Component (graph theory)In graph theory, a component of an undirected graph is a connected subgraph that is not part of any larger connected subgraph. The components of any graph partition its vertices into disjoint sets, and are the induced subgraphs of those sets. A graph that is itself connected has exactly one component, consisting of the whole graph. Components are sometimes called connected components. The number of components in a given graph is an important graph invariant, and is closely related to invariants of matroids, topological spaces, and matrices.
Connectivity (graph theory)In mathematics and computer science, connectivity is one of the basic concepts of graph theory: it asks for the minimum number of elements (nodes or edges) that need to be removed to separate the remaining nodes into two or more isolated subgraphs. It is closely related to the theory of network flow problems. The connectivity of a graph is an important measure of its resilience as a network. In an undirected graph G, two vertices u and v are called connected if G contains a path from u to v.
Acyclic orientationIn graph theory, an acyclic orientation of an undirected graph is an assignment of a direction to each edge (an orientation) that does not form any directed cycle and therefore makes it into a directed acyclic graph. Every graph has an acyclic orientation. The chromatic number of any graph equals one more than the length of the longest path in an acyclic orientation chosen to minimize this path length. Acyclic orientations are also related to colorings through the chromatic polynomial, which counts both acyclic orientations and colorings.
Breadth-first searchBreadth-first search (BFS) is an algorithm for searching a tree data structure for a node that satisfies a given property. It starts at the tree root and explores all nodes at the present depth prior to moving on to the nodes at the next depth level. Extra memory, usually a queue, is needed to keep track of the child nodes that were encountered but not yet explored. For example, in a chess endgame, a chess engine may build the game tree from the current position by applying all possible moves and use breadth-first search to find a win position for White.
Depth-first searchDepth-first search (DFS) is an algorithm for traversing or searching tree or graph data structures. The algorithm starts at the root node (selecting some arbitrary node as the root node in the case of a graph) and explores as far as possible along each branch before backtracking. Extra memory, usually a stack, is needed to keep track of the nodes discovered so far along a specified branch which helps in backtracking of the graph. A version of depth-first search was investigated in the 19th century by French mathematician Charles Pierre Trémaux as a strategy for solving mazes.
Null graphIn the mathematical field of graph theory, the term "null graph" may refer either to the order-zero graph, or alternatively, to any edgeless graph (the latter is sometimes called an "empty graph"). The order-zero graph, K_0, is the unique graph having no vertices (hence its order is zero). It follows that K_0 also has no edges. Thus the null graph is a regular graph of degree zero. Some authors exclude K_0 from consideration as a graph (either by definition, or more simply as a matter of convenience).
Biconnected componentIn graph theory, a biconnected component (sometimes known as a 2-connected component) is a maximal biconnected subgraph. Any connected graph decomposes into a tree of biconnected components called the block-cut tree of the graph. The blocks are attached to each other at shared vertices called cut vertices or separating vertices or articulation points. Specifically, a cut vertex is any vertex whose removal increases the number of connected components.
Flow networkIn graph theory, a flow network (also known as a transportation network) is a directed graph where each edge has a capacity and each edge receives a flow. The amount of flow on an edge cannot exceed the capacity of the edge. Often in operations research, a directed graph is called a network, the vertices are called nodes and the edges are called arcs. A flow must satisfy the restriction that the amount of flow into a node equals the amount of flow out of it, unless it is a source, which has only outgoing flow, or sink, which has only incoming flow.
HypergraphIn mathematics, a hypergraph is a generalization of a graph in which an edge can join any number of vertices. In contrast, in an ordinary graph, an edge connects exactly two vertices. Formally, a directed hypergraph is a pair , where is a set of elements called nodes, vertices, points, or elements and is a set of pairs of subsets of . Each of these pairs is called an edge or hyperedge; the vertex subset is known as its tail or domain, and as its head or codomain. The order of a hypergraph is the number of vertices in .
Dual graphIn the mathematical discipline of graph theory, the dual graph of a planar graph G is a graph that has a vertex for each face of G. The dual graph has an edge for each pair of faces in G that are separated from each other by an edge, and a self-loop when the same face appears on both sides of an edge. Thus, each edge e of G has a corresponding dual edge, whose endpoints are the dual vertices corresponding to the faces on either side of e.
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.
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.
Directed acyclic graphIn mathematics, particularly graph theory, and computer science, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) is a directed graph with no directed cycles. That is, it consists of vertices and edges (also called arcs), with each edge directed from one vertex to another, such that following those directions will never form a closed loop. A directed graph is a DAG if and only if it can be topologically ordered, by arranging the vertices as a linear ordering that is consistent with all edge directions.
Bridge (graph theory)In graph theory, a bridge, isthmus, cut-edge, or cut arc is an edge of a graph whose deletion increases the graph's number of connected components. Equivalently, an edge is a bridge if and only if it is not contained in any cycle. For a connected graph, a bridge can uniquely determine a cut. A graph is said to be bridgeless or isthmus-free if it contains no bridges. This type of bridge should be distinguished from an unrelated meaning of "bridge" in graph theory, a subgraph separated from the rest of the graph by a specified subset of vertices; see bridge.
Tree (graph theory)In graph theory, a tree is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by path, or equivalently a connected acyclic undirected graph. A forest is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by path, or equivalently an acyclic undirected graph, or equivalently a disjoint union of trees. A polytree (or directed tree or oriented tree or singly connected network) is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) whose underlying undirected graph is a tree.
Base (topology)In mathematics, a base (or basis; : bases) for the topology τ of a topological space (X, τ) is a family of open subsets of X such that every open set of the topology is equal to the union of some sub-family of . For example, the set of all open intervals in the real number line is a basis for the Euclidean topology on because every open interval is an open set, and also every open subset of can be written as a union of some family of open intervals. Bases are ubiquitous throughout topology.
Separable spaceIn mathematics, a topological space is called separable if it contains a countable, dense subset; that is, there exists a sequence of elements of the space such that every nonempty open subset of the space contains at least one element of the sequence. Like the other axioms of countability, separability is a "limitation on size", not necessarily in terms of cardinality (though, in the presence of the Hausdorff axiom, this does turn out to be the case; see below) but in a more subtle topological sense.
Connected spaceIn topology and related branches of mathematics, a connected space is a topological space that cannot be represented as the union of two or more disjoint non-empty open subsets. Connectedness is one of the principal topological properties that are used to distinguish topological spaces. A subset of a topological space is a if it is a connected space when viewed as a subspace of . Some related but stronger conditions are path connected, simply connected, and -connected.
Max-flow min-cut theoremIn computer science and optimization theory, the max-flow min-cut theorem states that in a flow network, the maximum amount of flow passing from the source to the sink is equal to the total weight of the edges in a minimum cut, i.e., the smallest total weight of the edges which if removed would disconnect the source from the sink. This is a special case of the duality theorem for linear programs and can be used to derive Menger's theorem and the Kőnig–Egerváry theorem.
Locally connected spaceIn topology and other branches of mathematics, a topological space X is locally connected if every point admits a neighbourhood basis consisting entirely of open, connected sets. Throughout the history of topology, connectedness and compactness have been two of the most widely studied topological properties. Indeed, the study of these properties even among subsets of Euclidean space, and the recognition of their independence from the particular form of the Euclidean metric, played a large role in clarifying the notion of a topological property and thus a topological space.
