Graph theory
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In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''
graph Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...
s'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are connected by '' edges'' (also called ''links'' or ''lines''). A distinction is made between undirected graphs, where edges link two vertices symmetrically, and directed graphs, where edges link two vertices asymmetrically. Graphs are one of the principal objects of study in discrete mathematics.


Definitions

Definitions in graph theory vary. The following are some of the more basic ways of defining graphs and related mathematical structures.


Graph

In one restricted but very common sense of the term, a graph is an ordered pair G=(V,E) comprising: * V, a set of vertices (also called nodes or points); * E \subseteq \, a set of edges (also called links or lines), which are unordered pairs of vertices (that is, an edge is associated with two distinct vertices). To avoid ambiguity, this type of object may be called precisely an undirected simple graph. In the edge \, the vertices x and y are called the endpoints of the edge. The edge is said to join x and y and to be incident on x and on y. A vertex may exist in a graph and not belong to an edge.
Multiple edges In graph theory, multiple edges (also called parallel edges or a multi-edge), are, in an undirected graph, two or more edges that are incident to the same two vertices, or in a directed graph, two or more edges with both the same tail vertex ...
, not allowed under the definition above, are two or more edges that join the same two vertices. In one more general sense of the term allowing multiple edges, a graph is an ordered triple G=(V,E,\phi) comprising: * V, a set of vertices (also called nodes or points); * E, a set of edges (also called links or lines); * \phi : E \to \, an incidence function mapping every edge to an unordered pair of vertices (that is, an edge is associated with two distinct vertices). To avoid ambiguity, this type of object may be called precisely an undirected
multigraph In mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a multigraph is a graph which is permitted to have multiple edges (also called ''parallel edges''), that is, edges that have the same end nodes. Thus two vertices may be connected by more ...
. A loop is an edge that joins a vertex to itself. Graphs as defined in the two definitions above cannot have loops, because a loop joining a vertex x to itself is the edge (for an undirected simple graph) or is incident on (for an undirected multigraph) \ = \ which is not in \. So to allow loops the definitions must be expanded. For undirected simple graphs, the definition of E should be modified to E \subseteq \. For undirected multigraphs, the definition of \phi should be modified to \phi : E \to \. To avoid ambiguity, these types of objects may be called undirected simple graph permitting loops and undirected multigraph permitting loops (sometimes also undirected pseudograph), respectively. V and E are usually taken to be finite, and many of the well-known results are not true (or are rather different) for infinite graphs because many of the arguments fail in the infinite case. Moreover, V is often assumed to be non-empty, but E is allowed to be the empty set. The order of a graph is , V, , its number of vertices. The size of a graph is , E, , its number of edges. The degree or valency of a vertex is the number of edges that are incident to it, where a loop is counted twice. The degree of a graph is the maximum of the degrees of its vertices. In an undirected simple graph of order ''n'', the maximum degree of each vertex is and the maximum size of the graph is . The edges of an undirected simple graph permitting loops G induce a symmetric
homogeneous relation In mathematics, a homogeneous relation (also called endorelation) over a set ''X'' is a binary relation over ''X'' and itself, i.e. it is a subset of the Cartesian product . This is commonly phrased as "a relation on ''X''" or "a (binary) relation ...
\sim on the vertices of G that is called the adjacency relation of G. Specifically, for each edge (x,y), its endpoints x and y are said to be adjacent to one another, which is denoted x \sim y.


Directed graph

A directed graph or digraph is a graph in which edges have orientations. In one restricted but very common sense of the term, a directed graph is an ordered pair G=(V,E) comprising: * V, a set of ''vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points''); * E \subseteq \left\, a set of ''edges'' (also called ''directed edges'', ''directed links'', ''directed lines'', ''arrows'' or ''arcs'') which are ordered pairs of vertices (that is, an edge is associated with two distinct vertices). To avoid ambiguity, this type of object may be called precisely a directed simple graph. In the edge (x, y) directed from x to y, the vertices x and y are called the ''endpoints'' of the edge, x the ''tail'' of the edge and y the ''head'' of the edge. The edge is said to ''join'' x and y and to be ''incident'' on x and on y. A vertex may exist in a graph and not belong to an edge. The edge (y,x) is called the ''inverted edge'' of (x, y). ''
Multiple edges In graph theory, multiple edges (also called parallel edges or a multi-edge), are, in an undirected graph, two or more edges that are incident to the same two vertices, or in a directed graph, two or more edges with both the same tail vertex ...
'', not allowed under the definition above, are two or more edges with both the same tail and the same head. In one more general sense of the term allowing multiple edges, a directed graph is an ordered triple G=(V,E,\phi) comprising: * V, a set of ''vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points''); * E, a set of ''edges'' (also called ''directed edges'', ''directed links'', ''directed lines'', ''arrows'' or ''arcs''); * \phi : E \to \left\, an ''incidence function'' mapping every edge to an ordered pair of vertices (that is, an edge is associated with two distinct vertices). To avoid ambiguity, this type of object may be called precisely a directed multigraph. A '' loop'' is an edge that joins a vertex to itself. Directed graphs as defined in the two definitions above cannot have loops, because a loop joining a vertex x to itself is the edge (for a directed simple graph) or is incident on (for a directed multigraph) (x,x) which is not in \left\. So to allow loops the definitions must be expanded. For directed simple graphs, the definition of E should be modified to E \subseteq \left\. For directed multigraphs, the definition of \phi should be modified to \phi : E \to \left\. To avoid ambiguity, these types of objects may be called precisely a directed simple graph permitting loops and a directed multigraph permitting loops (or a ''
quiver A quiver is a container for holding arrows, bolts, ammo, projectiles, darts, or javelins. It can be carried on an archer's body, the bow, or the ground, depending on the type of shooting and the archer's personal preference. Quivers were trad ...
'') respectively. The edges of a directed simple graph permitting loops G is a
homogeneous relation In mathematics, a homogeneous relation (also called endorelation) over a set ''X'' is a binary relation over ''X'' and itself, i.e. it is a subset of the Cartesian product . This is commonly phrased as "a relation on ''X''" or "a (binary) relation ...
~ on the vertices of G that is called the ''adjacency relation'' of G. Specifically, for each edge (x,y), its endpoints x and y are said to be ''adjacent'' to one another, which is denoted x ~ y.


