UNIT-IV Lect-5
UNIT-IV Lect-5
AY 2024-2025 SEM-I
Lecture-05-: Hamiltonian Graphs
• Contents
• Hamiltonian Path
• Hamiltonian Circuit
• Hamiltonian Graph
• Examples
• Home Assignment
Hamiltonian Path, Hamiltonian Trail or Hamiltonian Walk:
• If there exists a walk in the connected graph that visits every
vertex of the graph exactly once without repeating the edges,
then such a walk is called as a Hamiltonian path.
• If there exists a Path in the connected graph that contains all the
vertices of the graph, then such a path is called as a Hamiltonian
path.
• In Hamiltonian path, all the edges may or may not be covered
but edges must not repeat.
Hamiltonian Circuit, Hamiltonian Cycle or Hamiltonian Tour:
• If there exists a walk in the connected graph that visits every vertex of
the graph exactly once (except starting vertex) without repeating the
edges and returns to the starting vertex, then such a walk is called as
a Hamiltonian circuit.
• If there exists a Cycle in the connected graph that contains all the
vertices of the graph, then that cycle is called as a Hamiltonian circuit.
• A Hamiltonian path which starts and ends at the same vertex is called
as a Hamiltonian circuit.
• A closed Hamiltonian path is called
as a Hamiltonian circuit.
Some Important points:
• Any Hamiltonian circuit can be converted to a Hamiltonian path by
removing one of its edges.
• Every graph that contains a Hamiltonian circuit also contains a
Hamiltonian path but vice versa is not true.
• There may exist more than one Hamiltonian paths and Hamiltonian
circuits in a graph.
• Euler’s circuit contains each edge of the graph exactly once.
• In a Hamiltonian cycle, some edges of the graph can be skipped.
• A simple graph with n vertices (where n > 2) is Hamiltonian if the sum
of the degrees of every pair of non-adjacent vertices is at least n.
• A simple graph with n vertices (where n > 2) is Hamiltonian if the
degree of every vertex is at least n/2.
Theorem: Let G be a simple connected graph on ‘n’ vertices. If the
sum of the degree for each pair of vertices in G is (n-1) or large,
then there exists a Hamiltonian Path in G.
Dirac’s Theorem (1952): Let G be a simple connected graph on
‘n’ vertices and if the degree of each vertex is greater than or equal
to n/2, then G will contain a Hamiltonian circuit.
Theorem : Let G be a simple connected graph. If G has a
Hamiltonian circuit, then for every proper nonempty subset S of
V(G), the components in the graph (G-S) is less than or equal to the
number of vertices in S.
Hamiltonian Closure: The Hamiltonian closure of a graph G is
the graph with vertex V obtained from G by iteratively adding
edges joining pairs of nonadjacent vertices whose degree sum is
at least n, until no such pair remains.
Example: