Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Graph_coloring

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 A proper vertex coloring of the
coloring of a plane graph is just a vertex coloring of its dual. However, Petersen graph with 3 colors, the
non-vertex coloring problems are often stated and studied as is. That is minimum number possible.
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.

1 History
2 Definition and terminology
2.1 Vertex coloring
2.2 Chromatic polynomial
2.3 Edge coloring
2.4 Total coloring
2.5 Unlabeled Coloring
3 Properties

1 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

3.1 Bounds on the chromatic number

3.2 Graphs with high chromatic number
3.3 Bounds on the chromatic index
3.4 Other properties
3.5 Open problems
4 Algorithms
4.1 Polynomial time
4.2 Exact algorithms
4.3 Contraction
4.4 Greedy coloring
4.5 Parallel and distributed algorithms
4.6 Decentralized algorithms
4.7 Computational complexity
5 Applications
5.1 Scheduling
5.2 Register allocation
5.3 Other applications
6 Other colorings
6.1 Ramsey theory
6.2 Other colorings
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links

See also: History of the four color theorem and History of graph theory

The first results about graph coloring deal almost exclusively with planar graphs in the form of the coloring of
maps. While trying to color a map of the counties of England, Francis Guthrie postulated the four color
conjecture, noting that four colors were sufficient to color the map so that no regions sharing a common border
received the same color. Guthrie’s brother passed on the question to his mathematics teacher Augustus de
Morgan at University College, who mentioned it in a letter to William Hamilton in 1852. Arthur Cayley raised
the problem at a meeting of the London Mathematical Society in 1879. The same year, Alfred Kempe published
a paper that claimed to establish the result, and for a decade the four color problem was considered solved. For
his accomplishment Kempe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and later President of the London
Mathematical Society.[1]

In 1890, Heawood pointed out that Kempe’s argument was wrong. However, in that paper he proved the five

2 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

color theorem, saying that every planar map can be colored with no more than five colors, using ideas of
Kempe. In the following century, a vast amount of work and theories were developed to reduce the number of
colors to four, until the four color theorem was finally proved in 1976 by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken.
The proof went back to the ideas of Heawood and Kempe and largely disregarded the intervening
developments.[2] The proof of the four color theorem is also noteworthy for being the first major
computer-aided proof.

In 1912, George David Birkhoff introduced the chromatic polynomial to study the coloring problems, which was
generalised to the Tutte polynomial by Tutte, important structures in algebraic graph theory. Kempe had already
drawn attention to the general, non-planar case in 1879,[3] and many results on generalisations of planar graph
coloring to surfaces of higher order followed in the early 20th century.

In 1960, Claude Berge formulated another conjecture about graph coloring, the strong perfect graph
conjecture, originally motivated by an information-theoretic concept called the zero-error capacity of a graph
introduced by Shannon. The conjecture remained unresolved for 40 years, until it was established as the
celebrated strong perfect graph theorem by Chudnovsky, Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas in 2002.

Graph coloring has been studied as an algorithmic problem since the early 1970s: the chromatic number problem
is one of Karp’s 21 NP-complete problems from 1972, and at approximately the same time various
exponential-time algorithms were developed based on backtracking and on the deletion-contraction recurrence
of Zykov (1949). One of the major applications of graph coloring, register allocation in compilers, was
introduced in 1981.

Vertex coloring

When used without any qualification, a coloring of a graph is almost

always a proper vertex coloring, namely a labelling of the graph’s
vertices with colors such that no two vertices sharing the same edge have
the same color. Since a vertex with a loop (i.e. a connection directly
back to itself) could never be properly colored, it is understood that
graphs in this context are loopless.

The terminology of using colors for vertex labels goes back to map
coloring. Labels like red and blue are only used when the number of
colors is small, and normally it is understood that the labels are drawn This graph can be 3-colored in 12
from the integers {1,2,3,...}. different ways.

A coloring using at most k colors is called a (proper) k-coloring. The smallest number of colors needed to color
a graph G is called its chromatic number, and is often denoted χ(G). Sometimes γ(G) is used, since χ(G) is also
used to denote the Euler characteristic of a graph. A graph that can be assigned a (proper) k-coloring is
k-colorable, and it is k-chromatic if its chromatic number is exactly k. A subset of vertices assigned to the
same color is called a color class, every such class forms an independent set. Thus, a k-coloring is the same as a
partition of the vertex set into k independent sets, and the terms k-partite and k-colorable have the same
meaning.

