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AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) –
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Distances in zero-divisor and total graphs from commutative rings –

A survey
T. Tamizh Chelvam a,∗ , T. Asir b
a Department of Mathematics, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli 627012, Tamil Nadu, India
b Department of Mathematics(DDE), Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai 625 021, Tamil Nadu, India

Received 20 June 2015; accepted 23 May 2016

Available online xxxx

Abstract

There are so many ways to construct graphs from algebraic structures. Most popular constructions are Cayley graphs,
commuting graphs and non-commuting graphs from finite groups and zero-divisor graphs and total graphs from commutative
rings. For a commutative ring R with non-zero identity, we denote the set of zero-divisors and unit elements of R by Z (R) and
U (R), respectively. One of the associated graphs to a ring R is the zero-divisor graph; it is a simple graph with vertex set Z (R)\{0},
and two vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if x y = 0. This graph was first introduced by Beck, where all the elements of
R are considered as the vertices. Anderson and Badawi, introduced the total graph of R, as the simple graph with all elements of
R as vertices, and two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if x + y ∈ Z (R). For a given graph G, the concept of
connectedness, diameter and girth are always of great interest. Several authors extensively studied about the zero-divisor and total
graphs from commutative rings. In this paper, we present a survey of results obtained with regard to distances in zero-divisor and
total graphs.
⃝c 2016 Kalasalingam University. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Commutative ring; Zero-divisor graph; Total graph; Domination

1. Introduction

There are so many ways to associate a graph with an algebraic structure. Some of them to mention are Cayley
graphs from groups, non-commutating graph of a group, power graph of a finite group, zero-divisor graph of a ring,
total graph of a ring, unit graph of a ring, co-maximal graph of a ring, annihilating ideal graph of a ring and torsion
graph over modules. The study about these graphs constructed out of groups and rings deal with interplay between
the algebraic properties and the graph theoretical properties of the corresponding graph.

Peer review under responsibility of Kalasalingam University.

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (T. Tamizh Chelvam), [email protected] (T. Asir).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.akcej.2016.11.009
0972-8600/⃝ c 2016 Kalasalingam University. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) –

Fig. 1. Γ0 (Z6 ).

Fig. 2. Γ (Z6 ).

Let R be a commutative ring, Z (R) be its set of all zero-divisors. According to I. Kaplansky [1], Z (R) = ∪Pi
where each Pi is a prime ideal of R. A non-zero element x ∈ R is said to be regular if x is not a zero-divisor in R.
The set of all regular elements is denoted by Reg(R). i.e., Reg(R) = R − Z (R). A commutative ring R is said to be
Noetherian if every ascending sequence of ideals in R is finite. The idea of a graph associated to zero-divisors of a
commutative ring was introduced by I. Beck [2] in 1988. He defined a graph, denoted by Γ0 (R), with all the elements
of a ring as vertices of the graph and two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent provided x y = 0. After introducing
zero-divisor graph, I. Beck made a conjecture that the clique number and chromatic number of Γ0 (R) are equal. In
1993, D.D Anderson et al. [3] settled Beck’s conjecture in negative by providing a counter example. The definition
along with name for zero-divisor graph was first introduced by D.F Anderson and P.S Livingston [4] in 1999, after
modifying the definition of I. Beck. The modified definition of zero-divisor graph is given below:

Definition 1.1 ([4]). Let R be a commutative ring and Z (R) be the set of zero divisors of R. The zero-divisor graph
of R, denoted by Γ (R), is the undirected graph with vertex set Z (R)∗ and two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if
x y = 0.
It may be noted that in the original definition, I. Beck [2] took all elements of the ring as vertices of his graph. The
following examples illustrate the difference between definitions of I. Beck and D.F. Anderson.

Example 1.2. Let R = Z6 = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Then Z (R) = {0, 2, 3, 4} and the corresponding graphs defined by I.
Beck and D.F. Anderson given in Figs. 1 and 2.
Note that non-isomorphic rings may have the same zero-divisor graph. For example, Γ (Z25 ) ∼ = Γ (Z5 [x]/(x 2 ))
even though Z25 is not isomorphic to Z5 [x]/(x ). Note that the graph P3 , the path of length 3, cannot be realized as
2

Γ (R) [4] for any ring R. During the last twenty years, many research articles [5–12] have been published on zero-
divisor graphs of commutative rings. Moreover, zero-divisor graphs were defined and studied for non-commutative
rings, near rings, semi-groups, modules, lattices and posets. In variation to the concept of zero-divisor graphs, D.F.
Anderson and A. Badawi [13] introduced the total graph of a commutative ring and the definition for the same is given
below.
Definition 1.3 ([13]). The total graph of R, denoted by TΓ (R), is the undirected graph whose vertices are the
elements in R such that two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if x + y ∈ Z (R). The subgraphs of TΓ (R) induced
by Reg(R) and Z (R) are denoted by RegΓ (R) and Z Γ (R) respectively.

