MAST30011 Graph Theory

Practical Class 1

PS1-1

Draw the multigraph that represents the Hampton Court Maze shown below. Have one vertex for the
start, one vertex for the destination, one vertex for each location where there are three different places
to walk, and one vertex for each dead-end. How many vertices are there. Have one edge for each passage
that joins two locations. How many edges are there? Write down the degree of each vertex. What is the
degree sequence of the graph? How many paths are there from the start to the destination?

Answer: The graph has 15 vertices and 15 edges. The degree sequence is

3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1.

There are two paths from the start to the destination.

PS1-2

How many edges are there in each of the following graphs: (a) the complete graph K10 (b) the complete
bipartite graph K4,9 (c) the hypercube Q4 (d) the wheel W8 (e) the Petersen graph?
Answer: (a) 10 (c) 21 (24 · 4) = 32 (d) 16 (e) 15


2 = 45 (b) 4 · 9 = 36

PS1-4

Let G be a graph which contains m vertices of degree m and n vertices of degree n. Prove that if G
contains an odd vertex, then every vertex of G is odd.
Proof: By the assumption and the Handshaking Theorem, we have
X
2|E(G)| = deg(v) = m2 + n2 .
v∈V (G)

Suppose that G contains an odd vertex. Then at least one of m and n is odd. Since 2|E(G)| is even, the
equation above implies that both m and n must be odd. Hence every vertex of G is odd.

PS1-5

Prove that every set of six people contains (at least) three mutual acquaintances or three mutual strangers.
Is it true that every set of five people has this property? How can this result be generalised?
Proof: Construct a graph G such that each of the six people corresponds to a vertex and two vertices
are adjacent if and only if the two persons are acquaintances. Obviously, this graph has order 6.

1
 Now the statement in the question can be restated as follows: In G either there are three vertices
which are mutually adjacent (that is, a cycle of length 3) or there are three vertices which are mutually
nonadjacent.
Fix a vertex v of G. Denote
V1 = N (v) (set of acquaintances of v)
V2 = V (G) − (N (v) ∪ {v}) (set of strangers of v).
Then V1 ∪ V2 = V (G) \ {v} and V1 ∩ V2 = ∅.
Since |V1 | + |V2 | = 5, either |V1 | ≥ 3 or |V2 | ≥ 3.
Case 1. Assume |V1 | ≥ 3 first.
If there exists a pair of adjacent vertices in V1 , say, u, w, then {v, u, w} is a triangle in G.
If any two vertices of V1 are nonadjacent, then since |V1 | ≥ 3 there are three vertices in V1 which are
mutually nonadjacent.
Case 2. Assume |V2 | ≥ 3 next.
If there exists a pair of nonadjacent vertices in V2 , say, u, w, then v, u, w are mutually nonadjacent.
If such a pair does not exist, then any two vertices of V2 are adjacent. Since |V2 | ≥ 3, this implies
that there are three vertices in V2 which are mutually adjacent.
In each case above, we have either a triangle or a set of three mutually nonadjacent vertices in G.
It is not true that every set of five people contains (at least) three mutual acquaintances or three
mutual strangers. That is, there exists at least one edge-colouring of K5 using two colours such that
there is no monochromatic triangle. For example, one may assign red colour to all edges on a 5-cycle in
K5 and assign blue colour to the remaining edges. Then there is no red or blue triangle in K5 .
Generalization of PS1-5: Ramsey theory
The result of PS1-5 can be restated as follows: If we colour the edges of a complete graph of order 6 by
two colours, say, red and blue, then there is either a red triangle or a blue triangle.
In general, Ramsey (1930) proved the following result: Let s, t ≥ 3 be fixed integers. If n is sufficiently
large, then when colouring the edges of the complete graph Kn of order n by red and blue, there always
exists a red Ks (i.e. with all edges coloured red) or a blue Kt (i.e. with all edges coloured blue).
The smallest integer n such that this holds is called the Ramsey number and is denoted by R(s, t).
It is notoriously difficult to determine R(s, t) for given integers s and t. Currently, this number is know
only for some small integers s and t. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsey\%27s_theorem
“Erdös asks us to imagine an alien force, vastly more powerful than us, landing on Earth and de-
manding the value of R(5, 5) or they will destroy our planet. In that case, he claims, we should marshal
all our computers and all our mathematicians and attempt to find the value. But suppose, instead, that
they ask for R(6, 6). In that case, he believes, we should attempt to destroy the aliens.” (Joel Spencer)
PS1-18
Let G be a graph. Let S(G) be the subdivision of G obtained by replacing each edge e = uv of G by a
new vertex ve , and joining ve to u and v. Show that if G is any nontrivial graph, then S(G) is bipartite.
Proof 1: Recall that a graph is bipartite if and only if it has no cycle of odd length (i.e. odd cycle).
For each edge e = uv of G, let e0 = uve and e00 = vve denote the two edges of S(G) obtained by
subdividing e. Since ve has degree 2 in S(G), if a cycle contains one of e0 and e00 , it must contain both
of them. This implies that the edges of a cycle of S(G) come in pairs. Hence any cycle of S(G) has an
even length. In other words, S(G) does not contain any odd cycle. Hence S(G) is bipartite.
Proof 2: Let X be the set of vertices in the original graph G, and Y the set of new vertices which
subdivide edges of G. That is,
X = V (G), Y = {ve : e ∈ E(G)}.
Then X ∪ Y = V (S(G)) and X ∩ Y = ∅. In other words, {X, Y } is a partition of V (S(G)).
By the definition of S(G), any two vertices in X are not adjacent in S(G) and any two vertices in Y
are not adjacent in S(G). Hence S(G) is a bipartite graph with bipartition {X, Y }.