Mathematics for Computer Science Cycles in simple graphs

MIT 6.042J/18.062J
A cycle is a closed walk
of length > 2 that doesn’t
cross itself:

Trees v
w

a
Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.1 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.2

Cycles in simple graphs Trees

length > 2 implies that A tree is a connected graph

going back & forth over with no cycles.
an edge is not a cycle
v w

Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.3 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.4

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More Trees Come up all the time
•  family trees
•  search trees
•  game trees
•  parse trees
•  spanning trees
Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.5 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.6

Lots of kinds Focus on “pure” trees

•  rooted
unordered,
•  ordered
unrooted,
•  binary undirected
•  complete
•  directed
Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.7 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.9

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 Cut Edges Cut Edges

An edge is a cut edge if

removing it from the graph
disconnects two vertices.

Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.10 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.11

Cut Edges Cut Edges

deleting e gives
e is a cut edge
two components
Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.12 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.13

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 Cut Edges Cut Edges

f is not a cut edge still connected with

edge f deleted
Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.14 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.15

Cut Edges Cut Edges and Cycles

So a connected graph is Lemma: An edge is a

2-edge connected iff not a cut edge iff
it has no cut edge. it is on a cycle.

Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.16 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.17

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 alternative tree definition alternative tree definition
A tree is a connected graph A tree is a connected graph
with every edge a cut edge. that is edge-minimal.
equivalently equivalently

Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.18 Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.19

more equivalent definitions

•  connected graph with n
vertices and n–1 edges
•  an edge-maximal acyclic
graph
•  graph with a unique path
between any 2 vertices

Albert R Meyer, April 8, 2013 tree-def.22

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6.042J / 18.062J Mathematics for Computer Science

Spring 2015

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