17622 Advanced graph theory

End Semester Examination, Spring 2002-03

Total points: 60 April 28, 2003 Total time: 3 hours
[ This test is open-West (and open-notes), but closed from all other directions.]

1. Which of the following statements are true? Give brief explanations. (2 × 8)

(a) A simple graph having no cycles has exactly one spanning tree.
(b) An M -alternating path of odd length must be M -augmenting.
Graph theory (c) A graph G with at least three vertices is 2-connected if and only if each edge of G lies
is damn easy! on some cycle (not necessarily unique).
(d) A 1-edge-connected graph must contain at least one cut edge.
(e) κ(G) = κ0 (G) = δ(G) for a 3-regular graph G.
(f) All cut edges in a plane graph belong to the boundary of the outer face.
(g) Every subgraph of a non-planar graph, induced by six or more vertices, is non-planar.
(h) Let G be a plane graph containing a cut vertex. Then the dual G∗ has a cut vertex.

2. Prove or disprove: (2 × 5)
(a) G is a forest if and only if every connected subgraph of G is an induced subgraph.
(b) Let G be a connected graph with at least two vertices and let v ∈ V (G). Then there is
a maximum matching of G that saturates v.
What? You (c) If a graph G has a perfect matching, then |N (S)| > |S| for every S ⊆ V (G).
call it difficult! (d) A simple connected graph G with n(G) = e(G) is 3-colorable.
(e) Every non-trivial connected graph has two vertices that are not cut vertices.

3. Count the number of spanning cycles (also called Hamiltonian circuits) in: (2 × 3)
I am good (a) Kn for n > 3.
at filthy
(b) Kn \ e for n > 3, where e ∈ E(Kn ).
counting.
(c) Kn,n for n > 2.

4. Let G be a bipartite graph. Prove that α(G) = n(G)/2, if and only if G has a perfect
matching. (4)

5. Let G be a graph with exactly k components. Let b(G) denote the number of blocks in G
and for v ∈ V (G) let b(v) denote the number of blocks of G to which v belongs. Derive
P
Hmmm. . .! So the formula: b(G) − k = v∈V (G) [ b(v) − 1 ]. (4)
these are your
big guns. 6. Let G be a simple n-vertex graph. Prove that: (4 × 2)
(a) If δ(G) > n − 2, then κ(G) = δ(G).
(b) If δ(G) > bn/2c, then κ0 (G) = δ(G).

7. Let n ∈ N, n > 3, and let G be the simple graph with V (G) = {v1 , . . . , vn } and
E(G) = {vi vj | |i − j| 6 3}. Prove that G is a maximal planar graph. (4)

Wow!!! 8. Let G be a (connected) graph having spanning trees of diameters 2 and l (for some l > 2).
Show that for every k, 2 6 k 6 l, G has a spanning tree of diameter k. (8)