Orientable edge colorings of graphs

An edge coloring of a graph is orientable if and only if it is possible to orient the edges of the graph so that the color of each edge is determined by the head of its corresponding oriented arc. The goals of this paper include finding a forbidden substructure characterization of orientable colorings and giving a linear time recognition algorithm for orientable colorings.An edge coloring is lexical if and only if it is possible to number the vertices of the graph so that the color of each edge is determined by its lower endpoint. Lexical colorings are, of course, the orientable colorings in which the underlying orientation is acyclic. Lexical colorings play an important role in Canonical Ramsey theory, and it is this standpoint that motivates the current study.