colouring problem


The colouring problem is to assign a colour to every vertex of a graph such that no two adjacent verticesMathworldPlanetmath have the same colour. These colours, of course, are not necessarily colours in the optic sense.

Consider the following graph:

\xymatrixA\ar@-[r]&B\ar@-[r]\ar@-[d]&C\ar@-[r]\ar@-[dl]&F\ar@-[dl]&D\ar@-[r]&E&

One potential colouring of this graph is:

\xymatrixA\ar@-[r]&B\ar@-[r]\ar@-[d]&C\ar@-[r]\ar@-[dl]&F\ar@-[dl]&D\ar@-[r]&E&

A and C have the same colour; B and E have a second colour; and D and F have another.

Graph colouring problems have many applications in such situations as scheduling and matching problems.

Title colouring problem
Canonical name ColouringProblem
Date of creation 2013-03-22 12:17:00
Last modified on 2013-03-22 12:17:00
Owner vampyr (22)
Last modified by vampyr (22)
Numerical id 7
Author vampyr (22)
Entry type Topic
Classification msc 05C15
Synonym coloring problem
Synonym colour
Synonym color
Synonym graph colouring
Synonym graph coloring