Chromatic polynomial

3 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Main article: Chromatic polynomial

The chromatic polynomial counts the number of ways a graph can be

colored using no more than a given number of colors. For example, using
three colors, the graph in the image to the right can be colored in 12 ways.
With only two colors, it cannot be colored at all. With four colors, it can be
colored in 24 + 4·12 = 72 ways: using all four colors, there are 4! = 24 valid
colorings (every assignment of four colors to any 4-vertex graph is a proper
coloring); and for every choice of three of the four colors, there are 12 valid
3-colorings. So, for the graph in the example, a table of the number of valid
colorings would start like this:

Available colors 1 2 3 4 …
Number of colorings 0 0 12 72 …

The chromatic polynomial is a function P(G, t) that counts the number of

t-colorings of G. As the name indicates, for a given G the function is indeed
a polynomial in t. For the example graph, P(G, t) = t(t − 1)2(t − 2), and
indeed P(G, 4) = 72.

The chromatic polynomial includes at least as much information about the

colorability of G as does the chromatic number. Indeed, χ is the smallest
positive integer that is not a root of the chromatic polynomial

All nonisomorphic graphs on 3

vertices and their chromatic
polynomials. The empty graph E3
(red) admits a 1-coloring, the
others admit no such colorings.
The green graph admits 12
colorings with 3 colors.

Chromatic polynomials for certain graphs

Triangle K3
Complete graph
Kn
Tree with n
vertices
Cycle Cn
Petersen graph

Edge coloring

4 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Main article: Edge coloring

An edge coloring of a graph is a proper coloring of the edges, meaning an assignment of colors to edges so that
no vertex is incident to two edges of the same color. An edge coloring with k colors is called a k-edge-coloring
and is equivalent to the problem of partitioning the edge set into k matchings. The smallest number of colors
needed for an edge coloring of a graph G is the chromatic index, or edge chromatic number, χ′(G). A Tait
coloring is a 3-edge coloring of a cubic graph. The four color theorem is equivalent to the assertion that every
planar cubic bridgeless graph admits a Tait coloring.

Total coloring

Main article: Total coloring

Total coloring is a type of coloring on the vertices and edges of a graph. When used without any qualification, a
total coloring is always assumed to be proper in the sense that no adjacent vertices, no adjacent edges, and no
edge and its endvertices are assigned the same color. The total chromatic number χ″(G) of a graph G is the least
number of colors needed in any total coloring of G.

Unlabeled Coloring

An unlabeled coloring of a graph is an orbit of a coloring under the action of the automorphism group of the
graph. If we interpret a coloring of a graph on vertices as a vector in , the action of an automorphism is a
permutation of the coefficients of the coloring. There are analogues of the chromatic polynomials which count
the number of unlabeled colorings of a graph from a given finite color set.

Bounds on the chromatic number

Assigning distinct colors to distinct vertices always yields a proper coloring, so

The only graphs that can be 1-colored are edgeless graphs. A complete graph of n vertices requires
colors. In an optimal coloring there must be at least one of the graph’s m edges between every
pair of color classes, so

If G contains a clique of size k, then at least k colors are needed to color that clique; in other words, the
chromatic number is at least the clique number:

For interval graphs this bound is tight.

The 2-colorable graphs are exactly the bipartite graphs, including trees and forests. By the four color theorem,
every planar graph can be 4-colored.

5 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

A greedy coloring shows that every graph can be colored with one more color than the maximum vertex degree,

Complete graphs have and , and odd cycles have and ,

so for these graphs this bound is best possible. In all other cases, the bound can be slightly improved; Brooks’
theorem[4] states that

Brooks’ theorem: for a connected, simple graph G, unless G is a complete graph or an

odd cycle.

Graphs with high chromatic number

Graphs with large cliques have high chromatic number, but the opposite is not true. The Grötzsch graph is an
example of a 4-chromatic graph without a triangle, and the example can be generalised to the Mycielskians.

Mycielski’s Theorem (Alexander Zykov 1949, Jan Mycielski 1955): There exist triangle-free graphs with
arbitrarily high chromatic number.

From Brooks’s theorem, graphs with high chromatic number must have high maximum degree. Another local
property that leads to high chromatic number is the presence of a large clique. But colorability is not an entirely
local phenomenon: A graph with high girth looks locally like a tree, because all cycles are long, but its chromatic
number need not be 2:

Theorem (Erdős): There exist graphs of arbitrarily high girth and chromatic number.

Bounds on the chromatic index

An edge coloring of G is a vertex coloring of its line graph , and vice versa. Thus,

There is a strong relationship between edge colorability and the graph’s maximum degree . Since all
edges incident to the same vertex need their own color, we have

Moreover,

König’s theorem: if G is bipartite.

In general, the relationship is even stronger than what Brooks’s theorem gives for vertex coloring:

Vizing’s Theorem: A graph of maximal degree has edge-chromatic number or .

Other properties

6 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

A graph has a k-coloring if and only if it has an acyclic orientation for which the longest path has length at most
k; this is the Gallai–Hasse–Roy–Vitaver theorem (Nešetřil & Ossona de Mendez 2012).

For planar graphs, vertex colorings are essentially dual to nowhere-zero flows.

