Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G.

JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 1

Subgraph: Let and . Then H is called subgraph of G if

and , i.e. H is a subgraph of G if each vertex of H is a vertex of G
and each edge of H is an edge of G. Note that, we do not insist that all edges with both endpoint
in are in . A subgraph H of G is a proper subgraph of G if . We also say that
G is a supergraph of H.
From the definition we can conclude that any simple graph on n vertices is subgraph of the
complete graph Kn. Notice that we can get a subgraph of any graph by deleting of a vertex or an
edge the graph.
Q1. Draw all subgraphs of this graph.
Q2. Draw two subgraph of K5.
Spanning subgraph. A subgraph H G spans G (and H is a spanning subgraph of G), if
every vertex of G is in H, i.e. V(H) = V(G).
For example, in Figure below H1 is subgraph of G and H2 is spanning subgraph of G.
G y H1 y H2
z x z x z x

Induced subgraph: An induced subgraph of a graph is a graph where

and F consists of all edges whose end points are both in W. In an induced subgraph
H G, the set E(H) of edges consists of all e ∈ E(G) such that e ∈ E(V(H)).
Example 1. For the following graph G, the graph H is clearly a subgraph of G but is not an
induced subgraph of G, while the graph K is an induced subgraph of G.
a a a
d

b G c b H c b K c
An induced subgraph H of a graph G is said to be component of G if
(i) H is connected and
(ii) H is maximal connected subgraph of G, that is there is no subgraph K of G with
and K is connected, other than H itself. A graph with two components
is given below.

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 2

Definition: (i) If is a vertex in a graph , then is the subgraph of G obtained by deleting

from G and deleting all edges in G which contain .
(ii) If is an edge in G, then is the subgraph of G obtained by simply deleting the edge
from G.
Q3. Let G be a graph with vertices and edges, and let be a vertex of G of degree and
be an edge of G. How may vertices and edges have , ?.
Sol. Vertices of , Edges of
Vertices of , Edges of .

Isomorphic Graphs: It is often the case that two graphs have the same structure, differing only
in the way their vertices and edges are labeled or only in the way they are represented
geometrically. For many purposes, we can regard the two graphs as essentially the same. This
essential likeness has a special name, and we now define this formally. A graph can exist in
different forms having the same number of vertices, edges and also the same edges connectivity
such graphs are called isomorphic graphs.
Definition. A graph G1 = (V1, E1) is said to be isomorphic to the graph G2 = (V2, E2) if there is
one-to-one correspondence , called an isomorphism from V1 to V2 with the additional
properties that there is an edge between and in G2 if and only if there is an edge
between e1 and e2 in G1, i.e. ∈ ∈ (i.e. if preserve adjacency and non-
adjacency). Such a pair of correspondence is called a graph isomorphism (the word isomorphism
comes from the Greek roots “isos” for equal and “mor phe” for form). In such case the graphs G1
and G2 are said to be isomorphic, written as .
Q4. Show that the and displayed below are isomorphic.
a b u v
c d w x
G H
Sol. Define a function from to as: , .

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 3

Then is one-one and onto (thus bijective). Further preserve adjacency and non-adjacency, as
shown in the following.

,
Hence, G is isomorphic to H, i.e. .
Note: (i) For isomorphic graphs and degree sequence of both and are same.
(ii) if two graphs are isomorphic, then both have same number of vertices and same number of
edges. However, the converse is not true, as proved in the following.
Q5. If two graphs and are isomorphic, the order of is equal to the order of and the size
of is equal to the size of , i.e. | | | | | | | |.
Proof. Let and are isomorphic graphs, then there is a bijection between
and so both and have same order. As the bijection preserve adjacency and non-
adjacency, thus there is an edge between vertex and vertex in iff there is an edge between
and in and there is a loop at iff there is a loop at . So both and have the
same size.
Q6. Show that two graphs need not be isomorphic even when they both have same order and
size.
Sol. Let and where and
and be two graphs. a b a b

c d c d
It is impossible to define a bijection between V and that will preserve adjacency and non-
adjacency even through both G and have the same order and size.
Q7. Show that G and H given below are isomorphic.
a b u
c v w
d G e x H y
Sol. To show that G and H are isomorphic
(i) First we prove that number of vertices and edges are same
No of vertices of G=5=No of vertices of H, i.e. | | | |.
No of edges of G=6=No of edges of H, | | | |.

