Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124

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Discrete Mathematics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/disc

Vertex magic total labelings of 2-regular graphs

Sylwia Cichacz a,b , Dalibor Froncek a, *, Inne Singgih a,c
a
University of Minnesota Duluth, United States
b
AGH-UST Krakw, Poland
c
University of South Carolina, United States

article info a b s t r a c t
Article history: A vertex magic total (VMT) labeling of a graph G = (V , E) is a bijection from the set of vertices
integers defined by : V E {1, 2, . . . , |V |+|E |} so that for every
Received 1 January 2016 and edges to the set of
Received in revised form 11 April 2016 x V , w (x) = (x) + xyE (xy) = k, for some integer k. A VMT labeling is said to be a super
Accepted 27 June 2016
VMT labeling if the vertices are labeled with the smallest possible integers, 1, 2, . . . , |V |. In
Available online 4 August 2016
this paper we introduce a new method to expand some known VMT labelings of 2-regular
graphs.
Keywords:
Magic-type labelings 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Vertex magic total labelings

1. Introduction

Sedlek introduced the notion of a magic labeling in 1963 [7]. He defined a magic labeling of a graph G as a bijection f
from E to a set of positive integers such that f holds the conditions:

(ei ) = f (ej ) for all ei , ej E,

(a) f
(b) eN (x) f (e) is constant for every x V , where NE (x) is the set of edges incident to x.
E

Kotzig and Rosa [3] and MacDougall et al. [4] defined two other magic labelings: the edge-magic total (EMT) labeling and
the vertex-magic total (VMT) labeling, respectively.
Let G be a simple graph with vertex set V and edge set E. A total labeling of G is a bijection f : V E {1, 2, . . . , |V ||E |}.
If x, y V and if e = xy E, then the weight wft (e) of e is given by wft (e) = f (x) + f (y) + f (e). A total labeling f is said to
be an edge-magic total labeling if the weight of each edge is equal to the same constant k. The weight wft (x) of a vertex x is
defined as wft (x) = f (x) + xyE f (xy) where the sum is over all edges xy incident with the vertex x. A total labeling f is said

to be a vertex-magic total labeling (VMT labeling) if the weight of each vertex is equal to the same constant k, called the magic
constant of the VMT labeling. A VMT labeling is said to be a super VMT labeling if the vertices are labeled with the smallest
possible integers, 1, 2, . . . , |V |.
In [2], Holden, McQuillan, and McQuillan posed the following conjecture.

Conjecture 1. A 2-regular graph of odd order possesses a super VMT labeling if and only if it is not one of C4 C3 , C4 3C3 or
C5 2C3 .
In [6], D. McQuillan introduced a technique for constructing magic labelings of 2-regular graphs and proved the following
result, which contributes significantly to Conjecture 1.
We denote by H1 H2 Hn the usual disjoint union of graphs.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dfroncek@d.umn.edu (D. Froncek).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.disc.2016.06.022
0012-365X/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
3118 S. Cichacz et al. / Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124

Theorem 1.1 ([6]). Let G = Ch1 Ch2 Chl . Let I = {1, 2, . . . , l} and J be any subset of I. Let


GJ = nChi Cnhi ,
iJ iI J

where n is an odd number with n = 2m + 1. If G has a VMT labeling with magic constant k, then GJ has VMT labelings with magic
constants k1 = 6m(h1 + h2 + + hl ) + k and k2 = nk 3m.

In [3], Kotzig and Rosa proved a theorem about preserving EMT labelings for odd number of copies of certain graphs.

Theorem 1.2. If G is a 3-colorable edge-magic graph and H is the union of t = 2s + 1 disjoint copies of G, then H is edge magic.

It is easy to see that EMT and VMT labelings of 2-regular graphs are equivalent. In this paper we use Theorem 1.2 to
expand VMT labeling as we multiply the number of cycles.
In Section 2 we introduce a new method for finding VMT labelings of 2-regular graphs with expanded cycles from known
VMT labelings of certain 2-regular graphs. In Section 3 we list known and new results on VMT labelings for some families
of graphs, with some examples describing how the method works. In Section 4 we present VMT labelings for some families
of 2-regular graphs where no such labelings were known so far. These results were presented in an MS Thesis of the third
author [8].

