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Journal of Applied Mathematics

Volume 2014, Article ID 627248, 4 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/627248

Research Article
On Harmonious Labeling of Corona Graphs

Martin BaIa1 and Maged Z. Youssef2,3

1
Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Technical University, 042 00 Kosice, Slovakia
2
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Sciences, Al-Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University,
Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Abbassia, Cairo 11566, Egypt

Correspondence should be addressed to Martin Baca; martin.baca@tuke.sk

Received 9 January 2014; Accepted 12 March 2014; Published 3 April 2014

Academic Editor: Hui-Shen Shen

Copyright 2014 M. Baca and M. Z. Youssef. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

A graph with edges is said to be harmonious, if there is an injection from the vertices of to the group of integers modulo
such that when each edge is assigned the label () + () (mod ), the resulting edge labels are distinct. In this paper, we study
the existence of harmonious labeling for the corona graphs of a cycle and a graph and for the corona graph of 2 and a tree.

1. Introduction of a tree, Grace allows the vertex labels to range from 0 up to .

Harmonious graphs naturally arose in the study of modular
version of error-correcting codes and channel assignment
problems. Graham and Sloane [1] defined a (, )-graph of
order and size to be harmonious, if there is an injective
function : () Z , where Z is the group of integers
modulo , such that the induced function : () Z ,
defined by () = () + () for each edge (), is labeling of special types of crown graphs is examined in [6].
a bijection.
The function is called harmonious labeling and the
image of denoted by Im() is called the corresponding set
of vertex labels.
When is a tree or, in general for a graph with = +1,
exactly one label may be used on two vertices.
Graham and Sloane [1] proved that if a harmonious graph
has an even number of edges and the degree of every vertex
is divisible by 2 , then is divisible by 2+1 . This necessary
condition is called the harmonious parity condition. They
also proved that if is harmonious labeling of a graph
of size , then so is + labeling, where is an invertible
element of Z and is any element of Z .
Chang et al. [2] define an injective labeling of a graph
with edges to be strongly -harmonious, if the vertex labels
are from the set {0, 1, . . . , 1} and the edge labels are from
the set { () = () + () : ()} = {, + 1, . . . , + by an edge the th vertex of to every vertex in the th copy
1}. Grace [3, 4] called such labeling sequential. In the case
Strongly 1-harmonious graph is called strongly harmonious.
By taking the edge labels of a sequentially labeled graph
with edges modulo , we obviously obtain a harmoniously
labeled graph. It is not known if there is a graph that can be
harmoniously labeled but not sequentially labeled. More than
50 papers have been published on harmonious labeling and
comprehensive information can be found in [5]. Similarly,
In this paper, we study the existence of harmonious
labeling for the graphs obtained by corona operation between
a cycle and a graph and also between 2 and a tree or 2
and a unicyclic graph.
2. Main Results
In this section, we present the results related to corona graphs.
The corona operation between two graphs was introduced by
Frucht and Harary [7]. Given two graphs of order and ,
the corona of with , denoted by , is the graph with
( ) = () =1 ( ), and ( ) = ()
=1 (( ) {(V , ) : V () and ( )}). In other
words, a corona graph is obtained from two graphs, of order
and , taking one copy of and copies of and joining
of .
2 Journal of Applied Mathematics