Example 1.4. Some examples for the total graph are given here in Figs. 3 and 4.
In recent years, many research articles have been published on total graph of rings. More specifically, one can
refer [14–21] for studies about the total graph of a commutative ring.
Let G = (V, E) be a graph. We say that G is connected if there is a path between any two distinct vertices of G,
otherwise G is disconnected. At the other extreme, we say that G is totally disconnected if no two vertices of G are
 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) – 3

Fig. 3. TΓ (Z6 ).

Fig. 4. TΓ (Z9 ).

adjacent. For vertices x and y of G, the length of a shortest path from x to y is denoted by d(x, y) if a path from x
to y exists. Also we define d(x, x) = 0 and d(x, y) = ∞ if there is no path between x and y. The diameter of G is
diam(G) = sup {d(x, y) : x, y ∈ V (G)}. The girth of G, denoted by gr (G), is the length of a smallest cycle in G
(gr (G) = ∞ if G contains no cycles). Graphs G and H are said to be isomorphic to one another, written G ∼ = H , if
there exists a one-to-one correspondence f : V (G) → V (H ) such that for each pair x, y of vertices of G, x y ∈ E(G)
if and only if f (x) f (y) ∈ E(H ).

2. Girth of the zero divisor graph

In this section, we shall discuss about various results on the girth of the zero divisor graph of a commutative ring.
Note that if G contains a cycle, then gr (G) ≤ 2 diam(G) + 1. The next result shows that the zero-divisor graph of a
commutative ring is connected and have girth less than or equal to seven.

Theorem 2.1 ([4, Theorem 2.3]). Let R be a commutative ring. Then Γ (R) is connected and gr (Γ (R)) ≤ 7 whenever
Γ (R) contains a cycle.
The next result shows that g(Γ (R)) ≤ 4 whenever R is a commutative Artinian ring.

Theorem 2.2 ([4, Theorem 2.4]). Let R be a commutative Artinian ring (in particular, R could be a finite commutative
ring). If Γ (R) contains a cycle, then gr (Γ (R)) ≤ 4.
As per the proof given for the above theorem, a finite commutative ring R has gr (Γ (R)) = 4 if and only if either
R∼ = F × K for finite fields F and K with |F|, |K | ≥ 3, or R ∼ = F × A for F a finite field with |F| ≥ 3 and A a finite
ring with |Z (A)| = 2 (so either A ∼= Z4 or Z2 [X ]/(X 2 )). Also one may easily show that gr (Γ (R)) = ∞ if and only
if either |Γ (R)| ≤ 2, |Γ (R)| = 3 and Γ (R) is not complete, or R ∼ = Z2 × A for A a finite field or a finite ring with
|Z (A)| = 2.
D.F. Anderson et al. [4] conjectured that g(Γ (R)) ≤ 4 for any commutative ring R. S.B. Mulay [22] proved this
conjecture and M. Axtell et al. [23] provided a simple proof for the same.

Theorem 2.3 ([23, Theorem 2.2], [22, Theorem 1.4]). Let R be a commutative ring (not necessarily with identity). If
Γ (R) contains a cycle, then gr (Γ (R)) ≤ 4.
4 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) –

The upper bound in Theorem 2.3 can be achieved by the ring Z × Z. Thus gr (Γ (R)) = 3, 4 or ∞ and so we have
the following theorem.

Theorem 2.4 ([24, Theorem 2.3]). Let R be a commutative ring which is not an integral domain. Then exactly one
of the following holds:
(i) Γ (R) has a cycle of length 3 or 4 (i.e., gr (Γ (R)) ≤ 4);
(ii) Γ (R) is a star graph; or
(iii) R ∼= Z2 × Z4 or R ∼ = Z2 × Z2 [X ]/(X 2 ).

