Tree and Fundamental

Circuits
• Tree is a connected simple graph without any circuits.
• As a graph must have at least one vertex, and therefore so must a
tree. A tree without any vertices is called null tree.
• Similarly, considering only finite graphs, our trees are also finite.
• a tree has to be a simple graph, that is, having neither a self-loop
nor parallel edges.

Tree with no of vertices=1,2,3,4

Tree
Examples
• Family Tree
• A river with its tributaries and
subtributaries
• The sorting of mails according
to zip code
• Huffman code
• Arithmetic expressions
Properties of trees
• Theorem 3-1: There is one and only one path between every pair of
vertices in a tree, T. (Prove with contradiction)
• Theorem 3-2: If in a graph G there is one and only one path between
every pair of vertices, G is a tree.(Prove with direct proof )
• Theorem 3-3: A tree with n vertices has n-1 edges. (Mathematical
Induction)
• Theorem 3-4: Any connected graph with n vertices and n-1 edges is a
tree.
• Theorem 3-5: A graph is a tree if and only if it is minimally connected.
• Theorem 3-6: A graph G with n vertices, n-1 edges, and no circuits is
connected. (Prove with contradiction)
• A connected graph is said to be minimally connected if removal of
any one edge from it disconnects the graph.
• A minimally connected graph cannot have a circuit; otherwise, we
could remove one of the edges in the circuit and still leave the
graph connected.
A graph G with n vertices is called a tree if
1. G is connected and is circuitless, or
2. G is connected and has n-1 edges, or
3. G is circuitless and has n-1 edges, or
4. There is exactly one path between every pair of vertices in G, or
5. G is minimally connected graph.
Pendant vertices in a Tree
• Pendant vertex is a vertex of degree 1.
• A tree of n vertices have n-1 edges, and 2(n-1) degrees which is to
be divided among n vertices.
• Since no vertex can be of zero degree, at least two vertices of
degree one in a tree, which means n ≥ 2.
• Theorem 3-7: In any tree (with two or more vertices), there are at
least two pendant vertices.
Application: Monotonically increasing
sequences in 4,1,13,7,0,2,8,11,3.
Distance in a Tree
• In a connected graph G, the distance d(vi,vj) between two of its
vertices vi and vj is the length of the shortest path (number of
edges in the shortest path) between them.
• In a tree, since there is exactly one path between any two vertices,
the determination of distance is much easier.

d(a,b) = 1, d(a,c) = 2, d(c,b) = 1

A Metric
• The function which satisfies following conditions is called a
metric:
• Nonnegativity: f(x,y) ≥ 0 and f(x,y) = 0 if and only if x =y.
• Symmetry: f(x,y) = f(y,x).
• Triangle inequality: f(x,y) ≤ f(x,z) + f(z,y) for any z.
• Theorem 3-8: The distance between vertices of a connected graph
is a metric.
• The eccentricity E(v) of a vertex v in graph G is the distance from v
to the vertex farthest from v in G,

• A vertex with minimum eccentricity in graph G is called a center of

graph G.
• The tree with two vertices having the same minimum eccentricity
has two centers (bicenters).

• A graph that consists of just a circuit, has all the vertices as

centers. In general, a graph has many centers.
• Theorem 3-9: Every tree has one or two centers.
• Corollary: If a tree T has two centers, the two centers must be
adjacent.
• Application: Communication between group of people.
• The eccentricity of a center in a tree is defined as the radius of the
tree.
• The length of the longest path in a tree is defined to be the
diameter of the tree.
Example
• The eccentricity, center, radius and diameter for the following tree
are as mentioned.
Solution
Rooted Tree
• In a tree where one vertex is distinguished from all the other is
called the rooted tree.

• Free Tree is the tree without any root.

Binary Trees
• A binary tree is defined as a special kind of rooted tree in which
there is exactly one vertex of degree two and each of the remaining
vertices is of degree one or three.
Properties of binary trees
• The number of vertices n in a binary tree is always odd.
• Let p be the number of pendant vertices in a binary tree T. Then n-
p-1 is the number of vertices of degree three. Therefore the
number of edges in T equals
• A nonpendant vertex in a tree is called an internal vertex.
• The number of internal vertices in a binary tree is one less than the
number of pendant vertices.
• In a binary tree a vertex vi is said to be at level li if vi is at a distance
of li from the root. The root is at level 0.
• The maximum number of vertices possible in a k-level binary tree is

• The maximum level, lmax of any vertex in a binary tree is call the
height of the tree.
• The minimum possible height of an n-vertex binary tree is

• The maximum possible height of an n-vertex binary tree is

• The path length of a tree, can be defined as the sum of the path
lengths from the root to all pendant vertices.
• The path length for the below given tree is 1 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 4 + 4
= 23.