Grace [4] showed that 2+1 1 is harmonious and (iv) 1 + (((+1)/2)+ ((+1)/2)++1 ) (mod ) is equal to the
conjectured that 2 1 is harmonious. This conjecture has min{ ((+1 + {+1 }))} = 2( + + 1) + 1.
been proved by Liu and Zhang [8] and Liu [9]. Singh in [10, 11]
has proved that 2 and 3 are sequential for all odd Moreover, 1 + max{ (((+1)/2 + {(+1)/2 }))} = 0 (mod )
> 1. Santhosh [12] has shown that 4 is sequential for and it is equal to ((+1)/2 (+3)/2 ) = 0 (mod ).
all odd 3. Thus, under the induced mapping , all the resulting
The join of two graphs and , denoted by + , is the edge labels are distinct and they get the consecutive integers
graph where ()() = 0 and each vertex of is adjacent from 0 up to ( + + 1) 1 (mod ). This concludes the
to all vertices of . When = 1 , this is the corona graph proof.
Graham and Sloane [1] have proved that the fans =
1 . + 1 , 7, and the wheels = + 1 , 2 (mod
Graham and Sloane [1] showed harmonious labeling of 3), are strongly harmonious with the 0 label on the vertex
the join of the path and 1 , that is, the fan = +1 , and of 1 . In light of these results and Theorem 1, we have the
harmonious labeling of the double fan + 2 . Later, Chang following corollaries.
et al. [2] gave harmonious labeling of the join of the star
and 1 . Corollary 2. Let be the corona graph of a cycle and
The next result shows that if join of a graph and 1 is a path . Then, is harmonious for all odd 3 and
strongly harmonious, then the corona of a cycle and the graph 1 7.
admitted harmonious labeling.
Corollary 3. Let be the corona graph of two cycles.
Theorem 1. Let be a graph of order and size . If + 1 is Then, is harmonious for all odd 3 and 2
strongly harmonious with the 0 label on the vertex of 1 , then (mod 3).
is harmonious for all odd 3.
Shee [13] has shown that the complete tripartite graph
Proof. Let be a (, )-graph and + 1 strongly harmo- 1,, = , + 1 , , 1, is strongly harmonious, while
nious with the 0 label on the vertex 1 . Then, there exists Gnanajothi [14] proved that 1,1,, = 1,, + 1 , , 1,
labeling : (+1 ) {0, . . . , +1} such that () = 0 is also strongly harmonious. In both cases, the vertex of 1
and the edge labels are from the set { (V) = () + (V) : is labeled by the 0 label. Thus, with respect to Theorem 1, we
V ( + 1 )} = {1, 2, . . . , + }. obtain the following.
Now, for odd, 3, we consider the corona graph
with (+1) vertices and = (++1) edges. Denote Corollary 4. For , 1 and odd 3, the corona graph
the vertices and edges of the cycle such that ( ) = , is harmonious.
{1 , 2 , . . . , } and ( ) = { +1 : 1 1} { 1 }.
By the symbol , we denote a vertex in the th copy of , Corollary 5. For , 1 and odd 3, the corona graph
denoted by , corresponding to the vertex in ; that is, 1,, is harmonious.
() and ( ). Let one consider the graphs obtained by corona operation
We define the vertex labeling : ( ) {0, 1, . . ., between the single edge 2 and a tree.
1} in the following:
( ) = ( + + 1) ( 1) , for 1 , Theorem 6. If is a strongly -harmonious tree of odd size
(1) and = ( + 1)/2, then the corona graph 2 is also strongly
( ) = () + ( + + 1) ( 1) , for 1 . -harmonious.

If we denote the join graph + 1 as + {}, then the set Proof. Let be a tree of size with strongly -harmonious
of all edge labels of the th copy of + {} consists of the labeling : () {0, 1, . . . , }, where the edge labels are
consecutive integers (( + { })) = {2( + + 1)( 1) + from the set of consecutive integers { () : ()} =
1, 2( + + 1)( 1) + 2, . . . , 2( + + 1)( 1) + + }, {, + 1, . . . , + 1}.
1 . For edge labels of the cycle , we have ( +1 ) = Consider the corona graph 2 with vertices 1 , 2
( ) + (+1 ) = ( + + 1)(2 1), for 1 1, and (2 ) and vertices ( ), = 1, 2, corresponding to the
( 1 ) = ( ) + (1 ) = ( + + 1)( 1). vertices , where the vertex is incident to every vertex
It is not difficult to see that, for 1 ( 1)/2, it is true in for = 1, 2.
that Define now new vertex labeling : (2 )
(i) 1 + max{ (( + { }))} = ( + + 1)(2 1) = {0, 1, . . . , 4 + 2} such that
( +1 );
(ii) 1 + ( +1 ) = min{ ((((+1)/2)+ + + , for = 1,
( ) = {
{((+1)/2)+ }))} = ( + + 1)(2 1) + 1 (mod + 1, for = 2,
);
(iii) 1 + max{ ((((+1)/2)+ + {((+1)/2)+ }))} = () , for = 1 and every ,
( ) = {
2( + + 1) (mod ) and it is equal to () + + + 1, for = 2 and every .
(((+1)/2)+ ((+1)/2)++1 ) (mod ); (2)
Journal of Applied Mathematics 3

