chromatic index of k‐degenerate graphs

We consider the following edge coloring game on a graph G. Given t distinct colors, two players Alice and Bob, with Alice moving first, alternately select an uncolored edge e of G and assign it a color different from the colors of edges adjacent to e. Bob wins if, at any stage of the game, there is an uncolored edge adjacent to colored edges in all t colors; otherwise Alice wins. Note that when Alice wins, all edges of G are properly colored. The game chromatic index of a graph G is the minimum number of colors for which Alice has a winning strategy. In this paper, we study the edge coloring game on k‐degenerate graphs. We prove that the game chromatic index of a k‐degenerate graph is at most Δ + 3k − 1, where Δ is the maximum vertex degree of the graph. We also show that the game chromatic index of a forest of maximum degree 3 is at most 4 when the forest contains an odd number of edges. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 36: 144–155, 2001     

The special routes in plane graphs

Let plane undirected graph G = (V, E) be set of items of all manipulator possible trajectories. The problem is constructing of routes satisfying different restrictions. The restrictions can be classified as local and global. For local restrictions the next edge in a route is defined by the conditions set for current vertex or edge. Otherwise restriction is called global. Examples of local restrictions are straightforward paths; a route in which the next edge is defined by the given cycle order on the set of edges incident the current vertex; a route where some edges should be passed in predefined order. The example of global restriction is problem of constructing the cover with ordered enclosing. The paper presents some ways to formalize restrictions and also information about algorithms for constructing of Eulerian covering for plane graph by the sequence of allowed trails. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Vertex-antimagic labelings of regular graphs

Let G = (V, E) be a finite, simple and undirected graph with p vertices and q edges. An (a, d)-vertex-antimagic total labeling of G is a bijection f from V (G) ∪ E(G) onto the set of consecutive integers 1, 2, . . . , p + q, such that the vertex-weights form an arithmetic progression with the initial term a and difference d, where the vertex-weight of x is the sum of the value f (x) assigned to the vertex x together with all values f (xy) assigned to edges xy incident to x. Such labeling is called super if the smallest possible labels appear on the vertices. In this paper, we study the properties of such labelings and examine their existence for 2r-regular graphs when the difference d is 0, 1, . . . , r + 1.     

Equitable labelings of cycles

Every labeling of the vertices of a graph with distinct natural numbers induces a natural labeling of its edges: the label of an edge (x, y) is the absolute value of the difference of the labels of x and y. By analogy with graceful labelings, we say that a labeling of the vertices of a graph of order n is minimally k-equitable if the vertices are labeled with 1,2,…, n and in the induced labeling of its edges every label either occurs exactly k times or does not occur at all. Bloom [3] posed the following question: Is the condition that k is a proper divisor of n sufficient for the cycle C_n to have a minimal k-equitable labeling? We give a positive answer to this question. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On Compatible Normal Odd Partitions in Cubic Graphs

A normal odd partition of the edges of a cubic graph is a partition into trails of odd length (no repeated edge) such that each vertex is the end vertex of exactly one trail of the partition and internal in some trail. For each vertex v, we can distinguish the edge for which this vertex is pending. Three normal odd partitions are compatible whenever these distinguished edges are distinct for each vertex. We examine this notion and show that a cubic 3‐edge‐colorable graph can always be provided with three compatible normal odd partitions. The Petersen graph has this property and we can construct other cubic graphs with chromatic index four with the same property. Finally, we propose a new conjecture which, if true, would imply the well‐known Fan and Raspaud Conjecture.     

Path covers of weighted graphs

Let (G, w) denote a simple graph G with a weight function w : E(G) ← {0, 1, 2}. A path cover of (G, w) is a collection of paths in G such that every edge e is contained in exactly w(e) paths of the collection. For a vertex v, w(v) is the sum of the weights of the edges incident with v; v is called an odd (even) vertex if w(v) is odd (even). We prove that if every vertex of (G, w) is incident with at most one edge of weight 2, then (G, w) has a path cover P such that each odd vertex occurs exactly once, and each even vertex exactly twice, as an end of a path of P. We also prove that if every vertex of (G, w) is even, then (G, w) has a path cover P such that each vertex occurs exactly twice as an end of a path of P. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.