Rank (graph theory)

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In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, the rank of an undirected graph has two unrelated definitions. Let n equal the number of vertices of the graph.

Contents

Analogously, the nullity of the graph is the nullity of its adjacency matrix, which equals nr.
Analogously, the nullity of the graph is the nullity of its oriented incidence matrix, given by the formula mn + c, where n and c are as above and m is the number of edges in the graph. The nullity is equal to the first Betti number of the graph. The sum of the rank and the nullity is the number of edges.

Examples

A sample graph and matrix:

An undirected graph. Labeled undirected graph.svg
An undirected graph.

(corresponding to the four edges, e1–e4):

1234
10111
21000
31001
41010
=

In this example, the matrix theory rank of the matrix is 4, because its column vectors are linearly independent.

See also

Notes

  1. Weisstein, Eric W. "Graph Rank." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GraphRank.html
  2. Grossman, Jerrold W.; Kulkarni, Devadatta M.; Schochetman, Irwin E. (1995), "On the minors of an incidence matrix and its Smith normal form", Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 218: 213–224, doi: 10.1016/0024-3795(93)00173-W , MR   1324059 . See in particular the discussion on p. 218.

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References