Unit 2-Lecture 5: Walks & Paths

1 Vertex Degrees

• Definition:
  The in-degree of a vertex in a digraph is the number of arrows coming into it, and similarly its out-degree is the number of arrows out of it.
• Hand shake theory:
• Lemma:
  $\sum_{v\in V(G)}indeg(v) \ \ =\ \ \sum_{v \in V(G)}outdeg(v)$

2 Walks and Paths

2.1 Definition:

• A walk, v, is a sequence of the form:
  $v:= v_0 < v_0 \to v_1> v_1 < v_1 \to v_2>... v_{k-1} < v_{k-1} \to v_k>$
• The walk is a path iff all the $v_i$are different.
• A closed walk is a walk that begins and ends at the same vertex.
• A cycle is a positive length closed walk whose vertices are distinct except for the beginning and end vertices.
• The distance, dist(u,v), in a graph from vertex u to vertex v is the length of a shortest path from u to v.

2.2 Finding a Path

• The shortest walk from one vertex to another is a path.
• The Triangle Inequality: dist(u,v) <= dist(u,x)+dist(x,v)
• the relationship between walks and paths extends to closed walks and cycles:
  The shortest positive length closed walk through a vertex is a cycle through that vertex

3 Adjacency Matrices

• Definivtion:
• Theorem: If C is the length-k walk counting matrix for a graph G, and D is the length-m walk counting matrix, then CD is the length k C m walk counting matrix for G.
• Shortested Path:
  One simple way to find the lengths of all the shortest paths in an n-vertex graph, G, is to compute the successive powers of AG one by one up to the n-1st, watching for the first power at which each entry becomes positive.

4 Walk Relations

• Walk relation on V(G):
  $uG^*v =$ there is a walk in G from u to v.
• Positive walk relation on V(G)
  $uG^+v=$ there is a positive length walk in G from u to v.
• Composition of Relations:
  If we let $G^n$ denote the composition of G with itself n times, then $G^n$ is the length-n walk relation:
  $a G^n b$ iff there is a length n walk in G from a to b.

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Reference

[1] Lehman E, Leighton F H, Meyer A R. Mathematics for Computer Science[J]. 2015.