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Euler and Hamilton Circuit Without Exercises

This document discusses Euler paths and circuits as well as Hamilton paths and circuits. It provides theorems and lemmas for determining whether an (directed/undirected) graph has an Euler path/circuit based on the degrees of its vertices. Similarly, it discusses properties a graph must have to contain a Hamilton path/circuit, such as Dirac's and Ore's theorems, though these are not always sufficient. Finding a Hamilton graph is NP-complete. Examples are provided to illustrate the concepts.

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samiul mugdha
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
84 views

Euler and Hamilton Circuit Without Exercises

This document discusses Euler paths and circuits as well as Hamilton paths and circuits. It provides theorems and lemmas for determining whether an (directed/undirected) graph has an Euler path/circuit based on the degrees of its vertices. Similarly, it discusses properties a graph must have to contain a Hamilton path/circuit, such as Dirac's and Ore's theorems, though these are not always sufficient. Finding a Hamilton graph is NP-complete. Examples are provided to illustrate the concepts.

Uploaded by

samiul mugdha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Euler And Hamilton paths

Euler Path and Circuit

An Euler Circuit in a graph G is a simple circuit containing every


edge of G is a simple circuit containing every edge of G. An Euler
Path in a graph G is a simple circuit containing every vertex of G.
N.B: G must be a connected graph.
*** This theory came from a problem known as “The Seven Bridges of
Königsberg”. The Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler solved this
problem and he invented this theory.

Theorem:1- Euler Circuit’s Existence for Undirected Graph

“An undirected and connected graph has an Euler Circuit if and only if
each of its vertices has positive even degree.”
The graph G1 has an Euler
circuit, for example, a, e, c,
d, e, b, a. Neither of the
graphs G2 or G3 has an Euler
circuit (the reader should
verify this).
Lemma:1- Euler Circuit’s Existence for Directed Graph

“A directed and connected graph has an Euler Circuit if and only if


each of its vertices has degree zero.”

*** Degree zero means: total_incoming = total_outgoing

The graph H2 has an Euler


circuit, for example, a, g, c,
b, g, e, d, f, a. Neither H1
nor H3 has an Euler circuit (as
the reader should verify).

#Question: How to determine if a connected (and Directed / Undirected)


graph has an Euler circuit?
Answer: Show that the graph satisfies or doesn’t satisfy the Theorem
(for Undirected graph) or the Lemma (for Directed graph). If the given
graph the conditions, it’s an Euler Circuit, otherwise doesn’t have an
Euler Circuit.

Theorem:2- Euler Path’s Existence for Undirected Graph

“A connected and undirected multigraph has an Euler Path but not an


Euler Circuit if and only if it has two vertices of odd degree.”
G1 contains exactly two vertices of odd degree, namely, b and d.
Hence, it has an Euler path that must have b and d as its endpoints.
One such Euler path is d, a, b, c, d, b. Similarly, G2 has exactly two
vertices of odd degree, namely, b and d. So it has an Euler path that
must have b and d as endpoints. One such Euler path is b, a, g, f, e,
d, c, g, b, c, f, d. G3 has no Euler path because it has six vertices
of odd degree.
*** As you see there are two points of degree. One should be the beginning of your journey and the
other should be the ending. You can exchange the beginning point and the ending point among them,
but if you want to start and/or end from/at other vertices which have even degree, you’ll not be able to
complete the path, remember it.

As we mentioned earlier, in this graph starting and


ending can be e and h or h and e respectively.

Lemma:2- Euler Path’s Existence for Directed Graph

“A connected and directed multi-graph has an Euler Path but not an


Euler circuit if and only if –
(i) It has exactly one vertex of degree +1.
(ii) It has exactly one vertex of degree -1 and
(iii) The rest vertices have equal degree 0.”