About infinite graphs, much less is known. The following are two of the few results about infinite graph coloring:

If all finite subgraphs of an infinite graph G are k-colorable, then so is G, under the assumption of the
axiom of choice. This is the de Bruijn–Erdős theorem of de Bruijn & Erdős (1951).
If a graph admits a full n-coloring for every n ≥ n0, it admits an infinite full coloring (Fawcett 1978).

Open problems

The chromatic number of the plane, where two points are adjacent if they have unit distance, is unknown,
although it is one of 4, 5, 6, or 7. Other open problems concerning the chromatic number of graphs include the
Hadwiger conjecture stating that every graph with chromatic number k has a complete graph on k vertices as a
minor, the Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture bounding the chromatic number of unions of complete graphs that
have at exactly one vertex in common to each pair, and the Albertson conjecture that among k-chromatic graphs
the complete graphs are the ones with smallest crossing number.

When Birkhoff and Lewis introduced the chromatic polynomial in their attack on the four-color theorem, they
conjectured that for planar graphs G, the polymomial has no zeros in the region . Although it is
known that such a chromatic polynomial has no zeros in the region and that , their
conjecture is still unresolved. It also remains an unsolved problem to characterize graphs which have the same
chromatic polynomial and to determine which polynomials are chromatic.

Polynomial time
Graph coloring
Determining if a graph can be colored with 2 colors is
equivalent to determining whether or not the graph is
bipartite, and thus computable in linear time using
breadth-first search. More generally, the chromatic number
and a corresponding coloring of perfect graphs can be
computed in polynomial time using semidefinite
programming. Closed formulas for chromatic polynomial are
known for many classes of graphs, such as forest, chordal
graphs, cycles, wheels, and ladders, so these can be evaluated Decision
in polynomial time. Name Graph coloring, vertex coloring,
k-coloring
If the graph is planar and has low branchwidth (or is
nonplanar but with a known branch decompositon), then it Input Graph G with n vertices. Integer k
can be solved in polynomial time using dynamic Output Does G admit a proper vertex
programming. In general, the time required is polynomial in coloring with k colors?
the graph size, but exponential in the branchwidth.
Running time O(2 nn)[5]

Exact algorithms Complexity NP-complete

7 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Brute-force search for a k-coloring considers each of the Reduction from 3-Satisfiability
assignments of k colors to n vertices and checks for each if it
is legal. To compute the chromatic number and the chromatic Garey–Johnson GT4
polynomial, this procedure is used for every Optimisation
, impractical for all but the smallest
Name Chromatic number
input graphs.
Input Graph G with n vertices.
Using dynamic programming and a bound on the number of Output χ(G)
maximal independent sets, k-colorability can be decided in
Complexity NP-hard
time and space .[6] Using the principle of
inclusion–exclusion and Yates’s algorithm for the fast zeta Approximability O(n (log n)−3(log log n)2)
[5] Inapproximability O(n1−ε) unless P = NP
transform, k-colorability can be decided in time
for any k. Faster algorithms are known for 3- and Counting problem
[7]
4-colorability, which can be decided in time
Name Chromatic polynomial
[8]
and , respectively.
Input Graph G with n vertices. Integer k
Output The number P (G,k) of proper
Contraction
k-colorings of G
The contraction of graph G is the graph obtained by Running time O(2 nn)
identifying the vertices u and v, removing any edges between
Complexity #P-complete
them, and replacing them with a single vertex w where any
edges that were incident on u or v are redirected to w. This Approximability FPRAS for restricted cases
operation plays a major role in the analysis of graph coloring. Inapproximability No PTAS unless P = NP

The chromatic number satisfies the recurrence relation:

due to Zykov (1949), where u and v are nonadjacent vertices, is the graph with the edge added.
Several algorithms are based on evaluating this recurrence, the resulting computation tree is sometimes called a
Zykov tree. The running time is based on the heuristic for choosing the vertices u and v.

The chromatic polynomial satisfies following recurrence relation

where u and v are adjacent vertices and is the graph with the edge removed.
represents the number of possible proper colorings of the graph, when the vertices may have same or different
colors. The number of proper colorings therefore come from the sum of two graphs. If the vertices u and v have
different colors, then we can as well consider a graph, where u and v are adjacent. If u and v have the same
colors, we may as well consider a graph, where u and v are contracted. Tutte’s curiosity about which other graph
properties satisfied this recurrence led him to discover a bivariate generalization of the chromatic polynomial,
the Tutte polynomial.

The expressions give rise to a recursive procedure, called the deletion–contraction algorithm, which forms the
basis of many algorithms for graph coloring. The running time satisfies the same recurrence relation as the
Fibonacci numbers, so in the worst case, the algorithm runs in time within a polynomial factor of
for n vertices and m edges.[9] The analysis can be improved to

8 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

within a polynomial factor of the number of spanning trees of the input graph.[10] In practice, branch and
bound strategies and graph isomorphism rejection are employed to avoid some recursive calls, the running time
depends on the heuristic used to pick the vertex pair.

