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Graph Theory Basic Definition

graph theory basic definitions

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10 views

Graph Theory Basic Definition

graph theory basic definitions

Uploaded by

santha kumari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic Definitions and Concepts

Complement to the Prologue and to Chapter 1, “Respecting the Rules”

1. CHAINS, CYCLES AND CONNECTIVITY

Take out a sheet of paper, choose a few spots, and mark those spots with small circles or
the like. Add a few links between some pairs of spots. The spots you have chosen, the
little circles on your sheet, are called “vertices” and the lines you’ve drawn to link some
of them are called “edges.” These lines can be straight or curved; the important thing is
whether or not a link exists between two vertices. So, for example, the drawing below is a
graph that contains 29 vertices and 27 edges.

This is how Manori describes a graph. More formally, a graph is defined using an ordered
pair (V, E): V is a set of elements we call “vertices” and E is a set of links, called
“edges,” linking certain pairs of vertices. E is therefore a subset of the Cartesian product
VV. In general, we use the notation {x, y} for an edge linking the vertices x and y.

An edge is a non-ordered pair of vertices. An edge linking the vertices x and y may be
noted either as {x, y} or as {y, x}.

Note that an edge may link a vertex to itself. In this case it is referred to as a “loop.”
Also, several parallel edges may link the same pair of vertices. In this case we are dealing
with a “multigraph.”

For example, the multigraph shown below contains four vertices, represented by black
circles and tagged with the letters a, b, c and d. There is a loop around vertex d and two
parallel edges linking vertices a and c.

Definition
A “chain” in a graph is a succession of edges that make it possible to link two vertices
in the graph.
To illustrate this, if we place the edges {b, d} and {c, d} end-to-end in the graph above,
we get a chain linking vertices b and c. There are other chains linking vertices b and c.
For example, we can consider the following sequences of edges:
 {b, d}, {d, d}, {c, d}, {a, c}, {a, c}
 {b, d}, {d, d}, {d, d}, {d, d}, {d, d}, {c, d}.

Definition
A chain that touches each vertex one time at most is called “elementary.”

The only elementary chain linking vertices b and c in the example above is the chain
made up of edges {b, d} and {c, d}.

Definition
A chain that uses each edge one time at most is called “simple.”

There are only four simple chains linking b and c in the graph above. They are made up
of the following sequences of edges:
 {b, d}, {c, d}
 {b, d}, {d, d}, {c, d}
 {b, d}, {c, d}, {a, c}, {a, c}
 {b, d}, {d, d}, {c, d}, {a, c}, {a, c}.

Notes
o The last two chains described above are simple because there are two distinct edges
linking vertices a and c. If there were only one edge between these two vertices,
these last two chains would not be simple, because they would use the edge linking
vertex a to vertex c two times.
o All elementary chains are simple, because several passages over the same edge
necessarily entail several passages over the vertices at the ends of that edge.

Definition
A graph is called “connected” if there is a chain between every pair of vertices in the
graph.

Manori defines the term “connected” for Courtel this way:


“If you can get to any vertex on the graph through any other vertex by following the
edges, we say the graph is ‘connected.’ This word comes from the fact that you can
connect any point to any other one using the graph’s edges.”

Definition
We say that two vertices are part of a same “connected component” in a graph G if,
and only if, there is a chain in G that links them together.
For example, there are five connected components in the graph below.

We can see that a graph is connected if and only if it contains only a single connected
component.

Definition
A chain whose first extremity is equal to its last extremity is called a “cycle.”
Once again, we talk about an “elementary” cycle when the graph’s vertices are
touched once at most, and we talk about a “simple” cycle if none of the edges are
used twice.

Note
All elementary cycles are necessarily simple, since if we use an edge more than once,
that implies that we have also touched the extremities of the edge more than once.

In the example below, there is only one elementary cycle passing by each vertex in the
graph. It’s the cycle made up of edges {a, b}, {b, c}, {c, d}, {d, e}, {e, f} and {f, a}. This
cycle is also simple.

The same graph contains other simple cycles, for example the one made up of edges
{a, b}, {b, c}, {c, d}, {d, e}, {e, f}, {f, b}, {b, d}, {d, f} and {f, a}, as illustrated below.

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