*** An undirected graph has to satisfy all conditions mentioned in the


lemma. For finding a path you have to start from +1 and end at -1.
Otherwise, you cannot complete the path, remember it. (assuming:
ingoing = -ve & outgoing = +ve).

In this graph, point a has degree +1 and point d has


degree -1
(assuming: ingoing = -ve & outgoing = +ve).
*** This is the better way of assuming, as we
consider something is positive when it grows. Here, outgoing edges are
considered growing from the vertex. Whatever it is, you have to check
outgoing > ingoing for a starting and the reverse idea for the ending.
#Question: How to determine if a connected (and Directed / Undirected)
graph has an Euler Path?
Answer: Show that the graph satisfies or doesn’t satisfy the Theorem
(for Undirected graph) or the Lemma (for Directed graph). If the given
graph the conditions, it’s an Euler Path, otherwise doesn’t have an
Euler Path.
The graph in the left, point a has degree +1, point b
has degree -2, point c has degree 0 and point d has
degree +1. So it doesn’t have an Euler Path as it
doesn’t satisfy the lemma.

Hamilton Path and Circuit

A simple path in a graph G that passes through every vertex exactly


once is called a Hamilton Path and a simple circuit that passes
through exactly once is called a Hamilton Circuit.
#The terminology comes from a game, called the ICOSIAN PUZZLE.

Figure: A (Dodecahedron) Figure: B (simplified representation)

Given a graph G, is it possible to find a circuit for G in which all


the vertices of G (except the first and the last) appear exactly once?
In 1859 the Irish Mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton introduced
a puzzle in the shape of a dodecahedron (DOH-dek-a-HEE-dron) named “A
Voyage Round The World”.
For solving this puzzle, we need to learn about Hamilton Path and
Circuit. However this theory may seem easy but its application is very
deep.
Propositions:

If a graph G has a Hamilton Circuit, then G has a subgraph H with the


following properties –
(i) H contains every vertex of G.
(ii) H is connected.
(iii) H has the same number of edges as vertices.
(iv) Every vertex of H has degree 2.

*** A fixed graph may have multiple subgraphs H who satisfy the
properties mention above. In this case, all of them are considered to
be the Hamilton Circuits of the given graph G.

Dirac’s Theorem- The Existence of Hamilton Circuit

“If G is a simple graph with n vertices with n >= 3 such that the
degree of every vertex in G is at least n/2, then G has a Hamilton
Circuit.”

Ore’s Theorem- The Existence of Hamilton Circuit

“If G is a simple graph with n vertices with n >= 3 such that


deg(u) + deg(v) >= n
for every pair of nonadjacent vertices u and v in G, then G has a
Hamilton Circuit.”

*** Ore’s Theorem is much more efficient for ensuring the existence of
Hamilton Circuit. But these theorems are not sufficient enough to
declare that if a graph doesn’t satisfy the conditions, it will not
have a Hamilton Circuit.

There are so many graphs who doesn’t satisfy any of the theorems
mentioned above but has a Hamilton Circuit.

All of the above graphs has a Hamilton Circuit but they don’t satisfy
the theorems.
So now the question comes, how to show that a fixed graph has a
Hamilton Circuit or not?
The answer is quite heartbreaking for us to hear that,
Finding an Hamilton Graph is an NP-Complete Problem and to solve such
kind of problem we are to learn an algorithm called Polynomial Worst-
Case Time Complexity Algorithm.
But before we go to learn this algorithm we have to acquire a crystal
clear knowledge about NP-Completeness. We can study about NP-
Completeness from our book in section 3.3.
In-Sha-Allah, someday we’ll be discussing about these two theories and
a complete note will be provided by us.

So then, we need to practice some problems on this topic. First of


all, solve all graphs given in the example section of “Discrete
Mathematics and Its Application” by Kenneth H. Rosen. For more
practice we have to study “Discrete Mathematics with Applications” by
Susanna S. Epp.
Written by:

Ariful Islam Shanto

SWE’19-SUST

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