Greedy coloring

Main article: Greedy coloring

The greedy algorithm considers the vertices in a specific order ,…,

and assigns to the smallest available color not used by ’s neighbours
among ,…, , adding a fresh color if needed. The quality of the
resulting coloring depends on the chosen ordering. There exists an
ordering that leads to a greedy coloring with the optimal number of
colors. On the other hand, greedy colorings can be arbitrarily bad;
for example, the crown graph on n vertices can be 2-colored, but has an
ordering that leads to a greedy coloring with colors. Two greedy colorings of the same
graph using different vertex orders.
If the vertices are ordered according to their degrees, the resulting
The right example generalises to
greedy coloring uses at most colors, at
2-colorable graphs with n vertices,
most one more than the graph’s maximum degree. This heuristic is
where the greedy algorithm expends
sometimes called the Welsh–Powell algorithm.[11] Another heuristic due colors.
to Brélaz establishes the ordering dynamically while the algorithm
proceeds, choosing next the vertex adjacent to the largest number of
different colors.[12] Many other graph coloring heuristics are similarly based on greedy coloring for a specific
static or dynamic strategy of ordering the vertices, these algorithms are sometimes called sequential coloring
algorithms.

Parallel and distributed algorithms

In the field of distributed algorithms, graph coloring is closely related to the problem of symmetry breaking. The
current state-of-the-art randomized algorithms are faster for sufficiently large maximum degree ∆ than
deterministic algorithms. The fastest randomized algorithms employ the multi-trials technique by Schneider et
al.[13]

In a symmetric graph, a deterministic distributed algorithm cannot find a proper vertex coloring. Some auxiliary
information is needed in order to break symmetry. A standard assumption is that initially each node has a unique
identifier, for example, from the set {1, 2, ..., n}. Put otherwise, we assume that we are given an n-coloring. The
challenge is to reduce the number of colors from n to, e.g., ∆ + 1. The more colors are employed, e.g. O(∆)
instead of ∆ + 1, the fewer communication rounds are required.[13]

A straightforward distributed version of the greedy algorithm for (∆ + 1)-coloring requires Θ(n) communication
rounds in the worst case − information may need to be propagated from one side of the network to another side.

The simplest interesting case is an n-cycle. Richard Cole and Uzi Vishkin[14] show that there is a distributed
algorithm that reduces the number of colors from n to O(log n) in one synchronous communication step. By
iterating the same procedure, it is possible to obtain a 3-coloring of an n-cycle in O(log* n) communication steps
(assuming that we have unique node identifiers).

9 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

The function log*, iterated logarithm, is an extremely slowly growing function, "almost constant". Hence the
result by Cole and Vishkin raised the question of whether there is a constant-time distribute algorithm for
3-coloring an n-cycle. Linial (1992) showed that this is not possible: any deterministic distributed algorithm
requires Ω(log* n) communication steps to reduce an n-coloring to a 3-coloring in an n-cycle.

The technique by Cole and Vishkin can be applied in arbitrary bounded-degree graphs as well; the running time
is poly(∆) + O(log* n).[15] The technique was extended to unit disk graphs by Schneider et al.[16] The fastest
deterministic algorithms for (∆ + 1)-coloring for small ∆ are due to Leonid Barenboim, Michael Elkin and
Fabian Kuhn.[17] The algorithm by Barenboim et al. runs in time O(∆) + log*(n)/2, which is optimal in terms of
n since the constant factor 1/2 cannot be improved due to Linial's lower bound. Panconesi et al.[18] use network
decompositions to compute a ∆+1 coloring in time .

The problem of edge coloring has also been studied in the distributed model. Panconesi & Rizzi (2001) achieve
a (2∆ − 1)-coloring in O(∆ + log* n) time in this model. The lower bound for distributed vertex coloring due to
Linial (1992) applies to the distributed edge coloring problem as well.

Decentralized algorithms

Decentralized algorithms are ones where no message passing is allowed (in contrast to distributed algorithms
where local message passing takes places), and efficient decentralized algorithms exist that will color a graph if a
proper coloring exists. These assume that a vertex is able to sense whether any of its neighbors are using the
same color as the vertex i.e., whether a local conflict exists. This is a mild assumption in many applications e.g.
in wireless channel allocation it is usually reasonable to assume that a station will be able to detect whether
other interfering transmitters are using the same channel (e.g. by measuring the SINR). This sensing information
is sufficient to allow algorithms based on learning automata to find a proper graph coloring with probability one,
e.g. see Leith (2006) and Duffy (2008).