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 4

Degree sequence of G Degree sequence of H.

(ii) Define as .
Clearly is one-one and onto. Thus bijective. Now we show that preserves
adjacency and non-adjacency.

,
,
Thus, preserve adjacency. Hence, G is isomorphic to H, i.e. .
Q8. Show that the following graphs G and H are isomorphic.
a b u v w
c d
e G f x H y z
Sol. Both G and H have 6 vertices and 9 edges.
Degree of each vertex of degee of each vertex of H.
Degree sequence of both is .
Define from G to H as: .
Then is one-one and onto. Thus bijective. Also, preserve adjacency and non-adjacency, can
be easily verify. Hence, G is isomorphic to H, i.e. .
Q9. Show that the following graphs are isomorphic. .
(b) a 4
b c d 1 2 3

(a) (c)

Hints (b) Degree sequence of both is [3,3,2,2]. Define

. Then is an isomorphism.
Q10. Classify the following statements as true or false.
(i) Any two isomorphic graphs have same degree sequence. (True)
(ii) Any two graph with the same degree sequence are isomorphic. (False)

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 5

Q11. Show that every simple graph of order is isomorphic to a subgraph of the complete graph
with vertices.
Sol. Let be the vertex set of the simple graph G. Lebel the vertices of
as . Define a one-to-one mapping from V to the vertex set of . Let H
be the subgraph of in which there is edge between and iff there is an edge between and
in . Then G is isomprphic to H. Thus, every simple graph with vertices is isomorphic to a
subgraph of the complete graph .
Q12. Show that two simple graphs are isomorphic iff their complements are isomorphic.
Sol. Suppose and are two simple isomorphic graphs with | | | |
and | | | | . Then their complements are also of order . As isomorphism from V to
W that preserves adjacency and non-adjacency between G and H is an isomorphism from V to W
that preserve non-adjacency and adjacency between their complements. Thus result follows.
Q13. Explain why the following two graphs are not isomorphic.
Ans. In 1st graph no vertex of degree 2 are
adjacent. In 2nd graph they are adjacent in
pairs. Since isomorphism preserve adjacency
of vertices. Thus, the two graph are not
isomorphic.
Q14. Show that the following graphs are non-isomorphic. Also write adjacency and incidence
matrices of G and H (by labeling the vertices and edges).

Hints: H is a vertex of degree 1, whereas G has no vertex of degree 1.

Q15. By suitably labeling the vertices, show that the two graph in the following figure are
isomorphic. a a e
Ans. We can label the vertices as f d f
e j g b b j
i h i
d c c g h

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 6

Note. (i) if the adjacency matrices of G and H are same.

(ii) if and only if the corresponding subgraphs of G and H (obtained by deleting some
vertices in G and their images in graph H) are isomorphic.

Q16. Find a pair of isomorphic graph from the following three graphs.

Operations on Graphs
Union of graphs: Two or more graphs can be combined in various ways. The new graph that
contains all the vertices and edges of these graphs is called the union of the graphs. We will give
a more formal definition for the union of two simple graphs.
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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 7

Definition: The union of two simple graphs G1 = (V1, E1) and G2 = (V2, E2) is the simple graph
with vertex set V1 V2 and edge set E1 E2, i.e. V(G1 G2)=V(G1) V(G2) and E(G1 G2)=
E(G1) E(G2). The union of G1 and G2 is denoted by G1 G2. Thus, for a simple graph

EXAMPLE. Find the union of the graphs G1 and G2 shown in following Figure.
a b G1 c a b c a b G1 G2 c

d e d G2 f d e f
Sol. The vertex set of the union G1 G2 is the union of the two vertices sets, namely
. The edges set of the union is the union of the two edges sets. The union is
displayed in above figure.
Q1. Draw the union of K1,3 and W4.
Q2. Find the union of the following give pair of simple graphs
(i) a (ii) a b a c b (iii) a b a c
f b f b e e h
e c c d c f d c d f g
d d
Intersection of Two graphs: The intersection of two simple graphs G1 = (V1 , E1) and G2 =
(V2, E2) having at least one vertex common is denoted by G1 G2, and is defined as:
V(G1 G2)= V(G1) V(G2) and E(G1 G2)= E(G1) E(G2). Thus, for a simple graph
.
Example. Find the intersection of the following graphs.

