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Solutions 6

The document provides solutions to homework problems related to graph theory, focusing on planar graphs and bipartite properties. It demonstrates that a bipartite graph has all even-length faces and that if all faces are even, then all cycles are even. Additionally, it discusses properties of 3-coloring in relation to the number of colored edges and proves that segments connecting points of unit distance do not cross, leading to a contradiction if they do.

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Anuj Jha
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13 views2 pages

Solutions 6

The document provides solutions to homework problems related to graph theory, focusing on planar graphs and bipartite properties. It demonstrates that a bipartite graph has all even-length faces and that if all faces are even, then all cycles are even. Additionally, it discusses properties of 3-coloring in relation to the number of colored edges and proves that segments connecting points of unit distance do not cross, leading to a contradiction if they do.

Uploaded by

Anuj Jha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Graph Theory

Solutions 6

The aim of the homework problems is to help you understand the theory better by actively
using it to solve exercises. Do not read the solutions before you believe you have solved
the problems: it ruins your best way of preparing for the exam. The purpose of this write-up is
merely to provide some guideline on how solutions should look like, and to help clean up hazy
arguments. For hints, feel free to consult your teaching assistant.

Problem 3: Let G be a planar graph. We already know that G is bipartite iff all its cycles
have even length (first exercise sheet), so it is enough to prove that the statement “every face
has even length” is equivalent to these. We will first show that bipartite implies that all faces
have even length, and then that if all faces have even length then all cycles have even length
as well.
To see the first statement, let us take any face and a vertex v on it. Now start walking
from v along the boundary of the face. Since the graph is bipartite, we alternately encounter
vertices from the two classes, and when we reach v again, we are back at its class. So we made
an even number of steps, hence the length of the face is even.
For the second statement, assume that all faces have even length, and consider a cycle in
the drawing, of length l. The region bounded by the cycle is the union of faces, let the length
of those faces be l1 , . . . , lk . Then the sum ki=1 li counts each edge the cycle once, and each
P
Pk
edge inside the region bounded by the cycle twice (once for both adjacent faces). i=1 li ≡ l
(mod 2), and since all the li are even, l is also even.

Problem 5: Take an arbitrary (not necessarily proper) 3-coloring of G, and let ai be the
number of 2-colored sides of the i’th face. Note that if the vertices of this i’th triangle get
3 different colors, then ai = 3, if they only get 2 different colors, then ai = 2, and if all the
vertices have the same color, then ai = 0.
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The sum ai counts each 2-colored edge twice (once for each adjacent face), and since the
ai ’s can only take the values 0, 2 or 3, this means we have an even number of 3’s among them.
That means an even number of 3-colored triangles.

Problem 6: Draw a straight line segment between any pair of points in S that have distance
exactly 1. It is enough to show that there are no crossing segments. Indeed, if that is the case,

1
then the drawing corresponds to a plane embedding of a graph, where two points are connected
by an edge if they have distance 1. Since a plane graph on n vertices has at most 3n − 6 edges,
we get that there are at most 3n − 6 such pairs of points.
Suppose for contradiction that two of the above segments AB and CD intersect at some
point X. Remember, both segments have length l(AB) = l(CD) = 1. By the triangle inequal-
ity, l(AX) + l(XC) ≥ l(AC) and l(XB) + l(DX) ≥ l(BD), so

l(AC) + l(BD) ≤ l(AX) + l(XB) + l(XC) + l(DX) = l(AB) + l(CD) = 2.

But by the condition, l(AC) and l(BD) both are at least 1, so we in fact have equality every-
where. Similarly we get that l(AD) and l(BC) are 1, so we have four points in the plane, any
two of unit distance, which is impossible. So indeed there is no crossing.

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