Computational complexity

Graph coloring is computationally hard. It is NP-complete to decide if a given graph admits a k-coloring for a
given k except for the cases k = 1 and k = 2. In particular, it is NP-hard to compute the chromatic number.[19]
The 3-coloring problem remains NP-complete even on planar graphs of degree 4.[20]

The best known approximation algorithm computes a coloring of size at most within a factor
O(n(log n)−3(log log n)2) of the chromatic number.[21] For all ε > 0, approximating the chromatic number within
n1−ε is NP-hard.[22]

It is also NP-hard to color a 3-colorable graph with 4 colors[23] and a k-colorable graph with k(log k ) / 25 colors
for sufficiently large constant k.[24]

Computing the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial is #P-hard. In fact, even computing the value of
is #P-hard at any rational point k except for k = 1 and k = 2.[25] There is no FPRAS for evaluating the
chromatic polynomial at any rational point k ≥ 1.5 except for k = 2 unless NP = RP.[26]

For edge coloring, the proof of Vizing’s result gives an algorithm that uses at most ∆+1 colors. However,
deciding between the two candidate values for the edge chromatic number is NP-complete.[27] In terms of

10 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

approximation algorithms, Vizing’s algorithm shows that the edge chromatic number can be approximated to
within 4/3, and the hardness result shows that no (4/3 − ε )-algorithm exists for any ε > 0 unless P = NP. These
are among the oldest results in the literature of approximation algorithms, even though neither paper makes
explicit use of that notion.[28]

Scheduling

Vertex coloring models to a number of scheduling problems.[29] In the cleanest form, a given set of jobs need to
be assigned to time slots, each job requires one such slot. Jobs can be scheduled in any order, but pairs of jobs
may be in conflict in the sense that they may not be assigned to the same time slot, for example because they
both rely on a shared resource. The corresponding graph contains a vertex for every job and an edge for every
conflicting pair of jobs. The chromatic number of the graph is exactly the minimum makespan, the optimal time
to finish all jobs without conflicts.

Details of the scheduling problem define the structure of the graph. For example, when assigning aircraft to
flights, the resulting conflict graph is an interval graph, so the coloring problem can be solved efficiently. In
bandwidth allocation to radio stations, the resulting conflict graph is a unit disk graph, so the coloring problem is
3-approximable.

Register allocation

Main article: Register allocation

A compiler is a computer program that translates one computer language into another. To improve the execution
time of the resulting code, one of the techniques of compiler optimization is register allocation, where the most
frequently used values of the compiled program are kept in the fast processor registers. Ideally, values are
assigned to registers so that they can all reside in the registers when they are used.

The textbook approach to this problem is to model it as a graph coloring problem.[30] The compiler constructs
an interference graph, where vertices are symbolic registers and an edge connects two nodes if they are needed
at the same time. If the graph can be colored with k colors then the variables can be stored in k registers.

Other applications

The problem of coloring a graph has found a number of applications, including pattern matching.

The recreational puzzle Sudoku can be seen as completing a 9-coloring on given specific graph with 81 vertices.

Ramsey theory

Main article: Ramsey theory

An important class of improper coloring problems is studied in Ramsey theory, where the graph’s edges are
assigned to colors, and there is no restriction on the colors of incident edges. A simple example is the friendship

11 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

theorem, which states that in any coloring of the edges of the complete graph of six vertices there will be a
monochromatic triangle; often illustrated by saying that any group of six people either has three mutual
strangers or three mutual acquaintances. Ramsey theory is concerned with generalisations of this idea to seek
regularity amid disorder, finding general conditions for the existence of monochromatic subgraphs with given
structure.

Other colorings

List coloring Rank coloring

Each vertex chooses from a list of colors If two vertices have the same color i, then
List edge-coloring every path between them contain a vertex
Each edge chooses from a list of colors with color greater than i
Total coloring Interval edge-coloring
Vertices and edges are colored A color of edges meeting in a common vertex
Harmonious coloring
must be contiguous
Every pair of colors appears on at most one
Circular coloring
edge Motivated by task systems in which
Complete coloring
production proceeds in a cyclic way
Every pair of colors appears on at least one
Path coloring
edge Models a routing problem in graphs
Exact coloring Fractional coloring
Every pair of colors appears on exactly one Vertices may have multiple colors, and on
edge each edge the sum of the color parts of each
Acyclic coloring
vertex is not greater than one
Every 2-chromatic subgraph is acyclic
Oriented coloring
Star coloring
Takes into account orientation of edges of the
Every 2-chromatic subgraph is a disjoint
graph
collection of stars
Cocoloring
Strong coloring
An improper vertex coloring where every
Every color appears in every partition of
color class induces an independent set or a
equal size exactly once
Strong edge coloring clique
Edges are colored such that each color class Subcoloring
An improper vertex coloring where every
induces a matching (equivalent to coloring the
color class induces a union of cliques
square of the line graph)
Defective coloring
Equitable coloring
An improper vertex coloring where every
The sizes of color classes differ by at most one
T-coloring color class induces a bounded degree
Distance between two colors of adjacent subgraph.
vertices must not belong to fixed set T Weak coloring
An improper vertex coloring where every
non-isolated node has at least one neighbor

12 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

with a different color

Sum-coloring
The criterion of minimalization is the sum of
colors
Adjacent-vertex-distinguishing-total coloring
A total coloring with the additional restriction
that any two adjacent vertices have different
color sets
Centered coloring
Every connected induced subgraph has a
color that is used exactly once

Coloring can also be considered for signed graphs and gain graphs.

