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homework-06-basic-graph-theory

Uploaded by

atharvasghugare
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Mathematical Foundations

of
Computer Science
CS 499, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Dominik Scheder

6 Graph Theory Basics


• Homework assignment published on Monday, 2018-04-02.

• Submit first solutions and questions by Sunday, 2018-04-08, 12:00, by


email to [email protected] and to the TAs.

• You will receive feedback by Wednesday, 2018-04-11.

• Submit final solution by Sunday, 2018-04-15 to me and the TAs.

Let G = (V, E) and H = (V ′ , E ′ ) be two graphs. A graph isomorphism


from G to H is a bijective function f : V → V ′ such that for all u, v ∈ V
it holds that {u, v} ∈ E if and only if {f (u), f (v)} ∈ E ′ . If such a function
exists, we write G ∼ = H and say that G and H are isomorphic. In other
words, G and H being isomorphic means that they are identical up to the
names of its vertices.
Obviously, every graph G is isomorphic to itself, because the identity
function f (u) = u is an isomorphism. However, there might be several
isomorphisms f from G to G itself. We call such an isomorphism from G to
itself an automorphism of G.

Exercise 6.1. For each of the graphs below, compute the number of auto-
morphisms it has.

1
Justify your answer!

Solution.

1. The number of automorphisms is 2. We denote the vertices v1 , v2 , v3 , v4


from the left side to the right side, which itself is an automorphisms.
The other automorphism is to denote the vertices from the right to the
left.

2. The number of automorphisms is 2×6 = 12. For each vertex, we denote


it v1 and number the remaining vertex clockwise or anticlockwise in
order, all of which are automorphisms.

3. The number of automorphisms is 8×6 = 48. For each vertex, we denote


it v0 , and its adjacent three vertices v1 , v2 , v3 , which has 3! = 6 choices.
Each selection can form an automorphism, thus the total number is 48.

■
Consider the n-dimensional Hamming cube Hn . This is the graph with
vertex set {0, 1}n , and two vertices x, y ∈ {0, 1}n are connected by an edge
if they differ in exactly one edge. For example, the right-most graph in the
figure above is H3 .

Exercise 6.2. Show that Hn has exactly 2n · n! automorphisms. Be careful:


it is easy to construct 2n · n! different automorphisms. It is more difficult to
show that there are no automorphisms other than those.

Proof.

• There are at least 2n · n! automorphisms. For each vertex we denote it


v0 , and denote its adjacent vertices v1 , v2 , . . . , vn , which has n! choice.
All 2n · n! will at least form one automorphism.

2
• There are no more than 2n · n! automorphisms. If there are more than
2n ·n! automorphisms, then after we choose v0 , v1 , v2 , . . . , vn , we can still
find more than one automorphism when numbering vn+1 , vn+2 , . . . , v2n −1 .
Consider the n-dimensional Hamming cube as a n-dimensional Eu-
clidean space, each vertex equals to a point in the Euclidean space
with the coordinates (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) (xi = 1 or 0 ).
First we choose v0 , we denote it the point (0, 0, 0, . . . , 0), namely, the
origin of the Euclidean space.
After choosing the adjacent vertices v1 , . . . , vn , we have chosen the ver-
tices corresponding to (1, 0, 0, . . . , 0), (0, 1, 0, . . . , 0) · · · (0, 0, 0, . . . , 1),
each of that form a unit vector with v0 : (v0 , v1 ), (v0 , v2 ) · · · (v0 , vn ).
All the n vectors form a basis of the Euclidean space.
Once we choose a origin and a basis of the Euclidean space, all 2n
points’ coordinates are fixed, which means that the way to number all
the vertices is also fixed. Hence there exists no more automorphisms.

A graph G is called asymmetric if the identity function f (u) = u is the


only automorphism of G. That is, if G has exactly one automorphism.
Exercise 6.3. Give an example of an asymmetric graph on six vertices.

Solution. ■
Exercise 6.4. Find an asymmetric tree.

Solution. ■

3
( ( ) )
For a graph G = (V, E), let Ḡ := V, V2 \ E denote its complement
graph.

A graph H on six vertices Its complement H̄.

We call a graph self-complementary if G ∼


= Ḡ. The above graph is not self-
complementary. Here is an example of a self-complementary graph:

The pentagon G. Ḡ, the pentagram.

Exercise 6.5. Show that there is no self-complementary graph on 999 ver-


tices.
Proof. A complete graph on 999 vertices has 999 × 998/2 = 498501 edges,
which cannot be divide by 2, that is, the edges cannot be divide into two
parts with the same number of edges.
Exercise 6.6. Characterize the natural numbers n for which there is a self-
complementary graph G on n vertices. That is, state and prove a theorem
of the form “There is a self-complementary graph on n vertices if and only
if n <put some simple criterion here>.”
Theorem. There is a self-complementary graph on n vertices if and only if
n mod 4 = 0 or n mod 4 = 1.
Proof.

• If n mod 4 ̸= 0 and n mod 4 ̸= 1, the number of edges of the complete


graph n(n − 1)/2/2 is not an integer, namely the edges of the complete
graph cannot be divide into two parts with the same number of edges.
Hence there isn’t any self-complementary graph on n vertices.

4
• If n mod 4 = 0, that is n = 4k, where k is a positive integer. we
denote an graph Gk containing k vertices whose complement is GCk.
Now we form the following graph G on n vertices

The graph G contains four induced subgraphs Gk , Gk , GC C


k , Gk . Between
some subgraphs there are edges between each vertex of two subgraphs,
whose total number is k 2 .
The complementary graph GC is as follows. Obviously, GC and G are
isomorphic.

• If n mod 4 = 1, that is n = 4k + 1, where k is a positive integer.


Based on the graph we formed when n mod 4 = 1, we add one vertex
′
to form a new graph G′ on 4k + 1 vertices and its complement GC .
′
Similarly, G′ and GC are isomorphic.

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