List-distance consistent vertices in trees are confined to a path

Abstract

A labeling of a connected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices is a bijection $c:V(G)\to \{1,\dots ,n\}$; writing $c(u,v)=|c(u)-c(v)|$, a vertex $u$ is list-distance consistent if $d(u,v)<d(u,w)$ implies $c(u,v)\le c(u,w)$ for all $v,w$. The maximum number of such vertices over all labelings is the list-distance consistency ldc$(G)$, introduced by Casselgren and Henricsson. We prove that in a tree, the consistent vertices of any labeling lie on a single path, along which the labels form a block of consecutive integers in increasing order (with respect to a suitable orientation of the path), no vertex off the path receiving a label from that block. We deduce that ldc equals $3$ for every complete $k$-ary tree except the binary tree of height two, and we determine ldc for all spiders.