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K-vertex-connected graph


In graph theory, a connected graph G is said to be k-vertex-connected (or k-connected) if it has more than k vertices and remains connected whenever fewer than k vertices are removed.

The vertex-connectivity, or just connectivity, of a graph is the largest k for which the graph is k-vertex-connected.

A graph (other than a complete graph) has connectivity k if k is the size of the smallest subset of vertices such that the graph becomes disconnected if you delete them. Complete graphs are not included in this version of the definition since they cannot be disconnected by deleting vertices. The complete graph with n vertices has connectivity n − 1, as implied by the first definition.

An equivalent definition is that a graph with at least two vertices is k-connected if, for every pair of its vertices, it is possible to find k vertex-independent paths connecting these vertices; see Menger's theorem (Diestel 2005, p. 55). This definition produces the same answer, n − 1, for the connectivity of the complete graph Kn.

A 1-connected graph is called connected; a 2-connected graph is called biconnected. A 3-connected graph is called triconnected.

The 1-skeleton of any k-dimensional convex polytope forms a k-vertex-connected graph (Balinski's theorem, Balinski 1961). As a partial converse, Steinitz's theorem states that any 3-vertex-connected planar graph forms the skeleton of a convex polyhedron.

More generally, the 3-sphere regular cellulation conjecture () claims that every 2-connected graph is the 1-skeleton of a regular CW-complex on the three-dimensional sphere.


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