Remark 2.5. If Γ (R) is finite and gr (Γ (R)) = 4 (i.e., Γ (R) contains a rectangle, but no triangles), then either
R∼ = F1 × F2 and thus Γ (R) is complete bipartite or R ∼ = F1 × A, where Fi are finite fields with |Fi | ≥ 3 and A is
isomorphic to either Z4 or Z2 [X ]/(X 2 ) (as discussed in the paragraph below Theorem 2.2).
Now we present the results which characterize when Γ (R) has girth ≥ 4 in terms of the zero-divisor graph of total
quotient ring T (R) and Γ (R). Note that total quotient ring T (R) = R S where S = R \ Z (R). First we start with a
lemma which gives a relation between the girth of Γ (T (R)) and Γ (R).

Lemma 2.6 ([25, Lemma 2.1]). Let R be a commutative ring with total quotient ring T (R). Then gr (Γ (T (R))) =
gr (Γ (R)).
We next see when gr (Γ (R)) = 4. We have two cases, depending on whether or not R has any nonzero nilpotent
elements.
Theorem 2.7 ([25, Theorem 2.2]). The following statements are equivalent for a reduced commutative ring R:
(i) gr (Γ (R)) = 4;
(ii) T (R) = F1 × F2 , where each Fi is a field with |Fi | ≥ 3;
(iii) Γ (R) = K m,n with m, n ≥ 2.

Theorem 2.8 ([25, Theorem 2.3]). The following statements are equivalent for a commutative ring R with nil(R)
nonzero:
(i) gr (Γ (R)) = 4;
(ii) R ∼= D × B, where D is an integral domain with |D| ≥ 3 and B = Z4 or Z2 [X ]/(X 2 ) (Thus T (R) ∼
= T (D)× B);
(iii) Γ (R) = K m,3 with m ≥ 2.
Next we determine when gr (Γ (R)) = ∞. Again, we have two cases, depending on whether or not R is reduced.
Since gr (Γ (R)) = 3, 4 or ∞, we have also characterized when gr (Γ (R)) = 3.

Theorem 2.9 ([25, Theorem 2.4]). The following statements are equivalent for a reduced commutative ring R:
(i) Γ (R) is nonempty with gr (Γ (R)) = ∞;
(ii) T (R) = Z2 × K , where K is a field;
(iii) Γ (R) = K 1,n with n ≥ 1.

Theorem 2.10 ([25, Theorem 2.5]). The following statements are equivalent for a commutative ring R with nil(R)
nonzero:
(i) gr (Γ (R)) = ∞;
(ii) R =∼ B or R ∼ = Z2 × B, where B = Z4 or Z2 [X ]/(X 2 ), or Γ (R) is a star graph;
(iii) Γ (R) is a singleton, a K 1,3 or a K 1,n for some n ≥ 1.

Remark 2.11. (a) If R is finite, then T (R) = R; so Theorems 2.7–2.10 characterize which finite rings R have
gr (Γ (R)) = 4 or 1. For a finite R, the only case not explicitly handled above is when R is not reduced and Γ (R)
is a star graph (i.e., the third case in Theorem 2.7(ii)). In this case, necessarily |Γ (R)| ≤ 3; if Γ (R) = K 1,1 , then
R∼ = Z9 , or Z3 [x]/(x 2 ), and if Γ (R) = K 1,2 , then R ∼
= Z8 , Z2 [x]/(x 3 ), or Z4 [x]/(2x, x 2 − 2). Thus the finite graphs
K m,n , K 1,n , and K m,3 can be realized as a zero-divisor graph Γ (R) if and only if m = pi −1 and n = q j −1 for some
 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) – 5

primes p, q and integers i, j ≥ 1. If Γ (R) is an infinite star graph, then either R = ∼ Z2 × D for an integral domain D,
or nil(R) = {0, x}, where Z (R) = ann(x). Moreover, if Γ (R) = K m,n with m, n ≥ 2, then R is a subdirect sum of
two integral domains each with more than 2 elements.
(b) Let T (R) = R1 × R2 . If there are distinct 0 ̸= x, y  ∈ R1 with x y = 0, then gr (Γ (R)) = 3 since
(x, 0) − (y, 0) − (0, 1) − (x, 0) is a triangle. In particular, if R = α∈A K α is a direct product of fields (for example,
if R is a reduced Noetherian ring), then gr (Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if |A| ≥ 3.
(c) Note that if gr (Γ (R)) = 4, then |nil(R)| ≤ 2. Also, if gr (Γ (R)) = 1, then |nil(R)| ≤ 2, except for the
|Γ (R)| ≤ 3 case mentioned above in (a), where |nil(R)| = 3 or 4. In particular, |nil(R)| = 3 when R ∼ = Z9 or
Z3 [x]/(x 2 ), and |nil(R)| = 4 when R ∼ = Z8 , Z2 [x]/(x 3 ), or Z4 [x]/(2x, x 2 − 2).

