Unit: III

Graph theory

Introduction:

Graph theory has applications in diverse fields which include biochemistry (genomics),
electrical engineering (communication networks and coding theory), computer
science(algorithms and computations)and operations research(scheduling).The wide scope of
these and other applications has been well-documented.

The graph theory has an important application in critical path analysis, social psychology, metric
theory, set theory, topology, group theory, molecular chemistry and searching etc.

History:

Graph theory was born on 1936 with Euler’s paper in which he solves a Konigsberg bridge
problem [1] for the next 100 years nothing more was done in the field. In 1847 G. R. Kirchhoff
(1824-1887) developed the theory of trees, for their application in electric network[2].Ten years
later A. Cayley (1821-1895) discovered trees while he was trying to enumerate the isomers of
saturated hydrocarbons CnH2n+2 [3]. It is believed that A.F. Mobious (1790-1868 ) first
presented the four colour problem in one of hislecturein1840.

The problem became well known after Cayley published it 1879inthe first volume of the
proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society The other mile stone is due to Harary, Norman and
Cartwright[4]on the theory of digraphs. Specializing even further a hundred page monograph
was written by Moon [6] on tournaments (complete asymmetric digraphs) alone.

Definitions:
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Definition 3 . 2.Multigraph:-A multi graph is a pair(V,E),where Visa nonempty set of vertices
and E is a multi set of edges, being a multi subset of V. The number of times an edge e = uv occurs
in E is the multiplicity of e, and edges with multiplicity greater than one are its multiple edges.

E.g.V1 e2 V3

e6
9
 e
e1 e7e5e4

V2 e3 V4

Definition 3.3.GeneralGraph:-A general graph is a pair (V,E), where V is a non-empty set of

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The graph obtained by replacing all multiple edges by single edges in a multi graph G, is called
the underlying graph of G.

Similarly if G is a general graph, the graph H obtained by removing all its loops and by replacing
all multiple edges by single edges is called the underlying graph of G.

e1

V1 e3

E.g.
V2

e2
e5 e4

V5
e6

e7

V3 V4

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Definition:

Isomorphism:-Let G1 and G2 be general graphs. Let f be a 1-1mapping of V(G1) onto V(G2) and
g a 1-1mapping of E(G1) onto E(G2). Let θ denote the ordered pair (f, g). θ is an isomorphism
of G 1 onto G2, when the vertex x is incident with the edge e in G 1 iff the vertex f (x) is incident
with the edge g (e) in G2. If such an isomorphism θ exists, then the graphs G1and G2 are said to
be isomorphic, and is denoted by G1= G2.

V5

E.g.
e1
a c

V4 e3 V3
5 2
4
1
e2 e4 e6
b
6 3
c d

V1 e5 V2

(a) (b)

Fig. Isomorphic Graphs

An isomorphism of a graph G onto itself is called an automorphism of G.

Definition

. Directed graph (or Digraph):-

A digraph D is a pair (V,A) ,where V is an empty set of vertices, and A is a subset of V, (the set
of ordered pairs of distinct elements of V) whose elements are called arcs of D.
e6 V5

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E.g.
e5 V4
V1

e7

e1 e4
e3 V6

e8

V2

e2 V3

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Is a closed.

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Definition

Multi digraph: -A Multi digraph D is a pair(V,A), where V is an empty set of vertices, and A is a
multi set of arcs of V. The number of

Times an arc occurs in D is called its multiplicity,and arcs with multiplicity greater than 1 are
called multiple arcs of D.

E.g.

V4

V1

V5

V2

V3

Definition 3.8.Underlying graph of a digraph:-

IfD=(V,A) is a digraph ,then the graph G=(V,E),where uvЄ E iff uv,or vu, or both are in A, is called
the underlying graph of D(also called the covering graph C(D) of D).

