A multigraph G has even no of Hamiltonian paths. Definition (Stick) : A path s=e_1,...,e_m in G,where the end vertices of the edge e_i are v_i and v_{i+1} and 1 <= i <= m. The path s is called a stick.

Addison Parker

Addison Parker

Answered question

2022-09-05

A multigraph G has even no of Hamiltonian paths
Definition (Stick) : A path s = e 1 , . . . , e m in G,where the end vertices of the edge e i are v i and v i + 1 and 1 i m. The path s is called a stick.
Corollary : Let G be a multigraph, let u , v V, and suppose that d(w) is odd for each vertex w V- {u,v} ϕ. Then number of Hamiltonian Paths in G from u to v is even.
Proof: We may assume that u and v are adjacent vertices (if they are not we may add an edge between them); let e be an edge between u and v. We choose the stick s to be the edge e with u = u 1 and v = v 2 ; if w V then ϵ ( w ) is the number of edges from u to w.Consequently a Hamiltonian path h beginning with s and ending in w gives rise to exactly ϵ ( w ) hamiltonian paths from u to v. But by Theorem 1.1 the number of such paths ending in the set W = { w V : ϵ ( w ) is odd} is even.
My understanding of proof :
- Since the graph is Hamiltonian if the edge uv is missing we add it.
- Now that stick s has to be the edge with u = v 1 does this mean u = v 1 is incident with last edge of stick.
- For Hamiltonian paths to be to be even it is obvious that after deletion of {u,v} we are left with vertices of odd degree and since its a multigraph loops are allowed which leads to set W being have paths of odd length i.e ϵ ( w ) is odd so we have even number of vertices and sum of odd degrees with even no of vertices is even.
But what I dont get from the proof is how there are ϵ(w) Hamiltonian paths?

Answer & Explanation

Holly Schmidt

Holly Schmidt

Beginner2022-09-06Added 10 answers

Step 1
The proof says
A Hamiltonian path h beginning with s and ending in w gives rise to exactly ε ( w ) Hamiltonian paths from u to v.
The way it gives rise to such paths is as follows: from u, take any of the ε(w) edges to w, and then follow h in reverse until you get to v.
This is invertible, up to the choice of edge between u and w: given a Hamiltonian path h′ from u to v whose second vertex is w, start from the stick s (getting us to v), then follow h′ in reverse until you get to w.
Step 2
Formally, this is a bijection between
S 1 = { ( e , h ) : e  is a  u w  edge,  h  is a  u w  Hamiltonian path starting with  s }
and
S 2 = { h : h  is a  u v  Hamiltonian path starting with some edge  e  from  u  to  w } .
For each w, either ε ( w ) is even, or (by Theorem 1.1) the number of choices of h is even. To get | S 1 | , we multiply ε ( w ) by the number of choices of h. Therefore | S 1 | is always even, and by the bijection | S 2 | is always even.
Sum over all w, and we get the total number of u v Hamiltonian paths. Since it's a sum of many even numbers, it must be even.

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