Scribd
Upload
59 views2 pages

Graphcoloring 100929012136 Phpapp02

Graph coloring involves assigning colors to elements of a graph, such as vertices or edges, in a way that no adjacent elements share the same color. Vertex coloring assigns colors to vertices such that no two vertices connected by an edge have the same color. Edge coloring assigns colors to edges such that edges sharing a vertex do not have the same color. Graph coloring has practical applications and remains an active area of theoretical research, with variations that place additional constraints on the graph or coloring.

Uploaded by

vav
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
59 views2 pages

Graphcoloring 100929012136 Phpapp02

Graph coloring involves assigning colors to elements of a graph, such as vertices or edges, in a way that no adjacent elements share the same color. Vertex coloring assigns colors to vertices such that no two vertices connected by an edge have the same color. Edge coloring assigns colors to edges such that edges sharing a vertex do not have the same color. Graph coloring has practical applications and remains an active area of theoretical research, with variations that place additional constraints on the graph or coloring.

Uploaded by

vav
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Graph coloring

A proper vertex coloring of the Petersen graph with 3 colors, the minimum number
possible.

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 share 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 share 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.

Vertex coloring is the starting point of the subject, and other coloring problems can be
transformed into a vertex version. For example, an edge coloring of a graph is just a
vertex coloring of its line graph, and a face coloring of a planar graph is just a vertex
coloring of its planar dual. However, non-vertex coloring problems are often stated and
studied as is. That is partly for perspective, and partly because some problems are best
studied in non-vertex form, as for instance is edge coloring.

The convention of using colors originates from coloring the countries of a map, where
each face is literally colored. This was generalized to coloring the faces of a graph
embedded in the plane. By planar duality it became coloring the vertices, and in this form
it generalizes to all graphs. In mathematical and computer representations it is typical to
use the first few positive or nonnegative integers as the "colors". In general one can use
any finite set as the "color set". The nature of the coloring problem depends on the
number of colors but not on what they are.

Graph coloring enjoys many practical applications as well as theoretical challenges.


Beside the classical types of problems, different limitations can also be set on the graph,
or on the way a color is assigned, or even on the color itself. It has even reached
popularity with the general public in the form of the popular number puzzle Sudoku.
Graph coloring is still a very active field of research.
Note: Many terms used in this article are defined in Glossary of graph theory.

You might also like