Multicoloring of Graphs to Secure a Secret

Abstract

Vertex coloring and multicoloring of graphs are a well known subject in graph theory, as well as their applications. In vertex multicoloring, each vertex is assigned some subset of a given set of colors. Here we propose a new kind of vertex multicoloring, motivated by the situation of sharing a secret and securing it from the actions of some number of attackers. We name the multicoloring a highly $a$-resistant vertex $k$-multicoloring, where $a$ is the number of the attackers, and $k$ the number of colors. For small values $a$ we determine what is the minimal number of vertices a graph must have in order to allow such a coloring, and what is the minimal number of colors needed.