Applications

Graphs can be used to model many types of relations and processes in physical, biological, social and information systems. Many practical problems can be represented by graphs. Emphasizing their application to real-world systems, the term ''network'' is sometimes defined to mean a graph in which attributes (e.g. names) are associated with the vertices and edges, and the subject that expresses and understands real-world systems as a network is called
network science Network science is an academic field which studies complex networks such as telecommunication networks, computer networks, biological networks, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks, considering distinct elements or actors rep ...
.


Computer science

Within
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
, cybernetics uses graphs to represent networks of communication, data organization, computational devices, the flow of computation, etc. For instance, the link structure of a
website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...
can be represented by a directed graph, in which the vertices represent web pages and directed edges represent links from one page to another. A similar approach can be taken to problems in social media, travel, biology, computer chip design, mapping the progression of neuro-degenerative diseases, and many other fields. The development of
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
s to handle graphs is therefore of major interest in computer science. The transformation of graphs is often formalized and represented by graph rewrite systems. Complementary to
graph transformation In computer science, graph transformation, or graph rewriting, concerns the technique of creating a new graph out of an original graph algorithmically. It has numerous applications, ranging from software engineering (software construction and also ...
systems focusing on rule-based in-memory manipulation of graphs are
graph database A graph database (GDB) is a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries with nodes, edges, and properties to represent and store data. A key concept of the system is the '' graph'' (or ''edge'' or ''relationship''). The graph rel ...
s geared towards transaction-safe, persistent storing and querying of graph-structured data.


Linguistics

Graph-theoretic methods, in various forms, have proven particularly useful in
linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
, since natural language often lends itself well to discrete structure. Traditionally, syntax and compositional semantics follow tree-based structures, whose expressive power lies in the principle of compositionality, modeled in a hierarchical graph. More contemporary approaches such as head-driven phrase structure grammar model the syntax of natural language using typed feature structures, which are directed acyclic graphs. Within
lexical semantics Lexical semantics (also known as lexicosemantics), as a subfield of linguistic semantics, is the study of word meanings.Pustejovsky, J. (2005) Lexical Semantics: Overview' in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, second edition, Volumes 1-14Ta ...
, especially as applied to computers, modeling word meaning is easier when a given word is understood in terms of related words; semantic networks are therefore important in computational linguistics. Still, other methods in phonology (e.g.
optimality theory In linguistics, Optimality Theory (frequently abbreviated OT) is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the optimal satisfaction of conflicting constraints. OT differs from other approaches to phonological ...
, which uses
lattice graph In graph theory, a lattice graph, mesh graph, or grid graph is a graph whose drawing, embedded in some Euclidean space , forms a regular tiling. This implies that the group of bijective transformations that send the graph to itself is a la ...
s) and morphology (e.g. finite-state morphology, using
finite-state transducer A finite-state transducer (FST) is a finite-state machine with two memory ''tapes'', following the terminology for Turing machines: an input tape and an output tape. This contrasts with an ordinary finite-state automaton, which has a single tape. ...
s) are common in the analysis of language as a graph. Indeed, the usefulness of this area of mathematics to linguistics has borne organizations such a
TextGraphs
as well as various 'Net' projects, such as WordNet,
VerbNet The VerbNet project maps PropBank verb types to their corresponding Levin classes. It is a lexical resource that incorporates both semantic and syntactic information about its contents. VerbNet is part of thSemLinkproject in development at the Un ...
, and others.


Physics and chemistry

Graph theory is also used to study molecules in chemistry and
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
. In condensed matter physics, the three-dimensional structure of complicated simulated atomic structures can be studied quantitatively by gathering statistics on graph-theoretic properties related to the topology of the atoms. Also, "the Feynman graphs and rules of calculation summarize quantum field theory in a form in close contact with the experimental numbers one wants to understand." In chemistry a graph makes a natural model for a molecule, where vertices represent atoms and edges bonds. This approach is especially used in computer processing of molecular structures, ranging from chemical editors to database searching. In
statistical physics Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the mathematical tools for dealing with large populations and approxim ...
, graphs can represent local connections between interacting parts of a system, as well as the dynamics of a physical process on such systems. Similarly, in
computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to u ...
graphs can be used to represent functional connections between brain areas that interact to give rise to various cognitive processes, where the vertices represent different areas of the brain and the edges represent the connections between those areas. Graph theory plays an important role in electrical modeling of electrical networks, here, weights are associated with resistance of the wire segments to obtain electrical properties of network structures. Graphs are also used to represent the micro-scale channels of
porous media A porous medium or a porous material is a material containing pores (voids). The skeletal portion of the material is often called the "matrix" or "frame". The pores are typically filled with a fluid (liquid or gas). The skeletal material is usu ...
, in which the vertices represent the pores and the edges represent the smaller channels connecting the pores. Chemical graph theory uses the
molecular graph In chemical graph theory and in mathematical chemistry, a molecular graph or chemical graph is a representation of the structural formula of a chemical compound in terms of graph theory. A chemical graph is a labeled graph whose vertices corresp ...
as a means to model molecules. Graphs and networks are excellent models to study and understand phase transitions and critical phenomena. Removal of nodes or edges leads to a critical transition where the network breaks into small clusters which is studied as a phase transition. This breakdown is studied via
percolation theory In statistical physics and mathematics, percolation theory describes the behavior of a network when nodes or links are added. This is a geometric type of phase transition, since at a critical fraction of addition the network of small, disconnecte ...
.


