Skip to main content
Log in

Rainbow connection numbers of Cayley graphs

  • Published:
Journal of Combinatorial Optimization Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An edge colored graph is rainbow connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose edges have distinct colors. The rainbow connection number, rc-number for short, of a graph \({\varGamma }\), is the smallest number of colors that are needed in order to make \({\varGamma }\) rainbow connected. In this paper, we give a method to bound the rc-numbers of graphs with certain structural properties. Using this method, we investigate the rc-numbers of Cayley graphs, especially, those defined on abelian groups and on dihedral groups.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akers SB, Krishnamurthy B (1989) A group-theoretic model for symmetric interconnection networks. IEEE Trans Comput 38:555–566

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Basavaraju M, Chandran LS, Rajendraprasad D, Ramaswamy A (2014) Rainbow connection number and radius. Graphs Combin 30(2):275–285

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Bondy JA, Murty USR (2008) Graph theory. Springer, Berlin

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Cai QQ, Ma YB, Song JL. Rainbow connection numbers of ladders and Möbius ladders. Ars Combin (to appear)

  • Caro Y, Lev A, Roditty Y, Tuza Z, Yuster R (2008) On rainbow connection. Electron J Combin 15:R57

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty S, Fischer E, Matsliah A, Yuster R (2011) Hardness and algorithms for rainbow connection. J Comb Optim 21:330–347

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Chandran LS, Das A, Rajendraprasad D, Varma NM (2012) Rainbow connection number and connected dominating sets. J Graph Theory 71:206–218

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Chartrand G, Johns GL, McKeon KA, Zhang P (2008) Rainbow connection in graphs. Math Bohem 133:85–98

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Godsil C, Royle G (2001) Algebraic graph theory. Springer, New York

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Krivelevich M, Yuster R (2009) The rainbow connection of a graph is (at most) reciprocal to its minimum degree. J Graph Theory 63:185–191

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Li HZ, Li XL, Liu SJ (2011) The (strong) rainbow connection numbers of Cayley graphs on Abelian groups. Comput Math Appl 62:4082–4088

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Li XL, Liu SJ, Chandran LS, Mathew R, Rajendraprasad D (2012) Rainbow connection number and connectivity. Electron J Combin 19:R20

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Li XL, Sun YF (2012) Rainbow connections of graphs. Springer, New York

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Liang YJ (2012) Rainbow connection numbers of Cartesian product of graphs. 2012 Workshop on Graph Theory and Combinatorics and 2012 Symposium for Young Combiantorialists, August, pp. 10–12

  • Schiermeyer I (2009) Rainbow connection in graphs with minimum degree three, IWOCA 2009. LNCS, vol 5874. Springer, Berlin, pp 432–437

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to the referees for helpful comments and suggestions. This work partially supported by the NSFC (Nos. 11271267, 11371204, 11526082, 11526081 and 11501181), and the Scientific Research Foundation for Ph.D. of Henan Normal University (No. qd14143).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yingbin Ma.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ma, Y., Lu, Z. Rainbow connection numbers of Cayley graphs. J Comb Optim 34, 182–193 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10878-016-0052-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10878-016-0052-6

Keywords

Mathematics Subject Classification

Navigation