60 research outputs found
On the Graceful Game
A graceful labeling of a graph with edges consists of labeling the
vertices of with distinct integers from to such that, when each
edge is assigned as induced label the absolute difference of the labels of its
endpoints, all induced edge labels are distinct. Rosa established two well
known conjectures: all trees are graceful (1966) and all triangular cacti are
graceful (1988). In order to contribute to both conjectures we study graceful
labelings in the context of graph games. The Graceful game was introduced by
Tuza in 2017 as a two-players game on a connected graph in which the players
Alice and Bob take turns labeling the vertices with distinct integers from 0 to
. Alice's goal is to gracefully label the graph as Bob's goal is to prevent
it from happening. In this work, we study winning strategies for Alice and Bob
in complete graphs, paths, cycles, complete bipartite graphs, caterpillars,
prisms, wheels, helms, webs, gear graphs, hypercubes and some powers of paths
Aspects of graph colouring
The four-colour conjecture of 1852, and the total colouring conjecture of 1965, have sparked off many new concepts and conjectures. In this thesis we investigate many of the outstanding conjectures, establishing various related results, and present many conjectures of our own. We give a brief historical introduction (Chapter 1) and establish some notation, terminology and techniques (Chapter 2). Next, in Chapter 3, we examine the use of latin squares to represent edge and total colourings. In Chapters 4 - 6 we deal with vertex, edge and total colourings respectively. Various ways of measuring different aspects of graphs are presented, in particular, the ‘colouring difference’ between two edge-colourings of a graph (Chapter 5) and the ‘beta parameter’ (defined in Chapter 2 and used in Chapters 3 and 6); this is a measure of how far from a type 1 graph a type 2 graph can be. In Chapter 6 we derive an upper bound for the beta value of any near type 1 graph and give the exact results for all Kn. The number of ways of colouring Kn and Kn,,n are also quantified. Chapter 6 also examines Hilton’s concept of conformability. It is shown that every graph with at least A spines is conformable, and an extension to the concept, which we call G*-conformability, is introduced. We then give new necessary conditions for a cubic graph to be type 1 in relation to G*-conformability. Various methods of manipulating graphs are considered and we present: a method to compatibly triangulate a graph G-e; a method of introducing a fourth colour thus allowing a sequence of Kempe interchanges from any edge 3-colouring of a cubic graph to any other; and a method to re-colour a near type 1 graph within a certain bound on beta. We end this thesis with a brief discussion on possible practical uses for colouring graphs. A list of the main results and conjectures is given at the end of each chapter, but a short list of the principle theorems proven is given below
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