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The irregularity strength and cost of the union of cliques. (English) Zbl 0852.05054
A network $$G(w)$$ consists of a graph $$G$$ together with a mapping $$w$$ of its edge set into the set of positive integers; the value $$w(e)$$ is called the weight of the edge $$e$$. The strength $$s(G(w))$$ of the network $$G(w)$$ is the maximum of $$w(e)$$ over all edges $$e$$ of $$G$$. The weighted degree of a vertex $$x$$ of $$G$$ is the sum of weights of edges which are incident to $$x$$. If no two vertices have the same weighted degree, the network $$G(w)$$ is called irregular. The irregularity strength $$s(G)$$ of $$G$$ is the minimum of $$s(G(w))$$ over all irregular networks $$G(w)$$ with the underlying graph $$G$$. A similar concept is the irregularity cost. The main result of the paper is the theorem determining the irregularity strength of the disjoint union $$\bigcup^n_{i= 1} t_i K_{p_i}$$ of cliques. Some results concerning the irregularity cost are added.

##### MSC:
 05C35 Extremal problems in graph theory
##### Keywords:
network; irregularity strength; irregularity cost
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##### References:
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