A complete coloring and a nonoptimal greedy trace

On this page
  1. Goal and scope
  2. Givens and symbols
  3. Rules and sources
  4. Main derivation
  5. Substeps and lemmas
  6. Reverse audits
  7. Error controls and negative controls
  8. Result and limitations
  9. Verification and source binding

← Guide index · Original MKO

derivation-mko-graph-coloring-01 · ocme-new142-reader-adoption-20261021

Goal and scope

Audit a proper coloring edgewise and show an upper bound need not be optimal.

Only supplied colorings and one greedy execution, with no general optimality guarantee.

Givens and symbols

  • work
  • G1 — V={0,1,2,3}, E={{0,1},{1,2},{2,3}}, c=(1,2,1,2). Greedy processes0,3,1,2 and uses the least positive color absent from colored neighbors.
  • V,E — complete vertex and edge sets
  • c,g — the two colorings

Rules and sources

Some rule statements have reader clarifications in this revision: they are paraphrases, not verbatim quotations. Referenced original source bytes and hashes are unchanged.

  • mko_definition · cited — Check every edge in the fully specified graph. Nonadjacent vertices may share a color. One proper coloring supplies only a chromatic-number upper bound; optimality needs a separate lower-bound certificate, and a greedy result is not automatically optimal. · mko-graph-coloring
  • work · prerequisite — A finite simple undirected graph has loop-free duplicate-free unordered edges; graph properties are audited on all declared V and E. A proper coloring is a total vertex-color table with distinct endpoint colors on every edge; its color count is its image size; chi is the minimum color count over all proper colorings.

Main derivation

S01 · implies

Before

c:V\to\{1,2\}

After

c(0)=1,c(1)=2,c(2)=1,c(3)=2

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, work

Leaf basis: work

Each of the four vertices has one color, giving a complete total table.

S02 · implies

Before

\{0,1\}\in E

After

c(0)=1\ne2=c(1)

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, S01, work

Leaf basis: work

Audit the first edge.

S03 · implies

Before

\{1,2\}\in E

After

c(1)=2\ne1=c(2)

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, S02, work

Leaf basis: work

Audit the second edge.

S04 · implies

Before

\{2,3\}\in E

After

c(2)=1\ne2=c(3)

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, S03, work

Leaf basis: work

Audit the third edge, exhausting E.

S05 · implies

Before

\text{all three edges proper},\quad|c(V)|=2

After

\chi(G)\le2

Conditions: none

Rule: mko_definition · Uses: G1, S04, mko_definition

Leaf basis: mko_definition

One proper coloring gives an upper bound of two.

S06 · implies

Before

\text{greedy order }0,3,1,2

After

g(0)=1,\ g(3)=1,\ g(1)=2,\ g(2)=3

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, S05, work

Leaf basis: work

The first two vertices have no previously colored neighbors. Vertex 1 avoids color 1 at vertex 0. Vertex 2 avoids color 2 at vertex 1 and color 1 at vertex 3.

S07 · implies

Before

g=(1,2,3,1)

After

1\ne2,\quad2\ne3,\quad3\ne1\implies g\text{ proper with3 colors}

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, S06, work

Leaf basis: work

Reaudit the three original edges to validate the greedy result.

S08 · implies

Before

|g(V)|=3>2=|c(V)|

After

g\text{ is not a minimum-color solution}

Conditions: none

Rule: work · Uses: G1, S07, work

Leaf basis: work

The two-color witness explicitly refutes optimality of this greedy result.

Substeps and lemmas

No substeps in this guide.

Reverse audits

  • S08 · premise_audit · G1, S07, work — This one order does not imply that every greedy execution fails.
  • S07 · premise_audit · G1, S06, work — Validity does not mean minimum, since c uses two colors.
  • S06 · premise_audit · G1, S05, work — This is a complete four-step trace, not just a color count.
  • S05 · premise_audit · G1, S04, mko_definition — This step does not generally turn a witness into equality.
  • S04 · premise_audit · G1, S03, work — Nonadjacent 1 and 3 need not have different colors.
  • S03 · premise_audit · G1, S02, work — 0 and 2 may share a color because they have no edge.
  • S02 · premise_audit · G1, S01, work — Checking most edges is insufficient.
  • S01 · premise_audit · G1, work — Color labels themselves may be renamed.

Error controls and negative controls

All edges

List endpoint colors for all three edges.

Greedy order

The order0,3,1,2 differs from natural vertex order.

  • Nonadjacent 0,2 must differ in color. → reject — They share a color in c while every edge is proper.
  • Greedy using three colors gives chi=3. → reject — c is an explicit two-color witness.
  • Checking01 and 12 suffices. → reject — Edge 23 has its own distinct-color obligation.

Result and limitations

c supplies a proper two-coloring and hence an upper bound; the specified greedy run uses three colors and is not optimal.

    Verification and source binding

    2 declared checks for this guide; only the listed expressions are covered.

    • source commit: b1b2f1dcf8c50d67a93fe52d95f8eef7b3abba9f
    • adopted source SHA-256: bd902ee022f3e9a7e028bcbc16fe7a15bfc5763b4e962ada50bb0848119b4213
    • original source SHA-256: 77038d6e68dcdd481876b761a977fba847b3a721ba29cab154d3c196492bc827
    • Lean: NOT_RUN · independent AI: SCOPED_LEAD_AND_BILINGUAL_CONTEXT_REVIEW

    Same-source full JSON (formulas, ASTs, controls and revision log)