Planarity

Research Project
Submitted to the Department of Mathematics in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of BSc. in
Mathematics

By:
Ala Badraddin Ali

Supervised by:
L.Amal H. Nadir

April -2023
 Certification of the Supervisor

I certify that this work was prepared under my supervision at the Department of
Mathematics / College of Education / Salahaddin University- Erbil in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of philosophy of
Science in Mathematics.

Signature:

Supervisor: L. Amal H. Nadir

Scientific grade: Assistant Lecturer

Date: 6 / 4 /2023

In view of available recommendations, I forward this word for debate by the

examining committee.

Signature:

Name: Dr. Rashad Rashid Haji

Scientific grade: Assistant Professor

Chairman of the Mathematics Department

Date: 6 / 4 /2023

i
 Acknowledgment

First of all I would like to thanks God for helping me to complete this
project with success.

Secondly, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor Amal

Hadi, it has been great honor to be his student.

It is great pleasure for me to undertake this project I have taken efforts

however it would not have been possible without the support and help of many
individuals.

Also I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents and special

friend Sara Shakhawan .

My thanks appreciations go to Mathematical Department and all my valuable

teachers.

ii
 Abstract

In this work we study planarity in graph theory with providing some

examples.

iii
Table of Contents

Certification of the Supervisor............................................................................. i

Acknowledgment ............................................................................................... ii
Abstract ............................................................................................................. iii
Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1
Chapter One ....................................................................................................... 2
Literature Review ............................................................................................ 2
Chapter Two....................................................................................................... 6
Planarity .......................................................................................................... 6
References........................................................................................................ 11
‫ پوخته‬.................................................................................................................... a

iv
 Introduction

Graphs serve as mathematical models to analyze many concrete real-world

problems successfully. Certain problems in physics, chemistry, communication
science, computer technology, genetics, psychology, sociology, and linguistics
can be formulated as problems in graph theory. Also, many branches of
mathematics, such as group theory, matrix theory, probability, and topology, have
close connections with graph theory.

A graph is a planar graph if it possible to represent it in the plane (that is, to

draw it as a diagram on a piece of paper) such that no two edges of the graph
intersect except possibly at a vertex to which they are both incident. Any such
drawing of a planar graph 𝐺 in a plane is a planar embedding of 𝐺. A plane graph
is a particular representation of a planar graph in the plane drawn in such a way
that any pair of edges meet only at their end vertices (if at all they meet).

This research project is consisting of three chapters:

chapter one contains some known definition, chapter two consists of planarity.

1
 Chapter One
Literature Review

Definition 1.1 (John, Jeffry, & Michael, 2008): A graph consists of two
finite sets, V and E. Each element of V is called vertex the elements of E, called
edges, are unorder pairs of vertices.

Definition 1.2( (Ray, 2013): A graph is called a plane graph if it can be drawn
on a plane in such a way that any two of its edges either meet only at their end
vertices or do not meet at all.

Example 1.1: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3,4,5,6}

a . 2 .c
1 3 5
𝐺1
b . d
.
4 6

𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 (1.1): 𝐺1 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

Definition 1.3 (C.Vasudev, 2006): A graph G is said to be a connected if every

pair of vertices in 𝐺 are connected.

Example 1.2: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3}

a
. 2
.b
1
c
. . 𝐺1
3 d

𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 (1.2): 𝐺1 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

2
 Definition 1.4 (C.Vasudev, 2006): A simple graph 𝐺 is said to be complete if
every vertex in 𝐺 is connected with every other vertex. If 𝐺 contains exactly one
edge between each pair of distinct vertices.

Example 1.3: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3}

.
a

1 2
b . 3
.c
𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 (1.3): 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

Definition 1.5 (C.Vasudev, 2006): A graph 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) is bipartite if the vertex

set 𝑉 can be partitioned into two subsets 𝑣1 and 𝑣2 such that every edge in 𝐸
connects a vertex in 𝑣1 and a vertex 𝑣2 (so that no edge in 𝐺 connects either two
vertices in 𝑣1 or two vertices in 𝑣2 ). ( 𝑣1 , 𝑣2) is called bipartition of 𝐺.

Example 1.4: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓, 𝑔} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7, ,8}

.
a 2 .
b 3 .c
8
1 4 7 .g 𝐺1
.
d 5
.e 6
.f
𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒(1. 4): 𝐺1 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

Definition 1.6 (C.Vasudev, 2006): The complete bipartite graph on 𝑚 and 𝑛

vertices, denoted 𝐾𝑚,𝑛 is the graph, whose vertex set is Partitioned into sets 𝑣1
with 𝑚 vertices and 𝑣2 with 𝑛 vertices in which there is an edge between each
pair of vertices 𝑣1 and 𝑣6 where 𝑣1 is in 𝑣1 and 𝑣2 is in 𝑣2.

