MatroidIn combinatorics, a branch of mathematics, a matroid ˈmeɪtrɔɪd is a structure that abstracts and generalizes the notion of linear independence in vector spaces. There are many equivalent ways to define a matroid axiomatically, the most significant being in terms of: independent sets; bases or circuits; rank functions; closure operators; and closed sets or flats. In the language of partially ordered sets, a finite simple matroid is equivalent to a geometric lattice.
Complete bipartite graphIn the mathematical field of graph theory, a complete bipartite graph or biclique is a special kind of bipartite graph where every vertex of the first set is connected to every vertex of the second set. Graph theory itself is typically dated as beginning with Leonhard Euler's 1736 work on the Seven Bridges of Königsberg. However, drawings of complete bipartite graphs were already printed as early as 1669, in connection with an edition of the works of Ramon Llull edited by Athanasius Kircher.
Vámos matroidIn mathematics, the Vámos matroid or Vámos cube is a matroid over a set of eight elements that cannot be represented as a matrix over any field. It is named after English mathematician Peter Vámos, who first described it in an unpublished manuscript in 1968. The Vámos matroid has eight elements, which may be thought of as the eight vertices of a cube or cuboid. The matroid has rank 4: all sets of three or fewer elements are independent, and 65 of the 70 possible sets of four elements are also independent.
Graph theoryIn mathematics, graph theory is the study of graphs, which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of vertices (also called nodes or points) which are connected by edges (also called links or lines). A distinction is made between undirected graphs, where edges link two vertices symmetrically, and directed graphs, where edges link two vertices asymmetrically. Graphs are one of the principal objects of study in discrete mathematics.
Matroid oracleIn mathematics and computer science, a matroid oracle is a subroutine through which an algorithm may access a matroid, an abstract combinatorial structure that can be used to describe the linear dependencies between vectors in a vector space or the spanning trees of a graph, among other applications. The most commonly used oracle of this type is an independence oracle, a subroutine for testing whether a set of matroid elements is independent.
Glossary of graph theoryThis 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.
Group extensionIn mathematics, a group extension is a general means of describing a group in terms of a particular normal subgroup and quotient group. If and are two groups, then is an extension of by if there is a short exact sequence If is an extension of by , then is a group, is a normal subgroup of and the quotient group is isomorphic to the group . Group extensions arise in the context of the extension problem, where the groups and are known and the properties of are to be determined.
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.
Path (graph theory)In graph theory, a path in a graph is a finite or infinite sequence of edges which joins a sequence of vertices which, by most definitions, are all distinct (and since the vertices are distinct, so are the edges). A directed path (sometimes called dipath) in a directed graph is a finite or infinite sequence of edges which joins a sequence of distinct vertices, but with the added restriction that the edges be all directed in the same direction. Paths are fundamental concepts of graph theory, described in the introductory sections of most graph theory texts.
Edge coverIn graph theory, an edge cover of a graph is a set of edges such that every vertex of the graph is incident to at least one edge of the set. In computer science, the minimum edge cover problem is the problem of finding an edge cover of minimum size. It is an optimization problem that belongs to the class of covering problems and can be solved in polynomial time. Formally, an edge cover of a graph G is a set of edges C such that each vertex in G is incident with at least one edge in C.
Edge coloringIn graph theory, a proper edge coloring of a graph is an assignment of "colors" to the edges of the graph so that no two incident edges have the same color. For example, the figure to the right shows an edge coloring of a graph by the colors red, blue, and green. Edge colorings are one of several different types of graph coloring. The edge-coloring problem asks whether it is possible to color the edges of a given graph using at most k different colors, for a given value of k, or with the fewest possible colors.
Vertex (graph theory)In discrete mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a vertex (plural vertices) or node is the fundamental unit of which graphs are formed: an undirected graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of edges (unordered pairs of vertices), while a directed graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of arcs (ordered pairs of vertices). In a diagram of a graph, a vertex is usually represented by a circle with a label, and an edge is represented by a line or arrow extending from one vertex to another.
Biregular graphIn graph-theoretic mathematics, a biregular graph or semiregular bipartite graph is a bipartite graph for which every two vertices on the same side of the given bipartition have the same degree as each other. If the degree of the vertices in is and the degree of the vertices in is , then the graph is said to be -biregular. Every complete bipartite graph is -biregular. The rhombic dodecahedron is another example; it is (3,4)-biregular. An -biregular graph must satisfy the equation .
Geometric latticeIn the mathematics of matroids and lattices, a geometric lattice is a finite atomistic semimodular lattice, and a matroid lattice is an atomistic semimodular lattice without the assumption of finiteness. Geometric lattices and matroid lattices, respectively, form the lattices of flats of finite, or finite and infinite, matroids, and every geometric or matroid lattice comes from a matroid in this way. A lattice is a poset in which any two elements and have both a least upper bound, called the join or supremum, denoted by , and a greatest lower bound, called the meet or infimum, denoted by .
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.
Rainbow matchingIn the mathematical discipline of graph theory, a rainbow matching in an edge-colored graph is a matching in which all the edges have distinct colors. Given an edge-colored graph G = (V,E), a rainbow matching M in G is a set of pairwise non-adjacent edges, that is, no two edges share a common vertex, such that all the edges in the set have distinct colors. A maximum rainbow matching is a rainbow matching that contains the largest possible number of edges. Rainbow matchings are of particular interest given their connection to transversals of Latin squares.
Set theorySet theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly concerned with those that are relevant to mathematics as a whole. The modern study of set theory was initiated by the German mathematicians Richard Dedekind and Georg Cantor in the 1870s. In particular, Georg Cantor is commonly considered the founder of set theory.
Proof theoryProof theory is a major branch of mathematical logic and theoretical computer science within which proofs are treated as formal mathematical objects, facilitating their analysis by mathematical techniques. Proofs are typically presented as inductively-defined data structures such as lists, boxed lists, or trees, which are constructed according to the axioms and rules of inference of a given logical system. Consequently, proof theory is syntactic in nature, in contrast to model theory, which is semantic in nature.
Degree (graph theory)In graph theory, the degree (or valency) of a vertex of a graph is the number of edges that are incident to the vertex; in a multigraph, a loop contributes 2 to a vertex's degree, for the two ends of the edge. The degree of a vertex is denoted or . The maximum degree of a graph , denoted by , and the minimum degree of a graph, denoted by , are the maximum and minimum of its vertices' degrees. In the multigraph shown on the right, the maximum degree is 5 and the minimum degree is 0.
Regular matroidIn mathematics, a regular matroid is a matroid that can be represented over all fields. A matroid is defined to be a family of subsets of a finite set, satisfying certain axioms. The sets in the family are called "independent sets". One of the ways of constructing a matroid is to select a finite set of vectors in a vector space, and to define a subset of the vectors to be independent in the matroid when it is linearly independent in the vector space.