2. Extending lengths of cycles

In this section we introduce a method that can be applied to 2-regular graphs. This method preserves the VMT (SVMT)
properties as we extend the length of a 2-regular graph by a factor of an odd number.
The only 2-regular graphs are cycles and unions of cycles. In this section we show how our method can be used to preserve
the properties of vertex magic total labelings as we extend the length of each cycle of a disjoint union mCn to mCn(2r +1) , where
r is a positive integer.
In [5] Marr and Wallis give a definition of a Kotzig array as a dm grid, each row being a permutation of {0, 1, . . . , m 1}
and each column having the same sum. The Kotzig array used in this paper is the 3(2r + 1) Kotzig array that is given as an
example in [5]:
0 1 ... r r +1 r +2 ... 2r
[ ]
2r 2r 2 ... 0 2r 1 2r 3 ... 1 .
r r +1 ... 2r 0 1 ... r 1
Let be a dm grid, which is obtained by adding 1 to every element and switching the second and third rows of a Kotzig
array.
1 2 ... r +1 r +2 ... 2r 2r + 1
[ ]
= r +1 r +2 ... 2r + 1 1 ... r 1 r .
2r + 1 2r ... 1 2r 1 ... 4 2
If we write the first two rows of as a permutation cycle , we have:

= (1, r + 1, 2r + 1, r , 2r , . . . , 3, r + 3, 2, r + 2).
The difference between any two consecutive elements in is equal to r taken modulo (2r + 1). Note that is a (2r + 1)-
cycle. Since (2r + 1) is an odd number for every nonnegative integer r, then gcd(2, 2r + 1) = 1, and hence the permutation
2 is also a (2r + 1)-cycle. This fact plays an important role in preserving the magic properties of our VMT and SVMT labelings
as we extend the length of cycles in a 2-regular graph.
Let be a modified , where we switch the first and second row of :
r +1 r +2 ... 2r + 1 1 ... r 1 r
[ ]
= 1 2 ... r +1 r +2 ... 2r 2r + 1 .
2r + 1 2r ... 1 2r 1 ... 4 2

Obviously, if we write the first two rows of as a permutation cycle, we have 1 .

Theorem 2.1. Let G be a 2-regular graph that has a VMT labeling . Let G be a 2-regular graph obtained by extending the length
of each component of G by an odd factor. Then there exists a VMT labeling for G that can be obtained by modifying the VMT
labeling of G.

Proof. Let be a VMT labeling of any 2-regular graph G. For every vertex and edge of G, let be the labeling obtained by
decreasing the original label by 1, that is, let (v ) = (v ) 1 and (e) = (e) 1.
 S. Cichacz et al. / Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124 3119

Fig. 1. VMT labeling for 2C4 .

For each cycle Cn in G, we construct an n3 table with entries as follows.

(ei )
[ ]
In the first column: For i = 1, 2, . . . , n, the entry in the ith row is the 3 1 matrix = (ei+1 ) .
(vi+1 )
In the second column: For y = 1, 2, 3 andz = 1, 2, . . . , (2r + 1), in the ith row is either or depending
the entry

on the value of i, namely, = [yz ], if i 2n + 1, and = [yz

], if 2n + 1 < i n, where yz denotes the element
on the yth row and zth column of .
In the third column: For i = 1, 2, . . . , n, the entry in the ith row is the matrix
n
[yz + (2r + 1)y1 ], if i +1
i = n 2
[ + (2r + 1)y1 ],
yz if + 1 < i n.
2
If we multiply the permutation cycles of all of and in the second column, we obtain

2 +1 n( 2 +2) = 2 2 n+2 .
n n n

If n is odd, we have

(n1)n+2 =
and if n is even we have

nn+2 = 2 .
The cycle Cn(2r +1) is obtained by tracking the numbers on . Let yz i
denote the element of i in the yth row and zth
column. In each i , the two entries 1z and 2z will be the labels of two incident edges on Cn(2r +1) , and 3z
i i i
will be the label of
the vertex they share.
Observe that because of how is defined, we have {1z i+1 i
} = {2z i+1
}, that is, for all numbers on {1z } there exists exactly
i
one number with equal value on {2z }, taking i modulo n.
i+1
For each i, 1 i n, each pair of {1z i
} and {2z } that are equal denotes the same edge on Cn(2r +1) and all pairs 1z i
and
2z
i
represent labels of incident edges.
Recall that in the second column, is a permutation cycle of length 2r + 1. Both 1 and 2 are relatively prime to 2r + 1 for
any integer r, so 1 and 2 are also permutation cycles of length 2r + 1. Consequently, we can track the labeling of Cn(2r +1)
by connecting these edges from the third column continuously until we get a full circle of longer length (not stopping until
all numbers in the third column are used).
Now since 1 z 2r + 1, the result from this process is the labeled extended cycle Cn(2r +1) . Combining all extended
components, we obtain a VMT labeling for G .

