Graceful Graphs and Graceful Labelings: Two MathematicalProgramming Formulations and Some Other New Results
Timothy A. Redl
Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University, Houston, Texas January 2003
E-mail: timredl@caam.rice.eduGiven agraph
consisting ofvertices andedges, a
vertex labeling
of
isanassignment
¡
of labels to the vertices of
that produces for each edge
¢£
a label depending on thevertex labels
¡¤ ¢¥
and
¡¤ £¥
. A vertex labeling
¡
is called a
graceful labeling
of a graph
with
¦
edges if
¡
is an injection from the vertices of
to the set
§
0, 1, . . . ,
¦¨
suchthat when each edge
¢£
is assigned the label
© ¡¤ ¢¥ ¡¤ £¥©
the resulting edge labels aredistinct. Agraph
iscalled
graceful
if there exists a graceful labeling of
(see Fig. 1). Inthis paper we present two mathematical programming formulations of the graceful labelingproblem (first as an integer programming problem, second as a constraint programmingproblem), along with some new results on the gracefulness of three classes of graphs:generalized Petersen graphs
¤ ¥
, double cones
, and product graphs of theform
!
.
Key Words:
graceful labeling, graceful graph, generalized Petersen graph, double cone,
" #$
, integer programming, constraint programming
e5e4e3e2e1
1064
FIG. 1.
A graceful labeling of a graceful graph:
1
2
TIMOTHY A. REDL
1. INTRODUCTION
The study of graceful graphs and graceful labeling methods was introduced byRosa [12]. Rosa defined a
-valuation
of a graph
¡
with
¢
edges as an injectionfrom the vertices of
¡
to the set
£
0, 1, ... ,
¢¤
such that when each edge
¥¦
isassignedthelabel
§ ¨© ¥ ¨© ¦§
theresultingedgelabelsaredistinct.
-valuationsarefunctionsthatproducegracefullabelings. However,theterm
gracefullabeling
was not used until Golomb studied such labelings several years later [8].The gracefullabeling problemis to determinewhich graphsare graceful. Prov-ing a graph
¡
is or is not graceful involves either producinga graceful labeling of
¡
or showing that no such labeling exists. Over the past 30 years, approximately200 papers on graceful labeling methods have been published. An unpublishedresult of Erd¨os that was later proven by Graham and Sloane states that almost allgraphs are not graceful [7], though it does appear that most graphs having someregularity of structure to them are graceful.When studying graceful labelings, we need only consider simple graphs, orgraphs without loops or parallel edges. A loop in a labeled graph would assumean edge labelof 0, andin a gracefullabelingof a graph
¡
the resultingedge labelsmust be distinct and take values of
¢
, where
¢
is the number of edges in
¡
. Parallel edges between a particular pair of vertices in a labeled graph wouldalways assume the same edge label, a violation of the property that edge labels bedistinct in a graceful labeling.While the graceful labeling of graphs is perceived to be a primarily theoreticalsubject in the field of graph theory and discrete mathematics, gracefully labeledgraphs often serve as models in a wide range of applications. Such applica-tions include coding theory and communication network addressing. Bloom andGolomb [2] give a detailed explanation of some of the applications of gracefullylabeled graphs.Most of the papers published to date on the subject of graceful labeling aretheoretical, however, and principally focus on certain classes of graphs and label-ing methods. Such papers often present arguments by either providing formulasfor gracefully labeling graphs within a particular class, or proofs that graphs of a particular class are not graceful. The gracefulness of several classes of graphshas already been established. For example, all paths
are graceful [12]. Cycles
are graceful only when
0 or 3 (mod 4) [12]. The complete graphs
!
are graceful only for
"#
[8]. All wheels
$
(or equivalently,
%&'!&
) aregraceful [4]. This last result illustrates that subgraphs of a graceful graph neednot be themselves graceful, and that the addition of a single vertex to a graph mayeasily change its gracefulness or non-gracefulness. A complete and current sum-mary of graceful and non-graceful results along with some unproven conjecturescan be found in Gallian’s dynamic survey of graceful labeling [6]. Included inGallian’s surveyisthepopularRingel-Kotzigconjecturethat
all
treesaregraceful,a conjecture which remains an open problem in this area, and whose proof (or
GRACEFUL GRAPHS AND GRACEFUL LABELINGS
3counterexample) has eluded researchers for many years.
2. SOME NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR GRACEFUL GRAPHS
Rosa identified three basic reasons why a graph
¡
fails to be graceful: (1)
¡
has too many vertices and not enough edges, (2)
¡
has too many edges,and (3)
¡
has the wrong parity [6]. As an example of (3), Rosa developeda useful parity condition for a simple graph
¡
with
¢
edges. He proved thatif every vertex of
¡
has even degree and
¢
1 or 2 (mod 4), then
¡
is notgraceful [12]. Golomb restated this parity condition for graceful graphs as anecessary condition [8], illustrating that if
¡
is a graceful, even (simple) graphwith
¢
edges, then necessarily
© ¢'
¡
¢
0 (mod 2).Rosa’s parity condition (and equivalently, Golomb’s necessary condition) sig-nificantly reduces the number of graphs that are graceful, and often serves toclassify an infinite collection of graphs as being not graceful. It also leads us tothe following theorem.
£¤¥¦§¥¨©
Let
¡
be a graceful, even (simple) graph having
¢
edges, and let
and
denote the sums of the even edge labels and odd edge labels in agraceful labeling of
¡
, respectively.Case 1. If
&
0 (mod 4) then1.
0 (mod 4)2.
0 (mod 4)3.
&
¢
0 (mod 2)4.
¢
0 (mod 2)Case 2. If
&
2 (mod 4) then1.
2 (mod 4)2.
0 (mod 4)3.
&
¢
0 (mod 2)4.
¢
1 (mod 2)Proof.
Suppose
¡
is agraceful,even(simple)graph(i.e.,itis Eulerian)having
¢
edges. Then there exists a graceful labeling
!
of
¡
. Since
¡
is graceful andEulerian,thesumoftheresultingedgelabelsof
¡
,whichequals
" #$
&
%&
&
,must be even [8]. In other words,
&
'
(mod 4), where
' &(
(Case 1)or
' &
(Case 2). If
' &(
(Case 1), then
&
0 (mod 4)
'
. If
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Graceful Graphs and Graceful Labelings: Two Mathematical
Programming Formulations and Some Other New Results
Programming Formulations and Some Other New Results
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