Hardness results for total rainbow connection of graphs

Abstract

A total-colored path is total rainbow if both its edges and internal vertices have distinct colors. The total rainbow connection number of a connected graph G, denoted by trc(G), is the smallest number of colors that are needed in a total-coloring of G in order to make G total rainbow connected, that is, any two vertices of G are connected by a total rainbow path. In this paper, we study the computational complexity of total rainbow connection of graphs. We show that deciding whether a given total-coloring of a graph G makes it total rainbow connected is NP-Complete. We also prove that given a graph G, deciding whether trc(G) = 3 is NP-Complete.