American Journal of Computational Mathematics, 2024, 14, 391-400

https://www.scirp.org/journal/ajcm
ISSN Online: 2161-1211
ISSN Print: 2161-1203

NK-Labeling of Graphs

Nasreen Almohanna, Khawlah Alhulwah

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

How to cite this paper: Almohanna, N. and Abstract

Alhulwah, K. (2024) NK-Labeling of Graphs.
American Journal of Computational Mathe- A graph labeling is the assigning of labels to the vertices, edges, or both (usu-
matics, 14, 391-400. ally non-negative integers), often satisfying some prescribed requirements.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ajcm.2024.144020
This terminology has become standard. A graph G's edges can be colored by
Received: September 3, 2024
assigning a different color to each of its edges. The edge coloring is appropriate
Accepted: October 18, 2024 if adjacent edges are given different colors. In this work, we introduce a new
Published: October 21, 2024 labeling called NK-labeling. Let c : E ( G ) →  be a proper edge coloring of

Copyright © 2024 by author(s) and G which induces a proper vertex coloring c′ : V ( G ) →  n defined by
Scientific Research Publishing Inc. c′ ( v ) ≡ ∑ c ( e ) mod n
This work is licensed under the Creative e∈Ev
Commons Attribution International
Such that Ev is the set of edges incident with v in G. The minimum posi-
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ tive integer for which the graph G has NK-labeling called NK-chromatic index
Open Access and denoted by χ NK ′ ( G ) . We study the NK-labeling of several well-known
classes of graphs. It is shown that the NK-chromatic of the path Pn for n ≥ 4
is three and for odd n , the NK-chromatic of the complete graph K n is n .
Other results dealing with the NK-labeling are also presented.

Keywords
Graph, Edge Coloring, NK-Labeling, Label, Path, Cycle, Wheel,
Complete Graph

1. Introduction
For terms and symbols related to graph theory that are not covered in this paper,
please see the book [1]. In 1968, Alexander Rosa received his Ph.D from Slovak
Academy of Science under Anton Kotzig after he published his paper titled “On
certain valuations of the vertices of a graph,” which is the source of many label-
ings. The most attention of his labeling is β -valuation, which recalled a graceful
labeling by Solomon W. Golomb [2]. Graph coloring is one of the most useful
models in graph theory. Many problems relating to computer registers allocation,

DOI: 10.4236/ajcm.2024.144020 Oct. 21, 2024 391 American Journal of Computational Mathematics
N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

electronic bandwidth allocation, and school scheduling have all been resolved us-
ing it.
Let G be a graph with vertex set V ( G ) and edge set E ( G ) . A labeling
c : E ( G ) → {1, 2, , k } such that c ( e ) ≠ c ( f ) for every two adjacent edges e
and f in G is called proper edge coloring.
We frequently have an interest in proper edge coloring that use a minimum
number of colors which called chromatic index (edge chromatic number) χ ′ ( G )
of a graph G. A graph G is k-colorable, if χ ′ ( G ) ≤ k , and G is k-chromatic, if
χ ′(G ) = k .
Maheo and Sacle in [3] studied the irregular-sum chromatic index for con-
nected graph G with vertex set V ( G ) and edge set E ( G ) of order n ≥ 3 . A
proper edge coloring c : E ( G ) → {1, 2,, k } for some integer k ≥ 2 is called an
irregular-sum chromatic coloring of G if the induced vertex coloring
c′ : V ( G ) →  defined by
c′ ( v ) = ∑ c (e)
e∈Ev

is irregular (vertex-distinguishing). The minimum positive integer for which G

has such an irregular-sum chromatic coloring is called an irregular-sum chro-
matic index of G and is denoted by χ is′ ( G ) .
In [4] [5], Ping Zhang introduced the labeling for a graph G of order n . Let
c : E ( G ) →  k , k ≥ n be an unrestricted edge coloring (where the adjacent
edges may be colored the same). The edge coloring c induces a vertex coloring
c′ : V ( G ) →  k defined by
c′ ( v ) = ∑ c (e)
e∈Ev

