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Concept
Complete graph
Summary
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 connected by a pair of unique edges (one in each direction).
Graph theory itself is typically dated as beginning with Leonhard Euler's 1736 work on the Seven Bridges of Königsberg. However, drawings of complete graphs, with their vertices placed on the points of a regular polygon, had already appeared in the 13th century, in the work of Ramon Llull. Such a drawing is sometimes referred to as a mystic rose.
The complete graph on n vertices is denoted by K_n. Some sources claim that the letter K in this notation stands for the German word komplett, but the German name for a complete graph, vollständiger Graph, does not contain the letter K, and other sources state that the notation honors the contributions of Kazimierz Kuratowski to graph theory.
K_n has n(n – 1)/2 edges (a triangular number), and is a regular graph of degree n – 1. All complete graphs are their own maximal cliques. They are maximally connected as the only vertex cut which disconnects the graph is the complete set of vertices. The complement graph of a complete graph is an empty graph.
If the edges of a complete graph are each given an orientation, the resulting directed graph is called a tournament.
K_n can be decomposed into n trees T_i such that T_i has i vertices. Ringel's conjecture asks if the complete graph K_2n+1 can be decomposed into copies of any tree with n edges. This is known to be true for sufficiently large n.
The number of all distinct paths between a specific pair of vertices in K_n+2 is given by
where e refers to Euler's constant, and
The number of matchings of the complete graphs are given by the telephone numbers
1, 1, 2, 4, 10, 26, 76, 232, 764, 2620, 9496, 35696, 140152, 568504, 2390480, 10349536, 46206736, ... .
These numbers give the largest possible value of the Hosoya index for an n-vertex graph.
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Graph (discrete mathematics)
In discrete mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a graph is a structure amounting to a set of objects in which some pairs of the objects are in some sense "related". The objects correspond to mathematical abstractions called vertices (also called nodes or points) and each of the related pairs of vertices is called an edge (also called link or line). Typically, a graph is depicted in diagrammatic form as a set of dots or circles for the vertices, joined by lines or curves for the edges.
Glossary of graph theory
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.
Planar graph
In graph theory, a planar graph is a graph that can be embedded in the plane, i.e., it can be drawn on the plane in such a way that its edges intersect only at their endpoints. In other words, it can be drawn in such a way that no edges cross each other. Such a drawing is called a plane graph or planar embedding of the graph. A plane graph can be defined as a planar graph with a mapping from every node to a point on a plane, and from every edge to a plane curve on that plane, such that the extreme points of each curve are the points mapped from its end nodes, and all curves are disjoint except on their extreme points.