Irreducible Graphs

Masanori Koyama1, David L. Neel2, Michael E. Orrison1
1Department of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College 301 Platt Blvd, Claremont, CA 91711-5990
2Department of Mathematics, Seattle University 901 12th Avenue, P.O. Box 222000, Seattle, WA 98122-1090

Abstract

A connected graph on three or more vertices is said to be irreducible if it has no leaves, and if each vertex has a unique neighbor set. A connected graph on one or two vertices is also said to be irreducible, and a disconnected graph is irreducible if each of its connected components is irreducible. In this paper, we study the class of irreducible graphs. In particular, we consider an algorithm that, for each connected graph \( \Gamma \), yields an irreducible subgraph \( I(\Gamma) \) of \( \Gamma \). We show that this subgraph is unique up to isomorphism. We also show that almost all graphs are irreducible. We then conclude by highlighting some structural similarities between \( I(\Gamma) \) and \( \Gamma \).