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05 08 Edge-Connectivity

Edge chromatic number

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34 views4 pages

05 08 Edge-Connectivity

Edge chromatic number

Uploaded by

Nadeem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Math 38 - Graph Theory Nadia Lafrenière

Edge-connectivity 05/08/2020

Last class, we considered connectivity to be the minimum number of


vertices one can remove to get a disconnected graph. Today, we will
look at a similar notion, but this time we are removing edges.

Definition
A disconnecting set is a subset of edges F ⊆ E such that G-F has at
least 2 components. separating ≠ disconnecting
The edge-connectivity is the minimum size of a disconnecting set, and
is noted κ'(G). A graph is k-edge-connected if it has edge-
connectivity at least k.

Examples

Complete graphs have edge-connectivity n-1. You can prove it!

Let S⊆V be a vertex subset of a connected graph G. Let [S,S] be the


set of all edges with one endpoint in S and one in S. Then [S,S] is
an edge cut.

Edge cut Disconnecting set

Edge cut ⇔ Minimal disconnecting set


Connection to vertex-connectivity 2

Theorem (Whitney, 1932)


If G is simple, then κ(G)≤ κ'(G)≤ δ(G). In words: vertex-connectivity
is at most edge-connectivity, which is always at most the smallest
degree.

Example of inequalities

κ(G)<κ'(G)=δ(G) κ(G)=κ'(G)<δ(G) κ(G)<κ'(G)<δ(G)

Proof
We first prove κ'(G)≤ δ(G). Let v be a vertex with degree δ(G).
The edge cut for the set {v} has δ(G) edges, so an edge cut with
δ(G) edges exist, and the minimum edge cut has size at most δ(G).

We also need to prove κ(G)≤ κ'(G). To do so, we start with a


minimum edge cut, and construct a vertex cut with at most the same
size. If this process is always possible, that proves the desired
inequality.

Consider a minimum edge cut [S,V-S]. There are two cases:


- If every vertex of S is connected to every vertex of V-S, then
#[S,V-S]=|S||V-S|≥ |V|-1. Also, we proved last class that κ(G)≤|V|-1.
So κ(G)≤ |V|-1 ≤ #[S,V-S]=κ'(G).
- Otherwise, there is one vertex x in S and y not in S that are not
adjacent. We construct a set of vertices T:

- All neighbors of x in V-S.


- All vertices of S\{x} that are adjacent to vertices in V-S.
3
Then, T is a vertex cut: There is no way to go from x to y without
passing through one edge of T, so G-T is disconnected. We need
to show that T has at most #[S, V-S] vertices.
For each vertex t of T:
- If t is a neighbor of x, then xt is in the
edge cut.
- If t is in S, then t is adjacent to at least
one vertex u in V-S. Then ut is in the edge cut.

No edge is counted twice in this list, because x is not in T.


Since every edge in this list is in the edge cut, then |T|≤ #[S, V-S],
and κ(G)≤ κ'(G).

Proposition
Let G be a connected graph. Then, an edge cut F is minimal if and
only if G-F has exactly two components.

Remark
If we replace minimal by minimum, then the statement becomes
false: G-F can have two components while there are edge cuts with
size smaller than |F|.

With your study group, try to agree on an explanation of why this is


true.
4
Edge connectivity for regular graphs

Theorem
If G is a 3-regular graph, then κ(G)=κ'(G).

Proof
We already know that κ(G)≤ κ'(G), in general. To prove the statement,
we only need to show the reverse inequality (≥), that is, from a
minimum vertex cut, create an edge cut of the same size.
Let S be a minimum vertex cut, and let H and J be two components of
G-S. Since S is minimum, every vertex of it has a neighbor in H and a
neighbor in J. Also a vertex cannot have at least two neighbors in both
H and J since G is 3-regular. For each vertex v in S, delete the edge
from v to the component in which in has only one neighbor (if there is
one neighbor in H, one in J and another one (in S for example),
delete the edge to H)­
.

That process breaks all the paths between H and J, so the deleted
edges form an edge cut. Also, the size of that edge cut is |S|, which
proves the statement.

Are there any other values of r such that any r-regular simple graph G
inevitably has κ(G)=κ'(G)? Discuss it with your study group.

Reference: Douglas B. West. Introduction to graph theory, 2nd edition, 2001.


Section 4.1

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