Mathematics Interdisciplinary Research

Mathematics Interdisciplinary Research

Simulated Annealing and Integer Linear Programming Approaches to Mutual-Visibility Coloring

Document Type : Original Scientific Paper

Authors
Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, ‎P‎. ‎O‎. ‎Box 1159-91775‎, ‎Mashhad‎, ‎I‎. ‎R‎. ‎Iran
10.22052/mir.2026.258483.1575
Abstract
‎‎
‎Vertex coloring is a fundamental concept in graph theory‎, ‎where a color is assigned to each vertex‎, ‎and vertices sharing the same color form a color class‎. ‎This paper introduces and investigates a specific type of coloring known as mutual-visibility coloring‎. ‎In this coloring‎, ‎each color class must satisfy the property that for every pair of vertices within that class‎, ‎there exists at least one shortest path between them that contains no other vertex from the same class‎. ‎The primary objective is to find the minimum number of colors required to achieve such a coloring‎, ‎which is known as the mutual-visibility chromatic number‎. ‎To solve this problem‎, ‎this research employs two complementary approaches‎: ‎a heuristic algorithm based on \textit{simulated annealing}‎, ‎which is efficient for exploring the solution space in large graphs‎, ‎and an exact approach using \textit{integer linear programming}‎, ‎which guarantees finding the optimal solution for graphs of smaller dimensions‎.
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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 09 November 2026