Exercises in Graph Theory, Spring 2010

1. Let G be a graph with M edges, labeled by the numbers 1, 2, . . . , M. A monotone path

is a path along which the labels of the edges create a monotone sequence. Show that
there exists a monotone path whose length is greater or equal to the average degree.
(Remark: there is a very clever three-line proof of this. A (not very helpful) hint:
the sum of the degrees equals 2M.)
2. Show that the graph of the Hamming cube has a Hamiltonian cycle. (The Hamming
cube graph : Vertices are 0, 1
n
, edges between two vertices i they dier by precisely
one coordinate.)
3. Show that the Petersen graph does not have a Hamiltonian cycle.
4. Let B R
d
be a box which can be partitioned into a nite number of boxes, each
of which possesses a direction in which its length is an integer. Show that B also
has an integer length side. Hint: Situate B with a corner at the origin and create an
appropriate bipartite graph between points of the integer lattice and the boxes. Then
use the handshake lemma.
5. Consider the vector space F
n
2
, and, as usual, let e
i
denote the vector with 1 at the
ith coordinate, and 0 at all others. Call a vector of the type e
i
+ e
j
an edge vector,
(think of it as characterizing the edge between i and j in the graph on the vertex set
1, 2, . . . , n.) Let W be the n 1 dimensional subspace of vectors whose coordinates
sum to 0. Let B be a set of edge vectors. Prove:
The set B is linearly independent i the corresponding edges create a graph with
no cycles.
The set B spans W i the corresponding edges form a connected graph on
1, 2, ...., n.
Remarks: This exercise is related to Eulers theorem. Also, it sheds some light on
the similarity between the many equivalent denitions for trees and for basis of vector
spaces (both are special cases of matroids.)
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6. Is there a nice inductionless proof of Sperners lemma? (I dont know, havent thought
about it much, but the question is inspired by the proof of Tuckers lemma.)
7. Show that Brouwers xed point theorem is false if you replace a closed ball with an
open ball.
8. Show that formulations 3 and 4 of the Borsuk Ulam theorem given in class are equiv-
alent. (These are formulations BUb1 and BUb2 in Matouseks book).
9. Show that formulations 5 and 6 each imply formulation 7 (which is logically stronger.)
This is exercise 2.1.6 in Matouseks book.
10. Show that if a nite tree has a vertex of degree it has at least leaves,
Algorithmically.
By average degree considerations.
11. Show that if a tree has no vertices of degree 2 then it has more leaves than non-leaves.
12. Let T be a tree and T be a nite collection of subtrees. Show that if every two elements
of T intersect then they all intersect. What can you say about the case when T is
innite?
13. Prove that if G is k connected then every set of k vertices is contained in a cycle.
14. Prove: Every 2k-regular graph contains a 2-factor. (A -factor of G is a -regular
subgraph that contains all vertices of G.)
15. Prove: Every bridgeless 3-regular graph contains a 1-factor. (A bridge is an edge whose
removal disconnects the graph).
16. Prove that Mincut-Maxow implies Dilworth.
17. Prove that Dilworth implies Hall.
18. Let (G) be the vertex connectivity of G and (G) the edge connectivity. Prove that
(G) (G).
19. Prove that the edge version of Mengers theorem follows from the vertex version.
20. Let
1
,
2
be two measures on a nite partially ordered set. Use the Maxow-Mincut
theorem to show that if
1
stochastically dominates
2
then there exists a monotone
coupling between them.
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21. We showed in class that if 0 p < q 1 then the probability measure induced by
G(n, p) is stochastically dominated by that determined by G(n, q). Prove this directly
as follows. Let / be a monotone family of subgraphs of K
n
,i.e. F /, F G
G /. Dene f : [0, 1] [0, 1] by f(p) = Pr[G(n, p) /]. Prove directly that the
derivative of f is non negative.
22. Let n 3 be an odd integer. Place n points at equal distances around the circumference
of a circle, and connect every two points by a straight segment. Now, use Eulers
formula to determine how many regions are formed in this manner in the circle.
23. Let T
1
= (V, E
1
) and T
2
= (V, E
2
) be two trees on the same set of vertices. Show
that the graph T
1
T
2
:= (V, E
1
E
2
) is 4-colorable.
Let T
1
= (V, E
1
), T
2
= (V, E
2
) and T
3
= (V, E
3
) be three trees on the same set of
vertices. Is the graph T
1
T
2
T
3
:= (V, E
1
E
2
E
3
) necessarily 6-colorable?
24. Prove that there are bipartite graphs with arbitrarily large choice number. (Hint:
consider a generalization of the example we saw in class with choice number 3).
25. Complete the probabilistic proof of Turans theorem that we did in class by analyzing
the case of equality.
26. Prove that for any > 0 if n is suciently large, and G is a graph on n vertices with
average degree

