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Algorithms -- Decompositions of Graph

How to express graph

  1. Adjacency matrix
  2. Adjacency list

If the number of edges or |E| is close to the upper limit, we call the graph dense. On the contrary, if |E| is close to |V| , it is sparse.

So |E| is always the crucial factor when selecting the right algorithm.

Exploring Mazes

The problem is what parts of the graph are reachable from a given vertex?

procedure explore(G, v){
// Explore from vertex v in graph G
visited(v) = true;
previsit(v);
for each edge (v, u) in G:
    if not visited(u): explore(G, u);
postvisit(v);

What is DFS?

procedure dfs(G){
for all v in V:
    visited(v) = false;
for all v in V:
    if not visited(v):
        explore(G, v);
}

Using DFS, we will get connected component

And to define:

procedure previsit(v) ccnum[v] =cc

And cc will increase every time DFS calls explore;

DAG: Directed acyclic graph

There are some properties:

  1. Directed graph has a cycle iff. its DFS reveals a back-edge
  2. In DAG, every edge leads to a vertex with a lower POST number
  3. DAG has at least one source and at least one sink.

How to linearize the DAG?

  1. Find a source, output it and delete it
  2. Repeat until the graph is empty.

Strongly Connected Component

First, how to define connectivity?

Two nodes u and v of a directed graph are connected if there is a path from u to b and a reversed one

And a more intriguing one: Every directed graph is a dag of its strongly connected components.

An efficient algorithm

Property One: If the explore subroutine is started at node u, then it will terminate precisely when all nodes reachable from u have been visited.

Property Two: The node that receives the highest post number in a DFS must lie in a source strongly connected component.

Property Three: If C and C' are strongly connected components, and there is an edge from a node in C to a node in C', then the highest post number in C is bigger than the highest post number in C'