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Bipartite Graph

This document contains lecture notes on bipartite graphs from Math 481. It defines a bipartite graph as one whose vertices can be divided into two disjoint sets such that every edge connects a vertex in one set to one in the other set. It proves that a graph is bipartite if and only if it contains no odd cycles. The proof works by assuming the graph contains an odd cycle and showing this implies it cannot be bipartite, and vice versa. It also gives the complete bipartite graph Kn,m as an example of a maximal bipartite graph with specified partite set sizes.

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136 views2 pages

Bipartite Graph

This document contains lecture notes on bipartite graphs from Math 481. It defines a bipartite graph as one whose vertices can be divided into two disjoint sets such that every edge connects a vertex in one set to one in the other set. It proves that a graph is bipartite if and only if it contains no odd cycles. The proof works by assuming the graph contains an odd cycle and showing this implies it cannot be bipartite, and vice versa. It also gives the complete bipartite graph Kn,m as an example of a maximal bipartite graph with specified partite set sizes.

Uploaded by

ragh1291
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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NOTES FOR MATH 481

LECTURE 26

VIVEK DHAND

1. Bipartite Graphs

A graph G = (V, E) is bipartite if we can split up the vertices into two sets X and Y so
that every edge has one endpoint in X and the other endpoint in Y . In other words,
no two vertices in X are adjacent, and no two vertices in Y are adjacent. We will refer
to the sets X and Y as the partite sets of the bipartite graph.

Theorem. Let G be a graph. G is bipartite if and only if it contains no odd cy-


cles.

Proof. Let G be a bipartite graph. Suppose (v0 , . . . , vk ) is a cycle in G. Since vi and


vi+1 are adjacent, they must lie in different partite sets. So v1 , v3 , v5 , . . . must lie in
one partite set and v0 , v2 , v4 , . . . must lie in the other. Since vk−1 and v0 are adjacent,
we see that k − 1 must be odd, so k must be even. This proves that bipartite graphs
cannot contain odd cycles.
Now suppose G is a graph which does not contain any odd cycles. Note that G = K1
is clearly bipartite and does not contain any odd cycles (a cycle must have at least
3 vertices). Therefore, we may assume that G has at least two vertices. Also, G is
bipartite if and only if each connected component of G is bipartite, so we may assume
that G is connected. Pick a vertex v and define
X = {x ∈ V | the shortest path from x to v has even length }
Y = {y ∈ V | the shortest path from y to v has odd length }
We claim that these sets X and Y make G into a bipartite graph. Let x1 and x2
be vertices of X and suppose they are adjacent. Note that v is not adjacent to x1 ,
(otherwise the shortest path between them would be length one), so v 6= x2 . Similarly,
v is not adjacent to x2 , so v 6= x1 . Let P1 = (v, v1 , . . . , v2k ) be a shortest path from v
to v2k = x1 and let P2 = (v, w1 , . . . , w2l ) be a shortest path from v to w2l = x2 . Note
that P1 and P2 have even length.
If P1 and P2 have no vertices in common except v, then we have found an odd cycle:
(v, v1 , . . . , x1 , x2 , . . . w1 , v).
If P1 and P2 do have common vertices in addition to v, then let v 0 be the last such
vertex. Note that taking P1 from x1 to v 0 is the shortest path from x1 to v 0 (if there
was a shorter path, we could just take that path and then follow the rest of P1 for a
2 VIVEK DHAND

shorter path to v). The same goes for P2 : it is the shortest path from x2 to v 0 . Now,
the length of the routes that P1 and P2 take from v to v 0 must be the same. If one was
shorter than the other, we would be able to shorten either P1 or P2 . Therefore, we may
assume that v 0 = vi = wi for some i. This implies that (v 0 , vi+1 , . . . , x1 , x2 , . . . , wi+1 , v 0 )
is an odd cycle.
The same proof works for adjacent vertices y1 , y2 ∈ Y , except that P1 and P2 will have
odd length.
We have shown that each connected component of G is bipartite, so G is bipartite.


Example. Kn,m is the complete bipartite graph. It is the bipartite graph of maximal
size with |X| = n and |Y | = m.

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