where the sum is computed in  k . For some positive integer k , such an edge
coloring c is always present. The modular edge-gracefulness meg ( G ) of G is the
minimum k for which such a vertex-distinguishing edge coloring of G exists.
Thus, meg ( G ) ≥ n for every connected graph G of order n ≥ 3 . If meg ( G ) = n ,
then G is called a modular edge-graceful graph and a vertex-distinguishing edge
coloring c : E ( G ) →  n is called a modular edge-graceful labeling as well as a
modular edge-graceful coloring of G.
Based on established graph coloring ideas and inspired by irregular-sum and
modular edge-graceful labeling we present a new concept for coloring graphs fo-
cusing on proper coloring in this paper.
Let  be the set of all positive integers and let Ev denoted the set of edges
incident with v in G. For a connected simple graph G (V , E ) of order n ≥ 3 ,
A proper edge coloring c : E ( G ) →  induces a proper vertex coloring
c′ : V ( G ) →  n , defined by
c′ ( v ) ≡ ∑ c ( e ) mod n
e∈Ev

The minimum positive integer for which G has NK-labeling is called NK-chro-
matic index and denoted by χ NK′ ( G ) . A graph G with chromatic number

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 N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

′ ( G ) ≤ k is called a k-NKcolorable graph. If no such k, the graph G is not NK-

χ NK
colorable.

2. Preliminaries
Proposition 2.1 For any connected graph G
Δ ( G ) ≤ χ ′ ( G ) ≤ χ NK
′ (G )

where Δ ( G ) is the maximum degree of G.

Proposition 2.2 If G is a connected graph of order at least 3 such that G con-
′ (G ) ≥ ∆ (G ) + 1 .
tains two adjacent vertices of maximum degree, then χ NK
′ (G ) ≤ 4
An illustration of the NK-chromatic index. We show in Figure 1, χ NK
′ ( G ) ≥ 4 . Hence, χ NK
and from preposition 2.2, χ NK ′ (G ) = 4 .

Figure 1. An illustration of NK-labeling.

3. Well Known Classes of Graphs

We now turn our attention to two other well-known classes of graphs, namely
path and cycles.
Theorem 3.1 Let n be an integer greater than 4, the NK-chromatic index of the
path Pn of order n is three.
Proof. By preposition 2.2, χ NK ′ ( Pn ) ≥ 3 . To prove χ NK
′ ( Pn ) ≤ 3 , for
1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1 , assign the edge vi vi +1 by a color c as following.
1 if i ≡ 1mod 3
( vi vi+1 ) 2 if i ≡ 2 mod 3
c=

3 if i ≡ 0 mod 3
Case 1: n ≡ 0 mod 3 , the previous edge color induces the following proper ver-
tex coloring for v j ,1 ≤ j ≤ n given by
1 if j = 1
2 if j = n

c′ ( v j ) = 3 if j ≡ 2 mod 3
4 if j ≡ 1mod 3, j ≠ 1

5 if j ≡ 0 mod 3, j ≠ n

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N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

Hence, χ NK ( Pn ) = 3 .
Case 2: n ≡ 1mod 3 . For n = 4 , we show the NK-labeling of P4 in Figure 2,
′ ( P4 ) = 3 .
so χ NK

Figure 2. NK-labeling of P4.

For n ≥ 7 , the previous edge color induces the following proper vertex color-
ing for v j ,1 ≤ j ≤ n given by
1 if j = 1
3 if j ≡ 2 mod 3, j = n

( )
c′ v j = 
4 if j ≡ 1mod 3, j ≠ 1, n
5 if j ≡ 0 mod 3

Hence, χ NK ′ ( Pn ) = 3 .
Case 3: n ≡ 2 mod 3 . For n = 5 , we show the NK-labeling of P5 in Figure 3,
′ ( P5 ) = 3 .
so χ NK

Figure 3. NK-labeling of P5.

