BMAT205L - Discrete Mathematics and Graph Theory

Module 7 - Graph Coloring, Covering, Partitioning

Aarthy B

Division of Mathematics,
School of Advanced Sciences,
Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai.

November 5, 2023

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Overview

1 Bipartite Graphs

2 Coloring

3 Chromatic Polynomial

4 Matching

5 Covering

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Basic Definitions

Bipartite graph
A graph is bipartite if its vertex set can be partitioned into two subsets V1 and V2
so that every edge has one end in V1 and one end in V2 . Such a partition (V1 , V2 )
is called a bi-partition of the graph. We denote a bipartite graph G with
bi-partition (V1 , V2 ) by G[V1 , V2 ].

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Basic Definitions and Examples

Complete Bipartite graph

A bipartite graph G[V1 , V2 ] is said to be a complete bipartite graph if every vertex
in V1 is joined to every vertex in V2 . It is denoted by Km,n where |V1 | = m and
|V2 | = n.

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Basic Definitions and Examples

Star Graph
A star is a complete bipartite graph with |V1 | = 1 or |V2 | = 1. It is denoted as
K1,n or Kn,1 or Sn+1 .

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Applications

Bipartite graphs have various applications in different fields, including computer

science, social sciences, and more. Some common applications of bipartite graphs
are as follows:

1 Recommendation Systems
2 Job Matching
3 Social Network Analysis
4 Web Page Ranking
5 Matching Problems
6 Network Flow Problems
7 Biological Networks
8 Fraud Detection

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Characterization Theorem

Bipartite Graph Characterization

An undirected graph G is bipartite if and only if it does not contain an odd cycle.

Example: Check whether the given graphs are bipartite or not. Justify the same.

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Problem: Try

Example: Check whether the given graphs are bipartite or not. Justify the same.

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Coloring

Graph Coloring
Graph coloring is nothing but a simple way of labelling graph components such as
vertices, edges and regions under some constraints.

Proper Coloring
The proper coloring of a graph is assignment of colors to vertices or edges or
regions in such a way that no two adjacent vertices or adjacent edges or adjacent
regions have the same color.

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Partitioning

Grouping the vertices into different sets based on the colors.

There are 4 partitions namely {a}, {b}, {c}, {d}.
There are 3 partitions namely {a, c}, {b}, {d}.
There are 2 partitions namely {a, c}, {b, d}.

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Coloring

Chromatic number
The chromatic number χ(G) of a graph G is the number of colors used in the
proper vertex coloring of G.

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Chromatic Number

1 A path on n vertices is 2 − colorable or 2 − chromatic, n > 1.

2 A tree with 2 or more vertices is 2 − colorable or 2 − chromatic.

3 A bipartite graph or a complete bipartite graph is 2 − colorable or

2 − chromatic.

4 A complete graph on n vertices is n - chromatic.

Characterization of 2-chromatic Graphs

A graph G is 2 - chromatic if and only if G is a tree or bi-partite.

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Chromatic Numbers for Standard Graphs

Try this for various examples.

Graph G χ(G)
Pn 2
C2n 2
C2n+1 3
Kn {x } n−1
Km,n 2
Kn 1

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Chromatic Polynomial

Let G be a labelled graph. A coloring of G from λ colors is a coloring of G which

uses λ or fewer colors. Two colorings of G from λ colors will be considered
different if at least one of the labeled vertices is assigned different colors. Let
f (G, λ) denote the number of different coloring of G from λ colors.

Chromatic Polynomial
f (G, λ) is the chromatic polynomial of a graph G on n vertices equal to the
number of different ways of properly coloring the graph using at most λ colors.

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Theorems on Chromatic Polynomial

Theorem
For Path or Trees: A graph G is a tree or a Path on n - vertices if and only if its
chromatic polynomial is

f (G, λ) = λ(λ)n−1 , λ ≥ 2.

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Theorems on Chromatic Polynomial

Theorem
For an empty graph G on n vertices then
f (G, λ) = λn .

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Theorems on Chromatic Polynomial

Theorem
For a complete graph Kn on n vertices then

f (Kn , λ) = λ(λ − 1)(λ − 2) . . . (λ − (n − 1))

.

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Disconnected Graph

Theorem
For a disconnected graph G with n components say G1 , G2 , . . . , Gn then
f (G, λ) = f (G1 , λ)f (G2 , λ), . . . , f (Gn , λ).

f (G, λ) = f (G1 , λ)f (G2 , λ)

   
= λ(λ − 1)(λ − 2)(λ − 3) ∗ λ(λ − 1)2

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Decomposition Theorem

Decomposition Theorem
Let e be any edge in G, where u and v are end vertices of G. Let Ge be a graph
′
obtained by deleting an edge e from G. Let Ge be a simple graph obtained from G
by fusing the vertices u and v together and replacing sets of parallel edges with
single edges. ′
f (G, λ) = f (Ge , λ) − f (Ge , λ)

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Problems on Chromatic Polynomial

Problem 1
Find the chromatic number and chromatic polynomial of the given graph.

