International Journal of Statistics and Applied Mathematics 2022; 7(2): 51-53

ISSN: 2456-1452
Maths 2022; 7(2): 51-53
© 2022 Stats & Maths
A study of applications of graph colouring in various
www.mathsjournal.com
Received: 15-12-2021
fields
Accepted: 07-02-2022
Anjali Gangrade, Bhawna Agrawal, Sanjeet Kumar and Akhlak Mansuri
Anjali Gangrade
Department of Mathematics,
Rabindranath Tagore DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/maths.2022.v7.i2a.795
University, Bhopal, Madhya
Pradesh, India Abstract
Graph theory is an important branch of applied mathematics with a lot of applications in many fields.
Bhawna Agrawal Graph theory has a broad scale of applications in many practical situations. Graph coloring is one decent
Department of Mathematics, approach which can deal with many problems of graph theory. The main aim of this paper is to present
Rabindranath Tagore
the importance of graph coloring ideas in various fields for researchers that the concept of graph theory
University, Bhopal, Madhya
can be used by them. In this paper an overview is presented especially to project the idea of graph theory
Pradesh, India
and applications of graph colouring.
Sanjeet Kumar
Department of Mathematics, Keywords: Graph, graph coloring, vertex coloring, applications of graph colouring
Lakshmi Narain College of
Technology & Science, Bhopal, Introduction
Madhya Pradesh, India Graph the theory is generally regarded as most enjoyable branch of discrete mathematics. This
is because it has twin nature; it has the brilliant proofs in all the abstract reasoning, and it has a
Akhlak Mansuri
lot of applications in every field. Graphs are important because it is a way of expressing
Department of Mathematics,
Govt. Girls College, Mandsaur, information in pictorial form. A graph can show information that equivalent to many words.
Madhya Pradesh, India Today graph theory a developed theory with a large collection of challenging games and
interesting puzzles. Characteristic of Graph theory is that it depends very little on other
branches of Mathematics that is independent in itself. Graph theory is rapidly becoming into
the mainstream of mathematics mainly because of its applications in various fields which
include physics, biology, chemistry, electrical engineering, computer science, operation
research etc. In computer science the ideas of graph theory are highly utilized (Daniel M,
2004) [1].
A graph is drawn up of vertices and edges. In other words we can say that graph is an ordered
pair G = (V, E) consisting a collection of vertices is V with a collection of edges E. This paper
has been divided into two sections. First section gives the historical background of graph
theory and a few definitions used in graph theory. Second section emphasized graph coloring
and its applications in various fields of life (Formanowicz P, 2012) [2].

History of Graph theory: Many mathematicians have contributed to the growth of graph
theory. Graph theory is originated with the problem of Konigsberg Bridge, in 1735. This
problem conduct to the concept of Eulerian graph. Euler studied the problem of Konigsberg
Bridge and give a structure to resolve the problem called Eulerian graph. The idea of a
complete graph and bipartite graph have presented by A.F Mobius, in 1840. The concept of a
tree was enacted by Gaustav Kirchhoff in the year 1845, and he enlisted graph theoretical
concept in the calculation of currents in electrical networks or circuits. Thomas Gutherie
founded the famous four color problem in 1852. In 1969, Heinrich has solved the four color
problem by using a computer. Many problems that are considered hard to determine can easily
solve use of graph theory (Vedavathi N, 2013) [3].
Corresponding Author:
Anjali Gangrade Basic concept of Graph Theory
Department of Mathematics,
Rabindranath Tagore Graph theory includes different kinds of graphs, each having basic graph properties. There are
University, Bhopal, Madhya different operations that may be performed over various types of graph. Graphs are utilized in
Pradesh, India
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International Journal of Statistics and Applied Mathematics http://www.mathsjournal.com

more applications as a powerful tool to solve large and Hamiltonian Circuit: A circuit that contains each vertex of
complicated problems. Therefore, we need to know some graph exactly once except for the first vertex, which is also
definitions that are part of graph theory (Chong Leung JY, the last said to be a Hamiltonian circuit (Bharathi SN, 2017)
2014) [4]. [8]
.

Graph: Generally graph G consists of two things, the set of Hamiltonian Graph: A graph that contains either a
vertices V and also the set of edges E. Hamiltonian path or a Hamiltonian circuit is called a
Hamiltonian graph.
Self-loop: An edge having the identical vertex as both its end
vertices is called a self-loop. Graph Coloring: Graph coloring is a major topic of graph
theory with many applications and unsolved problems. Graph
Parallel edges: More than one edge related to a given pair of coloring is the procedure of assignment of colors to each
vertices is called parallel edges. vertex of a graph such that no adjacent vertices get same
color. In other words, Graph coloring is a way of coloring the
Directed graph: A graph in which a set of vertices and edges vertices of a graph such that no two adjacent vertices have the
that are connected together, where all the edges are directed same color. It is called a vertex coloring. If we paint all the
from one vertex to another is called directed graph (Ufuktepe vertices of a graph with colors such that no two adjacent
U, 2015) [5]. vertices have the same color then it is called the proper
coloring of a graph. A graph in which every vertex has been
Undirected graph: A graph where all the edges are assigned a color according to the proper coloring is called a
bidirectional is called an undirected graph. properly colored graph. Similarly, if we give a color to each
edge so that no two incident edges share the same color then it
Simple graph: A graph which contains neither self-loop nor is called edge coloring. A graph can be properly colored in
parallel edges is called a simple graph. many ways. A proper coloring in which the least number of
colors needed to color the graph is called its chromatic
Adjacent vertices: Two vertices are said to be adjacent if number. It is denoted by the symbol Ψ (G), where G is a
they are the end vertices of the identical edge. graph. A graph that can be assigned (proper) with k colors is
called a k colorable graph. And its chromatic number is
Degree of vertices: The number of edges incident on a exactly k (Kristoforus R, 2017) [9].
vertex, with self-loop counted twice is called degree of that
vertex. Applications of graph coloring
Graphs are used to model many problems of the various real
Isolated vertex: A vertex with zero degree is called isolated field. Graphs are very powerful, important and flexible tool to
vertex. model. There are many numbers of applications.

