Royal Colorings of Graphs

Abstract

For a graph \(G\) and a positive integer \(k\), a royal \(k\)-edge coloring of \(G\) is an assignment of nonempty subsets of the set \(\{1, 2, \ldots, k\}\) to the edges of \(G\) that gives rise to a proper vertex coloring in which the color assigned to each vertex \(v\) is the union of the sets of colors of the edges incident with \(v\). If the resulting vertex coloring is vertex-distinguishing, then the edge coloring is a strong royal \(k\)-coloring. The minimum positive integer \(k\) for which a graph has a strong royal \(k\)-coloring is the strong royal index of the graph. The primary emphasis here is on strong royal colorings of trees.