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Tree-Width and Circumference of Graphs: Etienne Birmele

The document proves that the tree-width of any graph is at most one less than its circumference. It first defines circumference as the length of the longest circuit in a graph. It then proves the theorem by constructing a tree decomposition of the graph using a depth-first search tree, where the width of the decomposition is at most one less than the circumference. This bound is shown to be best possible by considering the complete graph Kk, which has tree-width k-1 and circumference k.

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66 views2 pages

Tree-Width and Circumference of Graphs: Etienne Birmele

The document proves that the tree-width of any graph is at most one less than its circumference. It first defines circumference as the length of the longest circuit in a graph. It then proves the theorem by constructing a tree decomposition of the graph using a depth-first search tree, where the width of the decomposition is at most one less than the circumference. This bound is shown to be best possible by considering the complete graph Kk, which has tree-width k-1 and circumference k.

Uploaded by

Daniel Gregorio
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Tree-Width and

Circumference of Graphs
Etienne Birmele*
LAPCS, UNIVERSITÉ CLAUDE BERNARD LYON I, FRANCE
E-mail: birmele@univ-lyon1.fr

Received January 10, 2002; Revised October 22, 2002

DOI 10.1002/jgt.10099

Abstract: We prove that every graph of circumference k has tree-width at


most k 1 and that this bound is best possible. ß 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph
Theory 43: 24–25, 2003

Keywords: tree-width; circumference

The circumference of a graph is the length of a longest circuit; in the case


of a forest, we define the circumference to be two. In response to a question
posed by Reed [2], we prove the following theorem relating tree-width and
circumference.
Theorem 1. Let G be a graph of circumference k. Then the tree-width of G is at
most k  1.
Proof. Let T be a depth-first search tree of G rooted at some vertex r. The
tree T induces a partial order on VðTÞ ¼ VðGÞ: x  y if x 2 rTy (where,
following Diestel [1], we denote by xTy the xy-path in T). Since T is a depth-first
search tree, the ends of each edge of EðGÞ are comparable.
We define Wr ¼ frg and, for every y 6¼ r, we consider the edge e ¼ xy 2 EðTÞ
with x  y, and define Wy as follows:

——————————————————

*Correspondence to: Etienne Birmele, Lapcs, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I,


France. E-mail: birmele@univ-lyon1.fr
ß 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
TREE-WIDTH AND CIRCUMFERENCE OF GRAPHS 25

 if there is no edge in EðGÞ different from e between any w  x and any


z  y, that is, if e is a cut edge in G, we set Wy ¼ fx; yg.
 if there is such an edge, we consider all the vertices w  x joined in G to
some vertex z  y. These vertices are on the path rTx. This is an antichain in
the partial order so there exists w0 maximal under these conditions. Let Wy
be the set of vertices of the path w0 Ty.

We set W ¼ fWx : x 2 VðGÞg.


Claim. ½T; W is a tree-decomposition of G and its width is at most k  1.
To prove that ½T; W is a tree-decomposition of G, we have to show that
every edge of G has both ends in some Wx and that for every vertex x of G,
Sx ¼ ft 2 VðTÞ : x 2 Wt g induces a subtree of T.

(a) Consider an edge xy 2 EðGÞ, x  y. Then fx; yg  Wy .


(b) Consider a vertex x and a vertex y different from x with y 2 Sx . There
exist w  x and z  y with wz 2 EðGÞ. So v 2 Sx for every v on xTy, as
w  x  v  z. Consequently, all the vertices on xTy are in Sx , so Sx
induces a connected subgraph of T, that is a subtree of T.

This shows that ½T; W is a tree-decomposition of G. Moreover, j Wr j¼ 1 and if


y is adjacent to r or if the last edge of the path rTy is a cut edge, j Wy j¼ 2. In all
the other cases, Wy is the set of vertices of a path w0 Ty with y  z and w0 z 2
EðGÞ. As the set of vertices of w0 Tz induces a circuit of G; j Wy j k. Conse-
quently, the width of this decomposition is at most k  1.
We note that this bound is best possible as TWðKk Þ ¼ k  1.

REFERENCES

[1] R. Diestel, Graph Theory, second edition, Springer Verlag, New-York, 2000.
[2] B. Reed, personnal communication, 2001.

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