3. Diameter of the zero-divisor graph

In this section, we are interested in the diameter of zero-divisor graphs. The first theorem in this section, shows that
the zero-divisor graphs have exceedingly small (≤ 3) diameter. Thus, for distinct x, y ∈ Z (R)∗ , either x y = 0, x z =
zy = 0 for some z ∈ Z (R)∗ − {x, y}, or x z 1 = z 1 z 2 = z 2 y = 0 for some distinct z 1 , z 2 ∈ Z (R)∗ − {x, y}. From the
proof of Theorem 2.1, we have the following.

Theorem 3.1 ([4, Theorem 2.3]). If R is a commutative ring, then diam(Γ (R)) ≤ 3.

Example 3.2. There are several rings R with diam(Γ (R)) = 0, 1, or 2. Note that Γ (Z2 × Z4 ) contains the path
(0, 1) − (1, 0) − (0, 2) − (1, 2) and hence diam(Γ (R)) = 3. Thus diam(Γ (R)) = 0, 1, 2, or 3. Note that Γ (R) has
dimension zero if and only if R ∼= Z4 or Z2 [x]/(x 2 ).
The next result gives the relation between the diameter of the zero-divisor of total quotient ring T (R) and the
ring R.

Lemma 3.3 ([25, Lemma 2.1]). Let R be a commutative ring with total quotient ring T (R). Then diam(Γ (T (R))) =
diam(Γ (R)).
In 2007, S. Ebrahimi Atani and M. Shajari Kohan [26] established a set of theorems that describe the diameter of
the zero-divisor graph for a finite direct product R1 × R2 × · · · × Rn in terms of the diameters of the zero-divisor
graphs of Ri where 1 ≤ i ≤ n and n > 2. The results in this regard are stated below.

Theorem 3.4 ([26, Theorem 2.2]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (R1 )) = · · · = diam(Γ (Rn )) = 1, and let R = R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then the following hold:
(i) diam(Γ (R)) = 1 if and only if Ri = Z (Ri ) for every i = 1, . . . , n;
(ii) diam(Γ (R)) = 2 if and only if Ri = Z (Ri ) and R j ̸= Z (R j ) for some i, j ∈ {1, . . . , n};
(iii) diam(Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if Ri ̸= Z (Ri ) for every i = 1, . . . , n.

Theorem 3.5 ([26, Theorem 2.4]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (R1 )) = · · · = diam(Γ (Rn )) = 2, and let R = R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then the following hold:
(i) diam(Γ (R)) ̸= 1;
(ii) diam(Γ (R)) = 2 if and only if Ri = Z (Ri ) for some i = 1, . . . , n;
(iii) diam(Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if Ri =
̸ Z (Ri ) for every i = 1, . . . , n.

Theorem 3.6 ([26, Theorem 2.5]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (R1 )) = · · · = diam(Γ (Rn )) = 3, and let R = R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then diam(Γ (R)) = 3.

Theorem 3.7 ([26, Theorem 2.6]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (Ri )) = 1 and diam(Γ (R j )) = 2 for some i, j ∈ {1, . . . , n} and there is no k ∈ {1, · · · , n} with
diam(Γ (Rk )) = 3, and let R = R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then the following hold:
(i) diam(Γ (R)) ̸= 1;
(ii) diam(Γ (R)) = 2 if and only if Ri = Z (Ri ) for some i = 1, . . . , n;
6 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) –

(iii) diam(Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if Ri ̸= Z (Ri ) for every i = 1, . . . , n.