For n ≥ 8 , the previous edge color induces the following proper vertex coloring
for v j ,1 ≤ j ≤ n given by
1 if j = 1, n

3 if j ≡ 2 mod 3, j ≠ n
c′ ( v j ) = 
4 if j ≡ 1mod 3, j ≠ 1
5 if j ≡ 0 mod 3
′ ( P5 ) = 3 . Therefore, for n ≥ 4 the NK-chromatic index of Pn is
Hence, χ NK
3.
Theorem 3.2 Let n be an integer greater than 3, the NK-chromatic index of the
cycle Cn of order n is
3 if n ≡ 0 mod 3

NK ( Cn )
′
χ= 4 if n ≡ 1mod 3
5 if n ≡ 2 mod 3

Proof. Case 1: n ≡ 0 mod 3 .
Trivially we can show that ′ ( C3 ) = 3 . Now consider the cycle
χ NK
Cn = ( v1 , v2 ,, vn , v1 ) . Clearly, 3 ≤ χ NK′ ( Cn ) by using the Proposition 2.2. We
want to prove that χ NK ′ ( Cn ) ≤ 3 . For 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1 , the edge vi vi +1 assigned by a
color c as following
1 if i ≡ 1mod 3

c ( vi vi +1 ) =≡
2 if i 2 mod 3 c ( vn v1 ) =
3
3 if i ≡ 0 mod 3


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 N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

So, we get a proper vertex coloring as following, for 1 ≤ j ≤ n ,

3 if n ≡ 2 mod 3

c′ ( v j ) 4 if n ≡ 1mod 3
=
5 if n ≡ 0 mod 3


′ ( Cn ) = 3 .
Therefore, χ NK
Case 2: n ≡ 1mod 3
Clearly for any three consecutive edges in Cn , they cannot color by i, j, i, oth-
erwise we get improper vertex coloring. Hence we start to color v1v2 by 1, v2 v3
by 2, v3v4 by 3, v4 v5 by 1, v5v6 by 2 and so on. Since n ≡ 1mod 3 , we end
with c ( vn−1vn ) = 3 . Then we need a new color 4 for the edge vn v1 , otherwise we
get improper vertex coloring. Therefore χ NK ′ ( Cn ) ≥ 4 .
′ ( Cn ) ≤ 4 , for C4 we show in Figure 4, χ NK
To prove that χ NK ′ ( C4 ) ≤ 4 .

Figure 4. NK-labeling of C4.

For n ≥ 7 , for 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1 , we did as case 1 with

1 if i ≡ 1mod 3

c ( vi vi +1 ) =≡
2 if i 2 mod 3 c ( vn v1 ) =
4

3 if i ≡ 0 mod 3

Then we get a proper vertex coloring as following, for 1 ≤ j ≤ n ,

3 if j ≡ 2 mod 3

4 if j ≡ 1mod 3, j ≠ 1, n
c′ ( v j ) = 
5 if j ≡ 0 mod 3, j = 1

7 mod n if j = n

Hence, χ NK′ ( Cn ) = 4 .
Case 3: n ≡ 2 mod 3 .
We start to color v1v2 by 1, v2 v3 by 2, v3v4 by 3, v4 v5 by 1, v5v6 by 2
and so on. Since n ≡ 2 mod 3 , we end with c ( vn−2 vn−1 ) = 3 . For the edges vn−1vn
and vn v1 we have to use new colors 4, 5 respectively, otherwise we get improper
vertex coloring. Hence χ NK ′ ( Cn ) ≥ 5 . To show χ NK
′ ( Cn ) ≤ 5 . For C5 , we show
′ ( C5 ) ≤ 5 .
in Figure 5, χ NK

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N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

Figure 5. NK-labeling of C5.

For n ≥ 8 , for 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1 ,
1 if i ≡ 1mod 3, i ≠ n − 1
2 if i ≡ 2 mod 3

