Graph Theory 2018 Midterm Solutions

1. (a) Draw the 6-cycle C6 .

(b) If G and Ḡ are both cycles, what is G?
(c) Prove or disprove: if every vertex of a graph G has degree 2, then G
is a cycle.

Solution
(b) Both G and Ḡ are 2-regular so they have 5 vertices, so are C5 .
(c) Disproof: The disjoint union of two cycles is not a cycle, but is 2-regular.

2. (a) Draw the Petersen graph.

(b) What is the girth of the Petersen graph? [You don’t need to prove
this.]
(c) Prove that it contains no cycle of length 7.
(d) Prove that it contains no cycle of length 10.

Solution
(b) Girth 5.

(c) Assume it contains a C7 . As it is 3-regular, each vertex in the cycle has

one other edge. These edges cannot be between two vertices of the cycle, or
the girth would be at most 4. So they all go to the three remaining vertices,
one of which, therefore, has three edges to the C7 . Two of these edges must
go to vertices that are distance at most 2 apart on the cycle. This makes a
C4 . So by contradiction, the petersen graph has no C7 .

(d) Assume it contains a C10 . Each vertex has one more edge than is used
in the cycle, and as the girth is 5, the last edge from a vertex v must go to a
vertex at distance 4or5 from v in the C10 . If it goes to a vertex at distance
4, then that vertex ‘has distance 6 around the other side of the cycle’ so
makes a C7 , which we just showed doesn’t exist. So it goes to the vertex at
distance 5 around the cycle. As this is for all vertice in the C10 we get a C4 ,
contradicting the fact that the girth of the graph is 5. So by contradiction,
the petersen graph has no C10 .

3. (a) Define what it means for a graph to be Eulerian.

(b) Draw the graph K2,3 .
(c) Find the values of m and n for which Km,n is Eulerian.
 Solution
(a) It has a spanning trail.
(c) By Eulers theorem Km,n is eulerian if and only if m and n are even.

4. Show whether or not the following sequences are graphic.

(a) (10, 2, 1, 1)
(b) (6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2)
(c) (6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1)

Solution
(a) Non-graphic: 10 > 2 + 1 + 1
(b) Non-graphic: Degree sum is odd.
(c) Graphic by Havel-Hakimi.
(6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1) → (0, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1) → (0, 0, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1)
→ (0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1) = (2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)
→ (0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0) → (0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)
→ (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

5. (a) Prove that there is an n-vertex tournament with indegree equal to

outdegree at every vertex if and only if n is odd.
(b) Prove or disprove: Every G has an orientation such that for any
vertex, the indegree and the outdegree differ by at most 1.

Solution
(a) Such a tournament cannot have even n as then the total degree is odd.
If n is odd, where the vertices are labelled 1, 2, . . . , n let i have arcs out to
i + 1, i + 2, . . . , i + (n − 1)/2 modulo n.

(b) Make a new graph G∗ from G by adding a new vertex v ∗ adjacent to each
vertex of G of odd degree. Every vertex of G∗ has even degree, so it has an
Euler cycle. Orient the edges so that this is a directed cycle. This orients
the edges of G∗ so that every vertex has the same in-degree and out-degree.
Removing the vertex v ∗ reduces either the indegree or outdegree of any vertex
by at most 1. So what remains is an orientation of the edges of G such that
the indegree and outdegree of any vertex differ by at most 1.

6. (a) What is a matching in a graph G?

 (b) What is a perfect matching?
(c) Determine the maximum size of a matching in the cycle Cn .
(d) Prove or disprove: every tree has at most one perfect matching.
(e) Prove that every maximal matching in a graph has at least σ 0 (G)/2
edges (where σ 0 (G) is the number of edges in a maximum matching.)

Solution
(a) A set of edges no two of which share a vertex.
(b) A spanning matching.
(c) n/2 if n is even, (n − 1)/2 if n is odd.
(d) Proof: Consider two perfect matchings of G. Their symmetric difference
is a union of cycles in G. But G is a tree, so their symmetric difference must
be empty, which means they are the same.
(e) Assume that M is a maximum matching in G and that M 0 is a matching
with less than σ 0 (G)/2 edges. An edge of M 0 can share vertices with at most
two edges of M , so there is some edge of M that shares no vertices with any
edge of M 0 . So M 0 is not maximal.

7. (a) What is a 1-factor in a graph?

(b) Show that the following graph has no 1-factor.

Solution
(a) A perfect matching.
(b) Let S be the set of three outer vertices of the big triangle. As |S| = 3
and o(G \ S) = 4, we have by Tutte’s theorem that the graph has no perfect
matching.

8. (a) What is a k-regular graph?

(b) Show that a k-regular (X, Y )-bigraph has a perfect matching. (Use
theorems from class.)
(c) Show that a 3-regular graph has a 1-factor if and only if it decomposes
into copies of P4 .

Solution
(a) A graph in which every vertex has degree k.

(b) For any set S of vertices on the X side of the graph, there are k|S| edges
leaving S, any vertex can be the other endpoint of at most k of these edges,
so |N (S)| ≥ |S|. Thus by Hall’s Theorem there is matching that saturates
X. As X and Y have the same number of edges, k-regularity implies that
they are the same size, so the matching also saturates Y .

(c) If 3-regular G decomposes into copies of P4 , there are n/2 such copies as
G has 3n/2 edges, and each copy has 3. Neither of the middle vertices in one
copy can be a middle vertex in another copy, as the vertex has degree 2 in
each copy. So the middle edge of each copy of P4 makes up a 1-factor.
Assume, on the other hand that G has a 1-factor F . Removing F leaves a
2-regular subgraph, which must be the union of disjoint cycles. Direct each
cycle. For every edge e of F let Pe be the copy of P4 we consising of e and
the edges out of its endpoints. This is a decomposition of G into copies of P4 .