Edge coloring
Circular coloring
Critical graph
Graph homomorphism
Hajós construction
Mathematics of Sudoku
Multipartite graph
Uniquely colorable graph

1. ^ M. Kubale, History 7. ^ Beigel & Eppstein 14. ^ Cole & Vishkin 19. ^ Garey, Johnson &
of graph coloring, in (2005) (1986), see also Stockmeyer (1974);
Kubale (2004) 8. ^ Fomin, Gaspers & Cormen, Leiserson & Garey & Johnson
2. ^ van Lint & Wilson Saurabh (2007) Rivest (1990, Section (1979).
(2001, Chap. 33) 9. ^ Wilf (1986) 30.5) 20. ^ Dailey (1980)
3. ^ Jensen & Toft 10. ^ Sekine, Imai & 15. ^ Goldberg, Plotkin 21. ^ Halldórsson (1993)
(1995), p. 2 Tani (1995) & Shannon (1988) 22. ^ Zuckerman (2007)
4. ^ Brooks (1941) 11. ^ Welsh & Powell 16. ^ Schneider (2008) 23. ^ Guruswami &
5. ^ a b Björklund, (1967) 17. ^ Barenboim & Elkin Khanna (2000)
Husfeldt & Koivisto 12. ^ Brélaz (1979) (2009); Kuhn (2009) 24. ^ Khot (2001)
ab
(2009) 13. ^ Schneider 18. ^ Panconesi (1995) 25. ^ Jaeger, Vertigan &
6. ^ Lawler (1976) (2010) Welsh (1990)

13 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

26. ^ Goldberg & Jerrum 27. ^ Holyer (1981) 28. ^ Crescenzi & Kann 29. ^ Marx (2004)
(2008) (1998) 30. ^ Chaitin (1982)

Barenboim, L.; Elkin, M. (2009), "Distributed Brooks, R. L.; Tutte, W. T. (1941), "On colouring the
(∆ + 1)-coloring in linear (in ∆) time", Proceedings nodes of a network", Proceedings of the Cambridge
of the 41st Symposium on Theory of Computing, Philosophical Society 37 (2): 194–197,
pp. 111–120, doi:10.1145/1536414.1536432 doi:10.1017/S030500410002168X (http://dx.doi.org
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1145%2F1536414.1536432), /10.1017%2FS030500410002168X)
ISBN 978-1-60558-506-2 de Bruijn, N. G.; Erdős, P. (1951), "A colour
problem for infinite graphs and a problem in the
Panconesi, A.; Srinivasan, A. (1996), "On the
theory of relations" (http://www.math-inst.hu
complexity of distributed network decomposition",
/~p_erdos/1951-01.pdf), Nederl. Akad. Wetensch.
Journal of Algorithms 20
Proc. Ser. A 54: 371–373 (= Indag. Math. 13)
Schneider, J. (2010), "A new technique for Byskov, J.M. (2004), "Enumerating maximal
distributed symmetry breaking" independent sets with applications to graph
(http://www.dcg.ethz.ch/publications colouring", Operations Research Letters 32 (6):
/podcfp107_schneider_188.pdf), Proceedings of the 547–556, doi:10.1016/j.orl.2004.03.002
Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.orl.2004.03.002)
Schneider, J. (2008), "A log-star distributed maximal
Chaitin, G. J. (1982), "Register allocation & spilling
independent set algorithm for growth-bounded
via graph colouring", Proc. 1982 SIGPLAN
graphs" (http://www.dcg.ethz.ch/publications
Symposium on Compiler Construction, pp. 98–105,
/podc08SW.pdf), Proceedings of the Symposium on
doi:10.1145/800230.806984 (http://dx.doi.org
Principles of Distributed Computing
/10.1145%2F800230.806984), ISBN 0-89791-074-5
Beigel, R.; Eppstein, D. (2005), "3-coloring in time Cole, R.; Vishkin, U. (1986), "Deterministic coin

O(1.3289n)", Journal of Algorithms 54 (2)): tossing with applications to optimal parallel list

168–204, doi:10.1016/j.jalgor.2004.06.008 ranking", Information and Control 70 (1): 32–53,

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jalgor.2004.06.008) doi:10.1016/S0019-9958(86)80023-7
Björklund, A.; Husfeldt, T.; Koivisto, M. (2009), (http://dx.doi.org
"Set partitioning via inclusion–exclusion", SIAM /10.1016%2FS0019-9958%2886%2980023-7)
Journal on Computing 39 (2): 546–563, Cormen, T. H.; Leiserson, C. E.; Rivest, R. L. (1990),

doi:10.1137/070683933 (http://dx.doi.org Introduction to Algorithms (1st ed.), The MIT Press

