On the number of unlabeled vertices in edge-friendly labelings of graphs

Abstract

Let $G$ be a graph with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $E(G)$, and $f$ be a 0-1 labeling of $E(G)$ so that the absolute difference in the number of edges labeled 1 and 0 is no more than one. Call such a labeling $f$ \emph{edge-friendly}. We say an edge-friendly labeling induces a \emph{partial vertex labeling} if vertices which are incident to more edges labeled 1 than 0, are labeled 1, and vertices which are incident to more edges labeled 0 than 1, are labeled 0. Vertices that are incident to an equal number of edges of both labels we call \emph{unlabeled}. Call a procedure on a labeled graph a \emph{label switching algorithm} if it consists of pairwise switches of labels. Given an edge-friendly labeling of $K_n$, we show a label switching algorithm producing an edge-friendly relabeling of $K_n$ such that all the vertices are labeled. We call such a labeling \textit{opinionated}.

7 pages, accepted to Discrete Mathematics, special issue dedicated to Combinatorics 2010