COVERING AND GRAPH COLORING

A covering graph is a subgraph which contains either all the vertices or all the edges
corresponding to some other graph. A subgraph which contains all the vertices is called
a line/edge covering. A subgraph which contains all the edges is called a vertex
covering.

Line Covering

Let G = (V, E) be a graph. A subset C(E) is called a line covering of G if every vertex of G is
incident with at least one edge in C, i.e.,
deg(V) ≥ 1 ∀ V ∈ G
because each vertex is connected with another vertex by an edge. Hence it has a minimum
degree of 1.

Example
Take a look at the following graph –

Its subgraphs having line covering are as follows −

C1 = {{a, b}, {c, d}}
C2 = {{a, d}, {b, c}}
C3 = {{a, b}, {b, c}, {b, d}}
C4 = {{a, b}, {b, c}, {c, d}}
Line covering of ‘G’ does not exist if and only if ‘G’ has an isolated vertex. Line covering of a
graph with ‘n’ vertices has at least [n/2] edges.
Minimal Line Covering

A line covering C of a graph G is said to be minimal if no edge can be deleted from

C.
Example
In the above graph, the subgraphs having line covering are as follows −
C1 = {{a, b}, {c, d}}
C2 = {{a, d}, {b, c}}
C3 = {{a, b}, {b, c}, {b, d}}
C4 = {{a, b}, {b, c}, {c, d}}
Here, C1, C2, C3 are minimal line coverings, while C4 is not because we can delete {b, c}.

Minimum Line Covering

It is also known as Smallest Minimal Line Covering. A minimal line covering with
minimum number of edges is called a minimum line covering of ‘G’. The number of edges
in a minimum line covering in ‘G’ is called the line covering number of ‘G’ (α1).
Example
In the above example, C1 and C2 are the minimum line covering of G and α1 = 2.

 Every line covering contains a minimal line covering.

 Every line covering does not contain a minimum line covering (C 3 does not contain
any minimum line covering.

 No minimal line covering contains a cycle.

 If a line covering ‘C’ contains no paths of length 3 or more, then ‘C’ is a minimal line
covering because all the components of ‘C’ are star graph and from a star graph, no
edge can be deleted.

Vertex Covering

Let ‘G’ = (V, E) be a graph. A subset K of V is called a vertex covering of ‘G’, if every edge of
‘G’ is incident with or covered by a vertex in ‘K’.
Example
Take a look at the following graph −

The subgraphs that can be derived from the above graph are as follows −
K1 = {b, c}
K2 = {a, b, c}
K3 = {b, c, d}
K4 = {a, d}
Here, K1, K2, and K3 have vertex covering, whereas K4 does not have any vertex covering as
it does not cover the edge {bc}.

Minimal Vertex Covering

A vertex ‘K’ of graph ‘G’ is said to be minimal vertex covering if no vertex can be
deleted from ‘K’.
Example
In the above graph, the subgraphs having vertex covering are as follows −
K1 = {b, c}
K2 = {a, b, c}
K3 = {b, c, d}
Here, K1 and K2 are minimal vertex coverings, whereas in K3, vertex ‘d’ can be deleted.

Minimum Vertex Covering

It is also known as the smallest minimal vertex covering. A minimal vertex covering
of graph ‘G’ with minimum number of vertices is called the minimum vertex covering.
 The number of vertices in a minimum vertex covering of ‘G’ is called the vertex
covering number of G (α2).

Example
In the following graph, the subgraphs having vertex covering are as follows −
K1 = {b, c}
K2 = {a, b, c}
K3 = {b, c, d}
Graph -

Here, K1 is a minimum vertex cover of

G, as it has only two vertices. α2 = 2.

Graph Coloring (also called as Vertex Coloring.)

Graph coloring is a simple way of labelling graph components such as vertices,
edges, and regions under some constraints. In a graph, no two adjacent vertices, adjacent
edges, or adjacent regions are colored with minimum number of colors.

In graph coloring, the constraints that are set on the graph are colors, order of
coloring, the way of assigning color, etc. A coloring is given to a vertex or a particular
region. Thus, the vertices or regions having same colors form independent sets.

