Am I correct in my observation that the cardinality of the maximum matching $M$ of a bipartite graph $G(U, V, E)$ is always equal to $\min(|U|, |V|)$?
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2 Answers
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Given a bipartite graph $G = (U,V,E)$ and a maximum matching $M$ of $G$, via Konig's Theorem we see that $|M| = |C|$ where $C$ is a minimum vertex cover for $G$. Your statement is merely an upper bound on the size of the possible matching, not a strict equality.
The image on the wikipedia page provides a nice counterexample to your claim. We see that $|M| = 6$, while $\min(|U|,|V|) = 7$.
However, in the case of a complete bipartite graph $K_{n,m}$ your statement holds.
answered Sep 22, 2012 at 20:43
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No. For example, consider the case where the two sides are disconnected $|E| = 0$ or the case where a large group of nodes are all connected to the same single node:
$U = u_1, u_2, ..., u_n$
$V = v_1, v_2, ... , v_n$
$E = u_1v_1, u_2v_1, ... u_nv_1,$ $ v_1u_1, v_2u_1, ... v_nu_1$
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$\begingroup$ of course. man next time i need to try to think first, before i ask something here. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 22, 2012 at 21:08