Math 3012-B Homework 9 Fall 2021

Due: Thursday Dec 9 at 11:59 pm

Total Questions: 6
Instructions:

1. Late work, for any reason other than a documented dean-approved excuse, will receive a 0. Do
not email me asking for an extension unless you have paperwork from the Dean of Students.

2. Justify all answers, even if it does not explicitly say to do so, unless the question specifically
states justification is not needed.

3. Giving an example, or drawing a diagram, is not in general rigorous enough to be a proof.

4. Label, define, and explain all variables, and explain from which sets they are.

5. Your answer should be an explanation with a logical flow of ideas, not simply symbols on a
page.

6. Correct answers but without good explanations will result in little to 0 credit.

7. You may use a calculator and matrix equation solver to simplify tedious calculations and systems
of equations, but explicitly say when you are doing so.

8. NOTE: for Graphs, you may hand draw and upload these (trying to TeX them will be very time
consuming...)

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Problem 1. Isomorphic graphs have the same parameters
Let G and H be isomorphic graphs. Show that:

(A) |V (G)| = |V (H)|.

(B) |E(G)| = |E(H)|.

(C) If G′ ⊆ G, then there exists H ′ ⊆ H such that G′ ∼

= H ′.

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Problem 2. Bounding deg and edges
A common question in graph theory is trying to bound some parameter in terms of another
paramter. For example, prove that the maximum degree and the number of edges of G are
bounded by a function of the number of vertices:

(A) If G is a simple graph on n ∈ N vertices, where n ≥ 1, then deg(x) ≤ n − 1 for all

x ∈ V (G).

(B) If G is a simple graph on n ∈ N vertices, where n ≥ 1, then |E(G)| ≤ n2 .

(C) Show that if G is a simple graph on n ∈ N vertices, with n ≥ 1, then |E(G)| = n2 if and

only if G ∼= Kn .

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Problem 3. “Impossible: Perhaps the archives are incomplete.” – Obiwan
Obiwan Kenobi is scanning the Jedi archives to find the planet Kamino. He finds sequences
of data, where each number in the sequence is the number of hyperspace lanes incident to a
planet. For example, the sequence
3, 2, 2, 1
corresponds to a galaxy with 4 planets: one planet has 3 hyperspace lanes to other planets,
two planets have 2 hyperspace lanes to other planets, and one has 1 hyperspace lanes to other
planets.
However, it appears that someone has altered the data so that it may no longer be correct.
For the following sequences, either draw an arrangement of planets and hyperspace lanes which
corresponds to the sequence, or prove no such collection of planets can exist in the galaxy with
the described sequence. (Planets are vertices, and hyperspace lanes are edges. The following
are degree sequences. Assume these are degree sequences of simple graphs. Pictures of your
graphs can be hand-drawn and uploaded into a LATEX document).
Part A: 3, 1, 1, 1
Part B: 3, 2, 1, 1
Part C: 4, 3, 2, 2, 1
Part D: 4, 4, 3, 2, 1
Part E: 6, 5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1

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Problem 4. Complement
For a graph G, we define the complement of G, denoted Gc , by:

V (Gc ) := V (G)
E(Gc ) := {xy : xy ∈
/ E(G)}.

Intuitively, Gc is the graph G but with the edge set “flipped” (see Notes 18 on Canvas for
examples.) It can be shown that the complement of a graph is unique upto isomorphism.
We call a graph “self-complementary” if G ∼ = Gc . Prove the following: for a given integer
n ≥ 1, if the number of nonisomoprhic simple graphs on n vertices is odd, then there is a
self-complementary graph on n vertices. (Hint: pair up each graph with its complement).

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Problem 5. Livin’ on the Edge
Prove that if G has chromatic number k ≥ 1, but any proper subgraph H ⊊ G is k −1-colorable,
then the minimum degree of G is at least k − 1. (Hint: use contradiction to assume there is a
vertex of degree less than k − 1. Consider the subgraph of G with this vertex deleted).

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Problem 6. Connectivity of Trees
A tree is a connected graph which doesn’t contain any cycles. Show that if T is a tree with a
vertex x such that deg(x) ≥ 2, then the subraph T ′ formed by deleting x from T is disconnected.