GRAPH THEORY

Unit 3

Planar Graphs: Combinatorial Vs Geometric Graphs; Planar Graph;

Kuratowski's Graphs; Detection of Planarity; Geometric Dual;
Thickness and Crossings.
COMBINATORIAL VS GEOMETRIC GRAPHS
KURATOWSKI’S TWO GRAPH

Fig. Building up of the five-vertex complete graph

Have a circuit going from v1 to v2 to v3 to v4 to v5 to v1—that is, a pentagon.
Fig. (a). This pentagon must divide the plane of the paper into two regions, one inside and
the other outside (Jordan curve theorem). Since vertex v1 is to be connected to v3 by means
of an edge, this edge may be drawn inside or outside the pentagon (without intersecting the
five edges drawn previously). Suppose that we choose to draw a line from v1 to v3 inside the
pentagon.
Fig.(b). (If we choose outside, we end up with the same argument.) Now we have to draw an
edge from v2 to v4 and another one from v2 to v5. Since neither of these edges can be drawn
inside the pentagon without crossing over the edge already drawn, we draw both these edges
outside the pentagon.
Fig. (c). The edge connecting v3 and v5 cannot be drawn outside the pentagon without
crossing the edge between v2 and v4. Therefore, v3 and v5 have to be connected with an
edge inside the pentagon.
Fig.(d). Now we have yet to draw an edge between v1 and v4. This edge cannot be placed
inside or outside the pentagon without a crossover. Thus the graph cannot be embedded in
a plane.
Fig.(e). A complete graph with five vertices is the first of the two graphs of Kuratowski.
The second graph of Kuratowski is a regular connected graph with six vertices and nine
edges, shown in its two common geometric representations in Figs. (a) and (b), where it is
fairly easy to see that the graphs are isomorphic.
Employing visual geometric arguments similar to those used, it can be shown that the
second graph of Kuratowski is also nonplanar.
DETECTION OF PLANARITY
investigate only simple, connected, nonseparable graphs of at least five vertices and with
every vertex of degree three or more. Next, we can check to see if e ≤ 3n − 6. If this inequality
is not satisfied, the graph Hi is nonplanar. If the inequality is satisfied, we have to test the
graph further and, with this, we come to Kuratowski’s theorem,
Homeomorphic Graphs: Two graphs are said to be homeomorphic if one graph can be
obtained from the other by the creation of edges in series (i.e., by insertion of vertices of
degree two) or by the merger of edges in series. The three graphs in Fig. 5-8 are
homeomorphic to each other, for instance. A graph G is planar if and only if every graph that
is homeomorphic to G is planar.

There have been several alternative characterizations of a planar graph. One of these
characterizations, the existence of a dual graph,
DUAL GRAPH
DUALITY PROPERTIES
GEOMETRIC DUAL

If two regions Fi and Fj are adjacent (i.e., have a common edge), draw a line joining points pi
and pj that intersects the common edge between Fi and Fj exactly once. If there is more than
one edge common between Fi and Fj, draw one line between points pi and pj for each of the
common edges. For an edge e lying entirely in one region, say Fk, draw a self-loop at point pk
intersecting e exactly once