• The path length of a tree is related to the execution time of an

algorithm.
Weighted Path Length
• Every pendant vertex vj of a binary tree has associated with it a
positive real number wj. Given w1, w2, … , Wm the problem is to
construct a binary tree (with m pendant vertices) that minimizes

• Where lj is the level of pendant vertex vj, and the sum is taken over
all pendant vertices.
Example
Examples
• How many edges does a full binary tree with 1000 internal
vertices have?
• Suppose 1000 people enter a chess tournament. Use a rooted tree
model of the tournament to determine how many games must be
played to determine a champion, if a player is eliminated after one
loss and games are played until only one entrant has not lost.
(Assume there are no ties.)
• Given N coins, all may be genuine or only one coin is defective. We
need a decision tree with atleast (2N + 1) leaves correspond to the
outputs. Because there can be N leaves to be lighter, or N leaves to
be heavier or one genuine case, on total (2N + 1) leaves.
• As explained earlier ternary tree at level k, can have utmost
3k leaves and we need a tree with leaves of 3k > (2N + 1).
• In other words, we need atleast k > log3(2N + 1) weighing to find the
defective one.
Spanning Trees
• A tree is a subgraph of another graph. A graph has numerous subgraphs – from e
edges, 2e distinct combination are possible.
• Some of these subgraphs will be trees. Out of these trees particular interest is to
find the spanning trees.
• A tree T is said to be a spanning tree of a connected graph G if T is a subgraph of
G and T contains all vertices of G. Spanning tree represents a sort of skeleton of
the original graph G, this is why it is also referred to as a skeleton or scaffolding
of G.
• Applications include
• Cluster Analysis
• Message Broadcasting
• Image Registration
• Image Segmentation
• Feature Extraction
• Handwriting Recognition
On Counting Trees
• Arthur Cayley discovered trees while trying to count the number
of structural isomers of the saturated hydrocarbons CkH2k+2.
• Corresponding to their chemical valences, a carbon atom was
represented by a vertex of degree four and a hydrogen atom by a
vertex of degree one (pendent vertices).
• The total number of vertices in such a graph is

• And total number of edges is

• Since the graph is connected and the number of edges is one less
than the number of vertices, it is a tree.
• Thus the problem of counting isomers of a given hydrocarbon
becomes the problem of counting trees (with certain qualifying
properties).
• The question: What is the number of different trees that one can
construct with n distinct (or labeled) vertices?
• n = 4.
• A graph in which each vertex is assigned a unique name or label as
shown in the fig. 3.15 is called a labeled graph.
• The difference between labeled and unlabelled graph is very
important when we are counting the number of different graphs.
• No. of different graphs with 4 unlabelled vertices are only two.
Theorem:
The number of labeled trees with n vertices (n ≥ 2) is nn-2.
Cayley’s Formula
• Theorem: There are nn-2 labeled trees with n vertices ( n ≥ 2).
• Proof: Let the n vertices of a tree T be labeled 1,2,3,….,n.
• Remove the pendant vertex (and the edge incident on it) having the smallest label,
which is, say a1. Suppose that b1 was the vertex adjacent to a1. Add b1 to the resultant
sequence.
• Among the remaining n-1 vertices let a2 be the pendant vertex with the smallest label,
and b2 be the vertex adjacent to a2. Remove the edge (a2,b2). Add b2 to the resultant
sequence.
• This operation is repeated on the remaining n-2 vertices and the process is stopped
after n-2 steps, when only two vertices are left.
• The tree uniquely defines the sequence
(b1,b2,…, bn-2)  (1)
• E.g.
• Conversely, given a sequence n-2 labels, an n-vertex tree can be
constructed uniquely, as follows:
1,2,3,…,n  (2)
• Determine the first number from the sequence (2) that does not
appear in sequence (1).
• This number clearly is a1. And thus the edge (a1,b1) is defined.
• Remove b1 from (1) and a1 from (2).
• Repeat the process until the sequence (1) is empty.
• Finally the last two vertices in (2) are joined.
• E.g. Given the sequence (4,4,3,1,1), construct the spanning tree.
Construct all the spanning trees using
Cayley’s formula for K4.
Construct the spanning tree from the
Prufer code (1,1,3,5,5,5,9).
Generating Prufer Code from the tree
1. Find the smallest leaf node of the given tree. Let it be x. Let the
neighbor of x be y.
2. Add the value of y in a list.
3. Remove node x from the tree.
4. Repeat step 1 to 3 until there are only 2 nodes remaining.
5. The list contains the Prufer Code.