Thus, Im() = {0, 1, 2, . . . , , + 1} { + , + + 1, + + 0 1 2 3 4

2, . . . , + 2, + 2 + 1} and, for the edge labels, we have

{ () : (1 )} = {, + 1, + 2, . . . , + 1} , 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

{ (1 1 ) = (1 ) + (1 ) : 1 (1 )}
5 6 7 8 9
= { + , + + 1, . . . , + 2} ,
Figure 1: Strongly 5-harmonious labeling of the caterpillar Cat10 .
(1 2 ) = (1 ) + (2 ) = + 2 + 1,
(3)
{ (2 2 ) = (2 ) + (2 ) : 2 (2 )} 2 1 7 6

= { + 2 + 2, + 2 + 3, . . . , + 3 + 2} ,
7 6 4 10 9
{ () : (2 )}

= {3 + 2 + 2, 3 + 2 + 3, . . . , 3 + 3 + 1} .
0 5 3 8 4
5 8 11 12
We can see that edge labels form the set of consecutive
Figure 2: Strongly 4-harmonious labeling of a unicyclic graph.
integers from up to 3+3+1 if and only if max{ (2 2 ) =
(2 ) + (2 ) : 2 (2 )} + 1 = min{ () : (2 )};
that is, = ( + 1)/2. The image of the vertex labeling is a union of two sets of
consecutive integers Im() = {0, 1, 2, . . . , } { + , + +
1, + + 2, . . . , + 2}. Observe that the edge labels are
We know that every caterpillar Cat admits strongly -
harmonious labeling. As an illustration, Figure 1 provides an
example of the strongly 5-harmonious labeling of Cat10 . { () : (1 )} = {, + 1, + 2, . . . , + 1} ,
As an immediate consequence of Theorem 6, we can state
the following corollary. { (1 1 ) = (1 ) + (1 ) : 1 (1 )}

Corollary 7. Let Cat +1 be a caterpillar of odd size . If = { + , + + 1, . . . , + 2 1} ,

Cat +1 admits strongly ( + 1)/2-harmonious labeling, then
the corona graph 2 Cat +1 also admits strongly ( + 1)/2-
harmonious labeling.
Theorem 8. Let be a unicyclic graph of odd size . If is a
strongly -harmonious and = (1)/2, then the corona graph
2 is also strongly -harmonious.
Proof. Let be a connected (, )-graph containing exactly
one cycle. Clearly, = . Let : () {0, 1, . . . , 1}
be strongly -harmonious labeling with the edge labels from
the set of consecutive integers { () : ()} = {, +
1, . . . , + 1}.
If 1 and 2 are the vertices of 2 and if by the symbol
we mean a vertex in the th copy of corresponding to
the vertex (), then sets of vertices and edges of the
corona graph 2 are as follows: (2 ) = (2 )
(1 ) (2 ), (2 ) = {1 2 } (1 ) {1 1 : 1 is presented in Figure 2.
(1 )} (2 ) {2 2 : 2 (2 )}.
Define new vertex labeling : (2 ) {0, 1, . . . , 4}
in the following:
+ , for = 1,
( ) = {
, for = 2,
(1 2 ) = (1 ) + (2 ) = + 2,
(5)
{ (2 2 ) = (2 ) + (2 ) : 2 (2 )}
= { + 2 + 1, + 2 + 2, . . . , + 3} ,
{ () : (2 )}
= {3 + 2 + 2, 3 + 2 + 3, . . . , 3 + 3 + 1} .
The edge labels form the set of consecutive integers from up
to 3 + 3 + 1 if and only if + 3 + 1 = 3 + 2 + 2. It is
true if = ( 1)/2. Thus, the labeling is strongly ( 1)/2-
harmonious labeling of the corona graph 2 .
An example of the strongly 4-harmonious unicyclic graph
We know that every odd cycle 2+1 admits strongly -
harmonious labeling. As consequence of Theorem 8, we have
the following.
Corollary 9. The corona graph 2 2+1 , 1, is strongly
-harmonious.

() , for = 1 and every ,

Conflict of Interests
( ) = {
() + + + 1, for = 2 and every . The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regar-
(4) ding the publication of this paper.
4 Journal of Applied Mathematics

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for
their valuable comments and suggestions leading to improve-
ment of this paper. The research for this paper was supported
by Slovak VEGA Grant 1/0130/12.

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