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Homework 3

This document contains Joshua Gorin's homework assignment on graph theory problems. [1] It includes meeting times for group work and solutions to problems about minimum spanning trees, shortest paths, and minimum bottleneck trees. [2] Joshua proves that a graph has a unique minimum spanning tree if all edge costs are distinct. [3] He also shows that while all minimum spanning trees are minimum bottleneck trees, the opposite is not always true.

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187 views4 pages

Homework 3

This document contains Joshua Gorin's homework assignment on graph theory problems. [1] It includes meeting times for group work and solutions to problems about minimum spanning trees, shortest paths, and minimum bottleneck trees. [2] Joshua proves that a graph has a unique minimum spanning tree if all edge costs are distinct. [3] He also shows that while all minimum spanning trees are minimum bottleneck trees, the opposite is not always true.

Uploaded by

Josh Gorin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Homework 3

Joshua Gorin
February 11, 2020

Meeting times:

Monday 7-9pm: Ian Stockholm, Justin Turbeville, Evan Goldsmith


Tuesday 6-9pm: Ian Stockholm, Justin Turbeville, Evan Goldsmith
Wednesday 7-10pm: Ian Stockholm, Justin Turbeville, Evan Goldsmith
Problem 2. For each of the following two statements, decide whether it is true or false. If it is true,
give a short explanation. If it is false, give a counterexample.

(a) Suppose we are given an instance of the Minimum Spanning Tree Problem on a graph G, with
edge costs that are all positive and distinct. Let T be a minimum spanning tree for this instance. Now
suppose we replace each edge cost ce by its square, ce2 , thereby creating a new instance of the problem
with the same graph but different costs. True or false? T must still be a minimum spanning tree for
this new instance.

This statement is true. The MST of a graph is the minimum total cost of connecting all vertices
together. If one were to square the costs of all vertices, the total cost of each possible tree will also
double. Consider a number x and y such that x > y. This claim will also hold if one were to square
both x and y, meaning x2 > y 2 , due to properties of inequalities. Since this is the case, squaring all
possible trees will also yield the result that the original tree will have the minimum total cost, meaning
it will stay an MST.

(b) Suppose we are given an instance of the Shortest s-t Path Problem on a directed graph G. We
assume that all edge costs are positive and distinct. Let P be a minimum-cost s-t path for this instance.
Now suppose we replace each edge cost ce by its square, ce2 , thereby creating a new instance of the
problem with the same graph but different costs. True or false? P must still be a minimum-cost s-t
path for this new instance.

This statement is false. Consider a graph G with vertices a, b, c with the edges (a, b) being a weight of
3, (b, c) being a weight of 4, and (a, c) being a weight of 6. In this scenario, the shortest path to get
to c is the edge (a, c). However, when squaring each edge, the shortest path would become (a, b) and
then (b, c) because 9 + 16 < 36.

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Problem 8. Suppose you are given a connected graph G, with edge costs that are all distinct. Prove
that G has a unique minimum spanning tree.

Lemma: for any graph G there exists only one unique MST.

Proof. Assume by way of contradiction that there exists two distinct trees T and T 0 that are both
MST’s within the graph G. T and T 0 have the same number of edges. This is because if one were
less than the other, then a tree may either not be connecting all vertices, or a cycle is created as each
vertex has already been visited, and adding another onto it would revisit an already visited vertex,
creating a cycle. Since T and T 0 have the same number of edges, then there must exist some edge e in
T that differentiates the two trees. Imagine if e were inserted into T . This would create a cycle within
T, with some maximum edge within that cycle, e0 . Since e0 is the maximum edge within a cycle, this
edge must not be within any MSTs due to the cycle property. However, since every other edge in the
cycle comes from T , e0 must be in T. This creates a contradiction, as T is an MST that contains e0 ,
but no MST contains e0 .

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Problem 9.
A) Consider the graph G above. In this graph the MST would be the edges (a, b), (b, d), and (d, b),
with a total weight of 8. This MST is also an MBT. However, there also exists another MBT with
the edges (a, b), (b, c), (c, d). Since the total weight of this tree is 11, which is greater than 8, which
means that this MBT cannot be an MST. Therefore not all MBTs are MSTs.

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B) This statement is true.
Lemma: Every MST must also be an MBT.
Proof. Consider some graph G with n vertices and m edges, with every edge being a distinct positive
weight. Also consider some MST T , and some other tree, T 0 , with a smaller bottleneck edge than T .
Now consider if the bottleneck edge for T were inserted into T 0 . This must create a cycle within T 0 ,
due to the properties of spanning trees. Because T has a larger bottleneck edge than T 0 , this must
be the largest edge within T 0 , and therefore must also be the largest edge within the cycle. However,
due to the cycle property, the bottleneck edge added from T must not be part of an MST, as it is
the largest edge within the cycle created in T 0 . This contradicts the fact that the bottleneck edge is
a part of T , or that T is an MST. Therefore there must be a larger edge within T 0 , also contradicting
the fact that T 0 has a smaller bottleneck edge.

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