Social sciences

Graph theory is also widely used in
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
as a way, for example, to measure actors' prestige or to explore rumor spreading, notably through the use of
social network analysis Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) ...
software. Under the umbrella of social networks are many different types of graphs. Acquaintanceship and friendship graphs describe whether people know each other. Influence graphs model whether certain people can influence the behavior of others. Finally, collaboration graphs model whether two people work together in a particular way, such as acting in a movie together.


Biology

Likewise, graph theory is useful in
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
and conservation efforts where a vertex can represent regions where certain species exist (or inhabit) and the edges represent migration paths or movement between the regions. This information is important when looking at breeding patterns or tracking the spread of disease, parasites or how changes to the movement can affect other species. Graphs are also commonly used in
molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
and genomics to model and analyse datasets with complex relationships. For example, graph-based methods are often used to 'cluster' cells together into cell-types in single-cell transcriptome analysis. Another use is to model genes or proteins in a pathway and study the relationships between them, such as metabolic pathways and gene regulatory networks. Evolutionary trees, ecological networks, and hierarchical clustering of gene expression patterns are also represented as graph structures. Graph theory is also used in
connectomics Connectomics is the production and study of connectomes: comprehensive maps of connections within an organism's nervous system. More generally, it can be thought of as the study of neuronal wiring diagrams with a focus on how structural connectivi ...
; nervous systems can be seen as a graph, where the nodes are neurons and the edges are the connections between them.


Mathematics

In mathematics, graphs are useful in geometry and certain parts of topology such as knot theory.
Algebraic graph theory Algebraic graph theory is a branch of mathematics in which algebraic methods are applied to problems about graphs. This is in contrast to geometric, combinatoric, or algorithmic approaches. There are three main branches of algebraic graph th ...
has close links with
group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...
. Algebraic graph theory has been applied to many areas including dynamic systems and complexity.


Other topics

A graph structure can be extended by assigning a weight to each edge of the graph. Graphs with weights, or
weighted graph This is a glossary of graph theory. Graph theory is the study of graphs, systems of nodes or vertices connected in pairs by lines or edges. Symbols A B ...
s, are used to represent structures in which pairwise connections have some numerical values. For example, if a graph represents a road network, the weights could represent the length of each road. There may be several weights associated with each edge, including distance (as in the previous example), travel time, or monetary cost. Such weighted graphs are commonly used to program GPS's, and travel-planning search engines that compare flight times and costs.