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If D1=(V,A1) is a general digraph ,the digraph D2 = (V,A2) obtained from D1 by removing all
loops, and by replacing all multiple arcs by single arcs is called the digraph underlying D1,and
the underlying graph o f D2 is called the underlying graph of D1.

E.g. V2
e5
V2 e4

e4
V1 e1 V3
e1 V3
V1

e6
e9e10 e’ e6 e’’
e8
e3 e2

V4 V4 e7 V5
e7 V5

(a) General graph (b) Under lying graph

Definition 3.9.Outdegree and In degree:-The out degree of a vertex v in a digraph D=(V,A) ,is
the no .of arcs incident to v. Similarly, the in degree of a vertex v in a digraph D, is the no. Of
arcs incident to v. The out degree is denoted by d +(v) and the in degree is denoted by d-(v).

The total degree of v is sum of d+(v) and d-(v).

E.g.

V5

V1 V4
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 V2

V3

𝑑(𝑉1 )+ = 2, 𝑑(𝑉1 )− = 0,

𝑑(𝑉2 )+ = 0, 𝑑(𝑉2 )− = 3,

𝑑(𝑉3 )+ = 2, 𝑑(𝑉3 )− = 0,

𝑑(𝑉4 )+ = 2, 𝑑(𝑉4 )− = 3,

𝑑(𝑉5 )+ = 1, 𝑑(𝑉5 )− = 1,

From here it follows that sum of in degrees is equal to the sum of out degrees.

Definition 3.10.Simple Digraphs:-

A digraph that has no self-loop or parallel edges is called a simple digraph.

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 e1 e4 e3

e5 e6

e2

(a) (b)

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Definition 3.11.Complete Symmetric digraph:-

A digraph D = (V,A) is said to be complete symmetric if both uv and vu∈ Afor all u,v∈V.

E.g. In the above definition of fig. (b), shows the Complete Symmetric digraph.

And a complete asymmetric digraph is an asymmetric digraph in which there is exactly one
edge between every pair of vertices,

E.g.

e1 e4 e3

e1 e3

e1

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Definition :

Reflexive Relation:- For some relation R it may happen that every element is in R to itself. For
example ,a no. Is always equal to itself. Such a relation R on set X that satisfies

𝑥𝑖𝑅 𝑥𝑖

For every xiЄX is called a reflexive relation. The diagram of a reflexive relation will have a self
loop at every vertex. Such a digraph representing a reflexing binary relation on its vertex set
may be called a reflexive diagraph. A digraph in which no vertex has a self loop is called an
irreflexive digraph.

E.g.

V1 V2
V1

V3 V4

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Definition:

Symmetric Relation:- For some relation R it may happen that for all 𝑥𝑖 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥𝑗 if

𝑥𝑖𝑅 𝑥𝑗 holds, then 𝑥𝑗𝑅 𝑥𝑖 also holds.

Such a relation is called symmetric relation. The digraph of asymmetric relation is a symmetric
digraph because for every directed edge from vertex 𝑥𝑖 𝑡𝑜 𝑥𝑗 there is a directed edge from
𝑥𝑗 𝑡𝑜 𝑥𝑖 .

E.
g.
V1 V2

V3 V4

Fig shows the graph of an irreflexive, symmetric binary relation on a set of four vertices.

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Definition:

Transitive relation:- A relation R is said to be transitive if for any three

The digraph of a transitive (but irreflexive and a symmetric)binary relation is shown in fig.
below.

V2

V1 V3

V4 V5

A digraph representing a transitive relation (on its vertex set) is called a transitive directed
graph.

Definition:

Equivalence Relation:-A binary relation is called an equivalence relation if it is reflexive,

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Definition: Connectedness in digraphs:- A digraph G is said to be strongly connected if there
is at least one directed path from every vertex to every other vertex or if every two of its
distinct vertices u and v are such that u is reachable from v and v is reachable from u. A
digraph G is said to be weakly connected if its corresponding undirected graph is connected
but G is not strongly connected. In fig below one of the digraphs is strongly connected, and
the other is weakly connected.

e1 e4 e3
e4
e1
e3

e5 e6

e5 e6

e2

e2

(a) strongly connected (b) weakly connected

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Lemma1. (The Handshaking Theorem):-

Let G= (V,E) be an undirected graph with e edges.

