An edge-locating coloring of a simple connected graph G is a partition of its edge set into matchings such that the vertices of G are distinguished by the distance to the matchings. The minimum number of the matchings of G that admits an edge-locating coloring is the edge-locating chromatic number of G, and denoted by χ0 L(G). This paper introduces and studies the concept of edgelocating coloring. Graphs G with χ0 L(G) 2 f2; mg are characterized, where m is the size of G. We investigate the relationship between order, diameter and edge-locating chromatic number. We obtain the exact values of χ0 L(Kn) and χ0 L(Kn − M), where M is a maximum matching; indeed this result is also extended for any graph. We determine the edge-locating chromatic number of the join graphs of some well-known graphs. In particular, for any graph G, we show a relationship between χ0L(G + K1) and ∆(G). We investigate the edge-locating chromatic number of trees and present a characterization bound for any tree in terms of maximum degree, number of leaves, and the support vertices of trees. Finally, we prove that any edge-locating coloring of a graph is an edge distinguishing coloring.