3
 Example 1.5: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,,8}

a
. 2 .c 3 . b

1 8
5 6
.d 4 .e 7 .f
𝐾2,3

𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 (1.5): 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

Definition 1.7 (Ray, 2013): A (multi-) graph 𝐻 ′ is a subdivision of 𝐻, if one

can obtain 𝐻 ′ from 𝐻 by a series of edge subdivisions.

Example 1.6: Let 𝐺1 = (𝑉1 , 𝐸1 ) and 𝐺2 = (𝑉2 , 𝐸2 )be a graph such that:

a
. 1 .
d

4 6 .n 17
10

e.
8 .k
11 .l . 7
14 m 5 9
𝑉1 = {𝑎, 𝑑, 𝑒, ℎ, 𝑖, 𝑗, 𝑘, 𝑙, 𝑚, 𝑛} and

𝐸1 = {1,4,5,6,7,,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17} .h 13
.i 12 .j
𝐺1

4
 a
1 b 2 c 3 d
. . . .
4 6 .
n 10
17
e . 8 .k
.
16 f 11 .l . 7
15 g . m 5 9
𝑉2 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓, 𝑔, ℎ, 𝑖, 𝑗, 𝑘, 𝑙, 𝑚, 𝑛} and

𝐸2 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7, ,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17}
14 .
h 13
.i 12 .j
𝐺2

𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 (1.6): 𝐺2 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐺1

5
 Chapter Two
Planarity

Definition 2.1 (John, Jeffry, & Michael, 2008): A graph 𝐺 is said to be planar if
it can be drawn in the plane in such a way that pairs of edges intersect only at
vertices, if at all. If 𝐺 has no such representation, 𝐺 is called nonplanar.

Example 2.1: Let 𝐺1 = (𝑉1 , 𝐸1 )and 𝐺2 = (𝑉2 , 𝐸2 ) be two graphs such that:

𝑉1 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓} and 𝐸1 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7}

.
a
1
.
2 b
.
c 7 𝐺1
.
3 b
d 5
.e 6
.f
4
𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒(2.1): 𝐺1 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

.a

𝑉2 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓, 𝑖, 𝑗, 𝑘, 𝑙}
1 2 3
And

𝐸2 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}
.
b 4
a .f a 10
.
e

6
5 .
i
.l
𝐺2 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑛 − 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ
a
.j a k. a 9

7
8

.
c 𝐺2 .d

6
Definition 2.2 (Ray, 2013): A drowning of a geometric representation of a
graph on any surface is called embedding such that no edges intersect each
other.

Definition 2.3 (Ray, 2013): An embedding of a planar graph 𝐺 on a plane is

called a plane representation of 𝐺.

Example 2.2: Let 𝐺1 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,,8}

1
.
a
5 1 .a 6 7
8
. . . .i f. b. 9 . . i
b e 10 11
6 7f 8
e

2 9 4 2 11 10 5
.c 3 .d .c 3 .d 4 𝐺2
𝐺 1
𝐹𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒(2.2): 𝐺2 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐺1

Definition 2.4 (Ray, 2013): A plane representation of a graph divides the plane
into regions or faces. A region is characterized by the set of edges forming its
boundary.

Example 2.3: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓, 𝑖} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11}

a
. 2 .
c 6 .e
𝑅2 7 𝑅4 10
1 3 5 𝑅3 .f Figure (2.3): Is a region
𝑅1 8 𝑅5 11 𝑅6
b
. 4
.d 9
.i
The regions of 𝐺 are 𝑅1 , 𝑅2 ,𝑅3 , 𝑅4 , 𝑅5 , 𝑅6
7
 Euler's formula (Ray, 2013): A connected planar graph 𝐺 with 𝑛 vertices and 𝑒
number of edges has 𝑓 = (𝑒 − 𝑛 + 2) number of regions or faces.
Example 2.4: Let 𝐺 = (𝑉, 𝐸) be a graph such that:

𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓, 𝑖} and 𝐸 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11}

|𝑉| = 𝑛 = 7 |𝐸| = 𝑒 = 11
𝑎 . 2
.𝑐
𝑅=6 𝑅2 3 7
𝑅 = ( 𝑒 − 𝑛 + 2)
1
𝑅1 𝑖
4
𝑅 4 . 𝑒 𝑅6
.
8
6 𝑅5 11
= (11 − 7 + 2) .
𝑏
𝑅
5 3
9 𝑑 𝑓
. .
6=6 10

Kuratowski's two graph (Ray, 2013):

The complete graph 𝐾5 and the complete bipartite graph 𝐾3,3 are called
kuratowski's graph, after the polish mathematicion kazimierz kuratowski's who
found that 𝐾5 and 𝐾3,3 are non- planar.