Application of Graph Coloring

Graph coloring is one of the most important concepts in graph theory. It is used in
many real-time applications such as:

 Clustering
 Data mining
 Image capturing
  Image segmentation
 Networking
 Resource allocation
 Processes scheduling
 Sudoku
 Map Coloring
 Scheduling the tasks
 Preparing Time Table
 Conflict Resolution

Examples:

1. Suppose that you are responsible for scheduling times for lectures in a university.
You want to make sure that any two lectures with a common student occur at
different times to avoid a conflict. We could put the various lectures on a chart and
mark with an X any pair that has students in common:

Lecture A C G H I L M P S
Astronomy X X X X
Chemistry X X
Greek X X X X X
History X X X X
Italian X X X
Latin X X X X X X
Music X X X X
Philosophy X X
Spanish X X X X

A more convenient representation of this information is a graph with one vertex for
each lecture and in which two vertices are joined if there is a conflict between them:
 Now, we cannot schedule two lectures at the same time if there is a conflict, but we
would like to use as few separate times as possible, subject to this constraint. How many
different times are necessary?

We can code each time with a color, for example 11:00-12:00 might be given the
color green, and those lectures that meet at this time will be colored green. The no-conflict
rule then means that we need to color the vertices of our graph in such a way that no two
adjacent vertices (representing courses which conflict with each other) have the same
color.

A proper coloring is an assignment of colors to the vertices of a graph so that no

two adjacent vertices have the same color. A k-coloring of a graph is a proper coloring
involving a total of k colors. A graph that has a k-coloring is said to be k-colorable. So, what
we seek is a k-coloring of our graph with k as small as possible. Here is a 4-coloring of the
graph:

We shall suppose that we can properly color the graph with only three colors, and
show that this leads to a contradiction. We start by coloring G, H, and L three different
colors, as we must. We might as well assume they are the colors as shown above. Then M
must be the same color as H, since M is adjacent to G and L and there are only three colors
available. So, we color M blue as shown above. In a like manner, I must be colored green
since it is adjacent to L and M, which we have determined to be red and blue. Now S is
adjacent to H, L, and I, and so it must be a different color from them all. So, we cannot make
do with only three colors. So, four colors are needed to properly color the graph. This
means that we need to have at least four different times for lectures in our school.

Chromatic Number

The chromatic number of a graph is the minimum number of colors in a proper

coloring of that graph.

The (vertex) chromatic number χ (G) of G is defines as

χ (G)=min{k∨there ∃a proper k−colouring of G} .

If χ (G)=k, then G is k-chromatic.

Example:

In our scheduling example, the chromatic number of the graph would be the
minimum number of time slots needed to schedule the meetings so there are no time
conflicts.

This scheduling example is a simple example, so we can find the chromatic number
of the graph just using inspection. If we start by coloring vertex A with the color red, then
we can see that vertices B and C must be a different color than this since they share an edge
with A. Furthermore, B and C also share an edge, so they have to be different colors as well,
say blue and green. The only vertex left is D, and we see that it shares an edge with both B
and C, so it can't be blue or green, but it does not share an edge with A, so it can be red.

The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP)

is the challenge of finding the shortest yet most efficient route for a person to
take given a list of specific destinations. It is a well-known algorithmic problem in the
fields of computer science and operations research.
 TSP is classified as NP-hard because it has no “quick” solution and the
complexity of calculating the best route will increase when you add more destinations to
the problem. 

The problem can be solved by analyzing every round-trip route to determine the
shortest one. However, as the number of destinations increases, the corresponding
number of roundtrips surpasses the capabilities of even the fastest computers. With 10
destinations, there can be more than 300,000 roundtrip permutations and combinations.
With 15 destinations, the number of possible routes could exceed 87 billion.

The Brute-Force Approach

The Brute Force approach, also known as the Naive Approach, calculates and
compares all possible permutations of routes or paths to determine the shortest unique
solution. To solve the TSP using the Brute-Force approach, you must calculate the total
number of routes and then draw and list all the possible routes. Calculate the distance
of each route and then choose the shortest one—this is the optimal solution. 

The Branch and Bound Method

This method breaks a problem to be solved into several sub-problems. It’s a

system for solving a series of sub-problems, each of which may have several possible
solutions and where the solution selected for one problem may have an effect on the
possible solutions of subsequent sub-problems. To solve the TSP using the Branch and
Bound method, you must choose a start node and then set bound to a very large value
(let’s say infinity). Select the cheapest arch between the unvisited and current node and
then add the distance to the current distance. Repeat the process while the current
distance is less then the bound. If the current distance is less than the bound, you’re
done. You may now add up the distance so that the bound will be equal to the current
distance. Repeat this process until all the arcs have been covered.

The Nearest Neighbor Method

This is perhaps the simplest TSP heuristic. The key to this method is to always
visit the nearest destination and then go back to the first city when all other cities are
visited. To solve the TSP using this method, choose a random city and then look for the
closest unvisited city and go there. Once you have visited all cities, you must return to
the first city.