CONNECTED COMPONENTS AND

SPANNING TREES
 If G is a connected undirected graph, then all
vertices of G will get visited on the first call to
BFS.

 If G is not connected then 2 calls are needed.

 Hence BFS can be used to determine whether G
is connected. The connected component can also
be got using BFT.
 If adjacency lists are used, a breadth first
traversal will obtain the connected components in
Θ(n+e) time.
 Another application of BFS is obtaining a
spanning tree for an undirected graph G.
 G has a spanning tree if G is connected. BFS
easily determines the existence of spanning trees.
Consider the set of edges (u,w) is used to reach
unvisited vertices w. These edges are called
forward edges.
 Let t denote the set of these forward edges.
 If G is connected, then t is a spanning tree of G.
 Spanning Trees
 Let G be a connected graph. A spanning tree in G
is a subgraph of G that includes all the vertices of
G and is also a tree. The edges of the trees are
called branches.
 Theorem:A graph is connected if and only if it has a
spanning tree.


 Proof Let G be a connected graph. Delete edges from

G that are not bridges until we get a connected subgraph
H in which each edge is a bridge. Then H is a spanning
tree. On the other hand, if there is a spanning tree in G,
there is a path between any pair of vertices in G; thus G
is connected.

 A tree T is a spanning tree of a connected graph
G(V<E) such that
1) Every vertex of G belongs to an edge in T &

2) The edges in T form a tree.

Take any vertex v as an initial partial tree and add
edges one by one so that each edge joins a new
vertex to the partial tree. If there are n vertices in
the graph we shall construct a spanning tree in
(n-1) steps.i.e . (n-1) edges are needed to be
added.
SPANNING TREES
 Spanning tree of a graph is a connected subgraph
in which there are no cycles.

A connected, Four of the spanning trees of the graph

undirected graph
FINDING A SPANNING TREE
 To find a spanning tree of a graph,
pick an initial node and call it part of the
spanning tree
do a search from the initial node:
each time you find a node that is not in
the spanning tree, add to the spanning
tree both the new node and the edge
you followed to get to it
 MINIMIZING COSTS
 Suppose you want to supply a set of houses (say,
in a new subdivision) with:
 electric power
 water
 sewage lines
 telephone lines
 To keep costs down, you could connect these
houses with a spanning tree (of, for example,
power lines)
 However, the houses are not all equal distances apart
 To reduce costs even further, you could connect
the houses with a minimum-cost spanning tree
10
 The connected components of a graph can be
obtained using DFT. Similarly the reflexive
transitive closure matrix of an undirected graph
can be found using DFT. A spanning tree can be
obtained using DFT is called depth first spanning
tree.

 Hence DFS and BFS are equally powerful .

MINIMUM-COST SPANNING TREES
 Suppose you have a connected undirected graph with a weight (or
cost) associated with each edge
 The cost of a spanning tree would be the sum of the costs of its edges
 A minimum-cost spanning tree is a spanning tree that has the lowest
cost
 Suppose you have a connected undirected graph with a weight (or
cost) associated with each edge
 The cost of a spanning tree would be the sum of the costs of its edges
 A minimum-cost spanning tree is a spanning tree that has the lowest
cost
 BFT can also be used to obtain the reflexive
transitive closure matrix of an undirected graph
G. If A* is this matrix, then A* (i,j) =1 if either i=j
or i≠j and I and j are in the same connected
component.

 The reflexive transitive closure of an undirected

graph G with n vertices and e edges can therefore
be computed in ө(n2) time and ө(n) space using
either adjacency lists or matrices
BICONNECTED COMPONENTS AND DFS
 A vertex v in a connected graph G is an
articulation point if and only if the deletion of
vertex v together with all edges incident to v
disconnects the graph into two or more non
empty components.
 A graph G is biconnected if and only if it contains
no articulation points.