A First Course In Graph Theory And Combinatorics

The concept of a graph is fundamental in mathematics since it conveniently encodes diverse relations and facilitates combinatorial analysis of many complicated counting problems. In this book, the authors have traced the origins of graph theory from its humble beginnings of recreational mathematics to its modern setting for modeling communication networks as is evidenced by the World Wide Web graph used by many Internet search engines. This book is an introduction to graph theory and combinatorial analysis. It is based on courses given by the second author at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada between 2002 and 2008. The courses were aimed at students in their final year of their undergraduate program.

This book discusses the origin of graph theory from its humble beginnings in recreational mathematics to its modern setting or modeling communication networks, as is evidenced by the World Wide Web graph used by many Internet search engines. The second edition of the book includes recent developments in the theory of signed adjacency matrices involving the proof of sensitivity conjecture and the theory of Ramanujan graphs. In addition, the book discusses topics such as Pick’s theorem on areas of lattice polygons and Graham–Pollak’s work on addressing of graphs. The concept of graph is fundamental in mathematics and engineering, as it conveniently encodes diverse relations and facilitates combinatorial analysis of many theoretical and practical problems. The text is ideal for a one-semester course at the advanced undergraduate level or beginning graduate level.

Written by two prominent figures in the field, this comprehensive text provides a remarkably student-friendly approach. Its sound yet accessible treatment emphasizes the history of graph theory and offers unique examples and lucid proofs. 2004 edition.

These notes were first used in an introductory course team taught by the authors at Appalachian State University to advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates. The text was written with four pedagogical goals in mind: offer a variety of topics in one course, get to the main themes and tools as efficiently as possible, show the relationships between the different topics, and include recent results to convince students that mathematics is a living discipline.

This is the second edition of a popular book on combinatorics, a subject dealing with ways of arranging and distributing objects, and which involves ideas from geometry, algebra and analysis. The breadth of the theory is matched by that of its applications, which include topics as diverse as codes, circuit design and algorithm complexity. It has thus become essential for workers in many scientific fields to have some familiarity with the subject. The authors have tried to be as comprehensive as possible, dealing in a unified manner with, for example, graph theory, extremal problems, designs, colorings and codes. The depth and breadth of the coverage make the book a unique guide to the whole of the subject. The book is ideal for courses on combinatorical mathematics at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. Working mathematicians and scientists will also find it a valuable introduction and reference.

Because of its wide applicability, graph theory is one of the fast-growing areas of modern mathematics. Graphs arise as mathematical models in areas as diverse as management science, chemistry, resource planning, and computing. Moreover, the theory of graphs provides a spectrum of methods of proof and is a good train ing ground for pure mathematics. Thus, many colleges and universities provide a first course in graph theory that is intended primarily for mathematics majors but accessible to other students at the senior Ievel. This text is intended for such a course. I have presented this course many times. Over the years classes have included mainly mathematics and computer science majors, but there have been several engineers and occasional psychologists as weil. Often undergraduate and graduate students are in the same dass. Many instructors will no doubt find themselves with similar mixed groups. lt is to be expected that anyone enrolling in a senior Ievel mathematics course will be comfortable with mathematical ideas and notation. In particular, I assume the reader is familiar with the basic concepts of set theory, has seen mathematical induction, and has a passing acquaintance with matrices and algebra. However, one cannot assume that the students in a first graph theory course will have a good knowledge of any specific advanced area. My reaction to this is to avoid too many specific prerequisites. The main requirement, namely a little mathematical maturity, may have been acquired in a variety of ways.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course that can take up one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course. Just as with the first edition, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible for the talented and hard-working undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings and Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles. The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, and algorithms and complexity. As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course lasting one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course. Just as with the first two editions, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible to the talented and hardworking undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings, Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles, and planar graphs. The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, the theory of designs (new to this edition), enumeration under group action (new to this edition), generating functions of labeled and unlabeled structures and algorithms and complexity. As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading. The Solution Manual is available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to [email protected]. Sample Chapter(s) Chapter 1: Seven Is More Than Six. The Pigeon-Hole Principle (181 KB) Chapter 4: No Matter How You Slice It. The Binomial Theorem and Related Identities (228 KB) Chapter 15: Who Knows What It Looks Like,But It Exists. The Probabilistic Method (286 KB) Request Inspection Copy