CHAPTER 02

TYPES OF GRAPHS

Important Types
In this section we examine some important types of graphs and their
properties. We denote a graph G as G = (V (G ), E (G )) .

Null Graph N n
Totally disconnected graph of n vertices. Null graphs are not very
interesting.

V (G ) = n and E (G) = 0
N6

Complete Graph K n
A simple graph in which each pair of distinct vertices are joined by an
edge is called a complete graph. The complete graph of n vertices are
denoted by K n . In this graph each of n vertices are adjacent with all the
other vertices. So each vertex has degree n − 1 .
By Handshaking lemma total number of edges = E (G ) =  (v ) = n (n − 1).
1 1

2 v V 2
Example

The first four complete graphs:

K1 K2 K3 K4

Regular Graph

A simple graph in which every vertex has same degree is called a

regular graph.
ie.  (v ) is constant for all vV (G ) .
A regular graph in which this constant is r called a regular graph of degree
vr
r . Note that a regular graph of degree r has number of edges.
2

12
Example
Peterson graph

Remark:
Every complete graph is regular. But converse is not true in general.

Cycle Graph C n
Another important graph with n vertices (for n  3 ) is the cycle on n
vertices, denoted by C n . This is a graph in which every vertex has degree
2. The cycles are normally drawn to resemble geometric figures - C3 as a
triangle, C 4 as a square, C5 as a pentagon, and so on. The first three cycles
are shown in the following figure:

C3 C4 C5

Bipartite Graphs
A bipartite graph is one having the following characteristics.

The vertex set is partitioned into two subsets. Usually the vertices in one
of these subsets are displayed in one row ( or column ), and the vertices
in the other subset are displayed in another row ( or column ).

Here is the essential feature:

Every edge in the graph passes from a vertex in one subset to a vertex in
the other subset.

Alternatively, a bipartite graph is one whose vertices can be coloured with

two colours (say, red and blue) in such a way that each edge joins a red
vertex and a blue vertex.

13
If one set has m vertices and the other set has n vertices, we call the graph
as (m , n ) - bipartite graph.

Complete Bipartite Graph K m,n

The complete bipartite graph K m,n is an (m , n ) - bipartite simple graph in
which every one of the m vertices is adjacent with every one of the n
vertices.

K 3,3
K 3,3 K 2, 3

As a graph with (m + n ) vertices, K m,n is a sub-graph of the complete graph

K m+ n . But apart from the trivial case in which m = n = 1, K m,n will be missing
some of the edges of K m+n . This means that a complete bipartite graph K m,n is
not a complete graph. But it is "as complete” as it is possible for an (m, n ) -
bipartite graph to be.

So exactly how many edges does K m,n has? The Handshaking lemma gives
us the answer. Since all of the m vertices have degree n , the sum of their
degrees is
n+
n + ...
  + n = mn.

m times

Similarly, all of the n vertices have degree m , so that the sum of their
degrees is

+
m m
 +
... +
m = nm.
n times

So the total degree is: mn + nm = 2mn.

Then, by the Hand-shaking lemma, K m,n has mn edges.

Remark:

Sometimes a graph may actually be bipartite even though at first glance

it doesn't appear to be.

14
For an example, the cycle C 4 appears in its usual form as Figure 3.6(a)
When drawn in this way, it is not obviously bipartite. But it can also be
drawn as Figure 3.6(b), which is easily seen to be bipartite.

This tells us that, C 4 and K 2, 2 are isomorphic.

aa b a c

d c d b

(a) (b)

Star graph K1,n

K1,5
A complete bipartite graph of the form K1,n .

Wheel graph Wn
The graph obtained from C n−1 by introducing a new vertex
and joining it with all the vertices of C n−1 is called the wheel on n W6
n vertices and denoted by Wn .

Path Graph Pn
The graph obtained from C n by removing an edge is called the path
graph on n vertices and denoted by Pn .

C6 − e = P6

Cube graph Qk ( k − cubes )

Special interest among the regular bipartite graphs are k-cubes.

