Trémaux tree

In graph theory, a Trémaux tree of an undirected graph is a type of spanning tree, generalizing depth-first search trees. They are defined by the property that every edge of connects an ancestor–descendant pair in the tree. Trémaux trees are named after Charles Pierre Trémaux, a 19th-century French author who used a form of depth-first search as a strategy for solving mazes. They have also been called normal spanning trees, especially in the context of infinite graphs. All depth-first search trees and all Hamiltonian paths are Trémaux trees. In finite graphs, every Trémaux tree is a depth-first search tree, but although depth-first search itself is inherently sequential, Trémaux trees can be constructed by a randomized parallel algorithm in the complexity class RNC. They can be used to define the tree-depth of a graph, and as part of the left-right planarity test for testing whether a graph is a planar graph. A characterization of Trémaux trees in the monadic second-order logic of graphs allows graph properties involving orientations to be recognized efficiently for graphs of bounded treewidth using Courcelle's theorem. Not every infinite connected graph has a Trémaux tree, and not every infinite Trémaux tree is a depth-first search tree. The graphs that have Trémaux trees can be characterized by forbidden minors. An infinite Trémaux tree must have exactly one infinite path for each end of the graph, and the existence of a Trémaux tree characterizes the graphs whose topological completions, formed by adding a point at infinity for each end, are metric spaces. A Trémaux tree, for a graph , is a spanning tree with the property that, for every edge in , one of the two endpoints and is an ancestor of the other. To be a spanning tree, it must only use edges of , and include every vertex, with a unique finite path between every pair of vertices. Additionally, to define the ancestor–descendant relation in this tree, one of its vertices must be designated as its root.