SIAM J. COMPUT.

Vol. 6, No. 1, March 1977

Downloaded 12/24/12 to 150.135.135.70. Redistribution subject to SIAM license or copyright; see http://www.siam.org/journals/ojsa.php

COMMENTS ON F. HADLOCK’S PAPER:

"FINDING A MAXIMUM CUT OF A PLANAR GRAPH
IN POLYNOMIAL TIME"*
K. AOSHIMA AND M. IRIf

Although the final result stated in the above-mentioned paper [ 1 is correct,

the author’s arguments leading to it seem to want some correction.
In Theorem 2 he states that
An edge set D is an odd-circuit cover of a planar graph G if and only if the corresponding
edge set P is an odd-vertex pairing for the geometric dual GD of G.
This statement is not valid, because he defines both "odd-circuit covers" and
"odd-vertex pairings" with regard to the "removal" of the edges in consideration
(which operation apparently means "opening the edges" in another terminology)
and because the operation of removal (i.e., opening) of edges in a graph G
corresponds to that of "contraction" (i.e., shortening) of the corresponding edges
in the geometrical dual GD. (It is easy to find a counterexample to the theorem.)
Thus, we should replace the term "odd-vertex pairing" by another concept, e.g.,
"odd-vertex cover", which is defined as a set of edges such that their "contraction
(shortening)" yields a graph all of whose vertices are of even degree.
Fortunately, however, the family of minimum odd-vertex covers coincides
with that of minimum odd-vertex pairings, whereas the family of odd-vertex
covers properly includes that of odd-vertex pairings. (Hence, Hadlock’s final
result remains correct.) In fact, it is almost obvious that an odd-vertex pairing is an
odd-vertex cover, and it can be proved, as will be done below, that a minimum
odd-vertex cover is an odd-vertex pairing.
In order to prove this last fact, let us consider a minimum odd-vertex cover C
and the partial graph Gc of the original graph G which has C as the edge set.
First of all, we note that Gc is a forest, because, if there were a circuit in Gc,
C-{e} would remain an odd-vertex cover where e is any edge of the-circuit.
Secondly, we can show that the parity of the degree of each vertex in Gc is the
same as that of the corresponding vertex in G. In fact, the vertex of G correspond-
ing to an isolated vertex in Gc is obviously of even degree. Let us consider a vertex
v of odd (positive even) degree of Gc and the corresponding vertex 5 of G. Since
C is an odd-vertex cover of G, the number of those vertices of odd degree of G
which correspond to the vertices of the connected component of Gc containing v
must be even. Let us then remove (i.e., open) all the edges incident to v in Gc, and
denote by G1, Gc2," the connected components of the resulting graph which
contain, respectively, the vertices adjacent to v in Go If the parity of the degree of
v in Gc did not coincide with that of 5 in G, there should exist at least one Gci, say
Gcl, which contains an even number of the vertices corresponding to the vertices
of odd degree of G (because there are an odd (even) number of Gci’S, is of even
(odd) degree in G and the total number of those vertices in the connected
* This Journal, 4 (1975), pp. 221-225. Received by the editors December 12, 1975.
f Department of Mathematical Engineering and Instrumentation Physics, Faculty of Engineer-
ing, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
86
 COMMENTS ON F. HADLOCK’S PAPER 87

component of Gc containing v which correspond to vertices of odd degree in G

must be even). Hence if we removed from C the edge which connects v and its
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adjacent vertex in Gcl, we should have another smaller odd-vertex cover, which
would contradict the minimality of C.
Finally, by virtue of .the famous theorem of L. Euler on the unicursal
problem, we can decompose C into a set of edge-disjoint paths which establishes a
pairwise correspondence among the vertices of odd degree of G. Therefore, C is
an odd-vertex pairing.

REFERENCE

1] F. HADLOCK, Finding a maximum cut o]a planar graph in polynomial time, this Journal, 4 (1975),
pp. 221-225.