=c ( vi vi +1 ) = c ( vn v1 ) 5
3 if i ≡ 0 mod 3
4 if i= n − 1

Then we get a proper vertex coloring as following, for 1 ≤ j ≤ n ,

3 if j ≡ 2 mod 3, j ≠ n
4 if j ≡ 1mod 3, j ≠ 1, n − 1

5 if j ≡ 0 mod 3, j =1
c′ ( v j ) = 
6 if j = 1
7 if j= n − 1

9 mod n if j = n

Now we will focus on some well-known classes of graph with odd order.
Theorem 3.3 Let S be a star of odd order n ≥ 3 , the NK-chromatic index of S
is n − 1 .
Proof. Let V ( S ) = {v, v1 , v2 ,, vn−1} where deg ( v )= n − 1 , deg ( vi ) = 1 ,
1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1 . Color the edge vvi by i , which induces a proper vertex coloring
n −1
c′ ( vi ) = i and c′ ( v ) ≡ ∑ i mod n ≡
( n − 1) n mod n ≡ 0 mod n
i =1 2
Hence, χ NK′ ( S ) ≤ n − 1 . Moreover, by preposition 2.1, we have χ NK
′ ( S ) ≥ n −1
because χ ′ ( S )= n − 1 .
Theorem 3.4 For odd integer n . Let Wn be a wheel of order n ≥ 5 , the NK-
chromatic index of Wn is n − 1
Proof. Let V (Wn ) = {v, v1 , v2 ,, vn−1} where deg ( v )= n − 1 , deg ( vi ) = 3 ,
′ (Wn ) . It is reminded to prove that
1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1 . By proposition 2.1, n − 1 ≤ χ NK
′ (Wn ) ≤ n − 1 .
χ NK
Case 1: n ≡/ 0 mod 3 . Assign the colors of the edge e as following
1 for e = vn−2 vn−1
2 for e = vn−1v1

c (e) = 
i for e = vvi
i + 2 for
= e v j v j +1 , 1 ≤ j ≤ n − 3


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 N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

We get three types of 3-cycle

1- C3 = ( v, vi , vi +1 , v ) , 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 3 ,
2- C3′ = ( v, vn−2 , vn−1 , v ) ,
3- C3′′ = ( v, vn−1 , v1 , v ) ,
First, suppose that there exist two vertices of C3 have same color. Thus
c′ ( vi ) = c′ ( vi +1 ) or c′ ( v ) = c′ ( vi ) . Assume that
c′ ( vi ) = c′ ( vi +1 )

i + ( i + 1) + ( i + 2 ) − k1n = ( i + 1) + ( i + 2 ) + ( i + 3) − k2 n k1 , k2 are integers

3 ( i + 2 ) − 3 ( i + 1) = k2 n − k1n

3
= ( k2 − k1 ) n
Which impossible since n ≥ 5 . So, we may assume that
c′ ( v ) = c′ ( vi )

0 − k1n =i + ( i + 1) + ( i + 2 ) − k2 n k1 , k2 are integers

3 ( i + 1) = ( k2 − k1 ) n
Since 3 is prime, 3 divides k2 − k1 which implies that i + 1 is a multiple of n,
contradiction. Hence C3 = ( v, vi , vi +1 , v ) , 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 3 has proper vertex-color-
ing. Moreover, according on the edge coloring c′ ( vn−2 )= n − 2 , c′ ( vn−1 ) = 2 ,
c′ ( v1 ) = 6 mod n . Thus, C3′ and C3′′ have a proper vertex-coloring. This implies
′ (Wn ) ≤ n − 1 .
χ NK
Next, if n ≡ 0 mod 3 , then assign the colors of the edge e as following

1 for e = vn−3vn−2
2 for e = vn−2 vn−1


c ( e ) = 3 for e = vn−1v1
i for e = vvi

i + 3 for
= e v j v j +1 , 1 ≤ j ≤ n − 4

We get four types of 3-cycle

1- C3 = ( v, vi , vi +1 , v ) , 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 4 ,
2- C3′ = ( v, vn−3 , vn−2 , v ) ,
3- C3′′ = ( v, vn−2 , vn−1 , v ) ,
4- C3′′′ = ( v, vn−1 , v1 , v ) ,
As above we can prove that C3 has proper vertex coloring. First, suppose that
there exist two vertices of C3 have same color. Thus c′ ( vi ) = c′ ( vi +1 ) or
c′ ( v ) = c′ ( vi ) . Assume that

c′ ( vi ) = c′ ( vi +1 )

i + ( i + 2 ) + ( i + 3) − k1n = ( i + 1) + ( i + 3) + ( i + 4 ) − k2 n k1 , k2 are integers

3
= ( k1 − k2 ) n
Which impossible since n ≥ 9 . So, we may assume that

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N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

c′ ( v ) = c′ ( vi )