2e = ∑𝑣∈𝑉 deg(𝑣)

Which implies that the sum of the degree of the vertices of an undirected graph is
even.

Theorem1:- An undirected graph has an even number of vertices of odd degree.

Proof:-let V1 & V2 be the set of vertices of even degree and the set of vertices of odd degree
respectively, in an undirected graph G = (V,E). Then we have from above lemma 1.2.

2e = ∑𝑣∈𝑉 deg(𝑣) ∑𝑣∈𝑉1 deg(𝑣) +

Since, deg (v) is even for 𝑣 ∈ 𝑉1.The first term in the right hand side of the above equality is
even.

Furthermore, the sum of the two terms on the RHS of the above equality is even, since

nd
this sum is 2e. Hence the 2 term in the sum is also even. Since all the terms in this

sum are odd, there must be an even number of such terms. Thus, there are an even

number of vertices of odd degree.

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Theorem 2:-Every circuit has an even number of edges in common with any cut-set.

Proof:-Let G be a graph and let S be a cut-set of G. Let the removal of S partition the vertices
of G into two mutually disjoint subsets V 1&V2. Consider a cycle C in G.

Fig. Circuit C shown in heavy lines along the direction of arrows.

If all the vertices in C are entirely with in vertex set V 1 (or V2) then the number of edges
common to S and C is zero, which is an even number.

If on the other hand, some vertices of C are in V1 and some in V2,we traverse back and forth
between the sets V1 and V2 as we traverse the cycle. Because of the closed nature of the
cycle the number of edges between V1 and V2 must be even. And since every edge in S has
one end in V 1and other in V2 and no other edge in G has the property of separating sets V1
and V2, the number of edges common to S and C is even.

Tournament:-
Tournaments form a large class of directed graphs. It is not surprising that tournaments

provide a rich source for combinatorial investigations and for various models of applied

situations. The growth of the interesting tournaments since J.W.Moon’s 1968 monograph

[6] and the most recent general survey by the other and L.W.Beineke [8] in 1979 has been

such that a single survey that covers all the developments of the past 16 years seems no

longer feasible. A short specialised survey appeared in 1981 by Beineke [9].

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Taken together with a survey by Bang-Jensen and Guttin [10] on paths, trees and cycles in

tournaments, a large portion of recent developments on tournaments are covered. Bang-

Jenson and Guttin survey a central portion of the theme of sub structures in tournaments.

Solving sport time tabling problem has been a challenge for many years and it is

undoubtedly a complex problem [11]

Many of the important properties of tournaments were first investigated by Landauin

order to model dominance relations in flocks of chickens. Current applications of

tournaments include the study of voting theory and social choice theory among other

things. The name tournaments originates from such a graph’s interpretation as the out

come of a Round-Robin tournament in which every player encounters every other player

exactly once, and in which no draws occur. In the tournament digraph the vertices

correspond to the players. The edge between each pair of players is oriented from the

winner to the loser. If player a beats player b, then it is said that a dominates b.

Definition:

Paths and Cycles:-Any tournament t on a finite number n of vertices contains a Hamiltonian

Suppose that the statement holds for n, and consider any tournament T on n+1 vertices.
Choose a vertex v0 of T and consider a directed path v1,v2,..., vn in T \{𝑉0}. Now let
𝑖 ∈{0,1,...,n} be maximal such that for each j ≤ i there is a directed edge from vj to 𝑉0. Then
v1,...,vi,v0,vi+1,...,vn. Is a directed path as desired. This argument also gives an algorithm for
finding the Hamiltonian path.

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