Concept
In graph theory, a vertex subset S \subset V is a vertex separator (or vertex cut, separating set) for nonadjacent vertices a and b if the removal of S from the graph separates a and b into distinct connected components. Consider a grid graph with r rows and c columns; the total number n of vertices is r × c. For instance, in the illustration, r = 5, c = 8, and n = 40. If r is odd, there is a single central row, and otherwise there are two rows equally close to the center; similarly, if c is odd, there is a single central column, and otherwise there are two columns equally close to the center. Choosing S to be any of these central rows or columns, and removing S from the graph, partitions the graph into two smaller connected subgraphs A and B, each of which has at most vertices. If r ≤ c (as in the illustration), then choosing a central column will give a separator S with vertices, and similarly if c ≤ r then choosing a central row will give a separator with at most vertices. Thus, every grid graph has a separator S of size at most the removal of which partitions it into two connected components, each of size at most . To give another class of examples, every free tree T has a separator S consisting of a single vertex, the removal of which partitions T into two or more connected components, each of size at most . More precisely, there is always exactly one or exactly two vertices, which amount to such a separator, depending on whether the tree is centered or bicentered. As opposed to these examples, not all vertex separators are balanced, but that property is most useful for applications in computer science, such as the planar separator theorem. Let S be an (a,b)-separator, that is, a vertex subset that separates two nonadjacent vertices a and b. Then S is a minimal (a,b)-separator if no proper subset of S separates a and b. More generally, S is called a minimal separator if it is a minimal separator for some pair (a,b) of nonadjacent vertices.