History

The paper written by Leonhard Euler on the
Seven Bridges of Königsberg The Seven Bridges of Königsberg is a historically notable problem in mathematics. Its negative resolution by Leonhard Euler in 1736 laid the foundations of graph theory and prefigured the idea of topology. The city of Königsberg in Prussia (n ...
and published in 1736 is regarded as the first paper in the history of graph theory. This paper, as well as the one written by Vandermonde on the '' knight problem,'' carried on with the ''analysis situs'' initiated by Leibniz. Euler's formula relating the number of edges, vertices, and faces of a convex polyhedron was studied and generalized by
Cauchy Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (, ; ; 21 August 178923 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist who made pioneering contributions to several branches of mathematics, including mathematical analysis and continuum mechanics. He w ...
and L'Huilier, and represents the beginning of the branch of mathematics known as
topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
. More than one century after Euler's paper on the bridges of Königsberg and while Listing was introducing the concept of topology, Cayley was led by an interest in particular analytical forms arising from differential calculus to study a particular class of graphs, the ''
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s''. This study had many implications for theoretical chemistry. The techniques he used mainly concern the enumeration of graphs with particular properties. Enumerative graph theory then arose from the results of Cayley and the fundamental results published by Pólya between 1935 and 1937. These were generalized by De Bruijn in 1959. Cayley linked his results on trees with contemporary studies of chemical composition. The fusion of ideas from mathematics with those from chemistry began what has become part of the standard terminology of graph theory. In particular, the term "graph" was introduced by Sylvester in a paper published in 1878 in '' Nature'', where he draws an analogy between "quantic invariants" and "co-variants" of algebra and molecular diagrams: :" €¦Every invariant and co-variant thus becomes expressible by a ''graph'' precisely identical with a Kekuléan diagram or chemicograph. €¦I give a rule for the geometrical multiplication of graphs, ''i.e.'' for constructing a ''graph'' to the product of in- or co-variants whose separate graphs are given. €¦ (italics as in the original). The first textbook on graph theory was written by Dénes KÅ‘nig, and published in 1936. Another book by Frank Harary, published in 1969, was "considered the world over to be the definitive textbook on the subject", and enabled mathematicians, chemists, electrical engineers and social scientists to talk to each other. Harary donated all of the royalties to fund the Pólya Prize. One of the most famous and stimulating problems in graph theory is the
four color problem In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions sha ...
: "Is it true that any map drawn in the plane may have its regions colored with four colors, in such a way that any two regions having a common border have different colors?" This problem was first posed by Francis Guthrie in 1852 and its first written record is in a letter of De Morgan addressed to Hamilton the same year. Many incorrect proofs have been proposed, including those by Cayley, Kempe, and others. The study and the generalization of this problem by Tait, Heawood,
Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Geography British Isles * Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a small market town in England * Ramsey, Essex, a village near Harwich, England ** Ramsey and Parkeston, a civil parish formerly called just "Ramsey" * Ramsey, Isle of Man, t ...
and Hadwiger led to the study of the colorings of the graphs embedded on surfaces with arbitrary
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
. Tait's reformulation generated a new class of problems, the ''factorization problems'', particularly studied by Petersen and Kőnig. The works of Ramsey on colorations and more specially the results obtained by Turán in 1941 was at the origin of another branch of graph theory, ''
extremal graph theory Extremal graph theory is a branch of combinatorics, itself an area of mathematics, that lies at the intersection of extremal combinatorics and graph theory. In essence, extremal graph theory studies how global properties of a graph influence local ...
''. The four color problem remained unsolved for more than a century. In 1969 Heinrich Heesch published a method for solving the problem using computers. A computer-aided proof produced in 1976 by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken makes fundamental use of the notion of "discharging" developed by Heesch. The proof involved checking the properties of 1,936 configurations by computer, and was not fully accepted at the time due to its complexity. A simpler proof considering only 633 configurations was given twenty years later by Robertson, Seymour, Sanders and Thomas. The autonomous development of topology from 1860 and 1930 fertilized graph theory back through the works of
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
,
Kuratowski Kazimierz Kuratowski (; 2 February 1896 – 18 June 1980) was a Polish mathematician and logician. He was one of the leading representatives of the Warsaw School of Mathematics. Biography and studies Kazimierz Kuratowski was born in Warsaw, ( ...
and
Whitney Whitney may refer to: Film and television * ''Whitney'' (2015 film), a Whitney Houston biopic starring Yaya DaCosta * ''Whitney'' (2018 film), a documentary about Whitney Houston * ''Whitney'' (TV series), an American sitcom that premiered i ...
. Another important factor of common development of graph theory and
topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
came from the use of the techniques of modern algebra. The first example of such a use comes from the work of the physicist
Gustav Kirchhoff Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (; 12 March 1824 â€“ 17 October 1887) was a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He ...
, who published in 1845 his
Kirchhoff's circuit laws Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the current and potential difference (commonly known as voltage) in the lumped element model of electrical circuits. They were first described in 1845 by German physicist Gustav Kirc ...
for calculating the voltage and
current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...
in
electric circuit An electrical network is an interconnection of electrical components (e.g., batteries, resistors, inductors, capacitors, switches, transistors) or a model of such an interconnection, consisting of electrical elements (e.g., voltage sources, ...
s. The introduction of probabilistic methods in graph theory, especially in the study of Erdős and Rényi of the asymptotic probability of graph connectivity, gave rise to yet another branch, known as '' random graph theory'', which has been a fruitful source of graph-theoretic results.


Representation

A graph is an abstraction of relationships that emerge in nature; hence, it cannot be coupled to a certain representation. The way it is represented depends on the degree of convenience such representation provides for a certain application. The most common representations are the visual, in which, usually, vertices are drawn and connected by edges, and the tabular, in which rows of a table provide information about the relationships between the vertices within the graph.


Visual: Graph drawing

Graphs are usually represented visually by drawing a point or circle for every vertex, and drawing a line between two vertices if they are connected by an edge. If the graph is directed, the direction is indicated by drawing an arrow. If the graph is weighted, the weight is added on the arrow. A graph drawing should not be confused with the graph itself (the abstract, non-visual structure) as there are several ways to structure the graph drawing. All that matters is which vertices are connected to which others by how many edges and not the exact layout. In practice, it is often difficult to decide if two drawings represent the same graph. Depending on the problem domain some layouts may be better suited and easier to understand than others. The pioneering work of W. T. Tutte was very influential on the subject of graph drawing. Among other achievements, he introduced the use of linear algebraic methods to obtain graph drawings. Graph drawing also can be said to encompass problems that deal with the crossing number and its various generalizations. The crossing number of a graph is the minimum number of intersections between edges that a drawing of the graph in the plane must contain. For a planar graph, the crossing number is zero by definition. Drawings on surfaces other than the plane are also studied. There are other techniques to visualize a graph away from vertices and edges, including circle packings,
intersection graph In graph theory, an intersection graph is a graph that represents the pattern of intersections of a family of sets. Any graph can be represented as an intersection graph, but some important special classes of graphs can be defined by the types o ...
, and other visualizations of the adjacency matrix.


