- Series-parallel graph
In
graph theory , series-parallel graphs are graphs with two distinguished vertices called "terminals", formed recursively by two simple composition operations. They can be used to model series and parallel electric circuits.Definition and terminology
In this context, the term graph means
multigraph .There are several ways to define series-parallel graphs. The following definition basically follows the one used incite journal|author=Eppstein, David|authorlink=David Eppstein|url=http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/pubs/Epp-IC-92.pdf|title=Parallel recognition of series-parallel graphs|journal=
Information and Computation |volume=98|issue=1|pages=41–55|year=1992|doi=10.1016/0890-5401(92)90041-D]A two-terminal graph (TTG) is a graph with two distinguished vertices, "s" and "t" called "source" and "sink", respectively.
The parallel composition "P = P(X,Y)" of two TTGs "X" and "Y" is a TTG created from the
disjoint union of graphs "X" and "Y" by merging the sources of "X" and "Y" to create the source of "P" and merging the sinks of "X" and "Y" to create the sink of "P".The series composition "S = S(X,Y)" of two TTGs "X" and "Y" is a TTG created from the disjoint union of graphs "X" and "Y" by merging the sink of "X" with the source of "Y". The source of "X" becomes source of "P" and the sink of "Y" becomes the sink of "P".
A two-terminal series-parallel graph (TTSPG) is a graph that may be constructed by a sequence of series and parallel compositions starting from a set of copies of a single-edge graph "K2" with assigned terminals.
"Definition 1". Finally, a graph is called series-parallel (sp-graph), if it is a TTSPG when some two of its vertices are regarded as source and sink.
In a similar way one may define series-parallel digraphs, constructed from copies of single-arc graphs, with arcs directed from the source to the sink.
Alternative definition
The following definition specifies the same class of graphscite journal|author=Duffin, R. J.|title=Topology of Series-Parallel Networks|journal=Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications|volume=10|year=1965|pages=303–313|doi=10.1016/0022-247X(65)90125-3] .
"Definition 2". A graph is an sp-graph, if it may be turned into "K2" by a sequence of the following operations:
*Replacement of a pair of parallel edges with a single edge that connects their common endpoints
*Replacement of a pair of edges incident to a vertex of degree 2 other than s or t with a single edge.Research involving series-parallel graphs
SPGs may be recognized in linear timecite journal|author=Valdes, Jacobo; Tarjan, Robert E.; Lawler, Eugene L.|title=The recognition of series parallel digraphs|journal=
SIAM Journal on Computing |volume=11|year=1982|pages=289–313|doi=10.1137/0211023] and their series-parallel decomposition may be constructed in linear time as well.Besides being a model of certain types of electric networks, these graphs are of interest in
computational complexity theory , because a number of standard problems on graphs are solvable in linear time, [cite journal|author=Takamizawa, K.; Nishizeki, T.; Saito, N.|title=Linear-time computability of combinatorial problems on series-parallel graphs|journal=Journal of the ACM |volume=29|year=1982|pages=623–641|doi=10.1145/322326.322328] including finding of themaximum matching ,maximum independent set ,minimum dominating set andHamiltonian completion . Some of these problems areNP-complete for general graphs. The solution capitalizes on the fact that if the answers for one of these problems are known for two SP-graphs, then one can quickly find the answer for their series and parallel compositions.The
series-parallel networks problem refers to agraph enumeration problem which asks for the number of series-parallel graphs that can be formed using a given number of edges.Generalization
The generalized series-parallel graphs (GSP-graphs) are an extension of the SPGs [cite journal|author=Korneyenko, N. M.|title=Combinatorial algorithms on a class of graphs|journal=
Discrete Applied Mathematics |volume=54|issue=2–3|pages=215–217|year=1994|doi=10.1016/0166-218X(94)90022-1 Translated from "Notices of the BSSR Academy of Sciences, Ser. Phys.-Math. Sci.", (1984) no. 3, pp. 109-111 ru icon] with the same algorithmic efficiency for the mentioned problems. The class of GSP-graphs include the classes of SP-graphs andouterplanar graph s.GSP graphs may be specified by the "Definition 2" augmented with the third operation of deletion of a dangling vertex (vertex of degree 1). Alternatively, "Definition 1" may be augmented with the following operation.
*The source merge "S = M(X,Y)" of two TTGs "X" and "Y" is a TTG created from the disjoint union of graphs "X" and "Y" by merging the source of "X" with the source of "Y". The source and sink of "X" become the source and sink of "P" respectively.
References
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