UNIT 1

BASIC PROPERTIES OF GRAPH

Q1. What is a Graph?
Ans. A graph is a collection of points called ‘vertices’ and a collection of lines called
‘edges’, each of which joins either a pair of points or a single point to itself. E ach
point is called a vertex, and the curve joining any pair is called an edge in a graph. For
example - a road map which shows towns as vertices and the roads joining them as
edges.
Mathematically for every edge e of a graph we define a set {v1, v2} of vertices
which specifies that e joins vertices v1 and v2, where of course we need to allow
the possibility that v1 = v2. Now this set {v1, v2}, which we denote by δ(e), is a
subset of the set of vertices. Therefore δ(e) is an element of the power set of the
vertex set.
An undirected graph G comprises:
(i) a finite non-empty set V of vertices,
(ii) a finite set E of edges, and
(iii) a function δ : E → (V ) such that, for every edge e, δ(e) is a
one- or two-element subset of V .
The edge e is said to join the element(s) of δ(e).

Clearly Graph G has vertex set {v1, v2, v3, v4} and edges
set {e1, e2, e3, e4, e5}. The function δ : E → (v) is defined by
δ : e1 _→ {v1}
δ : e2 _→ {v1, v2}
δ : e3 _→ {v1, v3}
δ : e4 _→ {v2, v3}
δ : e5 _→ {v2, v3}.
This simply indicates that e1 joins vertex v1 to itself, e2 joins vertices v1 and v2,
etc.
We emphasize that an edge may join a vertex to itself, as in the case of e1, and a
vertex may be connected to no edges at all, as in the case of v4. Also note that a
given pair of vertices may be joined by more than one edge; in this example the
edges e4 and e5 both connect the vertices v2 and v3.
 Definitions:
(i) A pair of vertices v and w are adjacent if there exists an edge e joining them.
In this case we say both v and w are incident to e and also that e is incident to v
and to w.
(ii) The edges e1, e2, . . . , en are adjacent if they have at least one vertex in
common.
(iii) The degree or valency, deg(v), of a vertex v is the number of edges which are
incident to v. (Unless stated otherwise, a loop joining v to itself counts two
towards the degree of v.) A graph in which every vertex has the same degree r is
called regular (with degree r) or simply r-regular.

In the above figure the vertices v1 and v2 are adjacent, because the edge e2 joins
them. Similarly v1 and v3 are adjacent, as are v2 and v3. The vertex v4 is adjacent
to no other vertex.
Edges e1, e2 and e3 are adjacent, since they all meet at vertex v1. Similarly e2,
e4, e5 are adjacent, as are e3, e4, e5.
Note that only pairs of vertices may be adjacent, but any number of edges
can be adjacent.
The degrees of the four vertices are given in the following table.

Q2. What is a loop and multigraph?

Ans. A loop is an edge whose endpoints are equal i.e., an edge joining a vertex to it self
is called a loop. We say that the graph has multiple edges if in the graph two or
more edges joining the same pair of vertices.Andthe graph with parallel edges is
called multigraph.
Q3. What is a simple graph?

Ans. A graph with no loops or multiple edges is called a simple graph. We specify a
simple graph by its set of vertices and set of edges, treating the edge set as a set of
unordered pairs of vertices and write e = uv (or e = vu) for an edge e with
endpoints u and v.

When u and v are endpoints of an edge, they are adjacent and are neighbors.

Q4. What are adjacent vertices and adjacent edges?

Ans. If e is an edge joining the vertices u and v of a graph G=(V,E), we will denote it
as uv. In this case, u and v are called adjacent vertices (or neighbours), and are
the endpoints of e. We also say that e is incident with u and v.
If distinct edges e1 and e2 of G have at least one vertex in common, then e1 and
e2 are called adjacent edges.

Q5 What is a complete graph?

Ans. A complete graph is a graph in which every two distinct vertices are joined by
exactly one edge. The complete graph with n vertices is denoted by Kn.

The following are the examples of complete graphs.

Q6. What is a cycle graph?

Ans. A cycle graph is a graph consisting of a single cycle. The cycle graph with n
vertices is denoted by Cn. A cycle is a circuit in which the only repeated vertex is
the first vertex, which is the same as the last vetex.

The following are the examples of cyclic graphs.

Q7. What is a degree?

Ans. Let G be a graph with loops, and let v be a vertex of G. The degree of v is the
number of edges meeting at v, and is denoted by deg(v).

for example, consider, the following graph G

The graph G has deg(u) = 2, deg(v) = 3, deg(w) = 4 and deg(z) = 1.

Q8. What is a regular graph?

Ans. A graph is regular if all the vertices of G have the same degree. In particular, if
the degree of each vertex is r, the G is regular of degree r.
Q9. What is Handshaking Theorem?

Ans. In any graph, the sum of all the vertex-degree is equal to twice the
number of edges.

Proof Since each edge has two ends, it must contribute exactly 2 to the sum of
the degrees. The result follows immediately.

The Following are the consequences of the Handshaking lemma.

1. In any graph, the sum of all the vertex-degree is an even number.

2. In any graph, the number of vertices of odd degree is even.
3. If G is a graph which has n vertices and is regular of degree r, then G has
exactly 1/2 nr edges.

Q10. What is an Isomorphic Graph?

Ans. Two graph G and H are isomorphic if H can be obtained from G by relabeling the
vertices - that is, if there is a one-to-one correspondence between the vertices of G
and those of H, such that the number of edges joining any pair of vertices in G is
equal to the number of edges joining the corresponding pair of vertices in H. For
example, two unlabeled graphs, such as
 are isomorphic if labels can be attached to their vertices so that they become the
same graph.

The word isomorphic derives from the Greek for same and form.

Q11. What is a Subgraph?

Ans. Let G be a graph with vertex set V(G) and edge-list E(G). A subgraph of G is a
graph all of whose vertices belong to V(G) and all of whose edges belong to E(G).
For example, if G is the connected graph below:
where V(G) = {u, v, w, z} and E(G) = (uv, uw, vv, vw, wz, wz} then the following
four graphs are subgraphs of G.