(Graph Theory) Important Exercise

This is an important exercise/conclusion in graph theory about connectivity.

• Suppose $G:=(V,E)$ is a connected graph that contains some cycle. Suppose $e$ is an edge in that cycle. Prove that the graph obtained by removing $e$ (and all other vertices and edges remain intact, $G^{\prime }$, is connected.
• Proof
  • The idea of the proof can be concluded with one sentense: you can simply go from the other side of the original cycle, and connectivity is retained. The picture below is a simple example illustrating this idea.
    
  • Suppose the edge removed, $e$, is incident on $v,w\in V$.
  • In the original cycle in $G$, to get from $v$ to $w$, we can either go from $e$, or we have another way: Because $e$ is part of a cycle containing $v$ and $w$, the cycle goes $a,.....,v,w,....,a$ (all are vertices, and between $v,w$ is the edge $e$). Starting from $v$, we can first travel to $a$ without having to go through $e$ as a cycle contains no repeated edge, and then we go the other way around to reach $w$.
    Side Remark: $a$ does not have to be different from $v$ or $w$ for this to work.
  • This means: if a path in $G$ contains $e$, in $G^{\prime }$ we can replace it the other path we found above; or if a path in $G$ does not contain $e$, we are done.
  • Thus, connectivity is maintained in $G^{\prime }$.