Optimal Radio Labellings of Block Graphs and Line Graphs of Trees

A radio labeling of a graph $G$ is a mapping $f$ : $V(G) \rightarrow \{0, 1, 2,...\}$ such that $|f(u)-f(v)| \geq diam(G) + 1 - d(u,v)$ holds for every pair of vertices $u$ and $v$, where $diam(G)$ is the diameter of $G$ and $d(u,v)$ is the distance between $u$ and $v$ in $G$. The radio number of $G$, denoted by $rn(G)$, is the smallest $t$ such that $G$ admits a radio labeling with $t=\max\{|f(v)-f(u)|: v, u \in V(G)\}$. A block graph is a graph such that each block (induced maximal 2-connected subgraph) is a complete graph. In this paper, a lower bound for the radio number of block graphs is established. The block graph which achieves this bound is called a lower bound block graph. We prove three necessary and sufficient conditions for lower bound block graphs. Moreover, we give three sufficient conditions for a graph to be a lower bound block graph. Applying the established bound and conditions, we show that several families of block graphs are lower bound block graphs, including the level-wise regular block graphs and the extended star of blocks. The line graph of a graph $G(V,E)$ has $E(G)$ as the vertex set, where two vertices are adjacent if they are incident edges in $G$. We extend our results to trees as trees and its line graphs are block graphs. We prove that if a tree is a lower bound block graph then, under certain conditions, its line graph is also a lower bound block graph, and vice versa. Consequently, we show that the line graphs of many known lower bound trees, excluding paths, are lower bound block graphs.