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Problem 1 contd.

Solution:

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Problem 1 contd.

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Problem 1 contd.

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Problem 1 contd.

′
f (G, λ) = f (Ge , λ) − f (Ge , λ)
h ′
i
= f (Ge , λ) − f (Ge1 , λ) − f (Ge1 , λ)
h i
= (λ(λ − 1)4 ) − (λ(λ − 1)3 ) − (λ(λ − 1)(λ − 2))
= λ5 − 5λ4 + 10λ3 − 10λ2 + 4λ

In λ5 , 5 represents the total number of vertices in the graph G and the

co-efficient of λ4 represents the total number of edges in the graph G. Also the
chromatic number of the given graph

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Problems on Chromatic Polynomial

Problem 2
Find the chromatic number and chromatic polynomial of the given graph.

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Problem 2 contd.

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Problem 2 contd.

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Problem 2 contd.

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Problem 2 contd.

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Problem 2 contd.

′
f (G, λ) = f (Ge , λ) − f (Ge , λ)
= f (H1 , λ) − f (H2 , λ)
   
= f (H3 , λ) − f (H4 , λ) − f (H5 , λ) − f (H6 , λ)
h
i
= λ(λ − 1)4 − λ(λ − 1)3


h
i
− λ2 (λ − 1)(λ − 2) − λ(λ − 1)(λ − 2)

= λ5 − 6λ4 + 13λ3 − 12λ2 + 4λ

In λ5 , 5 represents the total number of vertices in the graph G and the
co-efficient of λ4 represents the total number of edges in the graph G. Also the
chromatic number of the given graph is 3.

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Matching Definitions

Matching
A matching graph is a subgraph of a graph where there are no edges adjacent to
each other. It is also termed as there should be any vertex in common between
any pair of edges. A matching in G is a set of independent edges.

Maximal Matching
A maximal matching is a matching to which no edge in the graph can be added.

Maximum Matching
A matching |M| of G is maximum if G has no matching M0 with |M0 | > |M1 |. It
can be also determined as the maximal matching with maximum number of edges.

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Example

Consider this graph G.

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Example

The different matching for the graph G is given here

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Matching Definitions

Perfect Matching
A matching M is said to be perfect matching if every vertex of G is M -saturated.

Perfect Matching - Another Way

A matching of graph G is said to be a perfect match, if every vertex of G is
incident to exactly one edge of the matching.

Remark
The number of edges in the maximum matching of G is called its Matching
number M(G).

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Standard Theorems on Matching

Theorem
Let G be a k - regular bipartite graph with k > 0. Then G has a perfect matching.

Result
If a graph G has a perfect matching, then the number of vertices is even.
Converse does not hold
Note: A maximum matching of graph need not be perfect.

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Problem 1

List two different maximum matching and perfect matching of the graph given
below:

Solution: M1 (G1 ) = {AB, CD, EF }, M2 (G1 ) = {AC , BD, EF },

M3 (G1 ) = {AB, CE , DF }
M1 (G2 ) = {GH, IK , JL}, M2 (G2 ) = {GI, HJ, KL}
The listed matching are both maximum and perfect since every edge inside the
matching is incident with every vertex.

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Problem 2

List two different maximum matching and perfect matching of the graph given
below:

Solution: M1 (G) = {12, 34, 56, 78}, M2 (G) = {15, 26, 37, 48}
The listed matching are both maximum and perfect since every edge inside the
matching is incident with every vertex. The matching number M(G) is 4.

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Covering

A covering in a graph is a subgraph which contains either all the vertices or all
the edges corresponding to some other graph.

A subgraph which contains all the vertices is called an edge covering.

A subgraph which contains all the edges is called a vertex covering.

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Vertex / Edge covering Set

Vertex covering Set

A subset D ⊆ V of a vertex set G is said to be vertex covering set if every edge
e ∈ E (G) is incident to at least one vertex in D. The vertex covering number of a
graph G is the minimum cardinality among all vertex covering sets in G.

Edge covering Set

A subset F ⊆ E of an edge set G is said to be an edge covering set if every edge
v ∈ V (G) is incident to at least one edge in F . The edge covering number of a
graph G is the minimum cardinality among all edge covering sets in G.

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Problem 1

Find the vertex and edge covering numbers for the graph given below:

Edge Cover: EC1 (G) = {12, 34, 56, 78}, EC2 (G) = {12, 56, 34, 67, 78}.
Vertex Cover: VC1 (G) = {1, 3, 6, 8}, VC2 (G) = {1, 2, 4, 5, 7}.
EC1 and VC1 is the minimum edge and vertex cover of the given graph and thus
′
β = 4 and β = 4.

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Problem 2

Find the perfect matching, edge cover and vertex cover of the graph given below:

Edge Cover: EC1 (G) = {16, 34, 25}, EC2 (G) = {15, 26, 34}
Vertex Cover: VC (G) = {1, 2, 3, 4}.

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 For more problems, Refer Tutorial Sheet 11.

Thank You!!

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