diameter (graph) <= 3 or diameter (complementary graph) <= 2
Source: Frank Harary, Robert W. Robinson; used in the 4th QEDMO
March 6, 2007
combinatorics proposedcombinatorics
Problem Statement
Any two islands of the Chaos Archipelago are connected by a bridge - a red bridge or a blue bridge. Show that at least one of the following two assertions holds:
: For any two islands and , we can reach from through at most red bridges (and no blue bridges).
: For any two islands and , we can reach from through at most blue bridges (and no red bridges).
Alternative formulation: Let be a graph. Prove that the diameter of is or the diameter of the complement of is .
Note. This problem is the main Theorem in
Frank Harary, Robert W. Robinson, The Diameter of a Graph and its Complement, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 92, No. 3. (Mar., 1985), pp. 211-212.
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