Cubic graphIn the mathematical field of graph theory, a cubic graph is a graph in which all vertices have degree three. In other words, a cubic graph is a 3-regular graph. Cubic graphs are also called trivalent graphs. A bicubic graph is a cubic bipartite graph. In 1932, Ronald M. Foster began collecting examples of cubic symmetric graphs, forming the start of the Foster census.
Three utilities problemThe classical mathematical puzzle known as the three utilities problem or sometimes water, gas and electricity asks for non-crossing connections to be drawn between three houses and three utility companies in the plane. When posing it in the early 20th century, Henry Dudeney wrote that it was already an old problem. It is an impossible puzzle: it is not possible to connect all nine lines without crossing. Versions of the problem on nonplanar surfaces such as a torus or Möbius strip, or that allow connections to pass through other houses or utilities, can be solved.
Planar graphIn 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.
Planar separator theoremIn graph theory, the planar separator theorem is a form of isoperimetric inequality for planar graphs, that states that any planar graph can be split into smaller pieces by removing a small number of vertices. Specifically, the removal of O(\sqrt{n}) vertices from an n-vertex graph (where the O invokes big O notation) can partition the graph into disjoint subgraphs each of which has at most 2n/3 vertices.
Combinatorial mapA combinatorial map is a combinatorial representation of a graph on an orientable surface. A combinatorial map may also be called a combinatorial embedding, a rotation system, an orientable ribbon graph, a fat graph, or a cyclic graph. More generally, an -dimensional combinatorial map is a combinatorial representation of a graph on an -dimensional orientable manifold. Combinatorial maps are used as efficient data structures in image representation and , in geometrical modeling.
Graph minorIn graph theory, an undirected graph H is called a minor of the graph G if H can be formed from G by deleting edges, vertices and by contracting edges. The theory of graph minors began with Wagner's theorem that a graph is planar if and only if its minors include neither the complete graph K5 nor the complete bipartite graph K3,3. The Robertson–Seymour theorem implies that an analogous forbidden minor characterization exists for every property of graphs that is preserved by deletions and edge contractions.
Homeomorphism (graph theory)In graph theory, two graphs and are homeomorphic if there is a graph isomorphism from some subdivision of to some subdivision of . If the edges of a graph are thought of as lines drawn from one vertex to another (as they are usually depicted in illustrations), then two graphs are homeomorphic to each other in the graph-theoretic sense precisely if they are homeomorphic in the topological sense. In general, a subdivision of a graph G (sometimes known as an expansion) is a graph resulting from the subdivision of edges in G.
Graph propertyIn 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. While graph drawing and graph representation are valid topics in graph theory, in order to focus only on the abstract structure of graphs, a graph property is defined to be a property preserved under all possible isomorphisms of a graph. In other words, it is a property of the graph itself, not of a specific drawing or representation of the graph.
Wagner's theoremIn graph theory, Wagner's theorem is a mathematical forbidden graph characterization of planar graphs, named after Klaus Wagner, stating that a finite graph is planar if and only if its minors include neither K5 (the complete graph on five vertices) nor K3,3 (the utility graph, a complete bipartite graph on six vertices). This was one of the earliest results in the theory of graph minors and can be seen as a forerunner of the Robertson–Seymour theorem.
Queue numberIn the mathematical field of graph theory, the queue number of a graph is a graph invariant defined analogously to stack number (book thickness) using first-in first-out (queue) orderings in place of last-in first-out (stack) orderings. A queue layout of a given graph is defined by a total ordering of the vertices of the graph together with a partition of the edges into a number of "queues". The set of edges in each queue is required to avoid edges that are properly nested: if ab and cd are two edges in the same queue, then it should not be possible to have a < c < d < b in the vertex ordering.
