On the power of synchronization between two adjacent processes

We study the power of local computations on labelled edges (which allow two adjacent vertices to synchronize and to modify their states simultaneaously in function of their previous states) through the classical election problem. We characterize the graphs for which this problem has a solution. As corollaries we characterize graphs which admit an election algorithm for two seminal models: Angluin’s model and asynchronous systems where processes communicate with synchronous message passing (i.e., there is a synchronization between the process sending the message and the one receiving it).