Travelling salesman problemThe travelling salesman problem (TSP) asks the following question: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?" It is an NP-hard problem in combinatorial optimization, important in theoretical computer science and operations research. The travelling purchaser problem and the vehicle routing problem are both generalizations of TSP.
Claw-free graphIn graph theory, an area of mathematics, a claw-free graph is a graph that does not have a claw as an induced subgraph. A claw is another name for the complete bipartite graph K1,3 (that is, a star graph comprising three edges, three leaves, and a central vertex). A claw-free graph is a graph in which no induced subgraph is a claw; i.e., any subset of four vertices has other than only three edges connecting them in this pattern. Equivalently, a claw-free graph is a graph in which the neighborhood of any vertex is the complement of a triangle-free graph.
Eulerian pathIn graph theory, an Eulerian trail (or Eulerian path) is a trail in a finite graph that visits every edge exactly once (allowing for revisiting vertices). Similarly, an Eulerian circuit or Eulerian cycle is an Eulerian trail that starts and ends on the same vertex. They were first discussed by Leonhard Euler while solving the famous Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem in 1736. The problem can be stated mathematically like this: Given the graph in the image, is it possible to construct a path (or a cycle; i.
Chinese postman problemIn 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) undirected graph at least once. When the graph has an Eulerian circuit (a closed walk that covers every edge once), that circuit is an optimal solution. Otherwise, the optimization problem is to find the smallest number of graph edges to duplicate (or the subset of edges with the minimum possible total weight) so that the resulting multigraph does have an Eulerian circuit.
Line graphIn the mathematical discipline of graph theory, the line graph of an undirected graph G is another graph L(G) that represents the adjacencies between edges of G. L(G) is constructed in the following way: for each edge in G, make a vertex in L(G); for every two edges in G that have a vertex in common, make an edge between their corresponding vertices in L(G). The name line graph comes from a paper by although both and used the construction before this.
Multiple edgesIn 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 and the same head vertex. A simple graph has no multiple edges and no loops. Depending on the context, a graph may be defined so as to either allow or disallow the presence of multiple edges (often in concert with allowing or disallowing loops): Where graphs are defined so as to allow multiple edges and loops, a graph without loops or multiple edges is often distinguished from other graphs by calling it a simple graph.
Degree (graph theory)In graph theory, the degree (or valency) of a vertex of a graph is the number of edges that are incident to the vertex; in a multigraph, a loop contributes 2 to a vertex's degree, for the two ends of the edge. The degree of a vertex is denoted or . The maximum degree of a graph , denoted by , and the minimum degree of a graph, denoted by , are the maximum and minimum of its vertices' degrees. In the multigraph shown on the right, the maximum degree is 5 and the minimum degree is 0.
Star (graph theory)In graph theory, a star S_k is the complete bipartite graph K_1,k : a tree with one internal node and k leaves (but no internal nodes and k + 1 leaves when k ≤ 1). Alternatively, some authors define S_k to be the tree of order k with maximum diameter 2; in which case a star of k > 2 has k − 1 leaves. A star with 3 edges is called a claw. The star S_k is edge-graceful when k is even and not when k is odd. It is an edge-transitive matchstick graph, and has diameter 2 (when l > 1), girth ∞ (it has no cycles), chromatic index k, and chromatic number 2 (when k > 0).
Edge coloringIn graph theory, a proper 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, blue, and green. Edge colorings are one of several different types of graph coloring. The edge-coloring problem asks whether it is possible to color the edges of a given graph using at most k different colors, for a given value of k, or with the fewest possible colors.
Schläfli graphIn the mathematical field of graph theory, the Schläfli graph, named after Ludwig Schläfli, is a 16-regular undirected graph with 27 vertices and 216 edges. It is a strongly regular graph with parameters srg(27, 16, 10, 8). The intersection graph of the 27 lines on a cubic surface is a locally linear graph that is the complement of the Schläfli graph. That is, two vertices are adjacent in the Schläfli graph if and only if the corresponding pair of lines are skew.
