Arch. Math., Vol. 65, 461-464 (1995) 0003-889X/95/6505-0461 $ 2.

30/0
9 1995 Birkhfiuser Verlag, Basel

An application of coding theory to a problem

in graphical enumeration

By
DIETER JUNGNICKELand SCOTT A. VANSTONE*)

In this note we exploit a relationship between graph theory and coding theory to
obtain a very short and elegant proof of Read's theorem giving the generating function
for the number of Eulerian graphs with p vertices and an analogous (to our knowledge
new) theorem concerning bipartite Eulerian graphs. Let us recall the necessary back-
ground.
Let G = (V, E) be a finite graph with vertex set V and edge set E. We let p = IV] and
q = [El. An even subgraph of G is a spanning subgraph of G in which each vertex has even
degree. It is well known that the set of all even subgraph of G forms a vector space under
the symmetric difference of subgraphs (where subgraphs are simply considered as subsets
of E). We will denote this vector space by C(G) and consider it as a binary linear code.
(The reader is referred to MacWilliams and Sloane (1977) and van Lint (1982) for
background from coding theory.) Note that C(G) is a subspace of the vector space formed
by all spanning subgraphs of G which is easily seen to be isomorphic to the q-dimensional
vector space V(q, 2) of q-tuples with entries from GF(2). In this interpretation, we
consider the coordinate positions to be indexed by the edges of G (in some fixed ordering);
then each subgraph is associated with the corresponding (binary) characteristic vector of
length q (which has an entry I in position e if and only ife belongs to the given subgraph).
By abuse of notation, we will denote the subspace of V(q, 2) associated with all even
subgraphs of G again by C(G).
The vector space C(G) is (in either interpretation) usually called the cycle space of G;
its dimension is known to be q - p + 1 provided that G is connected. It is clear that the
minimum weight of a vector in C(G) is the smallest cardinality of a cycle in G, i.e. the
girth 9 of G. We thus have the following well known result.

Proposition 1. Let G be a connected graph with q edges on p vertices, and let 9 be the
girth of G. Then C(G) is a binary [q, q - p + I, 9]-code.

*) This note was written while the first author was visiting the Department of Combinatorics and
Optimization of the University of Waterloo as an Adjunct Professor. He would like to thank his
colleagues there for their hospitality. The second author acknowledges the support of the National
Science and Engineering Research Counci! of Canada given under grant ~ 0GP0009258.
462 D. JUNGNICKELand S. A. VANSTONE ARCH.MATH.

We shall hereafter refer to C (G) as the (even) graphical code of G. These codes have been
systematically studied by Bredeson and Hakimi (1967), Hakimi and Bredeson (1968) and
Jungnickel and Vanstone (1995); in these papers, the problems of extending even graph-
ical codes to larger codes and of devising efficient decoding procedures have been consid-
ered. We remark that the dual of C (G) (i.e., the orthogonal complement in V(q, 2) with
respect to the standard inner product) is, of course, nothing but the bond space of G, see
e.g. Bondy and Murty (1976).
We shall require one standard item from coding theory. Given any binary code C of
length q, one dentines the (homogeous) weight enumerator of C as the polynomial
q
Ac(x, y)= ~, A i x q - i y i,
n=0

where A i denotes the number of vectors with weight i (i.e., with exactly i entries 1)
in C. If C is a linear code with dimension k, then the well-known MacWilliams identities
assert that the weight enumerator of the dual code C • of C is given by

1
Acl(X,y) = ~ A c(x + y, x - y),

see MacWilliams and Sloane (1977).

These few remarks already suffice to give a simple and elegant coding theoretic deriva-
tion for the generating function for the number of labeled eulerian graphs with p vertices,
a result due to Read (1962); see also Harary and Palmer (1973).

Theorem 2. The polynomial wp(x) which has as the coefficient of x q the number of
labeled Eulerian graphs with p vertices and q edges, is given by
1
wv(x) = p ( l + x)(~) .=o
Z \nJ \1 + x/
P r o o f. Note that the Eulerian graphs on p vertices are precisely the even subgraphs
of the complete graph Kp. Thus Wp(X) is nothing but the (non-homogeneous) weight
enumerator of the even graphical code C -- C (Kp). Using the MacWiUiams identities, we
may instead compute the weight enumerator of the dual code, i.e. the bond space B of
Kp (of dimension p - I). Now this is a trivial task: Any n-subset of X of the vertex set
V of Kp determines a unique partition (X, V \ X ) of V which corresponds to the cut
consisting of the n(q - n) edges joining a vertex in X to a vertex in V \ X . As each cut
is counted twice in this way, the homogeneous weight enumerator of B just is

zp (x, y) = ~ . = o

Hence the homogeneous weight enumerator of C is

1
w, (x, y) = ~ zp (x + y, x - y).

Substituting and putting y = I immediately gives the desired result. []

Vol. 65, 1995 A problem in graphical enumeration 463

The preceding proof of Read's theorem is not only significantly simpler (and more
conceptual) than the usual one, but we may also use the same approach to obtain the
generating function for the number of labeled bipartite eulerian graphs with parts
of m and n vertices, respectively, a result which seems to be new (and would be unpleasant
to prove with the standard methods of graphical enumeration).

Theorem 3. The polynomial w " , , ( x ) which has as the coefficient o f x ~ the number
o f labeled bipartite Eulerian graphs on m + n vertices (with the two parts being o f
sizes m and n, respectively) with q edges, is given by

w",,(x) 2,,+,_ 1 (1 + k=o h:O

P r o o f. Note that the Eulerian biparte graphs on m + n vertices are precisely the even
subgraphs of the complete bipartite graph Kin,.. Thus w,,,, (x) is nothing but the (non-
homogeneous) weight enumerator of the even graphical code C = C(K",,). Using the
MacWilliams identities, we may instead compute the weight enumerator of the dual
code, i.e. the bond space B of K " , , (of dimension m + n - 1). Again, this is a trivial
task: Let the two sets in the partition of the vertex set V be U and U', respectively.
Any pair (X, Y) consisting of a k-subset X of U and an h-subset Y of U' determines
a unique partition ( X w Y, ( U \ X ) u ( U ' \ Y ) ) of V which corresponds to the cut consist-
ing of the k(n - h) + h(m - k) edges either joining a vertex in X to a vertex in U ' \ Y or
a vertex in Y to a vertex in U \ X . Hence the homogeneous weight enumerator of B
just is

Zm, n(X ' y) _ ~ xmn-k(n-h)-h(m-k) yk(n-h)+h(m-k).

k=O h=O

According to the MacWilliams identities, the homogeneous weight enumerator of C is

1
W,n,n (X, y) 2 m +n - 1 Zm, n (X + y, X -- y).

Substituting and putting y = i immediately gives the desired result. O

References
[1] J. A. BONDYand U. S. R. MURTY, Graph theory with applications. North Holland, Amsterdam
1976.
[2] J. G. BREDESONand S. L. HAKrMI,Decoding of graph theoretic codes. IEEE Trans. Inform. Th.
13, 348-349 (1967).
[3] S. L. HAKIM~and J. G. BREDESON,Graph theoretic error-correcting codes. IEEE Trans. Inform.
Yh. 14, 584-591 (1968).
[4] E HARARYand E. PALIVa~R,Graphical enumeration. New York 1973.
[5] D. JUNGNICKELand S. A. VANSTONE,Graphical codes revisited. Submitted.
[6] E J. MACWmLIAMSand N. J. A. SLOANE,The theory of error-correcting codes. North Holland,
Amsterdam 1977.
464 D. JUNGNICKELand S. A. VANSTONE ARCH. MATH.

[7] R.C. READ, Euler graphs on labeled nodes. Canad. J. Math. 14, 482-486 (i962).
[8] J. H. VAN LINT, Introduction to coding theory. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York 1982.

Eingegangen am 6.3. 1995

Anschriften der Autoren:
Dieter Jungnickel Scott A. Vanstone
Lehrstuhl fiir Angewandte Mathematik II Department of Combinatorics and Optimization
Universit~it Augsburg University of Waterloo
D-86135 Augsburg Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3GI
Canada