Graph Theory Essentials

OUTLINES
• Graph Theory & Metrics
• Basics
• Node degree
• Paths & distance
• Components
Introduction
Graphs: Nodes and Edges.
• A graph is a way of specifying relationships among a
collection of items.
• A graph consists of a set of objects, called nodes, with
certain pairs of these objects connected by links called
edges.
• We say that two nodes are neighbors if they are connected
by an edge.
• with little circles representing the nodes, and a line
connecting each pair of nodes that are linked by an edge.
GRAPH THEORY BASICS

o Graph,
o Node
o Edge
o Adjacency Matrix
o Directed, Undirected and Weighted graph

***CS7280 / www.networksciencebook.com
Undirected, directed, weighted
graphs
Graph adjacency matrix

http://sourcecodemania.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/adjacency-matrix-of-graph.jpg
Graph adjacency matrix
(cont’)
• Many network properties can be
formulated as properties of the
adjacency matrix
– See “algebraic graph theory”

• For instance:
– A directed network is acyclic if and only
if all eigenvalues of the adjacency
matrix are equal to 0
• Proof?
Review: Undirected/Directed
A A

E B E B

D C D C

• Edges: defined by 2 vertices v and u

• Undirected: unordered (v, u)
• Directed: ordered (v, u)
Weighted Graphs
A F
0.1 0.3 0.1 0.3

E B I G
0.2 0.2
0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2
D C J H

• Weight for each edge e = (v,u)

w(A,B) = 0.3
w(E,D) = 0.4
w(I,J) = 0.4
w(G,F) = 0
Node degree, In- and Out-degree, Degree distribution, average degree,
connectance, sparse, dense

NODE DEGREE
Review: Node Degree
• Dfn: The node degree is the
number of neighbors a node has.
|N(v)| deg=3
A

• w.r.t. adjacency matrix: E B

adjacency A B C D E D C
matrix value
A 0 1 0 0 1

k v   av , u B 1
C 0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
u V D 0 0 0 0 1
pick
row v E 1 0 1 1 0
Directed: In- & Out-Degree
A

• Out-degree: kv  av ,u E B
u V

D C
• In-degree: kv  au ,v
u V
column v, not row
A B C D E
A 0 1 0 0 1
B 0 0 0 0 0
C 0 1 0 0 1
D 0 0 0 0 0
E 0 0 0 1 0
Degree Distribution

• Plot node degrees of every node

• Statistics: max, min, mean, variance,
skewness, kurtosis
• Useful: classifying graphs
INDIVIDUAL EXERCISE:

Find the average node degree of

these two graphs.
A

E B

D C
More Degree Metrics
# edges
• Average node degree: k  2 E
~
V # vertices
~
• Connectance:   k scale by
V-1 network size

– Intuition: How connected is it?

– Sparse graphs: V  ,   0
– Dense graphs: V  ,   C positive
constant
Paths, cycles, distance, breadth-first search, small world phenomenon,
characteristic path length, graph efficiency

PATHS AND DISTANCE

Review: Paths & Cycles
• Dfn: A path is a sequence of nodes
where pairs of consecutive nodes are
connected by an edge.
• Directed graph: direction matters!
• Dfn: A cycle is a path where the start
node is also the end node A

E B

Paths? Cycles? D C
Review: Distance
• Dfn: The distance dv,u between 2 nodes
in a graph = length of the shortest path
linking the 2 nodes
• Note: Need to find shortest path!

E B

D C
How would you calculate the
average distance from a node?
Breadth-First Search (BFS)
• Explore first-neighbors
• Explore neighbors’ neighbors
• Keep track of:
– nodes to explore (queue)
A
– visited nodes (set)
E B

D C
Small-world Phenomenon
• For 2 random people: path
distance?
• Millgram 1967 & following:
– 296 “starters” forward a letter to a
person through friends
– 64 completed chains
“six degrees”
Reasonable, unproven
Distance-based Metrics
• The characteristic path length is
the average shortest path length
(average distance).
1 distance from v to u
L
V(V  1)
d
v ,u V ,v u
v ,u

# possible node pairs

• Graph efficiency measures how

easily information
1 is transferred.
1
E 
V (V  1) v ,u V ,v u d v ,u
Connectedness, component, giant component

COMPONENTS
Review: Connectedness
Not edge!
• Dfn: A graph (or subgraph) is
connected if there is a path between
each pair of nodes.
• If no path, this is disconnected.
Components
• Dfn: a connected component is a
subset S of nodes where:
1. Every node in S has a path to every
other
S comp {v  S | u  S , path (u , v)}
2. S is not part of a larger subset S’
where property #1 holds
Giant Components
• A giant component: “connected
component that contains a
significant fraction of all the nodes”
• Ex: Real-world
• Ex: Random graphs (Erdos-Renyi
model – more later)
INDIVIDUAL EXERCISE:

Find the characteristic path

length and efficiency of this graph.
A

E B

D C