Prufer Code: Linear Representation of a Labeled Tree | forthright48

 Here, the white nodes are non-leaf nodes, the orange nodes

Example are leaf nodes and the blue nodes are the smallest leaf node
for the tree.
Example: Generate the Prufer code from
the given spanning tree.
Example: Generate the Prufer code from
the given spanning tree.

The Prufer Code sequence

is (1,1,3,5,5,5,9)
Properties of Prufer Code

1. If a node has degree d, then that node will appear in prufer

code exactly d−1 times.
2. Leaves never appear in Prufer Code.
• Unlabeled Trees: In actual counting of isomers of CkH2k+2, given
theorem is not enough. In addition to the constraints on the degree
of the vertices, two observations should be made:
1. Since the vertices representing hydrogen are pendant, they go with
carbon atom only one way, and hence make no contribution to
isomerism. Therefore, we need not show any hydrogen vertices.
2. Thus the tree representing CkH2k+2 reduces to one with k vertices, each
representing a carbon atom. In this tree no distinction can be made
between vertices, and therefore the it is unlabelled.
• For butane C4H10, there are only two distinct trees representing n-
butane and isobutane.
•
• As spanning trees are the largest (with maximum number of
edges) trees among all trees in G, they are also referred to as
maximal tree subgraphs or maximal trees of G.
• The spanning tree is defined only for a connected graph, because a
tree is always connected.
• Each component in a disconnected graph does have a spanning
Tree. A disconnected graph with k components has a spanning
forest of k spanning trees.
Finding spanning tree from a graph
• If a connected graph G has no circuit, it is its own spanning tree.
• If G has a circuit, delete an edge from the circuit. The edge removal
does not affect the connectivity of a graph. If there are more
circuits, repeat the operation till an edge from the last circuit is
deleted which results in circuit-free connected graph with all the
vertices of G, which is a spanning tree.
• Theorem: Every connected graph has at least one spanning tree.
• Branch: An edge in a spanning tree T is called a branch of T.
• Chord: An edge of G that is not in a given spanning tree T is called a
chord (tie or link).
• Branches and chords are defined with respect to a given spanning
tree. An edge that is a branch of one spanning tree T1 may be a
chord with respect to another spanning tree T2.
• The graph G is a union of two subgraphs, T and T’

• Where T is a spanning tree, and T’ (chord set or tie set or cotree) is

the complement of T in G.
• Theorem: With respect to any of its spanning trees, a connected
graph of n vertices and e edges has n-1 tree branches and e-n+1
chords.
Example
• A farm consisting of six walled plots of land, as shown in the figure.
All the plots are full of water, how many walls will have to be
broken so that all the water can be drained out?
• Let’s relate the fundamental numbers of graph: n ( no of vertices), e
(no of edges) and k (no of connected components) of a graph G.
• Every component of a graph must have at least one vertex, n ≥ k (n–
k ≥ 0) .
• The number of edges in a component can not be less than the
number of vertices in that component minus one, e ≥ n – k (e - n + k
≥ 0).
• n, e, and k define
• Rank r = n - k
• Nullity μ = e – n + k.
• The rank of a connected graph is n-1 and nullity, e-n+1.
• Rank of G = number of branches in any spanning tree (or forest) of
G,
• Nullity of G = number of chords in G,
• Rank + nullity = number of edges in G.
• The nullity of a graph is also referred to as its cyclomatic number
or first Betti number.
Fundamental Circuits
• Theorem: A connected graph G is a tree if and only if adding an
edge between any two vertices in G creates exactly one circuit.
• Consider a spanning tree T in a connect graph G. Adding any one
chord to T will create exactly one circuit. Such a circuit, formed by
adding a chord to a spanning tree, is called a fundamental circuit.
• How many fundamental circuits does a graph have?
• How many circuits does a graph have in all?
• Suppose that we add one more chord. Will it create exactly one
more circuit? What happens if we add all the chords
simultaneously to the tree?
• Find all fundamental
circuits w.r.t. the given
spanning tree.
Comments
• A circuit is a fundamental circuit only with respect to a given
spanning tree. A given circuit may be fundamental with respect to
one spanning tree, but not with respect to a different spanning
tree of the same graph.
• Kirchhoff showed that: no matter how many circuits a graph
contains, there is a need to consider/find only fundamental
circuits with respect to spanning trees. The rest of the circuits are
combinations of some fundamental circuits.
Questions
• What is the nullity of a complete graph with n vertices?
• Prove that any circuit in a graph G must have at least one edge in
common with a chord set.
• Can you construct a graph if you are given all its spanning trees?
How?
• Prove that the nullity of a graph does not change when you either
insert a vertex in the middle of an edge, or remove a vertex of
degree two by merging two edges incident on it.
• Show that Hamiltonian path is a spanning tree.
Finding all spanning trees of a graph
• Start with a given spanning tree, say T1. Add a chord, h to the tree
T1, which forms a fundamental circuit (b c h d). Remove any
branch say c, from the fundamental circuit bchd, to create new
spanning tree T2.
• This generation of one spanning tree from another, through
addition of a chord and deletion of an appropriate branch, is called
a cyclic interchange or elementary tree transformation.
• After generating tree new spanning trees with a single chord,
restart with T1 and add a different chord (e, f or g) and repeat the
process of obtaining a different spanning tree each time a branch
is deleted from the fundamental circuit formed.
Questions
• Can we start from any spanning tree and get a desired spanning
tree by a number of cyclic exchanges?
• Can we get all the spanning trees of a given graph using cyclic
exchanges?
• How long we have to continue exchanging edges?
• Out of all possible spanning trees that we can start with, is there a
preferred one for starting?
• The distance between two spanning trees Ti and Tj of a graph G is
defined as the number of edges of G present in one tree but not in
the other. This distance may be written as d(Ti,Tj).
• Let Ti ⊕ Tj be the ring sum of two spanning trees Ti and Tj of G. Let
N(g) denote the number of edges in a graph g. Then
• is the minimum number of cyclic interchanges involved in going
from Ti to Tj.
• Theorem: The distance between the spanning trees of a graph is a
metric.
• Theorem: Starting from any spanning tree of a graph G, we can
obtain every spanning tree of G by successive cyclic exchanges.
• For a connected graph G of rank r( r+1 vertices) a spanning tree
has r edges, following results can be derived:

• If μ is the nullity of G, no more than μ edges of a spanning tree Ti,

can be replaced to get another tree Tj.

• Combining the two

Out of all possible spanning trees that we can
start with, is there a preferred one for starting?
• Central Tree: For a spanning tree T0 of a graph G, let denote the
maximal distance between T0 and any other spanning tree of G,
Then T0 is called a central tree of G if
for every tree T of G.
• A central tree in a graph is in general not unique.
• Tree Graph: The tree graph of a given graph G is defined as a
graph in which each vertex corresponds to a spanning tree of G,
and each edge corresponds to a cyclic interchange between the
spanning trees of G represented by the two end vertices of the
edge.
• The tree graph of any finite and complete graph is connected.
Draw a tree graph for K4.
Spanning trees in a weighted graph
A spanning tree with the smallest weight in a weighted graph is
called a shortest spanning tree or shortest-distance spanning
tree or minimal spanning tree.
• Theorem: Let (G, W) be a connected weighted graph. A spanning
tree T is a minimum cost spanning tree if and only if there exists
no other spanning tree T’ of distance one from T and with weight
W(T’) less than W(T).
• Proof: Let T1 be a spanning tree in G satisfying the
hypothesis(there is no spanning three at a distance of one from T1
which is shorter than T1).
Degree Constrained Shortest Spanning
Tree
• In a shortest spanning tree, any vertex vi can end up with any
degree; i.e. 1≤d(vi)≤n-1. In some practical cases an upper limit on
the degree of every vertex has to be imposed, e.g. an electrical
wiring problem. Thus, in this particular case,
d(vi) ≤ k for every vertex vi in T.
Such a spanning tree is called a degree-constrained minimum
spanning tree.
• If k = 2, this problem reduces to the problem of finding the
shortest Hamiltonian path, as well as travelling-salesman problem
without the salesman returning to the home city.
Questions
• Find the center, the radius and diameter of the below given graph.
Also mention the eccentricity of all vertices.
If T, T′ are spanning trees of a connected graph G and e∈E(T)−E(T′),
then there is an edge e′∈E(T′)−E(T) such that _____________is a
spanning tree of G.
1. T-e
2. T-e+1
3. T-e+e’
4. T+e-e’
• Every graph with n vertices and k edges has atleast k components.
• True
• False
Questions
• Match the following
Find the Prufer sequence for the given
spanning tree.
Find the Prufer sequence for the given
spanning tree.
Generate the spanning tree using the
prufer sequence (1,2,1,3,3,5)
Generate the prufer code from the given
spanning tree.
11
4
1
7
10

3 5
9

12 8
2 6
Find a spanning tree at a distance of five from spanning
tree as shown in the graph. List all fundamental circuits
with respect to the new spanning tree.
G is an undirected graph with n vertices and 25 edges such that each
vertex of G has degree at least 3. What is the maximum possible
value of n?
• No. of Vertices are: 16.
Count the number of edges in a regular graph of n vertices with
degree d.

• No. of edges in a regular graph of n vertices with degree d =

(n*d)/2.