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Kneser graph 8 languages

For the Kneser neighborhood graph of unimodular lattices, see Niemeier lattice.

In graph theory, the Kneser graph K(n, k)

Kneser graph
(alternatively KGn,k) is the graph whose vertices
correspond to the k-element subsets of a set of n
elements, and where two vertices are adjacent if and
only if the two corresponding sets are disjoint. Kneser
graphs are named after Martin Kneser, who first
investigated them in 1956.

Examples ​[ edit ]

The Kneser graph K(n, 1) is the complete graph on n The Kneser graph K(5, 2),
vertices. isomorphic to the Petersen graph
Named after Martin Kneser
The Kneser graph K(n, 2) is the complement of the
Vertices
line graph of the complete graph on n vertices.

The Kneser graph K(2n − 1, n − 1) is the odd graph Edges

On; in particular O3 = K(5, 2) is the Petersen graph
(see top right figure). Chromatic
number
The Kneser graph O4 = K(7, 3), visualized on the
Properties -regular
right.
arc-transitive
Notation K(n, k), KGn,k.
Properties ​[ edit ]
Table of graphs and parameters

Basic properties ​[ edit ]

The Kneser graph has vertices. Each vertex has exactly neighbors.

The Kneser graph is vertex transitive and arc transitive. When , the Kneser graph is a
strongly regular graph, with parameters . However, it is not strongly

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regular when , as different pairs of nonadjacent vertices
have different numbers of common neighbors depending on the
size of the intersection of the corresponding pairs of sets.

Because Kneser graphs are regular and edge-transitive, their

vertex connectivity equals their degree, except for
which is disconnected. More precisely, the connectivity of
is the same as the number of neighbors per
Kneser graph O4 = K(7, 3)
vertex.[1]

Chromatic number ​[ edit ]

As Kneser (1956) conjectured, the chromatic number of the Kneser graph for is
exactly n − 2k + 2; for instance, the Petersen graph requires three colors in any proper coloring.
This conjecture was proved in several ways.

László Lovász proved this in 1978 using topological methods,[2] giving rise to the field of
topological combinatorics.
Soon thereafter Imre Bárány gave a simple proof, using the Borsuk–Ulam theorem and a lemma
of David Gale.[3]
Joshua E. Greene won the 2002 Morgan Prize for outstanding undergraduate research for his
further-simplified but still topological proof.[4]
In 2004, Jiří Matoušek found a purely combinatorial proof.[5]

In contrast, the fractional chromatic number of these graphs is .[6] When ,

has no edges and its chromatic number is 1.

Hamiltonian cycles ​[ edit ]

It is well-known that the Petersen graph is not Hamiltonian, but it was long conjectured that this was
the sole exception and that every other connected Kneser graph K(n, k) is Hamiltonian.

In 2003, Chen showed that the Kneser graph K(n, k) contains a Hamiltonian cycle if[7]

Since

holds for all , this condition is satisfied if

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Around the same time, Shields showed (computationally) that, except the Petersen graph, all
connected Kneser graphs K(n, k) with n ≤ 27 are Hamiltonian.[8]

In 2021, Mütze, Nummenpalo, and Walczak proved that the Kneser graph K(n, k) contains a
Hamiltonian cycle if there exists a non-negative integer such that .[9] In particular,
the odd graph On has a Hamiltonian cycle if n ≥ 4. Finally, in 2023, Merino, Mütze and Namrata
completed the proof of the conjecture.[10]

Cliques ​[ edit ]

When n < 3k, the Kneser graph K(n, k) contains no triangles. More generally, when n < ck it does
not contain cliques of size c, whereas it does contain such cliques when n ≥ ck. Moreover, although
the Kneser graph always contains cycles of length four whenever n ≥ 2k + 2, for values of n close
to 2k the shortest odd cycle may have variable length.[11]

Diameter ​[ edit ]

The diameter of a connected Kneser graph K(n, k) is[12]

Spectrum ​[ edit ]

The spectrum of the Kneser graph K(n, k) consists of k + 1 distinct eigenvalues:

Moreover occurs with multiplicity for and has multiplicity 1.[13]

Independence number ​[ edit ]

The Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem states that the independence number of the Kneser graph K(n, k)
for is

Related graphs ​[ edit ]

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The Johnson graph J(n, k) is the graph whose vertices are the k-element subsets of an n-element
set, two vertices being adjacent when they meet in a (k − 1)-element set. The Johnson graph
J(n, 2) is the complement of the Kneser graph K(n, 2). Johnson graphs are closely related to the
Johnson scheme, both of which are named after Selmer M. Johnson.