/10.1137%2F070683933) Dailey, D. P. (1980), "Uniqueness of colorability and

Brélaz, D. (1979), "New methods to color the colorability of planar 4-regular graphs are
vertices of a graph", Communications of the ACM 22 NP-complete", Discrete Mathematics 30 (3):
(4): 251–256, doi:10.1145/359094.359101 289–293, doi:10.1016/0012-365X(80)90236-8
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1145%2F359094.359101) (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1016%2F0012-365X%2880%2990236-8)

14 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Duffy, K.; O'Connell, N.; Sapozhnikov, A. (2008), Guruswami, V.; Khanna, S. (2000), "On the hardness
"Complexity analysis of a decentralised graph of 4-coloring a 3-colorable graph", Proceedings of
colouring algorithm" (http://www.hamilton.ie the 15th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational
/ken_duffy/Downloads/cfl.pdf), Information Complexity, pp. 188–197,
Processing Letters 107 (2): 60–63, doi:10.1109/CCC.2000.856749 (http://dx.doi.org
doi:10.1016/j.ipl.2008.01.002 (http://dx.doi.org /10.1109%2FCCC.2000.856749),
/10.1016%2Fj.ipl.2008.01.002) ISBN 0-7695-0674-7
Fawcett, B. W. (1978), "On infinite full colourings of Halldórsson, M. M. (1993), "A still better
graphs", Can. J. Math. XXX: 455–457 performance guarantee for approximate graph
coloring", Information Processing Letters 45: 19–23,
Fomin, F.V.; Gaspers, S.; Saurabh, S. (2007),
doi:10.1016/0020-0190(93)90246-6 (http://dx.doi.org
"Improved Exact Algorithms for Counting 3- and
/10.1016%2F0020-0190%2893%2990246-6)
4-Colorings", Proc. 13th Annual International
Holyer, I. (1981), "The NP-completeness of
Conference, COCOON 2007, Lecture Notes in
edge-coloring", SIAM Journal on Computing 10 (4):
Computer Science 4598, Springer, pp. 65–74,
718–720, doi:10.1137/0210055 (http://dx.doi.org
doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73545-8_9 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1137%2F0210055)
/10.1007%2F978-3-540-73545-8_9),
Crescenzi, P.; Kann, V. (December 1998), "How to
ISBN 978-3-540-73544-1
find the best approximation results — a follow-up to
Garey, M. R.; Johnson, D. S. (1979), Computers and
Garey and Johnson", ACM SIGACT News 29 (4): 90,
Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of
doi:10.1145/306198.306210 (http://dx.doi.org
NP-Completeness, W.H. Freeman,
/10.1145%2F306198.306210)
ISBN 0-7167-1045-5
Jaeger, F.; Vertigan, D. L.; Welsh, D. J. A. (1990),
Garey, M. R.; Johnson, D. S.; Stockmeyer, L. (1974),
"On the computational complexity of the Jones and
"Some simplified NP-complete problems"
Tutte polynomials", Mathematical Proceedings of
(http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=803884),
the Cambridge Philosophical Society 108: 35–53,
Proceedings of the Sixth Annual ACM Symposium
doi:10.1017/S0305004100068936 (http://dx.doi.org
on Theory of Computing, pp. 47–63,
/10.1017%2FS0305004100068936)
doi:10.1145/800119.803884 (http://dx.doi.org
Jensen, T. R.; Toft, B. (1995), Graph Coloring
/10.1145%2F800119.803884)
Problems, Wiley-Interscience, New York,
Goldberg, L. A.; Jerrum, M. (July 2008),
ISBN 0-471-02865-7
"Inapproximability of the Tutte polynomial",
Khot, S. (2001), "Improved inapproximability results
Information and Computation 206 (7): 908–929,
for MaxClique, chromatic number and approximate
doi:10.1016/j.ic.2008.04.003 (http://dx.doi.org
graph coloring", Proc. 42nd Annual Symposium on
/10.1016%2Fj.ic.2008.04.003)
Foundations of Computer Science, pp. 600–609,
Goldberg, A. V.; Plotkin, S. A.; Shannon, G. E.
doi:10.1109/SFCS.2001.959936 (http://dx.doi.org
(1988), "Parallel symmetry-breaking in sparse
/10.1109%2FSFCS.2001.959936),
graphs", SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics 1
ISBN 0-7695-1116-3
(4): 434–446, doi:10.1137/0401044 (http://dx.doi.org
Kubale, M. (2004), Graph Colorings, American
/10.1137%2F0401044)
Mathematical Society, ISBN 0-8218-3458-4

