We discuss in class colorings of graphs, where adjacent vertices have different colors. Suppose you took the graph to be a polygon and allowed the graph to be reflected and rotated. How many different colorings do you get?
Contents
Outline/Title?
Introduction
In graph theory, it is sometimes necessary to find the number of ways to color the vertices of a polygon. Two theorems that work together to solve this problem are the Polya theorem and Burnside theorem.
Example 1: Square
A basic example of how to use the theorems is a simple two-coloring of a square.
Step 1: Look at all the different possible combinations of colorings:
| gggg | gggr | ggrg | rggg |
| grgg | ggrr | rgrg | rrgg |
| grrg | rgrr | grrr | rrgr |
| rrrg | rrrr | grrg | rggr |
Definitions:
- Burnside
- Polya
Formula:
- show formula
- breakdown of each element
- relate back to example 1
Proof:
References and Additional Information
For further reading on the Polya theorem:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1001.0072.pdf
http://math.berkeley.edu/~mbaker/Tucker.pdf
http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/SeniorProjectArchive/2012/Huisinga.pdf