Example 2.5: Let 𝐺1 = (𝑉1 , 𝐸1 ) and 𝐺2 = (𝑉2 , 𝐸2 )be a graph such that:

𝑉1 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒} and 𝐸1 = {1,2,3,4,5, 6,7,8,9}

𝑉2 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓 } and 𝐸2 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}

Kuratowski's first graph: Kuratowski's second graph:

.
a
a
. 2 4 .c 6 e.
1 5
5
.
b
6
.e 1 3 8 9

2
7 9
.b 7 .d .f
8 4

c
. 3
.d 𝐺2 = 𝐾3,3

𝐺1 = 𝐾5
8
Theorem 2.5 (Ray, 2013): In any simple planar graph 𝐺 with 𝑓 regions, 𝑛
vertices and 𝑒 edges where 𝑛 ≥ 3 the following inequalities must hold

(I) 𝑒 ≥ 3𝑓/2

(II) 𝑒 ≤ 3𝑛 − 6.

Corollary 1 (Ray, 2013): prove that 𝐾5 is a non planar graph.

Proof: The graph 𝐾5 is a complete graph with five vertices.

Here 𝑛 = 5
𝑛(𝑛−1)
𝑒=
2

𝑒 = 10

From the above theorem 2

𝑒 ≤ 3𝑛 − 6

𝑒 ≤ 3×5−6 = 9

It is a contradiction, since here e=10

So, 𝐾5 is a non planar graph.

Corollary 2: Prove that 𝐾3,3 is a non planar graph.

Theorem 2.6 (Ray, 2013) :A graph is a planar if and only if it dose not have any
subdivision of 𝐾5 or 𝐾3,3 .

Example 2.7: Assume that 𝐺 a connected plane graph has 10 vertices each of
degree 3. How many regions?

Solution: Here 𝑛 = 10 and degree of each vertex is 3

∑ deg (𝑣 ) = 3 × 10 = 30

But ∑ 𝑑𝑒𝑔 (𝑣 ) = 2𝑒

30 = 2𝑒

𝑒 = 15

By Euler's formula, we have

9
 𝑛−𝑒+𝑟 = 2

10 − 15 + 𝑟 = 2

𝑟 =7.

Problem 2.8 (C.Vasudev, 2006): Prove that 𝐾4 is planar graph.

For 𝐾2,2 , we have 𝑣 = 4 and 𝑒 = 4 again in this case, the relation 𝑒 ≤ 3𝑣 − 6

4 ≤ 3 × 4 − 6 = 6 is satisfied

Hence both 𝐾4 and 𝐾2,2 are planar.

Problem 2.9 (C.Vasudev, 2006): Show that 𝐾𝑛 is a planar graph for 𝑛 ≤ 4 and
non- planar for 𝑛 ≥ 5.

Solution: A 𝐾4 graph can be drawn in the way as shown in the figure (2.4). This
dose not contain any false crossing of edges

Thus, it is a planar graph.

Graph 𝐾1 , 𝐾2 and 𝐾3 are by construction a planar graph, since they do not contain
a false crossing of edges. 𝐾5 is shown in figure (2.5).

Example 2.5: Let 𝐺1 = (𝑉1 , 𝐸1 ) and 𝐺2 = (𝑉2 , 𝐸2 )be a graph such that:

𝑉1 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑} and 𝐸1 = {1,2,3,4,5, 6}

𝑉2 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒} and 𝐸2 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}

6

.
a 1
.
b
1
.
a
5

2 5 4 𝐺1
b . 7 9 .e 𝐺2

.c .d 2
8 4
3
.
c 3
.d
6
Figure (2.5)
Figure (2.4)

10
References

[1] C.Carlson, S. (2022). Graph Theory. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

[2] C.Vasudev. (2006). Graph Theory With Applications . New Delhi: New Age
International.
[3] CHartarnd. G, L. (2016). Graph and Digraph. london: Taylor and Francis
group. LLc.
[4] John, M., Jeffry, L., & Michael, J. (2008). Combinatorics and Graph Theory.
New York: Springer.
[5] Jonathan, L. G., & Jay, Y. (2019). Graph THeory and it's Applications.
london: Taylor and Francis group.LLC.
[6] Ping Zhang, L. L. (2015). Graph and Digraphs. Chapman&Hall/CRC.
[7] Ray, S. S. (2013). Graph Theory With Algorithms And Its Applications. New
York: Springer.

11
 ‫پوخته‬

‫لهم کارەدا باس له پالنهرێتی گراف دەکهین بهخستنهرووی چهند پێناسه و نموونهیهک‪.‬‬

‫‪a‬‬