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Prove that if G is an undirected connected graph, then each of its edges is either in the depth-first search tree or is a back edge.

Now, from intuition and in class lectures by Steven Skiena, I know that the above holds true, since it dives all the way down, and then throw a rope back to a previous vertex. I also know that DFS is great in finding cycles.

However, my problem here is that I don't know how to prove that the edge is either a tree edge or a back edge.

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    $\begingroup$ You probably want to use induction. Start with a graph with one edge, then look at what happens in a larger graph, considering one edge and then applying induction to the remaining subgraph. $\endgroup$ Apr 20, 2013 at 21:37
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    $\begingroup$ You can also argue for a contradiction - assume you have an edge that is neither, what would that imply? $\endgroup$ Apr 21, 2013 at 4:31

5 Answers 5

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A depth first search on a directed graph can yield 4 types of edges; tree, forward, back and cross edges. As we are looking at undirected graphs, it should be obvious that forward and back edges are the same thing, so the only things left to deal with are cross edges.

A cross edge in a graph is an edge that goes from a vertex $v$ to another vertex $u$ such that $u$ is neither an ancestor nor descendant of $v$. So what you need to argue is that in an undirected graph, there's no way you can get a cross edge. It might help to think of why the can occur in directed graphs, and why you can't have this case in undirected graphs.

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    $\begingroup$ For cross-edges, you still need that the graph is assumed here to be connected. $\endgroup$
    – Raphael
    Apr 25, 2013 at 14:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Raphael you don't really need the graph to be connected, you just need to rename tree edges as forest edges ;) - you still won't get cross edges. $\endgroup$ Apr 26, 2013 at 0:10
  • $\begingroup$ This fills the missing pieces of the answer: stackoverflow.com/questions/28942262/… $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2022 at 4:07
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Let $G=(V,E)$ to be a graph and $u$ and $\nu$ to be its vertices such that $\{u,v\}\subseteq V$ and $(u,\nu)\in E$.

Suppose that $u$ is discovered first. Consequently, its color is changed to gray. Then, $\nu$ becomes its descendant (by white path theorem) and the following discovery time relationship holds: $u.d<\nu.d$.

Depth-First Search graph example

Now, there are two options of discovering $(u,\nu)$ edge:

$\quad$ 1) if $u$ discovers $\nu$, then $(u,\nu)$ is a tree edge;

Depth-First Search graph, (u,v) is a tree edge

$\quad$ 2) if $\nu$ discovers $u$, then $(u,\nu)$ is a back edge since $u$ is still gray at the time the edge is first explored.

Depth-First Search graph, (u,v) is a back edge

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  • $\begingroup$ Well explained with illustrations. Thanks a lot ! $\endgroup$ Feb 2, 2022 at 8:08
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The most voting answer says well and I want to claim it more clearly.

Proof:

We know that DFS produces tree edge, forward edge, back edge and cross edge. Let's prove why forward edge and cross edge can't exist for DFS on undirected Graph.

  • For forward edge (u, v):

    Forward edge is said that v is a descendent of u, or we say v is visited and explored completely when u is being exploring, which is

    (pre[u] < pre[v] < post[v] < pre[u])

    this answer is considered as a back edge because (v, u) is an edge as well. But I don't know why to see forward edge as a back one not the inverse insight. Maybe this thought is used for some specific usage?

  • For cross edge (u, v):

    this is the difficulty of the proof.

    We prove that DFS on undirected graph can not yield a cross edge by contradiction.

    If (u, v) is a cross edge, then v is already explored completely when u is being explored.

    (pre[v] < post[v] < pre[u] < post[u])

This can exist on DAG because when exploring v we don't know u at all! u points to v directedly. However, in undirected graph, when we explore v, u (as a neighbor of v) is being explored and finished. If the cross edge exists, then u can not be a neighbor of v, this contradicts with the undirected graph assumption. In this case, cross edge can not exist.

In fact, this proof gives us another property.

For an edge (u, v) in an undirected graph, if post(v) < post(u), then u must be an ancestor of v.

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There's another approach here. Suppose that you have an edge $(u, v) \in E$ and $u, v \in V$. Now, assume that there's a forward edge in the direction from vertex $u$ to $v$. This edge is first explored in the direction of $(v, u)$ while $u$ is gray by scanning the adjacency list of $v$, since $v$ is a descendent of $u$. In the direction from $v$ to $u$, this edge is a back edge.

Then, in a connected undirected graph, there's at least one simple path between any pair of vertices. Therefore, each vertex is either an ancestor or a descendent of the other. Thus, no cross edges are possible.

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In the undirected graph we get only tree and back edges . the reason for no forward edges is because in undirected the forward edges get converted into back edges , it is so because in undirected there is no restriction in which direction to visit the vertex, so in case we have any vertex we can visit it from the child itself to the parent which counts as a back edge.

now lets talk of cross edge here also since edges are undirected so, the cross edges get converted to the tree edges as they can be visited as and when we go to any of that edge vertex for more details you can view this MIT vedio https://youtu.be/AfSk24UTFS8?t=36

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    $\begingroup$ I don't think this adds anything over the answer that is already there, apart from sloppy grammar and spelling. $\endgroup$ Oct 22, 2015 at 20:54

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