GRAPH THEORY AND ALGORITHMS

Pratima Panigrahi
Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur 721302

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GRAPH ISOMORPHISM

DEFINITION: Graphs G and H are said to be isomorphic

if there exists a bijection f : V (G) → V (H) such that {x, y} ∈
E(G) if and only if {f (x), f (y)} ∈ E(H). This mapping f is
called an isomorphism from G to H.

DEFINITION: A simple graph is said to be self complemen-

tary if its complement is isomorphic to itself.

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DEFINITION: Let G be a loop less graph on n vertices. The
adjacency matrix of G, denoted by A(G), is an n × n matrix
whose rows and columns are indexed by vertices of G, and (i, j)th
entry is equal to the number of edges between the ith and j th ver-
tices.

REMARK: 1. The sum of all entries in vth row or vth column

of A(G) is equal to degree of v.

2. If G is a simple graph then all the entries of A(G) are either 0

or 1.

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DEFINITION: Let G be a graph on n vertices and m edges.
The incidence matrix of G, denoted by M (G), is an n×m matrix
whose rows are indexed by the vertices and columns are indexed
by the edges of G, and (i, j)th entry is equal to 1 if the ith vertex
is an end vertex of the j th edge.

REMARK: 1. The sum of all entries in vth row of M (G) is

equal to degree of v.

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THEOREM: Let G be a loop less graph having V (G) =
{v1 , v2 , . . . , vn }, and A be the adjacency matrix of G. For any
integer k ≥ 1, the (i, j)th entry of Ak is equal to the total number
of vi − vj walk of length k.

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DEFINITION: A graph is said to be bipartite if its vertex set
can be partitioned as V (G) = X ∪ Y such that every edge of the
graph has one end vertex in X and the other has in Y . The sets
X and Y are called partite sets, and the pair (X, Y ) is called a
bipartition of the graph.

So in case of a bipartite graph no adjacency is there within the

same part, only adjacency are there between the parts.

Even cycles and paths are examples of bipartite graphs.

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DEFINITION: The n-dimensional cube or hypercube Qn
is the graph whose vertex set is the set of all n-tuples consists of
0 and 1, and two n-tuples are adjacent if they differ at exactly one
position.

Question: Whether Qn is bipartite?

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DEFINITION: A bipartite graph with a bipartition (X, Y ) is
called a complete bipartite graph if every vertex in X is adjacent
to every vertex in Y .

NOTATION: A complete bipartite graph with |X| = m and

|Y | = n is denoted by Km,n . Note that Km,n = Kn,m .

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DEFINITION: A graph is said to be k-bipartite if its vertex
set can be partitioned as V (G) = X1 ∪ X2 ∪ . . . Xk such that no
two vertices in the same part are adjacent. It is called complete
k-bipartite if every vertex in Xi is adjacent to every vertex in Xj ,
for i 6= j.

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DISTANCES IN GRAPHS

DEFINITION: For any graph G and vertices u, v ∈ G the

distance between u and v, denoted by d(u, v), is the length of a
shortest u − v path. If there is no u − v path then d(u, v) = ∞.

LEMMA: The mapping d : V (G) × V (G) 7→ N ∪ {0}, which

maps (u, v) to d(u, v), is a metric.

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PROOF: Obviously d satisfies non-negativity and symmetric
property. To prove the triangle inequality, for any three vertices
u, v, w ∈ G,
d(u, v) ≤ d(u, w) + d(w, v)
S
Let d(u, w) = l(P1 ) and d(w, v) = l(P2 ). Now P1 P2 is a
u − v walk, and therefore it contains a u − v path, say P . So
d(u, v) ≤ l(P ) ≤ l(P1 ) + l(P2 ).

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DEFINITION: The eccentricity, denoted by e(x), of a vertex
x ∈ G is the distance from x to a farthest vertex in G, that is

e(x) = max{d(x, v) : v ∈ G}

The diameter of G

diam(G) = max{e(v) : v ∈ G}

The radius of G

rad(G) = min{e(v) : v ∈ G}

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DEFINITION: Let u be a vertex in G. If e(u) = rad(G)
then u is called a central vertex. The subgraph induced by all
central vertices is called the center of G. If e(u) = diam(G)
then u is called a peripheral vertex. The subgraph induced by all
peripheral vertices is called the periphery of G.

THEOREM: For any graph G,

rad(G) ≤ diam(G) ≤ 2rad(G)

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THEOREM: Every graph G is the center of some graph H.

PROOF: Construct a graph H as below:

[
V (H) = V (G) {u1 , u2 , v1 , v2 }
S S
E(H) = E(G) {{u1 , u2 }, {v1 , v2 }} {{u2 , x}, {v2 , x} : x ∈
V (G)}

Now e(u1 ) = e(v1 ) = 4, e(u2 ) = e(v2 ) = 3, e(x) = 2, ∀x ∈ G– p. 14/1

PROBLEMS:

(1) Draw all possible simple non-isomorphic graphs on four ver-

tices.

(2) Let S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Construct a graph G whose vertex set

is the collection of all 2-subsets of S and two vertices are adjacent
in G if and only if the corresponding 2-subsets are disjoint. Prove
that G is isomorphic to the Petersen graph.

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(3) If G is a simple graph and δ(G) ≥ k, then prove that G con-
tains a path of length at least k. Further if k ≥ 2 prove that G
contains a cycle of length at least k + 1.

(4) Let G be a self-complementary graph on n vertices. Prove that

n ≡ 0 or 1 (mod 4).

(5) For the n-dimensional hypercube Qn , compute the total num-

ber of vertices, edges, and degrees of the vertices. Also prove that
Qn is a bi-partite graph.

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(6) The girth of a graph is the length of a smallest cycle present in
the graph. Prove that the girth of the Petersen graph is 5 and that
of Qn is 4.

(7) If G is a regular graph of degree k and girth 5 then prove that

G has at least k 2 + 1 number of vertices and equality if k = 2 or
3.

(8) Prove that Petersen graph can not have a 7-cycle.

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