Observe that in this process by multiplying all by (2r + 1), the magic constant will be also multiplied by (2r + 1), and
by reducing all labels by one from to , the magic constant will be reduced by 3r. Hence after performing our method, the
magic constant k will change to (2r + 1)k 3r.

3. Unions of cycles

In this section we apply Theorem 2.1 to graphs whose labelings were previously known. The only exception is Section
3.1 where we find labelings for a new class of graphs.

3.1. mCn for m and n both even

Figs. 14 give VMT labelings for 2Cn when n {4, 6, 8, 10}.

Based on these small cases, we make a conjecture.

Conjecture 2. For even values of n, 2Cn has a VMT labeling with k = 5n + 2.

3120 S. Cichacz et al. / Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124

Fig. 2. VMT labeling for 2C6 .

Fig. 3. VMT labeling for 2C8 .

Fig. 4. VMT labeling for 2C10 .

Table 1
Tables for 2C6 2C18 .
i or i i i or i i
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 1 2 3
5 2 3 1 17 18 16 14 2 3 1 44 45 43
23 3 1 2 72 70 71 15 3 1 2 48 46 47
5 1 2 3 16 17 18 14 1 2 3 43 44 45
3 2 3 1 11 12 10 4 2 3 1 14 15 13
21 3 1 2 66 64 65 11 3 1 2 36 34 35
3 1 2 3 10 11 12 4 1 2 3 13 14 15
9 2 3 1 29 30 28 13 2 3 1 41 42 40
17 3 1 2 54 52 53 12 3 1 2 39 37 38
9 1 2 3 28 29 30 13 1 2 3 40 41 42
2 2 3 1 8 9 7 6 2 3 1 20 21 19
18 3 1 2 57 55 56 10 3 1 2 33 31 32
2 2 3 1 8 9 7 6 2 3 1 20 21 19
8 1 2 3 25 26 27 7 1 2 3 22 23 24
19 3 1 2 60 58 59 16 3 1 2 51 49 50
8 2 3 1 26 27 25 7 2 3 1 23 24 22
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 1 2 3
20 3 1 2 63 61 62 22 3 1 2 69 67 68

So far we have been unable to generalize the labelings. However, we can use our method to extend the length of each
cycle in 2Cn to construct a VMT labeling for 2Cn(2r +1) , where r is a nonnegative integer. This is possible because the method
for extending the length works separately for each single cycle. To see better how the method works, we present an example
as follows.
Example: 2C6 2C18
In this example we apply Theorem 2.1 to extend 2C6 into 2C18 , that is, we have 2r + 1 = 3. From the labeling for 2C6 in
Fig. 2, we construct a table for each cycle as shown in Table 1.
From each table we construct one C18 . In the left table, the first column of 1 implies that 4 and 17 are the labels of
incident edges and the label of the vertex they share is 72. The second column of 2 implies 17 and 12 are the labels of
 S. Cichacz et al. / Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124 3121

Fig. 5. VMT labeling for 2C18 .

Fig. 6. VMT labeling for 4C4 .

incident edges and the label of the vertex they share is 64. Continuing in a similar way, from i , 1 i 6 we get a path of
length 6, with (4, 17, 12, 28, 8, 25, 6) as the labels of the edges, in consecutive order.
Going back from 6 to the third column of 1 , we see that 6 and 16 are labels of incident edges and the label of the vertex
they share is 71, and so on. Continuing until all elements in every i are used, we get a cycle of length 18 in which the edges
are labeled in consecutive order with (4, 17, 12, 28, 8, 25, 6, 16, 11, 30, 7, 27, 5, 18, 10, 29, 9, 26). Repeat similar steps for
the right table to obtain a VMT labeling for 2C18 with k = 93 in Fig. 5.
Applying Theorem 2.1 to Figs. 14, we get the following results.

Theorem 3.1. When m 2 (mod 4) and n 4, 8, 12 (mod 16), the unions of cycles mCn(2r +1) have a VMT labeling with
k = (5n + 2)(2r + 1) 3r + (3mn 6n).

Proof. The result follows from applying Theorems 2.1 and 1.2 to the VMT labelings of 2Cn given in Figs. 1 and 3.

Theorem 3.2. When m 2 (mod 4) and n = 6(2k + 1) or n = 10(2k + 1), the unions of cycles mCn(2r +1) have a VMT labeling
with k = (5n + 2)(2r + 1) 3r + (3mn 6n).

Proof. The result follows from applying Theorems 2.1 and 1.2 to the VMT labelings of 2Cn given in Figs. 2 and 4.
In order to modify the method for unions of even number of even cycles when m 2 (mod 4), we need to start from a
VMT labeling where m = 2a , a 2. For a 3 the result is still unknown, but for m 2 (mod 4) we can start using the VMT
labeling for 4C4 shown in Fig. 6.

Theorem 3.3.
) For m 4 (mod 8) and n 4 (mod 8), mCn has a VMT labeling with magic constant k = 57(2r + 1) 3r +
72 m
(
4
1 .

Proof. The result follows from applying Theorems 2.1 and 1.2 to the labeling in Fig. 6.

( )
3.2. Unions of non-identical cycles m Cn1 (2r +1) Cn2 (2r +1)

In [1], there are several results on SVMT labelings of unions of two cycles of distinct lengths Cn1 Cn2 .

Theorem 3.4 ([1]). The following 2-regular graphs have an SEMT labeling:
(a) G
= Cn1 C3 , if and only if n1 6 and n1 is even.
(b) G
= C4 Cn2 , if and only if n2 5 and n2 is odd.
(c) G
= Cn1 C5 , if and only if n1 4 and n1 is even.
n1
(d) G = Cn1 Cn2 , if n1 is even, n1 4 and n2 is odd, n2 2
+ 2.
Applying Theorems 2.1 and 1.2 to Theorem 3.4 we obtain constructions for several families of unions of nonidentical
cycles.
3122 S. Cichacz et al. / Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124

Fig. 7. VMT labeling for C6 C4 .

Theorem 3.5. For any nonnegative integer r and an odd m, the following 2-regular graphs have an SVMT labeling:
( )
(a) m (Cn1 (2r +1) C3(2r +1) ), if and only if n1 6 and n1 is even.
(b) m (C4(2r +1) Cn2 (2r +1) ), if and only if n2 5 and n2 is odd.
(c) m (Cn1 (2r +1) C5(2r +1) ), if and only if n1 4 and n1 is even.
n1
(d) m Cn1 (2r +1) Cn2 (2r +1) , if n1 is even, n1 4 and n2 is odd, n2 2
+ 2.

Proof. Applying Theorem 2.1 to Theorem 3.4(a)(d), we get an SVMT labeling of Cn1 (2r +1) C3(2r +1) , C4(2r +1) Cn2 (2r +1) ,
Cn1 (2r +1) C5(2r +1) , and Cn1 (2r +1) Cn2 (2r +1) , respectively. The conclusion follows from applying Theorem 1.2 to these
labelings.

All results stated above focus on SVMT labelings. No results have been published for VMT labeling of Cn1 Cn2 where their
lengths are both odd or both even. In this paper we include a small result for a VMT labeling for n1 = 6 and n2 = 4. The
graph C6 C4 has a VMT labeling with k = 27.
Combining Theorems 2.1 and 1.2 for C6 C4 , we have the following theorem.
( )
Theorem 3.6. For any nonnegative integer r and an odd value of m, the union of cycles m C6(2r +1) C4(2r +1) has a VMT labeling.

Proof. Applying Theorem 2.1 to the labeling shown in Fig. 7, we get(an SVMT labeling of ) Cn1 (2r +1) C5(2r +1) for any r 0.
Applying Theorem 1.2 to this labeling we get an SVMT labeling of m Cn1 (2r +1) C5(2r +1) for an odd value of m.

