4.6.

PLANAR GRAPHS 123

4.6 Planar Graphs

This section deals with planar graphs, one of the first topics in topological graph theory. All
our graphs in this chapter will be connected graphs. To start with, a graph is said to be planar
if the graph can be drawn on a plane so that its edges intersect only at their end vertices. A
graph that is not planar is called non-planar. A drawing of a planar graph so that the edges do
not cross each other, except at their end vertices, is called a planar embedding of the graph. We
explain this with the examples given in Figure 4.13.

K5 -Non-planar K3,3 -Non-planar K4 K4 - Planar embedding

Figure 4.13: Planar and non-planar graphs

The next two results, give a direct proof of the fact that K5 and K3,3 are non-planar. In
Section 4.7, another proof of these results will be given by using the result of Euler for convex
polyhedrons.

Theorem 4.6.1. The graph K5 is non-planar.

Proof. On the contrary, let us assume that K5 is planar. Let the vertices of K5 be denoted by
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Then, in any planar drawing of K5 , the cycle [123451], of K5 , must appear as a
cycle. Let us draw it in the form of a pentagon as shown in Figure 4.14. Then the edge {1, 4} will
either lie completely inside the pentagon or completely outside it. Without loss of generality, let
us assume that the edge {1, 4} lies completely inside the pentagon. Therefore, both the edges
{2, 5} and {3, 5} will lie completely outside the pentagon (or else they will intersect the edge
{1, 4}). Now, look at the drawing of the edges {1, 3} and {2, 4}. If {1, 3} is drawn inside the
pentagon than the edge {2, 4} cannot be drawn without intersecting either the edge {1, 3} or
the edge {3, 5}. A similar argument is valid if the edge {2, 4} is drawn inside the pentagon.

Theorem 4.6.2. The graph K3,3 is non-planar.

Proof. On the contrary, let us assume that K3,3 is planar. Let the vertices of K3,3 be denoted
by a, b, c, 1, 2 and 3. Then, in any planar drawing of K3,3 , the cycle [1a2b3c1], of K3,3 , must
appear as a cycle. Let us draw it in the form of a hexagon as shown in Figure 4.14. Then the
edge {1, b} will either lie completely inside the hexagon or completely outside it.
Without loss of generality, let us assume that the edge {1, b} lies completely inside the
hexagon. Now, consider the edges {2, c} and {3, a}. They need to be drawn completely outside
124 CHAPTER 4. TOPICS IN CLASSICAL GRAPH THEORY
a b c
2 a

b 1
1 2 3
K3,3 -Non-planar 3 c
3 3 3
2 2 2
4 4 4
1 1 1
5 5 5
K5 -Non-planar

Figure 4.14: Non-planarity of the graphs K5 and K3,3

the hexagon (or else they will intersect the edge {1, b}). Once {2, c} is drawn outside the
hexagon then the edge {3, a} cannot be drawn without intersecting either the edge {1, b} or the
edge {2, c}. A similar argument is valid if the edge {3, a} is drawn outside the hexagon.

Thus, we have shown that the graphs K5 and K3,3 are non-planar. It can be easily observed
that if X is a graph that has K5 or K3,3 as its subgraph then X will also be non-planar. A
necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to be non-planar was given by Kuratowski. To
understand the statement of the theorem, we need to know the condition under which two graphs
are homeomorphic.
Let X = (V, E) be a graph. Let e = {u, v} be an edge of X and let z 6∈ V . Then, the
graph Y = (V ′ , E ′ ) is said to be obtained from the graph X = (V, E) by insertion of the vertex
z if V ′ = V ∪ {z} and E ′ = (E \ e) ∪ {{u, z}, {z, v}}. That is, Y has been obtained from X
by dividing the edge e = {u, v} into two edges {u, z} and {z, v}, or equivalently, a vertex z of
degree 2 has been introduced on the edge e. This process of insertion of a new vertex of degree
2 is sometimes called subdivision of an edge. The inverse of this process is called edge merging.
A repeated application of edge subdivision leads to the following definition.

Definition 4.6.3. Let X and Y be two graphs. Then they are said to be homeomorphic if both
X and Y can be obtained from a graph, say Z, by inserting new vertices of degree 2 on the edges
of Z.

For example, all the paths are homeomorphic to each other and in particular to the graph
K2 . Similarly, all the cyclic graphs are homeomorphic to the cycle C3 , when one is interested
in the study of simple graphs. In general, one can say that all cyclic graphs are homeomorphic
to a graph X = (V, E), where V = {v} and E = {e, e} (i.e., a graph having exactly one vertex
and a loop). Also, note that if two graphs are isomorphic then they are also homeomorphic.
Figure 4.15 gives examples of homeomorphic graphs that are different from a path or a cycle.
4.6. PLANAR GRAPHS 125

Figure 4.15: Homeomorphic graphs

With this understanding, the theorem of Kuratowski states that “a simple connected graph
is planar if and only if it does not contain any subgraph that is homeomorphic to either K5 or
K3,3 ”. The proof of the theorem is out of the scope of these notes. The interested readers can
see the book “graph theory” by Harary [6] for a proof. We end this section with the following
observations which directly follow from Kuratowski theorem.
Observations:

1. Among all simple connected non-planar graphs

(a) the complete graph K5 has minimum number of vertices.

(b) the complete bipartite graph K3,3 has minimum number of edges.

2. If Y is a non-planar subgraph of a graph X then X is also non-planar.