Theorem 3.8 ([26, Theorem 2.7]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (Ri )) = 1 and diam(Γ (R j )) = 3 for some i, j ∈ {1, . . . , n} and there is no k ∈ {1, · · · , n} with
diam(Γ (Rk )) = 2, and let R = R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then the following hold:
(i) diam(Γ (R)) ̸= 1;
(ii) diam(Γ (R)) = 2 if and only if diam(Γ (Ri )) = 1 and Ri = Z (Ri ) for some i = 1, . . . , n
(iii) diam(Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if there is no i ∈ {1, . . . , n} with diam(Γ (Ri )) = 1 and Ri ̸= Z (Ri ).

Theorem 3.9 ([26, Theorem 2.8]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (Ri )) = 2 and diam(Γ (R j )) = 3 for some i, j ∈ {1, . . . , n} and there is no k ∈ {1, · · · , n} with
diam(Γ (Rk )) = 1, and let R = R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then the following hold:
(i) diam(Γ (R)) ̸= 1;
(ii) diam(Γ (R)) = 2 if and only if diam(Γ (Ri )) = 2 and Ri = Z (Ri ) for some i = 1, . . . , n;
(iii) diam(Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if there is no i ∈ {1, . . . , n} with diam(Γ (Ri )) = 2 and Ri ̸= Z (Ri ).

Theorem 3.10 ([26, Theorem 2.9]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings (not necessary with 1) such that
diam(Γ (Ri )) = 1 and diam(Γ (R j )) = 2 and diam(Γ (Rk )) = 3 for some i, j, k ∈ {1, . . . , n}, and let R =
R1 × · · · × Rn (n > 2). Then the following hold:
(i) diam(Γ (R)) ̸= 1;
(ii) diam(Γ (R)) = 2 if and only if diam(Γ (Ri )) ≤ 2 and Ri = Z (Ri ) for some i = 1, . . . , n;
(iii) diam(Γ (R)) = 3 if and only if there is no i ∈ {1, . . . , n} with diam(Γ (Ri )) ≤ 2 and Ri ̸= Z (Ri ).

Corollary 3.11 ([26, Corollary 2.10]). Let R1 , · · · , Rn be commutative rings with identity and R = R1 × · · · × Rn
(n > 2). Then diam(Γ (R)) = 3.

4. Diameter and girth of the total graph

In this section, we present the girth and diameter of the total graph of a commutative ring. First of all, we discuss
about the degree of every vertex in the total graph of a commutative ring. The following observation is due to H.R.
Maimani et al. [18].

Lemma 4.1 ([18]). Let R be a finite commutative ring and Z (R) be the set of all zero-divisors in R. Then the
following are true:
(i) If 2 ∈ Z (R), then deg(v) = |Z (R)| − 1 for every v ∈ V (TΓ (R));
(ii) If 2 ̸∈ Z (R), then deg(v) = |Z (R)| − 1 for every v ∈ Z (R) and deg(v) = |Z (R)| for every vertex v ̸∈ Z (R).
Next, we are interested in the diameter of TΓ (R). Note that study of TΓ (R) breaks naturally into two cases
depending on whether or not Z (R) is an ideal of R. The following theorem completely characterize the total graph of
R when Z (R) is an ideal of R.

Theorem 4.2 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is an ideal of R, and let |Z (R)| = λ and
|R/Z (R)| = µ. Then
if 2 ∈ Z (R);


 Kλ ∪ Kλ ∪ Kλ ∪ · · · ∪ Kλ
   
(µ−1) copies


TΓ (R) =

 K λ ∪ K λ,λ ∪ K λ,λ ∪ · · · ∪ K λ,λ if 2 ̸∈ Z (R).

   
µ−1
( ) copies

2

Hence if Z (R) is an ideal of R, then TΓ (R) is disconnected and so diam(TΓ (R)) = ∞. The following corollary,
illustrate the diameter of the subgraph RegΓ (R) of TΓ (R).
 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) – 7

Corollary 4.3 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is an ideal of R. Then
(i) diam(RegΓ (R)) = 0 if and only if R ∼= Z2 ;
(ii) diam(RegΓ (R)) = 1 if and only if either R/Z (R) ∼= Z2 and R  Z2 (i.e., R/Z (R) ∼= Z2 and |Z (R)| ≥ 2), or
R∼= Z3 ;
(iii) diam(RegΓ (R)) = 2 if and only if R/Z (R) ∼ = Z3 and |Z (R)| ≥ 2);
= Z3 and R  Z3 (i.e., R/Z (R) ∼
(iv) Otherwise, diam(RegΓ (R)) = ∞.
The next result gives an explicit description of the girth of TΓ (R).