Tabular: Graph data structures

The tabular representation lends itself well to computational applications. There are different ways to store graphs in a computer system. The data structure used depends on both the graph structure and the
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
used for manipulating the graph. Theoretically one can distinguish between list and matrix structures but in concrete applications the best structure is often a combination of both. List structures are often preferred for
sparse graph In mathematics, a dense graph is a graph in which the number of edges is close to the maximal number of edges (where every pair of vertices is connected by one edge). The opposite, a graph with only a few edges, is a sparse graph. The distinction ...
s as they have smaller memory requirements. Matrix structures on the other hand provide faster access for some applications but can consume huge amounts of memory. Implementations of sparse matrix structures that are efficient on modern parallel computer architectures are an object of current investigation. List structures include the edge list, an array of pairs of vertices, and the adjacency list, which separately lists the neighbors of each vertex: Much like the edge list, each vertex has a list of which vertices it is adjacent to. Matrix structures include the
incidence matrix In mathematics, an incidence matrix is a logical matrix that shows the relationship between two classes of objects, usually called an incidence relation. If the first class is ''X'' and the second is ''Y'', the matrix has one row for each element ...
, a matrix of 0's and 1's whose rows represent vertices and whose columns represent edges, and the adjacency matrix, in which both the rows and columns are indexed by vertices. In both cases a 1 indicates two adjacent objects and a 0 indicates two non-adjacent objects. The degree matrix indicates the degree of vertices. The Laplacian matrix is a modified form of the adjacency matrix that incorporates information about the degrees of the vertices, and is useful in some calculations such as Kirchhoff's theorem on the number of spanning trees of a graph. The
distance matrix In mathematics, computer science and especially graph theory, a distance matrix is a square matrix (two-dimensional array) containing the distances, taken pairwise, between the elements of a set. Depending upon the application involved, the ''dist ...
, like the adjacency matrix, has both its rows and columns indexed by vertices, but rather than containing a 0 or a 1 in each cell it contains the length of a
shortest path In graph theory, the shortest path problem is the problem of finding a path between two vertices (or nodes) in a graph such that the sum of the weights of its constituent edges is minimized. The problem of finding the shortest path between ...
between two vertices.


Problems


Enumeration

There is a large literature on graphical enumeration: the problem of counting graphs meeting specified conditions. Some of this work is found in Harary and Palmer (1973).


Subgraphs, induced subgraphs, and minors

A common problem, called the
subgraph isomorphism problem In theoretical computer science, the subgraph isomorphism problem is a computational task in which two graphs ''G'' and ''H'' are given as input, and one must determine whether ''G'' contains a subgraph that is isomorphic to ''H''. Subgraph isomor ...
, is finding a fixed graph as a subgraph in a given graph. One reason to be interested in such a question is that many
graph properties In graph theory, a graph property or graph invariant is a property of graphs that depends only on the abstract structure, not on graph representations such as particular labellings or drawings of the graph.. Definitions While graph drawing an ...
are ''hereditary'' for subgraphs, which means that a graph has the property if and only if all subgraphs have it too. Unfortunately, finding maximal subgraphs of a certain kind is often an NP-complete problem. For example: * Finding the largest complete subgraph is called the
clique problem In computer science, the clique problem is the computational problem of finding cliques (subsets of vertices, all adjacent to each other, also called complete subgraphs) in a graph. It has several different formulations depending on which cli ...
(NP-complete). One special case of subgraph isomorphism is the
graph isomorphism problem The graph isomorphism problem is the computational problem of determining whether two finite graphs are isomorphic. The problem is not known to be solvable in polynomial time nor to be NP-complete, and therefore may be in the computational compl ...
. It asks whether two graphs are isomorphic. It is not known whether this problem is NP-complete, nor whether it can be solved in polynomial time. A similar problem is finding
induced subgraph In the mathematical field of graph theory, an induced subgraph of a graph is another graph, formed from a subset of the vertices of the graph and ''all'' of the edges (from the original graph) connecting pairs of vertices in that subset. Defini ...
s in a given graph. Again, some important graph properties are hereditary with respect to induced subgraphs, which means that a graph has a property if and only if all induced subgraphs also have it. Finding maximal induced subgraphs of a certain kind is also often NP-complete. For example: * Finding the largest edgeless induced subgraph or independent set is called the independent set problem (NP-complete). Still another such problem, the minor containment problem, is to find a fixed graph as a minor of a given graph. A minor or subcontraction of a graph is any graph obtained by taking a subgraph and contracting some (or no) edges. Many graph properties are hereditary for minors, which means that a graph has a property if and only if all minors have it too. For example, Wagner's Theorem states: * A graph is
planar Planar is an adjective meaning "relating to a plane (geometry)". Planar may also refer to: Science and technology * Planar (computer graphics), computer graphics pixel information from several bitplanes * Planar (transmission line technologies), ...
if it contains as a minor neither the
complete bipartite graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a complete bipartite graph or biclique is a special kind of bipartite graph where every vertex of the first set is connected to every vertex of the second set..Electronic edition page 17. Graph theory i ...
''K''3,3 (see the Three-cottage problem) nor the complete graph ''K''5. A similar problem, the subdivision containment problem, is to find a fixed graph as a subdivision of a given graph. A subdivision or homeomorphism of a graph is any graph obtained by subdividing some (or no) edges. Subdivision containment is related to graph properties such as
planarity Planarity is a puzzle computer game by John Tantalo, based on a concept by Mary Radcliffe at Western Michigan University. The name comes from the concept of planar graphs in graph theory; these are graphs that can be embedded in the Euclidean pla ...
. For example, Kuratowski's Theorem states: * A graph is
planar Planar is an adjective meaning "relating to a plane (geometry)". Planar may also refer to: Science and technology * Planar (computer graphics), computer graphics pixel information from several bitplanes * Planar (transmission line technologies), ...
if it contains as a subdivision neither the
complete bipartite graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a complete bipartite graph or biclique is a special kind of bipartite graph where every vertex of the first set is connected to every vertex of the second set..Electronic edition page 17. Graph theory i ...
''K''3,3 nor the
complete graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a complete graph is a simple undirected graph in which every pair of distinct vertices is connected by a unique edge. A complete digraph is a directed graph in which every pair of distinct vertices is ...
''K''5. Another problem in subdivision containment is the
Kelmans–Seymour conjecture In graph theory, the Kelmans–Seymour conjecture states that every 5-vertex-connected graph that is not planar contains a subdivision of the 5-vertex complete graph . It is named for Paul Seymour and Alexander Kelmans, who independently descri ...
: * Every 5-vertex-connected graph that is not
planar Planar is an adjective meaning "relating to a plane (geometry)". Planar may also refer to: Science and technology * Planar (computer graphics), computer graphics pixel information from several bitplanes * Planar (transmission line technologies), ...
contains a subdivision of the 5-vertex
complete graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a complete graph is a simple undirected graph in which every pair of distinct vertices is connected by a unique edge. A complete digraph is a directed graph in which every pair of distinct vertices is ...
''K''5. Another class of problems has to do with the extent to which various species and generalizations of graphs are determined by their ''point-deleted subgraphs''. For example: * The
reconstruction conjecture Informally, the reconstruction conjecture in graph theory says that graphs are determined uniquely by their subgraphs. It is due to KellyKelly, P. J.A congruence theorem for trees ''Pacific J. Math.'' 7 (1957), 961–968. and Ulam.Ulam, S. M., ...


