Note

On separable self-complementary graphs

Ken-ichi Kawarabayashi, Atsuhiro Nakamoto, Yoskhiaki Oda, Katsuhiro Ota, Shnsei Tazawa, Mamoru Watanabe Discrete Mathematics 257 (2002) 165-168

2002/10/17

What is cut-vertex of a graph?

What is complement of a graph?

It is a well-known fact: For every graph G, G itself or its complement G is connected.

Is this sentence also true?

For every graph G, Is G itself or its complement G 2-connected?

The answer about this question is No, and then we focus the counterexample.

Theorem 1. Let G be a separable graph with a cut vertex v. Then the complement G of G is separable or disconnected if and only if (a) or (b) hold:
(a) degG(v) |V(G)| - 2, (b) G has a vertex u of degree 1 such that G u has a spanning complete bipartite subgraph.

(a)

(b)

Proof. 1. If G is separable or disconnect, there are 2 situations to deg G (v). 1.1.deg (v)1 degG(v)|V(G)| - 2, this is case (a).
G

1.2 deg G (v)2.

2. In situation 1.2, G is 2-connected if and only if G v is 2connected. Thus, we check the 2-connectivity of G v .If G-v has k components, G v will have a spanning complete k-partite subgraph, see Figure 1 in next page.
3. In situation 1.2, there are 2 situations to k. 3.1 k3, then G v includes a spanning complete k-partite subgraph and hence G v is 2-connected. 3.2 k=2.

4.In situation 3.2, If |V(B1)|2 and |V(B2)|2 , then G v has K|V(B1)|,|V(B2)| as a spanning subgraph, and hence it is 2-connected. 5.Thus, we may suppose that |B1|=1 and put B1={u}. Since deg G (v)2 and since u is adjacent to all vertices x V (G) {u, v} in G , G is not 2-connected if and only if G u is not connected. Clearly, G u is not connected if and only if G-u has a spanning complete bipartite subraph. This is case (b).

Figure 1.

What is a self-complementary graph?

The property of vertex number of a self-complementary graph: Let G be a self-complementary graph with n vertices. For which n2 are there self-complementary graphs with precisely n vertices? Since |E(G)|=|E( G )| and |E(G)| + |E( G )|= n(n-1)/2, the number n(n-1)=2 must be even, and hence we have n0,1 (mod 4).

There is a method that can construct separable selfcomplementary graph called 4-path addition.

n 0 4 G

n 1 5 G

The method to construct inseparable self-complementary graph similar to a 4-path addition.

H B,V(B)=k

A k-connected selfcomplementary graph

Theorem 2. Let G be a separable self-complementary graph with at least 4 vertices. Then, G can be obtained from a graph H by a 4-path addition, where H is either empty, trivial or selfcomplementary.

Corollary 3. The number of the separable self-complementary graphs with n8 vertices is the same as the number of the selfcomplementary graphs with n-4 vertices.

References: [1 ]F.Harary,E.M.Palmer,Enumeration of locally restricted digraphs,Canad.J.Math.18 (1966) 853 860. [2 ]K.R.Parthasarathy,Sridharan,Enumeration of self-complementary graphs and digraphs,J.Math.Phys. Soc.Madras 3 (1969)410 414. [3 ]R.C.Read,On the number of self-complementary graphs and digraphs,J.London Math.Soc.38 (1963) 99 104.