d = (1 +)n
1
1
r
then K
r,r
G.
27. * Prove that for every r > 1 there exists c > 0 such that for all n there exist graphs
with average degree

d = cn
1
2
r
with no K
r,r
as a subgraph.
28. Prove that for any real > 0 and integer s > 1 if n is suciently large and G is a
graph on n vertices with at least n
3
triangles then G contains a copy of K
s,s,s
.
29. Let G be a tri-partite graph between vertex sets X
1
, X
2
, X
3
, where all three pairs
(X
i
, X
j
) are -regular with density at least d, and [X
1
[ = [X
2
[ = [X
3
[ = m. Prove that
if d > 2, then G contains at least (1 )(d )
3
m
3
triangles.
30. Prove that Theorem A below implies theorem B. (Theorem A was rst proven by Rodl
and Frankl precisely for this goal).
Theorem 0.1 (A) For every > 0 there exists a > 0 such that if a 3-uniform
hypergraph H on n vertices has the property that removing any n
3
edges still leaves
at least one copy of K
(3)
4
(the complete 3-uniform hypergraph on 4 vertices), then H
contains at least n
4
copies of K
(3)
4
.
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Theorem 0.2 (B) For every c > 0 there exists an integer n
0
such that if n > n
0
and
A 1, 2, . . . , n with [A[ > c n then A contains a four-term arithmetic progression.
31. The purpose of this exercise is to prove that R(3, 4) = 9.
Show that there is a triangle-free graph on 8 vertices whose compliment contains
no K
4
.
Show that if A := R(k, 1) and B := R(k 1, ) are both even then R(k, )
A +B 1.
32. Prove that in any Red/Blue coloring of the edges of K
n
there are at least

n
3

n
2

(n1)
2
|
(n1)
2
| monochromatic triangles (e.g. for n = 3 there are at least two
monochromatic triangles.)
Prove that a random coloring achieves this bound asymptotically in expectation,
i.e. the expected number of monochromatic triangles is (1 + o(1)) times the
minimal possible number.
What do you think is the case for the number of monochromatic K
4
? Does it
seem likely that here too the number is asymptotically minimized by a random
coloring ?
33. We will say that a function p

= p

(n) is a threshold function for a graph property /

(actually, a series of graph properties, one for each value of n) if
p = p(n) = o(p

(n)) Pr[G(n, p) /] = o(1)

and
p

(n) = o(p) Pr[G(n, p) /] = 1 o(1).

Prove that every monotone graph property has a threshold function.
Find, with proof, a threshold function for containing K
m
for a xed m.
Find, with proof, a threshold function for containing a copy of K
4
with a fth
vertex attached to one of the four.
34. Let G be a d-regular graph on n vertices, and let
1

2
. . .
n
be its eigenvalues.
Prove that
1
= d.
Prove that the multiplicity of d is 1 i G is connected.
Prove that
n
d, with equality i G is bipartite.
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35. Let G be the graph of the n dimensional Hamming Cube, V (G) = 0, 1
n
and two
vectors are adjacent in the graph if they dier by precisely one coordinate.
Find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the graph.
Use the technique that we applied in class to the trac light problem (Homans
theorem) in order to prove that G has precisely two independent sets of size 2
(n1)
,
and no larger ones.
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A list of theorems for the exam (note Ive added Tutte who was missing at
rst):
1. Lovasz Theorem (Knesers conjecture)
2. Tuckers Lemma
3. The Matrix Tree Theorem
4. Mincut-Maxow
5. Tuttes theorem
6. Mengers theorem
7. Turans theorem
8. The Triangle Removal Lemma (No need to prove Szemeredis Regularity Lemma, only
to quote it, but all other steps along the way need to be proven, e.g. the statement of
exercise 29).
9. There exist constants k and K such that any graph on n vertices with Kn
3/2
edges
contains a C
4
, but there exist graphs on n vertices with cn
3/2
edges and no C
4
.
10. There exist graphs with arbitrarily large girth (length of shortest cycle) and chromatic
number.
11. Homans theorem.
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