Corollary 4.4 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is an ideal of R. Then
(i) gr (TΓ (R)) = 3 if and only if |Z (R)| ≥ 3;
(ii) gr (TΓ (R)) = 4 if and only if 2 ̸∈ Z (R) and |Z (R)| = 2;
(iii) Otherwise, gr (TΓ (R)) = ∞.
The next theorem provides a characterization for the connectedness of TΓ (R) whenever Z (R) is not an ideal of R.

Theorem 4.5 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is not an ideal of R. Then TΓ (R) is connected if
and only if (Z (R)) = R. In particular, if R is a finite commutative ring such that Z (R) is not an ideal of R, then
TΓ (R) is connected.

Theorem 4.6 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is not an ideal of R and TΓ (R) is connected.
Let n ≥ 2 be the least integer such that R = (z 1 , . . . , z n ) for some z 1 , . . . , z n ∈ Z (R). Then diam(TΓ (R)) = n. In
particular, if R is a finite commutative ring and Z (R) is not an ideal of R, then diam(TΓ (R)) = 2.

Corollary 4.7. Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is not an ideal of R, and suppose that TΓ (R) is
connected. Then diam(TΓ (R)) = d(0, 1).

Corollary 4.8. Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is not an ideal of R, and suppose that TΓ (R) is
connected. Then diam(RegΓ (R)) ≥ diam(TΓ (R)) − 2.
The next result, gives the diameter of the total graph of the total quotient ring.

Theorem 4.9 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring such that Z (R) is not an ideal of R. Then TΓ (T (R)) is connected
with diam(TΓ (T (R))) = 2 where T (R) denote the total quotient ring of R.
We now survey the results concerning the girth of TΓ (R) when Z (R) is not ideal of R. Note that |Z (R)| ≥ 3 if
Z (R) is not an ideal of R.

Theorem 4.10 ([13]). Let R be a commutative ring with Z (R) is not an ideal of R.
(i)Either gr (Z Γ (R)) = 3 or gr (Z Γ (R)) = ∞. Moreover, if gr (Z Γ (R)) = ∞, then R ∼= Z2 × Z2 ;
(ii)gr (TΓ (R)) = 3 if and only if gr (Z Γ (R)) = 3 (if and only if R  Z2 × Z2 );
(iii)gr (TΓ (R)) = 4 if and only if gr (Z Γ (R)) = ∞ (if and only if R ∼= Z2 × Z2 );
(iv) If char (R) = 2, then gr (RegΓ (R)) = 3 or ∞. In particular, gr (RegΓ (R)) = 3 if char (R) = 2 and RegΓ (R)
contains a cycle.
(v) gr (RegΓ (R)) = 3, 4 or ∞. In particular, gr (RegΓ (R)) ≤ 4 if RegΓ (R) contains a cycle.
Subsequently S. Akbari et al. [14] have made further study on the total graph of a commutative ring. In that work,
authors were mainly interested on the diam(RegΓ (R)) and the Hamiltonian nature of TΓ (R). Some of the important
results in this regard are listed below:

Theorem 4.11 ([14]). Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring and l be a natural number. If a, b ∈ Reg(R) and
dTΓ (R) (a, b) = l, then dRegΓ (R) (a, b) = l. In particular, diam(RegΓ (R)) ≤ diam(TΓ (R)).
By Corollary 4.8, we have diam(RegΓ (R)) ≥ diam(TΓ (R)) − 2. Hence we now have the following corollary.

Corollary 4.12. Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring. If TΓ (R) is connected, then diam(TΓ (R)) − 2 ≤
diam(RegΓ (R)) ≤ diam(TΓ (R)).
8 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) –

5. Diameter and girth of the complement of the total graph

The complement of the total graph TΓ (R) is denoted by TΓ (R). Note that two distinct vertices x and y in TΓ (R)
are adjacent if x + y ∈ Reg(R). First of all the following theorem, characterize TΓ (R) whenever |Reg(R)| = 2.