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 8

Sum of two graphs: Let G1 = (V1, E1) and G2 = (V2, E2) are two graphs such that V(G1)
V(G2)= . Then the sum of G1 and G2, is denoted by G1 G2, and is a graph with vertices
V(G1) V(G2) and edge set containing all edges of G1, G2 and the edges obtained by connected
each vertex of G1 and G2.
Example. Find G1+G2 for the following graphs.
c d a b
a b e c d
G1 G2 G1 G2 e
Q3. Find the sum of the following graphs.
a b f

c G1 d e G2 g
Ring sum of two graphs: Let G = (V1 , E1) and H = (V2, E2) be two graphs. Then the ring sum
of G and H, is denoted by G H, and is defined as:
(i) V(G )= V(G) V(H)
(ii) E(G )= E(G) E(H) E(G) E(H)
or E(G )= (E(G) E(H)) (E(H) E(G))
with isolated vertices dropped. So an edge is in G if and only if it is an edge of G, or an
edge of H, but not of both.
Example. Find ring sum of the following graphs a c
a a c Ans. b
b G H G d e
d e d e

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 9

Theorem: For any graphs G and H, G H is empty if and only if E(G) = E(H).
Proof: Suppose that G H is an empty graph, this means that every edge of E(G) is also in
E(H) and vice versa, so the two edge sets are equal, i.e. E(G) = E(H).
Conversly, suppose that E(G) = E(H), then every edge of G is also an edge of H
E(G ) = E(G) E(H) E(G) E(H)
= E(G) E(G) E(G) E(G)=
Thus, E(G ) is an empty graph.

Difference of Two graphs. If the graphs and are simple and .

Then the difference graph is given by , where contains those edges from G
that are not in

G
Complement of a Graph: Let G a simple graph. Complement of G, denoted Gc or , is a simple
graph such that V(G) = V(Gc) and two vertices u is adjacent to v in Gc if and only if u is not
adjacent to v in G. Thus, the complement of a graph G has vertex set V and an edge exactly
where there is not an edge in G. In the Figure below, Gc is the complement of G.

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 10

a a
(i) b c b c
d e d e
c
G G
(ii)
H Hc
Consequently, if G is a complete graph, then Gc is an empty or null graph and for any graph,
is a complete graph.
Note: (i) The complement of the complete graph Kn is the empty graph with n vertices.
(ii) (G c )c = G.
Q4. Draw the complement of (i) K4 (ii) C4 (iii) K2,3 (iv) K3,2.
Q5. Give an example to show that the complement of a complete bipartite graph is not bipartite.
Ans. Graph (a) is complete bipartite graph, while it complement (b) is not complete bipartite.
(a) 1 2 (b) 1 2
3 6 3 6
4 5 5
(a) 1 2 3 (b) 1 2 3

4 5 6 4 5 6
Q6. A simple graph G is called self-complementary if G is isomorphic to it complement Gc.
Show that the given graph is
self-complementary.
OR Find a self-complementary graph of order 4.
Sol. The number of vertices in K4 is 6. So if it complement is self-complementary graph, it
should have three edges. The following two graph are isomorphic, under the mapping
a b a b

c d c d
Q7. Find two self-complementary graphs of order 5 (i.e. having five vertices).

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 11

Sol. G and H given below are self-complementary.

(a) (b)

G H
Explanation: 1 1 1
5 2 5 2 4 3

4 3 4 3 2 5
G Gc Gc

Q8. Let G be a simple graph with nine vertices and twelve edges. Find the number of edges in .
Sol. As | | | ( )| | |

| ( )|

| ( )|

Q9. Let G be a simple graph with 40 edges and its complement has 38 edges. Find the number
of vertices in the graph G (or in ).
Sol. Let n be the number of vertices. Then as | | | ( )| | |

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Dr. M. IQBAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR GOVT.P.G. JAHANZEB COLLEGE SAIDU 12

Q10. Let G be a simple graph with 15 edges and its complement has 13 edges. How many
vertices does G (or in ) have?.
Sol. Let be the number of vertices. Then as | | | ( )| | |

Q12. Prove (by valid reason) that there is no simple graph with 6 vertices, one of which has
degree 2, two have degree 3, two have degree 4 and the remaining vertex has degree 5.
Q13. Prove that there can exists a simple graph with 7 vertices, one of which has degree 2, two
have degree 3, three have degree 4 and the remaining vertex has degree 5.

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