The generalized Kneser graph K(n, k, s) has the same vertex set as the Kneser graph K(n, k),
but connects two vertices whenever they correspond to sets that intersect in s or fewer items.[11]
Thus K(n, k, 0) = K(n, k).

The bipartite Kneser graph H(n, k) has as vertices the sets of k and n − k items drawn from a
collection of n elements. Two vertices are connected by an edge whenever one set is a subset of
the other. Like the Kneser graph it is vertex transitive with degree The bipartite Kneser
graph can be formed as a bipartite double cover of K(n, k) in which one makes two copies of each
vertex and replaces each edge by a pair of edges connecting corresponding pairs of vertices.[14]
The bipartite Kneser graph H(5, 2) is the Desargues graph and the bipartite Kneser graph H(n, 1)
is a crown graph.

References ​[ edit ]

Notes ​[ edit ]

1. ^ Watkins (1970).
2. ^ Lovász (1978).
3. ^ Bárány (1978).
4. ^ Greene (2002).
5. ^ Matoušek (2004).
6. ^ Godsil & Meagher (2015).
7. ^ Chen (2003).
8. ^ Shields (2004).
9. ^ Mütze, Nummenpalo & Walczak (2021).
10. ^ Merino, Mütze & Namrata (2023).
11. ^ a b Denley (1997).
12. ^ Valencia-Pabon & Vera (2005).
13. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.math.caltech.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March
2012. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
14. ^ Simpson (1991).

Works cited ​[ edit ]

Bárány, Imre (1978), "A short proof of Kneser's conjecture", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, 25
(3): 325–326, doi:10.1016/0097-3165(78)90023-7 , MR 0514626

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 Chen, Ya-Chen (2003), "Triangle-free Hamiltonian Kneser graphs", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series
B, 89 (1): 1–16, doi:10.1016/S0095-8956(03)00040-6 , MR 1999733
Denley, Tristan (1997), "The odd girth of the generalised Kneser graph", European Journal of
Combinatorics, 18 (6): 607–611, doi:10.1006/eujc.1996.0122 , MR 1468332
Godsil, Christopher; Meagher, Karen (2015), Erdős–Ko–Rado Theorems: Algebraic Approaches ,
Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics, Cambridge University Press, p. 43, ISBN 9781107128446
Greene, Joshua E. (2002), "A new short proof of Kneser's conjecture", American Mathematical Monthly,
109 (10): 918–920, doi:10.2307/3072460 , JSTOR 3072460 , MR 1941810
Kneser, Martin (1956), "Aufgabe 360", Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, 58 (2): 27
Lovász, László (1978), "Kneser's conjecture, chromatic number, and homotopy", Journal of Combinatorial
Theory, Series A, 25 (3): 319–324, doi:10.1016/0097-3165(78)90022-5 , hdl:10338.dmlcz/126050 ,
MR 0514625
Matoušek, Jiří (2004), "A combinatorial proof of Kneser's conjecture", Combinatorica, 24 (1): 163–170,
doi:10.1007/s00493-004-0011-1 , hdl:20.500.11850/50671 , MR 2057690 , S2CID 42583803
Mütze, Torsten; Nummenpalo, Jerri; Walczak, Bartosz (2021) [STOC 2018], "Sparse Kneser graphs are
Hamiltonian", Journal of the London Mathematical Society, 103 (4), New York: 912–919,
arXiv:1711.01636 , doi:10.1112/jlms.12406 , MR 3826304
Merino, Arturo; Mütze, Torsten; Namrata (2023), "Kneser graphs are Hamiltonian", Proceedings of the 55th
Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 963–970, arXiv:2212.03918 ,
doi:10.1145/3564246.3585137 , ISBN 978-1-4503-9913-5
Shields, Ian Beaumont (2004), Hamilton Cycle Heuristics in Hard Graphs , Ph.D. thesis, North Carolina
State University, archived from the original on 2006-09-17, retrieved 2006-10-01
Simpson, J. E. (1991), "Hamiltonian bipartite graphs", Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Southeastern
Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing (Baton Rouge, LA, 1991), Congressus
Numerantium, vol. 85, pp. 97–110, MR 1152123
Valencia-Pabon, Mario; Vera, Juan-Carlos (2005), "On the diameter of Kneser graphs", Discrete
Mathematics, 305 (1–3): 383–385, doi:10.1016/j.disc.2005.10.001 , MR 2186709
Watkins, Mark E. (1970), "Connectivity of transitive graphs", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, 8: 23–29,
doi:10.1016/S0021-9800(70)80005-9 , MR 0266804

External links ​[ edit ]

Weisstein, Eric W. "Kneser Graph" . MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Odd Graph" . MathWorld.

Categories: Parametric families of graphs Regular graphs

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