[Math] Closure of an Undirected Graph

graph theory

$\textbf{Definition:}$ Let $G$ be a graph with $n$ vertices. The $cl(G)$ (i.e. the closure of $G$) is the graph obtained by adding edges between non-adjacent vertices whose degree sum is at least $n$, until this can no longer be done.
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$\textbf{Question:}$ I have $\textbf{two}$ separate graphs above (i.e. one on the left and one on the right). What is the closure of both of these graphs looking at them again separately? I am having a hard time understanding this definition and a description of where the edges would go would be very helpful between vertices.

Best Answer

In the first graph, no more edges can be added, because the pairs $(v_1,v_2)$ and $(v_1,v_4)$ have degree sum $3$, and every other pair is already adjacent. So this graph is its own closure.

For the second graph, we can add edges $v_1v_3$ and $v_2v_4$ immediately, since for both pairs the degree sum is $4$. Now the degree sum of $v_1,v_4$ is $5$, so we can add this edge too (note that we could not add this edge initially). There are no more non-adjacent pairs, so we've reached the closure.

The point of this definition is that a simple graph is Hamiltonian if and only if its closure is Hamiltonian - this is the Bondy-Chvátal theorem.

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