Instructor: Sergi Elizalde

Course on canvas.dartmouth.edu.

Syllabus


 

Sections

Brief Description

Week 1

1.1, 1.2

M: Basic definitions, examples of problems in graph theory.

W: Adjacency and incidence matrices, isomorphisms.

F: Paths, walks, cycles, components, cut-edges, cut-vertices.

Week 2

1.2, 1.3

M: Induced subgraphs, characterization of bipartite graphs, Eulerian graphs.

W: Vertex degrees, degree-sum formula, reconstruction conjecture. 

F: Extremal problems: largest minimum degree in disconnected graphs,  largest bipartite subgraph. 

Week 3

1.4

M: No class on Apr 8  (Sergi away at a conference).

W: Triangle-free graphs. Degree sequences, graphic sequences. Directed graphs. 

Th (X-hour): Quiz 1.

F: Connected digraphs, Eulerian digraphs, De Bruijn cycles. Orientations and tournaments.

Week 4

2.1, 2.2

M:  Trees and forests, characterizations of trees.

W:  Radius and diameter. Spanning trees. 

F: Enumeration of trees, Cayley’s formula, Prüfer code. The deletion-contraction formula. 

Week 5

2.3, 3.1

M: The matrix tree theorem. Decompositions and graceful labelings. Minimum spanning trees (Kruskal’s algorithm). 

W: Shortest paths (Dijkstra’s algorithm), Breadth First Search. Maximal and maximum matchings, M-augmenting paths. 

Th (X-hour): Quiz 2.

F: Hall's theorem and its consequences.

Week 6

3.1, 4.1

M: Min-max theorems, matchings and vertex covers, independent sets and edge covers.

W: Relating maximum matchings, minimum vertex covers, maximum independent sets, and minimum edge covers. Connectivity, vertex cuts.

F: Edge-connectivity, disconnecting sets.  Whitney's theorem.

Week 7

4.2, 4.3
 

M: Blocks, k-connected graphs.

W: Menger’s theorem, line graphs. Network flow problems, value of a flow.

Th (X-hour): Quiz 3.

F: Source/sink cuts. Ford-Fulkerson algorithm. Max-flow min-cut theorem.

Week 8

5.1, 5.3

M: Graph coloring. Bounds on chromatic numbers, chromatic numbers of graphs constructed from smaller graphs.

W: The chromatic polynomial, the deletion-contraction recurrence.

F: Properties of the chromatic polynomial, simplicial elimination orderings, acyclic orientations.

Week 9

Chapter 6

M: Planar graphs, Euler's formula.

W: Kuratowski's theorem.

Th (X-hour): Quiz 4.

F:  Five and four color theorems. Final exam handed out.

Week 10

 Chapter 6

(No class on Memorial Day)

W: Final exam due.