3-1.

TREES
A a connected graph without any circuits. The graph in Fig. 3-1, for
tree is
instance, is a tree. Trees with one, two,three, and four vertices are shown in Fig.
3-2. As pointed out in Chapter 1, a graph must have at least one vertex, and
therefore so must a tree. Some authors allow the null tree, a tree without any
vertices. We have excluded such an entity from being a tree. Similarly, as we are
considering only finite graphs, our trees are also finite.
It follows immediately from the definition that a tree has to be a simple graph,
that is, having neither a self-loop nor parallel edges (because they both form
circuits).
THEOREM 3-3

A tree with n vertices has n -1 edges.

Proof: The theorem will be proved by induction on the number of vertices.

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Fig. 3-4 Tree T with n vertices.

It is easy to see the theorem is true forn =1, 2, and 3 (see Fig. 3-2).
that
Assume that the theorem holds for all trees with fewer than n vertices.

Let us now consider a tree T with n vertices. In T let e, be an edge with end
vertices v, and v; According to Theorem 3-1, there is no other path between V;

and v; except e. Therefore, deletion of e, from T will disconnect the graph,as

shown in Fig. 3-4. Furthermore, T -e consists of exactly two components,and
since there were no circuits in T to begin with, each of these components is a
tree. Both these trees, t,and t,, have fewer than n vertices each, and therefore,
by the induction hypothesis, each contains one less edge than the number of
vertices in it. Thus T - -
e, consists of n 2 edges (and n vertices). Hence T has
exactly n - 1edges.
3-4. DISTANCE AND CENTERS IN A TREE

The tree in Fig. 3-7 has four vertices. Intuitively, seems that vertex b is

located more than any of the other three vertices. We shall explore
"centrally"
this idea further and see if in a tree there exists a "center" (or centers). Inherent
in the concept of a center is the idea of "distance," so we must define distance
before we can talk of a center.

Fig. 3-7 Tree.

In a connected graph G, the distance d(v;, v) between two of its vertices v; and
v, is the length of the shortest path (i.e., the number of edges in the shortest path)

between them.
The definition of distance between any two vertices is valid for any connected
graph (not necessarily a tree). In a graph that is not a tree, there are generally
several paths between a pair of vertices. We have to enumerate all these paths
and find the length of the shortest one. (There may be several shortest paths.)

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For instance, some of the paths between vertices v, and v, in Fig. 3-8 are (a,
e),

(a, e)
(a, c,

and (b,
,
(b,c, e), (b, ), (b, g, h), and (b,g, i,
f), each of length two. Hence d(vj,
k).

V) =2.
There are two shortest paths,

In a tree, since there is exactly one path between any two vertices (Theorem 3
1), the determination of distance is much For instance, in the tree of Fig.
easier.

3-7, d(a, b) = 1, d(a, c) =2, d(c, b) =1, and so on.

A Metric:Before we can legitimately call a function f(x, y) of two variables a
"distance" between them, this function must satisfy certain requirements. These
are

h
THEOREM 3-5

A graph is a tree if and only if it is minimally connected.

The significance of Theorem 3-5 obvious. Intuitively, one can see that to
is
interconnect n distinct points, the minimum number of line segments needed is n
- 1. It requires no background in electrical engineering to realize that to short
(electrically) n pins together, one needs at least n 1 pieces of wire. The
resulting structure, according to Theorem 3-5, is a tree.

8 &

Fig. 3-5 Edge e added to G =91 Ug2.

We showed that a connected graph with n vertices and without any circuits
has n - 1 edges. We can also show that a graph with n vertices which has no
and has n
circuit -1 edges is always connected (i.e., it is a tree), in the following
theorem.
 A tree T is said to be a spanning tree of a connected graph G if T is a subgraph
of G andT of G. For instance, the subgraph in heavy lines in
contains all vertices
Fig. 3-17 is a spanning tree of the graph shown.
Since the vertices of G
are barely hanging together in a spanning tree, it is a
sort of skeleton of the original graph G. This is why a spanning tree is sometimes
referred to as a skeleton or scaffolding of G. Since spanning trees are the largest
(with maximum number of edges) trees among all trees in G, it is also quite
appropriate to calla spanning tree a maximal tree subgraph or maximal tree of
G.