Paper 2, Section II, 17 G

Graph Theory
Part II, 2021

(a) Define a tree and what it means for a graph to be acyclic. Show that if GG is an acyclic graph on nn vertices then e(G)n1e(G) \leqslant n-1. [You may use the fact that a spanning tree on nn vertices has n1n-1 edges.]

(b) Show that any 3-regular graph on nn vertices contains a cycle of length \leqslant 100logn100 \log n. Hence show that there exists n0n_{0} such that every 3-regular graph on more than n0n_{0} vertices must contain two cycles C1,C2C_{1}, C_{2} with disjoint vertex sets.

(c) An unfriendly partition of a graph G=(V,E)G=(V, E) is a partition V=ABV=A \cup B, where A,BA, B \neq \emptyset, such that every vertex vAv \in A has N(v)BN(v)A|N(v) \cap B| \geqslant|N(v) \cap A| and every vBv \in B has N(v)AN(v)B|N(v) \cap A| \geqslant|N(v) \cap B|. Show that every graph GG with G2|G| \geqslant 2 has an unfriendly partition.

(d) A friendly partition of a graph G=(V,E)G=(V, E) is a partition V=STV=S \cup T, where S,TS, T \neq \emptyset, such that every vertex vSv \in S has N(v)SN(v)T|N(v) \cap S| \geqslant|N(v) \cap T| and every vTv \in T has N(v)TN(v)S|N(v) \cap T| \geqslant|N(v) \cap S|. Give an example of a 3-regular graph (on at least 1 vertex) that does not have a friendly partition. Using part (b), show that for large enough n0n_{0} every 3-regular graph GG with Gn0|G| \geqslant n_{0} has a friendly partition.