Scribd
Upload
123 views2 pages

Math 239 Winter 2017 Assignment 6 Solutions: Solution

This document provides solutions to math problems from Assignment 6 of Math 239 Winter 2017. The first problem involves proving that a subdivision of a bipartite graph is 3-colorable. The second problem proves that a planar graph without 3-cycles is 4-colorable using induction. The third problem disproves a statement about graph planarity under edge contraction using K5 and K4 as a counterexample. The fourth problem proves that a graph with minimum degree at least half its number of vertices contains a perfect matching.

Uploaded by

Justin Zhang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
123 views2 pages

Math 239 Winter 2017 Assignment 6 Solutions: Solution

This document provides solutions to math problems from Assignment 6 of Math 239 Winter 2017. The first problem involves proving that a subdivision of a bipartite graph is 3-colorable. The second problem proves that a planar graph without 3-cycles is 4-colorable using induction. The third problem disproves a statement about graph planarity under edge contraction using K5 and K4 as a counterexample. The fourth problem proves that a graph with minimum degree at least half its number of vertices contains a perfect matching.

Uploaded by

Justin Zhang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Math 239 Winter 2017 Assignment 6 Solutions

1. {6 marks}
(a) {5 marks} Let G be a bipartite graph and let H be a subdivision of G. Prove that H is 3-colourable.
Solution. By definition of subdivision, the graph H is obtained from G by replacing each edge e by a path P (e)
of length at least 1, and all paths P (e) are disjoint except for their endpoints. We can construct a 3-colouring f
of H as follows. Since G is bipartite, say with vertex classes A and B, we can set f (a) = 1 for each a ∈ A and
f (b) = 2 for each b ∈ B. Now for each edge e of G, consider the path P (e) = v1 . . . vk , where v1 ∈ A and vk ∈ B.
If k = 2 then P (e) is just a single edge and we have no more vertices we need to colour. Otherwise k ≥ 3 and for
2 ≤ i ≤ k − 1 we set f (vi ) = 1 if i is odd and f (vi ) = 3 if i is even. Then since all P (e) are disjoint except for their
endpoints, and since each vk is coloured 2, this is a proper colouring of H with 3 colours.

(b) {1 marks} Give an example of a bipartite graph G and a subdivision H of G that is not 2-colourable (i.e. not
bipartite).
Solution. Let G be a cycle of length 4, and let H be obtained from G by replacing one edge by a path of length 2.
Then G is bipartite, but H is a cycle of length 5 which is an odd cycle, and hence not bipartite.

2. {6 marks} Let G be a planar graph that does not contain any cycles of length three. Prove that G is 4-colourable. Do
not assume the Four Colour Theorem. (Hint: use the result of Question 3 on Assignment 5.)
Solution. We prove by induction on p that every planar graph with p vertices that does not contain a 3-cycle is
4-colourable. We may assume that our graphs are connected, since otherwise we can just apply the result to each
component separately.
Base case p ≤ 4: every graph with at most 4 vertices is 4-colourable (just give each vertex a different colour).
Induction Hypothesis: Assume that p ≥ 5 and every planar graph with fewer than p vertices, that does not contain a
3-cycle, is 4-colourable.
Let G be a planar graph with p vertices that does not contain a 3-cycle. On Assignment 5 it was shown that every
connected planar embedding has a vertex of degree at most 3 or a face of degree at most 3. Since (as noted above) we
may assume G is connected, and it has no 3-cycles and at least 5 vertices, no planar embedding of G may contain a
face of degree at most 3. Therefore G has a vertex v with deg(v) ≤ 3.
Let H = G − v. Then H is a planar graph with p − 1 vertices that does not contain a 3-cycle. Therefore by the induction
hypothesis there exists a colouring f of H from the set of colours {1, 2, 3, 4}. The neighbours of v can be given in total
at most 3 colours by f , and so there exists a colour c in {1, 2, 3, 4} that is not used by f on any neightbour of v. Then
we can extend the colouring f to the whole graph G by giving v colour c. Thus G is 4-colourable, and we have proved
the result by induction.

3. {3 marks} Prove or disprove the following statement.


Let G be a graph and let H = G/e be the graph obtained from G by contracting an edge. Then G is planar if and only
if H is planar.
Solution. The statement is false. For example let G be the complete graph K5 . Contracting any edge of K5 reults in
the graph K4 . But we have shown that K5 is not planar, and K4 is planar.

4. {5 marks} Let G be a graph with 2k vertices. Suppose every vertex of G has degree at least k. Prove that G has a
perfect matching.
Solution. Let M be a maximum matching in G, and suppose on the contrary that the set V (M ) of vertices saturated
by M is such that V (M ) 6= V (G). Then since |V (G)| is even, there exist at least two unsaturated vertices x and y. Since
M is a maximum matching, x and y are not adjacent and every edge incident to x or y must also be incident to a vertex
of V (M ).
Suppose that for each edge uv ∈ M , there are at most two edges from {u, v} to {x, y}. Then altogether x and y are
incident to at most 2|M | ≤ 2(k − 1) edges, which contradicts the fact that deg(X) + deg(Y ) ≥ 2k. Therefore there exists
uv ∈ M with at least 3 edges from {u, v} to {x, y}, which implies that two of these edges are disjoint. Let us assume
without loss of generality that ux and vy are edges of G. But then M \ {uv} ∪ {ux, vy} is a matching of G of size |M | + 1,
contradicting the choice of M .
Thus we conclude that M is a perfect matching of G.

You might also like