A linear graph is defined as a collection of points, called nodes, and line

segments called branches, the nodes being joined together by the branches.
A subgraph is a subset of the branches and nodes of a graph.
A path is a particular subgraph consisting of an ordered sequence of
branches having the following properties:
1. At all but two of its nodes, called internal nodes, there are incident
exactly two branches of the subgraph.
2. At each of the remaining two nodes, called the terminal nodes, there
is incident exactly one branch of the subgraph.
3. No proper subgraph of this subgraph, having the same two terminal
nodes, has properties 1 and 2.
A graph is connected if there exists at least one path between any two nodes.
A loop is a particular connected subgraph of a graph at each node of which are incident exactly two branches of the subgraph.
A tree is a connected subgraph of a connected graph containing all the nodes of the graph but containing no loops.
The branches of a tree are called twigs; those branches that are not on a tree are called links.
In the first one, all the twigs are incident at a common node. Such a tree is called a starlike tree, or a star-tree for short.
In the second one, the nodes can be so ordered that the tree consists of a single path extending from the first node to the last. Such a tree is
called a linear tree.
If a graph is unconnected, the concept corresponding to a tree for a connected graph is called a forest,
If p + 1 is the number of separate parts of an unconnected graph and n + 1 is the number of nodes, then a forest will contain n — p twigs.
THE INCIDENCE MATRIX
For a graph having n + 1 nodes and b branches, the complete incidence matrix (or more completely, the complete node-branch incidence
matrix)
Aa = [aîj] is an (n + 1) × b rectangular matrix whose elements have the following values:
aij = 1 if branch j is incident at node i and oriented away from it;
atj = —1 if branch j is incident at node i and oriented toward it;
aij = 0 if branch j is not incident at node i.
the rank of Aa can be no more than (n + 1) — 1 = n.
Specifically, if a graph has n + 1 nodes, the rank of its incidence matrix equals n. This will be established by showing that an nth order
submatrix of A whose columns correspond to the twigs for any tree is nonsingular.
Since each nonsingular n × n submatrix of A corresponds to a tree, ail we have to do is to count ail such nonsingular submatrices.
Binet-Cauchy theorem
We say two graphs are isomorphic if they have the same incidence matrix.
THE LOOP MATRIX
Ba = [bij] is a rectangular matrix having b columns and as many rows as there are loops; its elements have the following values:
bij = 1 if branch j is in loop i, and their orientations coincide;
bij = —1 if branch j is in loop i, and their orientations do not coincide;
bij = 0 if branch j is not in loop i.
Given a graph, first select a tree and remove all the links. Then replace each link in the graph, one at a time. As each link is replaced, it will
form a loop. (If it does not, it must have been a twig.) This loop will be characterized by the fact that all but one of its branches are twigs of the
chosen tree. Loops formed in this way will be called fundamental loops, or f-loops for short. The orientation of an f-loop will be chosen to
coincide with that of its defining link.
There are as many f-loops as there are links; in a graph having b branches and n + 1 nodes, this number will be b — n. For

Sylvester's law of nullity

if the product of two matrices equals zero, the sum of the ranks of the two matrices is not greater than the number of columns of the first matrix
in the product
CUT-SETS AND THE CUT-SET MATRIX
A cut-set is a set of branches of a connected graph whose removal causes the graph to become unconnected into exactly two connected
subgraphs, with the further stipulation that the removal of any proper subset of this set leaves the graph connected