Hamiltonian Graph

By

K. KARTHIKA
SAS – Mathematics
VIT, Vellore.
• A cycle passing through all the vertices of a graph is called a
Hamiltonian cycle.

• A graph containing a Hamiltonian cycle is called a Hamiltonian

graph.

• A path passing through all the vertices of a graph is called a

Hamiltonian path.

• A graph containing a Hamiltonian path is said to be traceable.

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Complete Graph

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Theorem 1
In a complete graph with n vertices there are (n − 1)/2 edge-disjoint
Hamiltonian cycles, if n is an odd number, n ≥ 3.
Proof
A complete graph G of n vertices has n ( n−1 ) / 2 edges and a
Hamiltonian cycle in G contains n edges. Therefore the number of
edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles in G cannot exceed (n − 1)/2.
When n is odd, we show there are (n − 1)/2 edge-disjoint
Hamiltonian cycles.

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• Keeping the vertices fixed on a circle, rotate the polygonal pattern
clockwise by 360/ n−1 , 2. 360/ n−1 ,..., n−3 /2 . 360/ n−1 degrees.
• We see that each rotation produces a Hamiltonian cycle that has no
edge in common with any of the previous ones.

• Therefore, there are (n−3)/2 new Hamiltonian cycles, all disjoint

from the one in Figure 1, and also edge-disjoint among themselves.

• Thus there are (n−1)/2 edge disjoint Hamiltonian cycles.

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Adjacency Matrix

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Incidence Matrix

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