Graph coloring

Many problems and theorems in graph theory have to do with various ways of coloring graphs. Typically, one is interested in coloring a graph so that no two adjacent vertices have the same color, or with other similar restrictions. One may also consider coloring edges (possibly so that no two coincident edges are the same color), or other variations. Among the famous results and conjectures concerning graph coloring are the following: *
Four-color theorem In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions sha ...
* Strong perfect graph theorem * Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture *
Total coloring conjecture Total may refer to: Mathematics * Total, the summation of a set of numbers * Total order, a partial order without incomparable pairs * Total relation, which may also mean ** connected relation (a binary relation in which any two elements are compa ...
, also called Behzad's conjecture (unsolved) * List coloring conjecture (unsolved) * Hadwiger conjecture (graph theory) (unsolved)


Subsumption and unification

Constraint modeling theories concern families of directed graphs related by a partial order. In these applications, graphs are ordered by specificity, meaning that more constrained graphs—which are more specific and thus contain a greater amount of information—are subsumed by those that are more general. Operations between graphs include evaluating the direction of a subsumption relationship between two graphs, if any, and computing graph unification. The unification of two argument graphs is defined as the most general graph (or the computation thereof) that is consistent with (i.e. contains all of the information in) the inputs, if such a graph exists; efficient unification algorithms are known. For constraint frameworks which are strictly compositional, graph unification is the sufficient satisfiability and combination function. Well-known applications include automatic theorem proving and modeling the elaboration of linguistic structure.


Route problems

* Hamiltonian path problem *
Minimum spanning tree A minimum spanning tree (MST) or minimum weight spanning tree is a subset of the edges of a connected, edge-weighted undirected graph that connects all the vertices together, without any cycles and with the minimum possible total edge weight. T ...
*
Route inspection problem In graph theory, a branch of mathematics and computer science, Guan's route problem, the Chinese postman problem, postman tour or route inspection problem is to find a shortest closed path or circuit that visits every edge of an (connected) undire ...
(also called the "Chinese postman problem") *
Seven bridges of Königsberg The Seven Bridges of Königsberg is a historically notable problem in mathematics. Its negative resolution by Leonhard Euler in 1736 laid the foundations of graph theory and prefigured the idea of topology. The city of Königsberg in Prussia (n ...
* Shortest path problem *
Steiner tree In combinatorial mathematics, the Steiner tree problem, or minimum Steiner tree problem, named after Jakob Steiner, is an umbrella term for a class of problems in combinatorial optimization. While Steiner tree problems may be formulated in a n ...
* Three-cottage problem * Traveling salesman problem (NP-hard)


Network flow

There are numerous problems arising especially from applications that have to do with various notions of flows in networks, for example: * Max flow min cut theorem


Visibility problems

* Museum guard problem


Covering problems

Covering problems in graphs may refer to various set cover problems on subsets of vertices/subgraphs. *
Dominating set In graph theory, a dominating set for a graph is a subset of its vertices, such that any vertex of is either in , or has a neighbor in . The domination number is the number of vertices in a smallest dominating set for . The dominating set ...
problem is the special case of set cover problem where sets are the closed neighborhoods. *
Vertex cover problem In graph theory, a vertex cover (sometimes node cover) of a graph is a set of vertices that includes at least one endpoint of every edge of the graph. In computer science, the problem of finding a minimum vertex cover is a classical optimiza ...
is the special case of set cover problem where sets to cover are every edges. * The original set cover problem, also called hitting set, can be described as a vertex cover in a hypergraph.


