MATH 239

Assignment 6

DUE: NOON Friday 4 November 2011 in the drop boxes opposite the Math Tutorial Centre MC 4067 or next to the St. Jeromes library for the St. Jeromes section. 1. (a) Show that the following two graphs are isomorphic.
A B 1 2

8 3

G F G 1 E

7 6 G 2 5

SOLUTION. For any x {A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H}, dene f (x) {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} as shown below. x A B C D E F G H f (x) 1 5 4 3 2 6 7 8 If we re-label vertex x in graph G1 with the label f (x), it is easy to conrm that the vertices 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1 in that order determine a cycle of length 8. By inspection, we see that G1 also has edges (1, 5), (2, 6), (3, 8), (4, 7). Therefore, graphs G1 and G2 are isomorphic. (Note: this isomorphism is not unique; there are many others.) (b) Show that the following two graphs are isomorphic.
A B 1 2

8 3

G F G 1 E

7 6 G 2 5

Figure 1: Two 3-regular graphs on 8 vertices

SOLUTION. For any x {A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H}, dene f (x) {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} as shown below. x A B C D E F G H f (x) 8 3 4 6 5 2 1 7 If we re-label vertex x in graph G1 with the label f (x), it is easy to conrm that the vertices 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1 in that order determine a cycle of length 8. By

inspection, we see that G1 also has edges (1, 7), (2, 5), (3, 8), (4, 6). Therefore, graphs G1 and G2 are isomorphic. (Note: this isomorphism is not unique; there are many others.) (c) Make a list of all 3-regular graphs with 8 vertices, up to isomorphism. In other words, each 3-regular graph with 8 vertices should be isomorphic to exactly one of the graphs on your list. Briey explain why no two are isomorphic. (Hint: there are exactly 6 graphs in the list.) SOLUTION.

G 1

G3

G4

G5

Figure 2: Nonisomorphic 3-regular graphs with 8 vertices

Graph G1 has no cycles of length 3 nor 5; G2 has no cycles of length 3, but has cycles of length 5; G3 has one cycle of length 3; G4 has 2 cycles of length 3; and G5 has 4 cycles of length 3. These 5 graphs are all connected; G6 has 2 components. Therefore, no two of these graphs are isomorphic. 2. Determine whether the graphs X and Y shown in Figure 2 below are isomorphic. Prove your claim is correct. SOLUTION. The graphs are not isomorphic. To see this, observe that the vertices of X of degree 4 are B, C, E, F , and the subgraph of X consisting of these four vertices and the edges of X joining them has 5 edges. In Y , the vertices of degree 4 are 1, 2, 5, 8. The corresponding subgraph of Y consisting of just these 4 vertices and their edges has only 3 edges. Thus the two graphs cant be isomorphic. 2

A D H 3 E G F 4 8 7 2 6

Figure 3: The graphs X and Y

3. For n a positive integer, dene the prime graph Pn as follows: V (Pn ) = {1, 2, . . . , n} and E(Pn ) = {{u, v} {1, 2, . . . , n} | u + v is a prime}. (a) Prove that Pn is bipartite for all n. SOLUTION. If {u, v} is an edge of Pn , then u + v 1 + 2 = 3; hence, u + v is an odd prime. Therefore, one of u and v is odd, and the other is even. Since every edge joins an odd vertex to an even vertex, Pn is a bipartite graph with bipartition A = {2i | 2i {1, 2, . . . , n}} and B = {2i + 1 | 2i + 1 {1, 2, . . . , n}}. (b) Prove that Pn is connected for all n. (You may assume, without proof, that for every integer k > 1, there is a prime number r such that k < r < 2k.) SOLUTION. We prove this by induction on the integer n. (Base Case) The prime graph P1 has just 1 vertex, and hence is connected. (Induction Hypothesis) For any integer n 1, assume Pn is connected. (Inductive Step) We now show that Pn+1 is also connected. Let r be any prime in the range n + 1 < r < 2n + 2. Then r n 1 < 2n + 2 n 1 = n + 1; that is, r n 1 is a vertex of Pn . Since (r n 1) + (n + 1) = r, a prime, vertex n + 1 is adjacent to vertex r n 1 in Pn+1 . Since r n 1 is a vertex in Pn and, by our Induction Hypothesis, Pn is connected, there is a path from r n 1 to every vertex in Pn . Therefore, there is a path from r n 1 to every vertex in Pn+1 . Therefore Pn+1 is connected. Thus by induction, it follows that Pn is connected for every positive integer n. 4. Let G be a graph, and suppose v and w are the only vertices in G of odd degree. Prove that G contains a path from v to w. SOLUTION. Suppose on the contrary that no path exists between the only two vertices v and w having odd degree. Then v and w are in dierent components of G, say C1 contains v and C2 contains w. But then C1 is itself a graph that contains exactly one vertex of odd degree. This contradicts the corollary of the Handshake 3

Lemma which tells us that the number of vertices of odd degree in any graph is even. Thus v and w must be joined by a path in G. 5. Let G be a connected graph and suppose e is a bridge of G. Let x and y be vertices of G that are joined by a path P that contains e. Prove that every path joining x and y must contain e. SOLUTION. Let e = uv, so that the path P is of the form xz1 . . . zt uvw1 . . . ws y. Since e is a bridge, the graph G e has two components, Cu containing u and Cv containing v. The path xz1 . . . zt u shows that x Cu , and the path vw1 . . . ws y shows that y Cv . Suppose on the contrary that Q is a path in G joining x and y that does not contain e. Then Q is also a path in G e from the vertex x Cu to the vertex y Cv . This contradicts that fact that Cu and Cv are distinct components of G e. Therefore no such path can exist.