Edge coverIn graph theory, an edge cover of a graph is a set of edges such that every vertex of the graph is incident to at least one edge of the set. In computer science, the minimum edge cover problem is the problem of finding an edge cover of minimum size. It is an optimization problem that belongs to the class of covering problems and can be solved in polynomial time. Formally, an edge cover of a graph G is a set of edges C such that each vertex in G is incident with at least one edge in C.
Hamiltonian path problemIn the mathematical field of graph theory the Hamiltonian path problem and the Hamiltonian cycle problem are problems of determining whether a Hamiltonian path (a path in an undirected or directed graph that visits each vertex exactly once) or a Hamiltonian cycle exists in a given graph (whether directed or undirected). Both problems are NP-complete.
Petersen graphIn the mathematical field of graph theory, the Petersen graph is an undirected graph with 10 vertices and 15 edges. It is a small graph that serves as a useful example and counterexample for many problems in graph theory. The Petersen graph is named after Julius Petersen, who in 1898 constructed it to be the smallest bridgeless cubic graph with no three-edge-coloring. Although the graph is generally credited to Petersen, it had in fact first appeared 12 years earlier, in a paper by .
Cycle graphIn graph theory, a cycle graph or circular graph is a graph that consists of a single cycle, or in other words, some number of vertices (at least 3, if the graph is simple) connected in a closed chain. The cycle graph with n vertices is called C_n. The number of vertices in C_n equals the number of edges, and every vertex has degree 2; that is, every vertex has exactly two edges incident with it. There are many synonyms for "cycle graph".
Neighbourhood (graph theory)In graph theory, an adjacent vertex of a vertex v in a graph is a vertex that is connected to v by an edge. The neighbourhood of a vertex v in a graph G is the subgraph of G induced by all vertices adjacent to v, i.e., the graph composed of the vertices adjacent to v and all edges connecting vertices adjacent to v. The neighbourhood is often denoted N_G (v) or (when the graph is unambiguous) N(v). The same neighbourhood notation may also be used to refer to sets of adjacent vertices rather than the corresponding induced subgraphs.
Indifference graphIn graph theory, a branch of mathematics, an indifference graph is an undirected graph constructed by assigning a real number to each vertex and connecting two vertices by an edge when their numbers are within one unit of each other. Indifference graphs are also the intersection graphs of sets of unit intervals, or of properly nested intervals (intervals none of which contains any other one). Based on these two types of interval representations, these graphs are also called unit interval graphs or proper interval graphs; they form a subclass of the interval graphs.
Longest path problemIn graph theory and theoretical computer science, the longest path problem is the problem of finding a simple path of maximum length in a given graph. A path is called simple if it does not have any repeated vertices; the length of a path may either be measured by its number of edges, or (in weighted graphs) by the sum of the weights of its edges. In contrast to the shortest path problem, which can be solved in polynomial time in graphs without negative-weight cycles, the longest path problem is NP-hard and the decision version of the problem, which asks whether a path exists of at least some given length, is NP-complete.
Cayley graphIn mathematics, a Cayley graph, also known as a Cayley color graph, Cayley diagram, group diagram, or color group, is a graph that encodes the abstract structure of a group. Its definition is suggested by Cayley's theorem (named after Arthur Cayley), and uses a specified set of generators for the group. It is a central tool in combinatorial and geometric group theory. The structure and symmetry of Cayley graphs makes them particularly good candidates for constructing families of expander graphs.
Independent set (graph theory)In graph theory, an independent set, stable set, coclique or anticlique is a set of vertices in a graph, no two of which are adjacent. That is, it is a set of vertices such that for every two vertices in , there is no edge connecting the two. Equivalently, each edge in the graph has at most one endpoint in . A set is independent if and only if it is a clique in the graph's complement. The size of an independent set is the number of vertices it contains. Independent sets have also been called "internally stable sets", of which "stable set" is a shortening.
Orientation (graph theory)In graph theory, an orientation of an undirected graph is an assignment of a direction to each edge, turning the initial graph into a directed graph. A directed graph is called an oriented graph if none of its pairs of vertices is linked by two symmetric edges. Among directed graphs, the oriented graphs are the ones that have no 2-cycles (that is at most one of (x, y) and (y, x) may be arrows of the graph). A tournament is an orientation of a complete graph. A polytree is an orientation of an undirected tree.