Decomposition problems

Decomposition, defined as partitioning the edge set of a graph (with as many vertices as necessary accompanying the edges of each part of the partition), has a wide variety of questions. Often, the problem is to decompose a graph into subgraphs isomorphic to a fixed graph; for instance, decomposing a complete graph into Hamiltonian cycles. Other problems specify a family of graphs into which a given graph should be decomposed, for instance, a family of cycles, or decomposing a complete graph ''K''''n'' into specified trees having, respectively, 1, 2, 3, ..., edges. Some specific decomposition problems that have been studied include: * Arboricity, a decomposition into as few forests as possible * Cycle double cover, a decomposition into a collection of cycles covering each edge exactly twice *
Edge coloring In graph theory, an edge coloring of a graph is an assignment of "colors" to the edges of the graph so that no two incident edges have the same color. For example, the figure to the right shows an edge coloring of a graph by the colors red, blu ...
, a decomposition into as few matchings as possible *
Graph factorization In graph theory, a factor of a graph ''G'' is a spanning subgraph, i.e., a subgraph that has the same vertex set as ''G''. A ''k''-factor of a graph is a spanning ''k''- regular subgraph, and a ''k''-factorization partitions the edges of the gra ...
, a decomposition of a
regular graph In graph theory, a regular graph is a graph where each vertex has the same number of neighbors; i.e. every vertex has the same degree or valency. A regular directed graph must also satisfy the stronger condition that the indegree and outdegr ...
into regular subgraphs of given degrees


Graph classes

Many problems involve characterizing the members of various classes of graphs. Some examples of such questions are below: * Enumerating the members of a class * Characterizing a class in terms of forbidden substructures * Ascertaining relationships among classes (e.g. does one property of graphs imply another) * Finding efficient
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
s to decide membership in a class * Finding representations for members of a class


See also

* Gallery of named graphs * Glossary of graph theory * List of graph theory topics * List of unsolved problems in graph theory * Publications in graph theory


Related topics

*
Algebraic graph theory Algebraic graph theory is a branch of mathematics in which algebraic methods are applied to problems about graphs. This is in contrast to geometric, combinatoric, or algorithmic approaches. There are three main branches of algebraic graph th ...
* Citation graph * Conceptual graph * Data structure *
Disjoint-set data structure In computer science, a disjoint-set data structure, also called a union–find data structure or merge–find set, is a data structure that stores a collection of disjoint (non-overlapping) sets. Equivalently, it stores a partition of a set ...
* Dual-phase evolution * Entitative graph * Existential graph * Graph algebra *
Graph automorphism In the mathematical field of graph theory, an automorphism of a graph is a form of symmetry in which the graph is mapped onto itself while preserving the edge–vertex connectivity. Formally, an automorphism of a graph is a permutation of the ...
* Graph coloring *
Graph database A graph database (GDB) is a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries with nodes, edges, and properties to represent and store data. A key concept of the system is the '' graph'' (or ''edge'' or ''relationship''). The graph rel ...
* Graph data structure * Graph drawing * Graph equation *
Graph rewriting In computer science, graph transformation, or graph rewriting, concerns the technique of creating a new graph out of an original graph algorithmically. It has numerous applications, ranging from software engineering (software construction and also ...
*
Graph sandwich problem In graph theory and computer science, the graph sandwich problem is a problem of finding a graph that belongs to a particular family of graphs and is "sandwiched" between two other graphs, one of which must be a subgraph and the other of which must ...
* Graph property *
Intersection graph In graph theory, an intersection graph is a graph that represents the pattern of intersections of a family of sets. Any graph can be represented as an intersection graph, but some important special classes of graphs can be defined by the types o ...
*
Knight's Tour A knight's tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits every square exactly once. If the knight ends on a square that is one knight's move from the beginning square (so that it could tour the board again im ...
* Logical graph * Loop * Network theory *
Null graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, the term "null graph" may refer either to the order-zero graph, or alternatively, to any edgeless graph (the latter is sometimes called an "empty graph"). Order-zero graph The order-zero graph, , is th ...
* Pebble motion problems *
Percolation theory In statistical physics and mathematics, percolation theory describes the behavior of a network when nodes or links are added. This is a geometric type of phase transition, since at a critical fraction of addition the network of small, disconnecte ...
*
Perfect graph In graph theory, a perfect graph is a graph in which the chromatic number of every induced subgraph equals the order of the largest clique of that subgraph (clique number). Equivalently stated in symbolic terms an arbitrary graph G=(V,E) is perfe ...
*
Quantum graph In mathematics and physics, a quantum graph is a linear, network-shaped structure of vertices connected on edges (i.e., a graph) in which each edge is given a length and where a differential (or pseudo-differential) equation is posed on each edge. ...
* Random regular graphs * Semantic networks * Spectral graph theory *
Strongly regular graph In graph theory, a strongly regular graph (SRG) is defined as follows. Let be a regular graph with vertices and degree . is said to be strongly regular if there are also integers and such that: * Every two adjacent vertices have comm ...
s *
Symmetric graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a graph is symmetric (or arc-transitive) if, given any two pairs of adjacent vertices and of , there is an automorphism :f : V(G) \rightarrow V(G) such that :f(u_1) = u_2 and f(v_1) = v_2. In oth ...
s *
Transitive reduction In the mathematical field of graph theory, a transitive reduction of a directed graph is another directed graph with the same vertices and as few edges as possible, such that for all pairs of vertices , a (directed) path from to in exists i ...
* Tree data structure


