Partitioning complete graphs by heterochromatic trees

Abstract

A {\it heterochromatic tree} is an edge-colored tree in which any two edges have different colors. The {\it heterochromatic tree partition number} of an $r$-edge-colored graph $G$, denoted by $t_r(G)$, is the minimum positive integer $p$ such that whenever the edges of the graph $G$ are colored with $r$ colors, the vertices of $G$ can be covered by at most $p$ vertex-disjoint heterochromatic trees. In this paper we determine the heterochromatic tree partition number of an $r$-edge-colored complete graph.