Combinatorics and Graph Theory

Exam - 24 January 2011

Michael Bushell
michael.bushell@student.manchester.ac.uk
December 19, 2012
1
2
(1) (a) (i) A walk is an alternating sequence x
0
, e
1
, x
1
, e
2
, x
2
, . . . , x
n1
, e
n
, x
n
of vertices x
i
V and edges e
i
= x
i1
x
i
E. A path is a walk
with no repeated vertices.
(ii) A graph is connected if there exists a path between every pair
of vertices.
(b) See Theorem 1.1 in lecture notes.
(c) We have the following spanning trees containing the edge st or ab on
the path from s to t.
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
s
a
b
t
with respective weights 1/24, 1/16,1/16, 1/24, 1/4, 1/6,1/4, 1/6, 1/8,
1/12, 1/8, 1/8.
By the method of spanning trees
I
st
= (1/24 +1/16 +1/16 +1/24 +1/8 +1/12 +1/8 +1/8) = 2/3
and
I
ab
= (1/4 1/6) = /12
We knowI
st
= 4, therefore
I
ab
= /12 = 4(3/2)/12 = 1/2 = 0.5
3
(2) (a) A cut in G is a pair (S, T) where S, T V , S T = V , S T =
and s S, t T. The capacity of a cut is dened to be
c(S, T) =

xS,yT,xyE
c(x, y)
(b) Let (S, T) be an arbitrary cut of G and f an arbitrary ow, then
v(f) =

syE
f(s, y)

ysE
f(y, s)
=

xS
_

xyE
f(x, y)

yxE
f(y, x)
_
Because for all terms except when x = s, the value inside the large
brackets is equal to 0 by the denition of a ow. We can rewrite this
as follows
v(f) =

xS,yV,xyE
f(x, y)

xS,yV,yxE
f(y, x)
For every edge (x, y) such that x, y S, the value +f(x, y) appears
precisely once in the left sum and f(x, y) appears precisely once in
the right sum, cancelling each other.
This just laves the edges (x, y) such that x S, y T, hence
v(f) =

xS,yT,xyE
f(x, y)

xS,yT,yxE
f(y, x)

xS,yT,xyE
f(x, y)

xS,yT,xyE
c(x, y)
= c(S, T)
Therefore, the value of any ow is less than or equal to the capacity
of any cut. If G has a maximum ow, then this maxiumum value is
equal to the minimum of the capacities of the cuts.
(c) The following ow can be found
4
s
a
c
e
b
d
f
t
7(7)
6(8)
4(4)
4(4)
0(5)
10(12)
4(5)
0(2)
0(5)
2(5)
1(6)
2(2)
3(3)
2(2)
3(4)
by starting from an empty ow, and using the augmenting paths and
increments as follows
path s, a, b, t, increment = 4,
path s, a, c, b, t, increment = 3,
path s, e, a, c, b, t, increment = 1,
path s, e, d, f, b, t, increment = 2,
path s, e, f, t, increment = 3,
giving a ow of value 13.
We can check by nding the cut (using notation as in the lecture
notes)
S
0
= {s}, S
1
= {s, e}, S
2
= {s, a, e}, S
3
= {s, a, e}
hence
(S, T) = ({s, a, e}, {b, c, d, f, t})
is the required cut whose capacity is
c(S, T) = 4
..
ab
+ 4
..
ac
+ 2
..
ed
+ 3
..
ef
= 13
as expected (edges labelled under their capacities).
5
(3) (a) A sequence {a
n
}

n=0
has ordinary power series generating function
given by the formal power series

n=0
a
n
x
n
.
(b) If {a
n
}
n0
ops

n0
a
n
x
n
= f(x), then
{a
n+k
}
n0
ops

n=0
a
n+k
x
n
= a
k
+ a
k+1
x + a
k+2
x
2
+
=
a
k
x
k
+ a
k+1
x
k+1
+ a
k+2
x
k+2
+
x
k
=

n0
a
n
x
n
(a
0
+ a
1
x + + a
k1
x
k1
)
x
k
=
f(x) (a
0
+ a
1
x + + a
k1
x
k1
)
x
k
as claimed.
(c) If {a
n
}
n0
ops
f(x) and {b
n
}
n0
ops
g(x), then
f(x)g(x) =
_

