lexicographic product of graphs

{{Short description|Graph in graph theory}}

Image:Graph-lexicographic-product.svg

In graph theory, the lexicographic product or (graph) composition {{math|GH}} of graphs {{mvar|G}} and {{mvar|H}} is a graph such that

  • the vertex set of {{math|GH}} is the cartesian product {{math|V(G) × V(H)}}; and
  • any two vertices {{math|(u,v)}} and {{math|(x,y)}} are adjacent in {{math|GH}} if and only if either {{mvar|u}} is adjacent to {{mvar|x}} in {{mvar|G}} or {{math|1=u = x}} and {{mvar|v}} is adjacent to {{mvar|y}} in {{mvar|H}}.

If the edge relations of the two graphs are order relations, then the edge relation of their lexicographic product is the corresponding lexicographic order.

The lexicographic product was first studied by {{harvs|first=Felix|last=Hausdorff|authorlink=Felix Hausdorff|year=1914|txt}}.{{sfnp|Hausdorff|1914}} As {{harvtxt|Feigenbaum|Schäffer|1986}} showed, the problem of recognizing whether a graph is a lexicographic product is equivalent in complexity to the graph isomorphism problem.{{sfnp|Feigenbaum|Schäffer|1986}}

Properties

The lexicographic product is in general noncommutative: {{math|GHHG}}. However it satisfies a distributive law with respect to disjoint union: {{math|1=(A + B) ∙ C = AC + BC}}.

In addition it satisfies an identity with respect to complementation: {{math|1=C(GH) = C(G) ∙ C(H)}}. In particular, the lexicographic product of two self-complementary graphs is self-complementary.

The independence number of a lexicographic product may be easily calculated from that of its factors:{{sfnp|Geller|Stahl|1975}}

:{{math|1=α(GH) = α(G)α(H)}}.

The clique number of a lexicographic product is as well multiplicative:

:{{math|1=ω(GH) = ω(G)ω(H)}}.

The chromatic number of a lexicographic product is equal to the b-fold chromatic number of G, for b equal to the chromatic number of H:

:{{math|1=χ(GH) = χb(G)}}, where {{math|1=b = χ(H)}}.

The lexicographic product of two graphs is a perfect graph if and only if both factors are perfect.{{sfnp|Ravindra|Parthasarathy|1977}}

Notes

{{reflist}}

References

  • {{citation

| last1 = Feigenbaum | first1 = J. | last2 = Schäffer | first2 = A. A.

| year = 1986

| title = Recognizing composite graphs is equivalent to testing graph isomorphism

| journal = SIAM Journal on Computing

| volume = 15

| pages = 619–627

| mr = 0837609

| doi = 10.1137/0215045

| issue = 2}}.

  • {{citation

| last1 = Geller | first1 = D. | last2 = Stahl | first2 = S.

| title = The chromatic number and other functions of the lexicographic product

| journal = Journal of Combinatorial Theory | series = Series B

| volume = 19

| year = 1975

| pages = 87–95

| mr = 0392645

| doi = 10.1016/0095-8956(75)90076-3| doi-access =

}}.

  • {{citation

| last = Hausdorff | first = F.

| authorlink = Felix Hausdorff

| title = Grundzüge der Mengenlehre

| year = 1914

| location = Leipzig}}

  • {{citation

| last1 = Imrich | first1 = Wilfried | last2 = Klavžar | first2 = Sandi

| title = Product Graphs: Structure and Recognition

| publisher = Wiley

| year = 2000

| isbn = 0-471-37039-8}}

  • {{citation

| last1 = Ravindra | first1 = G.

| last2 = Parthasarathy | first2 = K. R.

| doi = 10.1016/0012-365X(77)90056-5

| issue = 2

| journal = Discrete Mathematics

| mr = 0491304

| pages = 177–186

| title = Perfect product graphs

| volume = 20

| year = 1977| hdl = 10338.dmlcz/102469

| hdl-access = free

}}.