Theorem 5.1 ([17]). Let R be a commutative ring, |Reg(R)| = 2, G = TΓ (R) and |Z (R)| = α (may be infinite).
Then
C|R| if 2 ∈ Z (R) and ⟨Z ∗ (R)⟩ is connected




 r
if 2 ∈ Z (R) and ⟨Z ∗ (R)⟩ is disconnected

 C ki

G = i=1
s



 
 K 1,2 ∪ Cℓ j otherwise


j=1

where 3 ≤ ki ≤ α − 2 for 1 ≤ i ≤ r and 3 ≤ ℓ j ≤ α − 1 for 1 ≤ j ≤ s.

Using the characterization of rings R with |Reg(R)| = 2 [14, Lemma 1], we have the following corollary.

Corollary 5.2 ([17]). Let R be a commutative ring with |Reg(R)| = 2. Then

= Z4 , Z2 [x]/(x 2 ), Z2 × Z3
if R ∼

 C|R|

|R|

TΓ (R) = Ck = Zr2 × Z3 , Zs2 × Z4 , Zs2 × Z2 [x]/(x 2 )
if R ∼
 k


K 1,2 if R ∼
= Z3
where r (> 1), k and s are positive integers (r and s may be infinite). Moreover, k = 6 if R = Zr2 × Z3 and k = 4 if
R = Zs2 × Z4 or Zs2 × Z2 [x]/(x 2 ).
Now we obtain certain properties regarding the diameter of TΓ (R).

Lemma 5.3 ([17]). Let R be a commutative ring which is not an integral domain. Then the following are true:
(i) If Z (R) is an ideal of R, then diam(TΓ (R)) = 2;
(ii) If TΓ (R) is connected and G 1 = ⟨Reg(R) ∪ {0}⟩ ⊆ TΓ (R), then diam(G 1 ) ≤ 2. In particular, diam(G 1 ) = 1 if
and only if R ∼= Zr2 for some positive integer r ;
(iii) If |Nil(R)| ≥ 2, R1 = Reg(R) ∪ Nil(R) and G 2 = ⟨R1 ⟩ ⊆ TΓ (R), then diam(G 2 ) = 2.
D.F. Anderson et al. [13, Corollary 3.5] proved that diam(TΓ (R)) ≤ diam(RegΓ (R)) + 2. In similar to this, we
have the following result for TΓ (R).

Corollary 5.4. If TΓ (R) and ⟨Z ∗ (R)⟩ ⊆ TΓ (R) are connected, then 2 ≤ diam(TΓ (R)) ≤ diam(⟨Z ∗ (R)⟩) + 3.
N. Ashrafi et al. [27, Proposition 5.10] proved that if R is a finite commutative ring, then gr (G(R)) ∈ {3, 4, 6, ∞}.
Also, in Remark 5.11 [27], authors proved that for every n ∈ {3, 4, 6, ∞}, there exists a ring R such that gr (G(R)) =
n. Note that for a commutative ring R, gr (TΓ (R)) ≤ gr (G(R)). We now prove that gr (TΓ (R)) ∈ {3, 4, 6, ∞} and
characterize all commutative rings R according to the value of gr (TΓ (R)).

Theorem 5.5. Let R be a commutative ring. Then gr (TΓ (R)) ∈ {3, 4, 6, ∞}. Further
(i) gr (TΓ (R)) = ∞ if and only if R is either Z3 or Zr2 where r is a natural number;
(ii) gr (TΓ (R)) = 6 if and only if R = Zr2 × Z3 where r is a natural number;
(iii) gr (TΓ (R)) = 4 if and only if Reg(R) + Reg(R) ⊆ Z (R) and for any three elements z 1 , z 2 , z 3 ∈ Z (R),
z i + z j ∈ Z (R) for some i ̸= j, 1 ≤ i, j ≤ 3. In particular, if Z (R) is an ideal of R, then gr (TΓ (R)) = 4 if and
only if R/Z (R) ∼ = Z2 and 2 ∈ Z (R);
(iv) gr (TΓ (R)) = 3, otherwise.

Example 5.6. Note that, Theorem 5.5(iii) characterizes rings R for which gr (TΓ (R)) = 4 without listing out the
rings satisfying the stated conditions. However, the existence can be realized as Z10 is a non-local ring which satisfies
the conditions specified in Theorem 5.5(iii). i.e., gr (TΓ (Z10 )) = 4.
 T. Tamizh Chelvam, T. Asir / AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics ( ) – 9

Acknowledgment

This research work is supported by the SERB Project No. SR/S4/MS: 806/13 of Science and Engineering Research
Board, Government of India for the first author.

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