n0
a
n
x
n
__

n0
b
n
x
n
_
=

n0
_
n

k=0
a
n
b
nk
_
x
n
ops

_
n

k=0
a
n
b
nk
_
n0
using {b
n
= 1}
ops

n0
x
n
= 1/(1 x) = g(x) gives
{s
n
}
n0
=
_
n

k=0
a
n
b
nk
_
=
f(x)
1 x
as claimed.
(d) Using
{n}
n0
ops

x
(1 x)
2
and {n
2
}
ops

x(x + 1)
(1 x)
3
gives
{2n
2
+ 3n + 1}
ops
2
x(x + 1)
(1 x)
3
+ 3
x
(1 x)
2
+
1
1 x
=
1 + 3x
(1 x)
3
as required.
6
(e) (i) Let {c
n
}
ops
h(x), then using (b) and the recurrence relation
gives
h(x) c
0
c
1
x
x
2
= 6
h(x) c
0
x
8h(x)
substituting in c
0
= 1, c
1
= 3 and rearranging gives
h(x) =
1 3x
1 6x + 8x
2
=
1 3x
(1 2x)(1 4x)
by partial fractions
h(x) =
1
2(1 2x)
+
1
2(1 4x)
ops

_
1
2
2
n
+
1
2
4
n
_
n0
therefore
c
n
= 2
n1
+ 2
2n1
= 2
n1
(1 + 2
n
)
as required.
(ii) Let t
n
=

n
k=0
c
k
, then {t
n
}
n0
ops
h(x)/(1 x) by (c), then
{3t
n
+ 2}
n0
ops
3
h(x)
1 x
+ 2
1
1 x
=
3h(x) + 2
1 x
and
{8c
n
c
n+1
}
ops
8h(x)
h(x) c
0
x
=
(8x 1)h(x) + 1
x
therefore the equation
3t
n
+ 2 = 8c
n
c
n+1
holds if and only if the corresponding generating functions are
equal
3h(x) + 2
1 x
=
(8x 1)h(x) + 1
x
solving for h(x), this has unique solution
h(x) =
1 3x
1 6x + 8x
2
which we know to be true.
7
(4) (a) The sieve formula is E(X) = S(X 1). See Theorem 4.1 in lecture
notes for proof of
e
t
=
n

r=t
(1)
rt
_
r
t
_
s
r
.
(b) In this context
s
0
= 55,
s
1
= 95 = 25 + 23 + 24 + 23,
s
2
= 67 = 8 + 14 + 14 + 9 + 11 + 11,
s
3
= 18 = 3 + 5 + 7 + 3,
s
4
= 1.
so the number of elements of contained in exactly one of A
1
, . . . , A
4
is by denition
e
1
=
4

r=1
(1)
r1
_
r
1
_
s
r
= s
1
2s
2
+ 3s
3
4s
4
= 11
and the number of elements of contained in at least one of A
1
, . . . , A
4
is
|| e
0
= 55 (s
0
s
1
+ s
2
s
3
+ s
4
) = 45
(c) A sequence {a
n
}

n=0
has exponential generating function given by the
formal power series

n=0
a
n
x
n
/n!.
(d) If {a
n
}
n0
egf

n0
a
n
x
n
/n! = f(x), then
f

(x) =

n0
na
n
x
n1
n!
=

n1
a
n
x
n1
(n 1)!
=

n0
a
n+1
x
n
n!
egf
{a
n+1
}
n0
and
{na
n
}
n0
egf

n0
na
n
x
n
n!
= x

n0
na
n
x
n1
n!
= xf

(x)
(e) If {b
n
}
n0
egf
g(x), then
{nb
n1
}
n0
egf

n0
nb
n1
x
n
n!
=

n1
b
n1
x
n
(n 1)!
=

n0
b
n
x
n+1
n!
= xg(x)
so using the recurrence relation and (d) gives
g

(x) = 2xg

(x) + g(x) + 2xg(x)

8
hence
g

(x)
g(x)
=
1 + 2x
1 2x
and ln |g(x)| =
_
1 + 2x
1 2x
dx = xln(12x)+c
1
for some constant c
1
, hence
g(x) = e
xln(12x)+c
1
=
c
2
e
x
1 2x
from b
0
= g(0) we get c
2
= 0, therefore
g(x) =
1
e
x
(1 2x)
is the exponential generating function for {b
n
}
n0
.