Algorithms

* Bellman–Ford algorithm *
Borůvka's algorithm Borůvka's algorithm is a greedy algorithm for finding a minimum spanning tree in a graph, or a minimum spanning forest in the case of a graph that is not connected. It was first published in 1926 by Otakar Borůvka as a method of constructing ...
*
Breadth-first search Breadth-first search (BFS) is an algorithm for searching a tree data structure for a node that satisfies a given property. It starts at the tree root and explores all nodes at the present depth prior to moving on to the nodes at the next de ...
* Depth-first search *
Dijkstra's algorithm Dijkstra's algorithm ( ) is an algorithm for finding the shortest paths between nodes in a graph, which may represent, for example, road networks. It was conceived by computer scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra in 1956 and published three years ...
*
Edmonds–Karp algorithm In computer science, the Edmonds–Karp algorithm is an implementation of the Ford–Fulkerson method for computing the maximum flow in a flow network in O(, V, , E, ^2) time. The algorithm was first published by Yefim Dinitz (whose name is also ...
* Floyd–Warshall algorithm * Ford–Fulkerson algorithm *
Hopcroft–Karp algorithm In computer science, the Hopcroft–Karp algorithm (sometimes more accurately called the Hopcroft–Karp–Karzanov algorithm) is an algorithm that takes a bipartite graph as input and produces a maximum cardinality matching as output – a set of ...
* Hungarian algorithm *
Kosaraju's algorithm In computer science, Kosaraju-Sharir's algorithm (also known as Kosaraju's algorithm) is a linear time algorithm to find the strongly connected components of a directed graph. Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman credit it to S. Rao Kosaraju and Micha Sha ...
* Kruskal's algorithm * Nearest neighbour algorithm * Network simplex algorithm * Planarity testing algorithms *
Prim's algorithm In computer science, Prim's algorithm (also known as Jarník's algorithm) is a greedy algorithm that finds a minimum spanning tree for a weighted undirected graph. This means it finds a subset of the edges that forms a tree that includes every v ...
* Push–relabel maximum flow algorithm *
Tarjan's strongly connected components algorithm Tarjan's strongly connected components algorithm is an algorithm in graph theory for finding the strongly connected components (SCCs) of a directed graph. It runs in linear time, matching the time bound for alternative methods including Kosaraju's ...
* Topological sorting


Subareas

*
Algebraic graph theory Algebraic graph theory is a branch of mathematics in which algebraic methods are applied to problems about graphs. This is in contrast to geometric, combinatoric, or algorithmic approaches. There are three main branches of algebraic graph th ...
*
Geometric graph theory Geometric graph theory in the broader sense is a large and amorphous subfield of graph theory, concerned with graphs defined by geometric means. In a stricter sense, geometric graph theory studies combinatorial and geometric properties of geome ...
*
Extremal graph theory Extremal graph theory is a branch of combinatorics, itself an area of mathematics, that lies at the intersection of extremal combinatorics and graph theory. In essence, extremal graph theory studies how global properties of a graph influence local ...
* Probabilistic graph theory *
Topological graph theory In mathematics, topological graph theory is a branch of graph theory. It studies the embedding of graphs in surfaces, spatial embeddings of graphs, and graphs as topological spaces. It also studies immersions of graphs. Embedding a graph in ...


Related areas of mathematics

* Combinatorics *
Group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...
* Knot theory *
Ramsey theory Ramsey theory, named after the British mathematician and philosopher Frank P. Ramsey, is a branch of mathematics that focuses on the appearance of order in a substructure given a structure of a known size. Problems in Ramsey theory typically ask ...


Generalizations

*
Hypergraph In mathematics, a hypergraph is a generalization of a graph in which an edge can join any number of vertices. In contrast, in an ordinary graph, an edge connects exactly two vertices. Formally, an undirected hypergraph H is a pair H = (X,E) w ...
*
Abstract simplicial complex In combinatorics, an abstract simplicial complex (ASC), often called an abstract complex or just a complex, is a family of sets that is closed under taking subsets, i.e., every subset of a set in the family is also in the family. It is a purely c ...


Prominent graph theorists

* Alon, Noga * Berge, Claude * Bollobás, Béla * Bondy, Adrian John * Brightwell, Graham * Chudnovsky, Maria * Chung, Fan * Dirac, Gabriel Andrew * Dijkstra, Edsger W. * Erdős, Paul * Euler, Leonhard * Faudree, Ralph * Fleischner, Herbert * Golumbic, Martin * Graham, Ronald * Harary, Frank * Heawood, Percy John * Kotzig, Anton * Kőnig, Dénes * Lovász, László * Murty, U. S. R. * Nešetřil, Jaroslav * Rényi, Alfréd * Ringel, Gerhard * Robertson, Neil * Seymour, Paul * Sudakov, Benny * Szemerédi, Endre * Thomas, Robin * Thomassen, Carsten * Turán, Pál * Tutte, W. T. * Whitney, Hassler


Notes


References

* * English edition, Wiley 1961; Methuen & Co, New York 1962; Russian, Moscow 1961; Spanish, Mexico 1962; Roumanian, Bucharest 1969; Chinese, Shanghai 1963; Second printing of the 1962 first English edition, Dover, New York 2001. * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

*
Graph theory tutorial

A searchable database of small connected graphs
*

* ttp://www.kde.org/applications/education/rocs/ rocs— a graph theory IDE
The Social Life of Routers
— non-technical paper discussing graphs of people and computers
Graph Theory Software
— tools to teach and learn graph theory *

with references and links to graph library implementations


Online textbooks


Phase Transitions in Combinatorial Optimization Problems, Section 3: Introduction to Graphs
(2006) by Hartmann and Weigt
Digraphs: Theory Algorithms and Applications
2007 by Jorgen Bang-Jensen and Gregory Gutin

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