MCA 520: Graph Theory

Instructor
Neelima Gupta
ngupta@cs.du.ac.in

Table of Contents

Walks, Trails and Paths

Walks
May have repeated Edges and
Vertices.
In case of multi-graph, we include
the edges also. In a simple graph, we
can omit the edges and simply
mention the sequence of vertices.
Closed Walk

Trails
No repeated edges but vertices may
repeat.
Closed Trail

Path
Neither vertices nor edges repeat.
Definition:
we say that a u-v walk W contains a u-v path P if
all the edges and vertices of P occur in W and in
that order but not necessarily consecutive.
Similarly a closed walk W contains a cycle C if
..

Lemma: Every u-v walk contains a u-v path

Odd/Even Walk
Odd/Even walk : number of edges is
odd/even
Lemma: Every closed odd walk contains an
odd cycle.
Remark: A closed even walk need not even
contain a cycle, it may simply repeat
edges. But, if an edge e appears exactly
once in a closed walk, then the walk
contains a cycle through e.

Even Graph
A vertex is stb even(/odd) if its
degree is even(/odd).
A graph is stb an even graph if all its
vertices are even.

Maximal Path
A path in a graph is stb maximal if it
is not contained in a longer path.
If a graph is finite, maximal path always
exists.

If every vertex in a finite graph G has

degree at least 2 then it contains a
cycle.
This is not true if the graph is not finite.

Connection Relation
(u,v): u is stb connected to v
Symmetric, Reflexive, Transitive
Equivalence Relation
Equivalence Class: Connected
Component

 Lemma: A graph with n vertices and

k edges has at least n k
components.
Proof: A graph with no edges has n
components. Adding an edges
reduces the number of components
by at most 1. Thus after adding k
edges, number of components is at
least n k.

Deleting an edge/vertex
G e: Deleting an edge does not delete its incident vertices.
G v: Deleting a vertex delete its incident edges.
Thus deleting an edge may increase the number of components
by at most 1.
Deleting a vertex v may increase the number of components by
(more) at most deg(v) 1.
Induced Graph G[T] = Graph that remains after deleting some
vertices such that the set of remaining vertices is T. i.e.
G[T] = (T, E(T)), where E(T) = {(u, v):u,v are in T and (u,v) is an edge in G}

Every subgraph of a graph need not be an induced subgraph.

Cut-edge and Cut-Vertex

An edge e is stb a cut edge if
A vertex v is stb a cut vertex if
Characterize cut-edges in terms of
cycles.
Theorem: An edge is a cut edge iff it
does not belong to any cycle.

Bi-partite Graphs
Konig Theorem : Characterizing
Bipartite Graphs in terms of cycles: A
graph is bipartite iff it has no odd
cycles.
Testing whether a graph is bipartite:

Union of Graphs
Definition:
K4 : a union of two 4-cycles.

 Kn can be expressed as a union of k

bi-partite graphs iff n < 2k.

Eulerian Circuits
A graph is Eulerian if it has a closed
trail containing all the edges.
A graph is Eulerian iff it has at most
one non-trivial component and all its
vertices have even degree.