0 − k1n =i + ( i + 2 ) + ( i + 3) − k2 n k1 , k2 are integers

5 + 3i = ( k1 − k2 ) n
Since n ≡ 0 mod 3 , there is integer k such that n = 3k so
5 + 3i= 3 ( k1 − k2 ) k

which implies that 5 is a multiple of 3, contradiction. Hence

=C3 ( v, vi , vi +1 ,, v ) ,1 ≤ i ≤ n − 3 has proper vertex-coloring. Moreover, according
to the edge coloring c′ ( vn−3 )= n − 3 , c′ ( vn−2 ) = 1 , c′ ( vn−1 ) = 4 and
c′ ( v1 ) = 8mod n .Thus C3′ , C3′′ and C3′′′ have proper vertex coloring. Hence,
′ (Wn )= n − 1 .
χ NK
Theorem 3.5 For odd integer n , the NK-chromatic index of the complete
graph K n is n.
n ( n − 1)
Proof. The graph K n is ( n − 1) -regular graph with size . Moreover,
2
for odd order n, χ ′ ( K n ) = n . From Proposition 2.1, n ≤ χ NK
′ ( K n ) . We will color
the edges of K n by proper edge coloring using this n colors. Therefore, every
vertex in K n incident with n − 1 different colors. We will denote the vertex
that incident with the colors =
Vi {1, 2,3, i − 1, i + 1, n}
by vi ,1 ≤ i ≤ n . Each color
i belong to all V j such that i ≠ j , otherwise deg ( vi ) < n − 1 . Since i ∉ Vi
( vi ) ∑ nj =1 =
and from the definition of NK-labeling, c′ = j − i n − i . It is clear that
( )
for i ≠ j , c′ ( vi ) ≠ c′ v j .
′ ( K 7 ) ≤ 7 so NK-
An example of odd complete graph, Figure 6 illustrate χ NK
chromatic index of K 7 is 7.

Figure 6. The NK-labeling of K7.

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 N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

Proposition 3.6 If G is a graph of size m ≥ 1 , then

m
′ (G ) ≥
χ NK
α ′(G )

where α ′ ( G ) is the maximum number of edges in an independent set of edges

of a graph G.
′ ( G ) = k and that E1 , E2 ,, Ek are the edge color
Proof. Suppose that χ NK
classes in k-edge coloring of G. Thus Ei ≤ α ′ ( G ) for each i ( 1 ≤ i ≤ k ). More-
over, from the definition of NK-labeling, it is clear that χ ′ ( G ) ≤ χ NK
′ ( G ) . There-
fore if F1 , F2 ,, Fl , l ≥ k are the color classes of χ NK ′ ( G ) such that
′ ( G ) = l , then F j ≤ Ei ≤ α ′ ( G ) for all i, j . Hence
χ NK
m =E ( G ) =∑ j =1 F j ≤ χ NK
′ (G ) ⋅α ′(G ) .
l

Some of the complete graphs K 2n , n ≥ 3 are NK-colorable, χ NK ′ ( K4 ) = 5 .

′ ( G ) ≤ 5 . Now, suppose that K 4 can be color by using 4 col-
From Figure 7, χ NK
ors. We may assume that c ( v1v2 ) = 1 in Figure 2. Since c is a proper edge color-
ing, none of the edges v1v3 , v2 v4 , v2 v3 and v1v4 can be colored by the color 1.
Hence two of these four edges must be assigned the same color and the remaining
two edges must be assigned different colors, otherwise c′ ( v1 ) = c′ ( v2 ) which is
impossible. Assume c= ( v1v3 ) c= ( v2v4 ) 2 , c ( v2v3 ) = 3 and c ( v1v4 ) = 4 . The
last edge should be colored by the color 1, but in this case c′ ( v2 ) = c′ ( v3 ) , con-
′ ( K 4 ) ≥ 5 . Hence, χ NK
tradiction. Therefore χ NK ′ ( K4 ) = 5 .

Figure 7. The NK-labeling of K4.

Problem: For even integer n , determine the NK-chromatic index of the com-
plete graph K n if it exists.

4. Conclusion
Graph labeling is one of the main topics of graph theory, and it is used in a variety
of fields, such as coding theory, X-ray crystallography, radar, astronomy, circuit
design, communication network addressing, and database management. In this
article, we introduced a new concept of graph labeling and found the NK-labeling
of special graphs such as path, cycle, wheel, star, and complete graph for some n.
Furthermore, we find the lower bound of our labeling.

Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

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N. Almohanna, K. Alhulwah

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