Hamiltonian cycles in maximal planar graphs and planar triangulations

In this thesis we study planar graphs, in particular, maximal planar graphs and general planar triangulations. In Chapter 1 we present the terminology and notations that will be used throughout the thesis and review some elementary results on graphs that we shall need. In Chapter 2 we study the fundamentals of planarity, since it is the cornerstone of this thesis. We begin with the famous Euler's Formula which will be used in many of our results. Then we discuss another famous theorem in graph theory, the Four Colour Theorem. Lastly, we discuss Kuratowski's Theorem, which gives a characterization of planar graphs. In Chapter 3 we discuss general properties of a maximal planar graph, G particularly concerning connectivity. First we discuss maximal planar graphs with minimum degree i, for i = 3; 4; 5, and the subgraph induced by the vertices of G with the same degree. Finally we discuss the connectivity of G, a maximal planar graph with minimum degree i. Chapter 4 will be devoted to Hamiltonian cycles in maximal planar graphs. We discuss the existence of Hamiltonian cycles in maximal planar graphs. Whitney proved that any maximal planar graph without a separating triangle is Hamiltonian, where a separating triangle is a triangle such that its removal disconnects the graph. Chen then extended Whitney's results and allowed for one separating triangle and showed that the graph is still Hamiltonian. Helden also extended Chen's result and allowed for two separating triangles and showed that the graph is still Hamiltonian. G. Helden and O. Vieten went further and allowed for three separating triangles and showed that the graph is still Hamiltonian. In the second section we discuss the question by Hakimi and Schmeichel: what is the number of cycles of length p that a maximal planar graph on n vertices could have in terms of n? Then in the last section we discuss the question by Hakimi, Schmeichel and Thomassen: what is the minimum number of Hamiltonian cycles that a maximal planar graph on n vertices could have, in terms of n? In Chapter 5, we look at general planar triangulations. Note that every maximal planar graph on n ≥ 3 vertices is a planar triangulation. In the first section we discuss general properties of planar triangulations and then end with Hamiltonian cycles in planar triangulations

Geometric biplane graphs I: maximal graphs

We study biplane graphs drawn on a finite planar point set in general position. This is the family of geometric graphs whose vertex set is and can be decomposed into two plane graphs. We show that two maximal biplane graphs-in the sense that no edge can be added while staying biplane-may differ in the number of edges, and we provide an efficient algorithm for adding edges to a biplane graph to make it maximal. We also study extremal properties of maximal biplane graphs such as the maximum number of edges and the largest maximum connectivity over -element point sets.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The reconstruction of planar graphs

The object of this thesis is to investigate the Reconstruction Problem for planar graphs. This study naturally leads to related topics concerning certain nonplanar graphs and the use of their embeddings on appropriate surfaces to reconstruct them. The principal aim of this work is to find new techniques of reconstruction and to increase the number of classes of graphs known to be reconstructible. In achieving this aim, various important properties of graphs, such as connectivity and uniqueness of embeddings, are explored, and new results on these topics are obtained. Part I, which consists of three chapters, contains a historic a l, non-technical introduction and general graph-theoretical definitions, notation and results. Some new concepts in reconstruction are also presented, notably the idea of reconstructor sets. Part II of the thesis deals with the vertex-reconstruction of maximal planar graphs: Chapter 4 is concerned with the vertex-recognition of maximal planarity, whereas Chapter 5 deals with the vertex-reconstruction. Part III deals with edge-reconstruction: planar graphs with minimum valency 5 and 4-connected planar graphs are reconstructed in Chapters 6 and 7 respectively. In Chapter 7, extensive use is made of the concept of reconstructor sets introduced in Chapter 3. This chapter also contains a brief discussion on the reconstruction of graphs from edge-contracted subgraphs, a problem which, in certain cases, can be regarded as dual to the Edge-reconstruction Problem. Part IV is concerned with extending the results and techniques of the previous chapters to nonplanar graphs. Chapter 8 discusses where the previous techniques fa il, and indicates where new methods are needed. In Chapter 9, all graphs which triangulate some surface and have connectivity 3 are edge-reconstructed. Certain graphs which triangulate the torus or the projective plane are also shown to be weakly vertex-reconstructible. Chapter 10 deals with the edge-reconstruction of all graphs which triangulate the projective plane. The Appendix proves a conjecture of Harary on the cutvertex-reconstruction of trees. One technique used here ties up with a method employed in previous chapters on edge-reconstruction

Decremental Single-Source Reachability in Planar Digraphs

In this paper we show a new algorithm for the decremental single-source reachability problem in directed planar graphs. It processes any sequence of edge deletions in $O(n\log^2{n}\log\log{n})$ total time and explicitly maintains the set of vertices reachable from a fixed source vertex. Hence, if all edges are eventually deleted, the amortized time of processing each edge deletion is only $O(\log^2 n \log \log n)$, which improves upon a previously known $O(\sqrt{n})$ solution. We also show an algorithm for decremental maintenance of strongly connected components in directed planar graphs with the same total update time. These results constitute the first almost optimal (up to polylogarithmic factors) algorithms for both problems. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first dynamic algorithms with polylogarithmic update times on general directed planar graphs for non-trivial reachability-type problems, for which only polynomial bounds are known in general graphs