15
The k − cube Qk is the graph whose vertex set V (G ) = a1 a2 ak | ai = 0 or 1has
2 k number of vertices and k 2 k −1 edges and regular of degree k. Two vertices
are adjacent if and only if whose bits differ in just one.

When k = 1 ; V (G ) = 0, 1

Q1

When k = 2 ; V (G ) = 00, 01, 10, 11

00 01

10 11

Q2

When k = 3 ; V (G ) = 000, 001, 010,100, 011,101,110,111

000 001

100 101

110 111

010 011

The Union of two graphs

Let G1 = (V (G1 ), E (G1 )) and G2 = (V (G2 ), E (G2 )) where V (G1 ) and V (G2 ) are
disjoint. The Union of G1 and G 2 , denoted by G1  G2 , is just the graph G
whose vertex set V (G ) = V (G1 )  V (G2 ) and edge set E (G ) = E (G1 )  E (G2 ) .


G1 G2
G1  G 2
16
We see that any graph can be expressed as the union of connected
components. This is a very useful concept. Since (very often) we can
generalize the results obtained for connected graphs easily to graphs in
general.

For an example, if G1 and G 2 are bipartite then G1  G2 is also bipartite.

The Complement of a simple graph

Let G = (V (G ) , E (G )) be a simple graph. Then the complement of G ,

denoted by G , is the simple graph with vertex set V (G ) and two vertices
in G are adjacent if and only if they are not adjacent in G .

Example

G G

K2
Example
K3

K 2, 3 K 2,3

Remark: In general K r ,s = K r  K s .

Product of two graphs

Let G1 = (U , E1 ) and G2 = (V , E 2 ) . Then the product graph, denoted by

G1  G2 , is G1  G2 = (U V , E ) where an edge of the product graph G1  G2
is given by the rule:

(u1 , v1 )  U  V is adjacent with (u 2 , v2 )  U  V whenever u1 is adjacent with

u 2 and v1 = v 2 or v1 is adjacent with v 2 and u1 = u 2 .

17
Example
u1 (u1 , v1 ) (u1 , v 2 )
 
u2 v1 v2 (u 2 , v1 ) (u 2 , v 2 )
Q1
K2 Q2

Example
(u1 , v1 ) (u1 , v 2 )
u1 v1 v2
(u1 , v 4 ) (u1 ,v3 )
 
u2 v4 v3
K2 Q2
(u 2 , v 4 ) (u2 ,v3 ) (u 2 , v2 )
(u 2 , v1 )
Q3

In general; .
K 2  Qr = Qr +1

Deletions and Contractions

(a) Deleting an edge

Let G be a graph and e  E (G ) . The graph obtained from G by deleting
e is denoted by G − e .

G
G −e

Here the number of edges of the graph will be reduced by 1.

(b)

18
 (c) Contraction
Let G be a graph and e be an edge whose end vertices are u and v . Then
the graph obtained from G by deleting the edge e and identifying (
combining ) the ends u and v in such a way that the resulting vertex
is incident to those edges, except e , which were originally incident to
u or v is called a contraction and is denoted by G | e .
We say that G is contractible to G | e .
e v
u

w w

G G|e

(c ) Deleting a vertex

Let G be a graph and v be a vertex. G \ v is the graph obtained from G

by deleting v and all the edges incident to v .
v

G G\ v

Remark: Number of vertices will be reduced by 1.

Number of edges will be reduced by degree of v .

19
 EXERCISE 2

1. Draw the following graphs

(i) The null graph N 5

(ii) The complete graph K 6
(iii) The complete bipartite graph K 2, 4
(iv) The union graph of k1,3 and k6

2. Show that the vertices of a bipartite graph with two or more vertices
0 A
can be ordered so that its adjacency matrix has the form  .
B 0 

3.Determine whether each of the following graph is bipartite or not.

Justify your answers.
c a b
(a) b (c)

a d f c

e
e
d
b
b c
(b) (d)

a c
a d

f e

d
f
e

20