15 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Kuhn, F. (2009), "Weak graph colorings: distributed Nešetřil, Jaroslav; Ossona de Mendez, Patrice
algorithms and applications", Proceedings of the 21st (2012), "Theorem 3.13", Sparsity: Graphs,
Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Structures, and Algorithms, Algorithms and
Architectures, pp. 138–144, Combinatorics 28, Heidelberg: Springer, p. 42,
doi:10.1145/1583991.1584032 (http://dx.doi.org doi:10.1007/978-3-642-27875-4 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1145%2F1583991.1584032), /10.1007%2F978-3-642-27875-4),
ISBN 978-1-60558-606-9 ISBN 978-3-642-27874-7, MR 2920058
Lawler, E.L. (1976), "A note on the complexity of the (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-
chromatic number problem", Information Processing getitem?mr=2920058).
Letters 5 (3): 66–67, Panconesi, Alessandro; Rizzi, Romeo (2001), "Some
doi:10.1016/0020-0190(76)90065-X simple distributed algorithms for sparse networks",
(http://dx.doi.org Distributed Computing (Berlin, New York: Springer-
/10.1016%2F0020-0190%2876%2990065-X) Verlag) 14 (2): 97–100, doi:10.1007/PL00008932
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FPL00008932),
Leith, D.J.; Clifford, P. (2006), "A Self-Managed
ISSN 0178-2770 (https://www.worldcat.org
Distributed Channel Selection Algorithm for WLAN"
/issn/0178-2770)
(http://www.hamilton.ie/peterc/downloads
Sekine, K.; Imai, H.; Tani, S. (1995), "Computing the
/rawnet06.pdf), Proc. RAWNET 2006, Boston, MA
Tutte polynomial of a graph of moderate size", Proc.
Linial, N. (1992), "Locality in distributed graph
6th International Symposium on Algorithms and
algorithms", SIAM Journal on Computing 21 (1):
Computation (ISAAC 1995), Lecture Notes in
193–201, doi:10.1137/0221015 (http://dx.doi.org
Computer Science 1004, Springer, pp. 224–233,
/10.1137%2F0221015)
doi:10.1007/BFb0015427 (http://dx.doi.org
van Lint, J. H.; Wilson, R. M. (2001), A Course in
/10.1007%2FBFb0015427), ISBN 3-540-60573-8
Combinatorics (2nd ed.), Cambridge University
Welsh, D. J. A.; Powell, M. B. (1967), "An upper
Press, ISBN 0-521-80340-3
bound for the chromatic number of a graph and its
Marx, Dániel (2004), "Graph colouring problems and
application to timetabling problems", The Computer
their applications in scheduling", Periodica
Journal 10 (1): 85–86, doi:10.1093/comjnl/10.1.85
Polytechnica, Electrical Engineering 48 (1–2),
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2Fcomjnl%2F10.1.85)
pp. 11–16, CiteSeerX: 10.1.1.95.4268
West, D. B. (1996), Introduction to Graph Theory,
(http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc
Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-227828-6
/summary?doi=10.1.1.95.4268)
Wilf, H. S. (1986), Algorithms and Complexity,
Mycielski, J. (1955), "Sur le coloriage des graphes"
Prentice–Hall
(http://matwbn.icm.edu.pl/ksiazki/cm/cm3
Zuckerman, D. (2007), "Linear degree extractors and
/cm3119.pdf), Colloq. Math. 3: 161–162.
the inapproximability of Max Clique and Chromatic
Number", Theory of Computing 3: 103–128,
doi:10.4086/toc.2007.v003a006 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.4086%2Ftoc.2007.v003a006)

16 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51
Graph coloring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Zykov, A. A. (1949), "О некоторых свойствах (2): 163–188

линейных комплексов (On some properties of Jensen, Tommy R.; Toft, Bjarne (1995), Graph
linear complexes)" (http://mi.mathnet.ru Coloring Problems, John Wiley & Sons,
/eng/msb5974), Math. Sbornik. (in Russian), 24(66) ISBN 9780471028659

Graph Coloring Page (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~joe/Coloring/index.html) by Joseph Culberson (graph

coloring programs)
CoLoRaTiOn (http://vispo.com/software) by Jim Andrews and Mike Fellows is a graph coloring puzzle
Links to Graph Coloring source codes (http://www.adaptivebox.net/research/bookmark
/gcpcodes_link.html)
Code for efficiently computing Tutte, Chromatic and Flow Polynomials (http://www.mcs.vuw.ac.nz
/~djp/tutte/) by Gary Haggard, David J. Pearce and Gordon Royle
Graph Coloring Web Application (http://graph-coloring.appspot.com/)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graph_coloring&oldid=605226907"

Categories: Graph theory Graph coloring NP-complete problems Computational problems in graph theory
Extensions and generalizations of graphs

This page was last modified on 22 April 2014 at 00:34.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

17 of 17 03-05-2014 15:51