Pendant vertex: A vertex of degree one is called Pendant GPS or Google Maps: GPS or Google Maps are used to find
vertex. the shortest route from one destination to another. The
destinations are presented by vertices and their connections
Regular graph: A graph is said to be regular graph if degree are presented by edges consisting distance. The best route is
of each vertex is equal. A graph is said to be K regular graph determined by the software. To pick up students from their
if degree of each vertex is K (Arya S, 2016) [6]. stop to school Schools/Colleges are also using this technique.
Each stop shows a vertex and the route shows an edge. A
Complete graph: A graph in which each pair of vertices is Hamiltonian path represents the efficiency of including every
connected by an edge is said to be complete graph. vertex with in the route (Vinutha MS, 2017) [10].

Bipartite graph: If vertices of a graph can be divided into Making Schedule or Time Table
two independent sets, X and Y such that every edge (x, y)  Nurse Schedule problem: Nurse Schedule problem
either connects a vertex from X to Y or vertex from Y to X could be a major problem faced by many hospitals
then the graph is said to be a bipartite graph (Bincy AK, everywhere the planet that is a subclass of scheduling
2017) [7]. problems that are hard to resolve. The work is difficult
for the duty planner because the duty planner should
Euler Path: In a graph G a simple path is called Euler path if make sure that every scheduling decision made complies
it traverses every edge of graph exactly once. with a mix of hard hospital rules and soft nurse
preference rules. This problem will be solved by graph
Euler Circuit: A circuit in a graph G which traverses every coloring (Bjorken JD, 1965) [11].
edge of graph exactly once is called Euler circuit.  Aircraft Scheduling: Aircraft scheduling is another
great problem. This problem is often solved by graph
Eulerian Graph: Eulerian graph is a graph which contains coloring. Assuming that there are k aircrafts which they
either Euler Path or Euler circuit. need assigned n flights. The ith flight should be during the
number (ai, bi). If two flights overlap, then the identical
Hamiltonian Path: A path in a connected graph G that aircraft cannot be assigned to both the flights. This
contains each vertex of graph exactly once is said to be a problem can be solved by graph coloring. The vertices of
Hamiltonian graph. a graph correspond to the flights. Two vertices are
connected when the corresponding time intervals overlap.
Therefore, the graph is an interval graph which is able to
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International Journal of Statistics and Applied Mathematics http://www.mathsjournal.com

be colored optimally in polynomial time (Biggs N, 1986) 8. Bharathi SN. A Study on Graph Colouring. International
[12]
. Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research.
 Exam Timetable Scheduling: Exam time-table is a 2017;8(5):20-30.
planned schedule for the examinations. Time-tables are 9. Kristoforus R, Bendi J, Sunarni T, Alfian A. Graph
so planned to give students a healthy window for Colouring for University Timetable Problem.
preparations every educational institution has two c International Journal of Science and Research.
academic commonest scheduling problems are course 2017;1(7):1692-1696.
timetabling and exam timetabling. Effective timetable is 10. Vinutha MS, Arathi P. Applications of graph colouring
important to the performance of any educational institute. and labelling in computer science. International Journal
 It impacts their ability to fulfill changing and evolving on Future Revolution in Computer Science &
subject demands and their combinations in a cost- Communication Engineering. 2017;3:14-16.
effective manner satisfying various constraints we are 11. Bjorken JD, Drell SD. Relativistic Quantum Fields New
able to solve this problem by using graph coloring York: McGraw-Hill; c1965.
concept (Deo N, 2003) [13]. 12. Biggs N, Lloyd E, Wilson R. Graph Theory 1736-1936,
Oxford University Press; c1986.
Sudoku 13. Deo N. Graph Theory with application to engineering and
A single player logic based puzzle is called sudoku. This computer science, Prentice Hall of India, 25th printing
puzzle is a grid of 81 cells, which is split into 9 rows, columns edition; c2003.
and regions (or blocks). The aim is to put the numbers from 1- 14. Rosen KH. Discrete mathematics and its applications (7th
9 into empty cells in such way, that in every row, every ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill; c2011.
column and each region (3 x 3 block) each number appears
just the once. Sudoku Graph is a graph with 81 vertices (or
nodes). Each cell in the Sudoku is seen as a node of the
graph. Each node (or cell) has an edge to every other node
(cell) in its respective column, row, and 3 x 3 grid. Sudoku
can be viewed as Graph and thus can be solved by Graph
Coloring with a Chromatic Number, G = 9. It is no different
to using 9 different color to paint the vertices in a way that no
two adjacent vertices have the identical color (Rosen KH,
2011) [14].

Conclusion
Graph concepts are used to model many kinds of relations and
processes in physical, biological, social and information
systems. The concept of Graph theory is also seen in several
research areas of computer science. This paper mainly
concentrates on applications that uses graph coloring concept.
The main aim of this paper is to explore role of Graph
coloring in various fields of life. Graph coloring is powerful
tool that makes things easier.

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