( )
3.3. Unions of cycles m cn(2r +1) hc3

In [2], there are several results on SVMT labelings of unions of cycles Cn hC3 .

Theorem 3.7 ([2]). For positive integer t, the following disjoint union of cycles have an SVMT labeling:
(a) C4 (2t 1)C3 , with magic constant k = 21t + 5, given t 3.
(b) C5 2tC3 , with magic constant k = 21t + 19, given t 2.
(c) C7 2tC3 , with magic constant k = 21t + 26, for all t Z+ .
Applying Theorems 2.1 and 1.2 to these results, we get several new theorems.

Theorem 3.8. For any nonnegative integer r and an odd m, the following disjoint unions of cycles have an SVMT labeling:
( )
(a) m (C4(2r +1) (2t 1)C)3(2r +1) , given t 3.
(b) m (C5(2r +1) 2tC3(2r +1) ), given t 2.
(c) m C7(2r +1) 2tC3(2r +1) , for all t Z+ .

Proof. Applying Theorem 2.1 to Theorem 3.7(a)(c), we get an SVMT labeling of C4(2r +1) (2t 1)C3(2r +1) for any r 0,
C5(2r +1) 2tC3(2r +1) for any r 0, and C7(2r +1) 2tC3(2r +1) , respectively. The conclusion follows from applying Theorem 1.2
to these labelings.

4. VMT labelings for new families of 2-regular graphs

Note that our results mentioned in Section 3 can be also obtained by using Theorem 1.1 and the starter cases from Figs.
14 and Fig. 7. In this section we present an example of how the method described in Theorem 2.1 can be modified to find
a VMT labeling of union of cycles which cannot be obtained using Theorem 1.1.
Our method differs from the one presented in [6] in the way how Kotzig arrays are used. We are using Kotzig arrays to
build composition of permutations.
 S. Cichacz et al. / Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 31173124 3123

Fig. 8. VMT labeling for 4C12 2C6 .

On the other hand, McQuillan [6] uses for VMT labelings of k copies of cycle Cn a construction presented in [9], which
employs a 3 k Kotzig array and a proper 3-edge coloring of Cn , where each column of Kotzig array is used in one copy of
Cn according to the colors of edges and vertices. For a VMT labeling of Cnk , a VMT labeling f of cycle Cn and a special labeling
: V (Ck ) E(Ck ) {0, 1, . . . , k 1} of Ck are used. The labeling is such that both |E(Ck ) and |V (Ck ) are injections and
moreover for each vertex vi V (Ck ) the sum (vi1 vi ) + (vi ) + (vi vi+1 ) is constant. Then each vertex of Cn is blown up
into Ck without the last edge vk1 v0 and the two labelings f and are combined obtaining a VMT labeling of Cnk (for details
see [6]).
Let us describe our method now. Let + denote the Kotzig array given in [5] with all its elements increased by 1.
1 2 ... r +1 r +2 ... 2r 2r + 1
[ ]
= 2r + 1
+
2r ... 1 2r 1 ... 4 2 .
r +1 r +2 ... 2r + 1 1 ... r 1 r
Modify the method described in Theorem 2.1 by changing the entries of the second column of the tables from or into
+ . The rest of the procedure is the same.
= C6 C6 , h1 = 6, h2 = 6,
For an example start from a VMT labeling of 2C6 given in Fig. 2. If we use Theorem 1.1, we have G
and I = {1, 2}. For odd values of n, J = implies GJ = C6n , J = {1} implies GJ = nC6 C6n and J = {1, 2} implies
GJ = (nC6 nC6 ) = 2nC6 . No resulting graph GJ is isomorphic to 4C12 2C6 . However, if we use the modified tables with +
for 2C6 , we obtain a VMT labeling which is shown in Fig. 8.
Using this method we can produce VMT (or SVMT) labelings which have wider variety of unions of cycles that have not
been mentioned in the previous sections.

Theorem 4.1. For odd values of m, if (2r + 1) 0 (mod 3) and n 0 (mod (2r + 1)), then 2mCrn mCn has a VMT labeling.

Proof. The result follows from applying both the modified method (using + ) and Theorem 1.2 to the labeling in Fig. 2.

Unfortunately, we have not found a general pattern to determine for which unions of cycles this modified method would
work as expected, and leave it for further investigations.

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their many insightful comments and
suggestions.

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