![Sierpinski Pascal triangle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Sierpinski_Pascal_triangle.svg)
In
geometric graph theory, a penny graph is a
contact graph
In the mathematical area of graph theory, a contact graph or tangency graph is a graph whose vertices are represented by geometric objects (e.g. curves, line segments, or polygons), and whose edges correspond to two objects touching (but not cross ...
of
unit circle
In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, the unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin (0, 0) in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Eucl ...
s. It is formed from a collection of unit circles that do not cross each other, by creating a vertex for each circle and an edge for every pair of
tangent circles
In geometry, tangent circles (also known as kissing circles) are circles in a common plane that intersect in a single point. There are two types of tangency: internal and external. Many problems and constructions in geometry are related to tangen ...
. The circles can be represented physically by
pennies, arranged without overlapping on a flat surface, with a vertex for each penny and an edge for each two pennies that touch.
Penny graphs have also been called unit coin graphs, because they are the
coin graph
The circle packing theorem (also known as the Koebe–Andreev–Thurston theorem) describes the possible tangency relations between circles in the plane whose interiors are disjoint. A circle packing is a connected collection of circles (in gen ...
s formed from unit circles. If each vertex is represented by a point at the center of its circle, then two vertices will be adjacent if and only if their distance is the minimum distance among all pairs of points. Therefore, penny graphs have also been called minimum-distance graphs, smallest-distance graphs, or closest-pairs graphs. Similarly, in a mutual nearest neighbor graph that links pairs of points in the plane that are each other's
nearest neighbors, each
connected component is a penny graph, although edges in different components may have different lengths.
Every penny graph is a
unit disk graph
In geometric graph theory, a unit disk graph is the intersection graph of a family of unit disks in the Euclidean plane. That is, it is a graph with one vertex for each disk in the family, and with an edge between two vertices whenever the corr ...
and a
matchstick graph
In geometric graph theory, a branch of mathematics, a matchstick graph is a graph that can be drawn in the plane in such a way that its edges are line segments with length one that do not cross each other. That is, it is a graph that has an em ...
.
Like
planar graph
In graph theory, a planar graph is a graph that can be embedded in the plane, i.e., it can be drawn on the plane in such a way that its edges intersect only at their endpoints. In other words, it can be drawn in such a way that no edges cross ...
s more generally, they obey the
four color theorem
In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions sh ...
, but this theorem is easier to prove for penny graphs.
Testing whether a graph is a penny graph, or finding its
maximum independent set, is
NP-hard
In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard pr ...
; however, both upper and lower bounds are known for the size of the maximum independent set, higher than the bounds that are possible for arbitrary planar graphs.
Properties
Number of edges
Every vertex in a penny graph has at most six neighboring vertices; here the number six is the
kissing number for circles in the plane.
However, the pennies on the boundary of the
convex hull
In geometry, the convex hull or convex envelope or convex closure of a shape is the smallest convex set that contains it. The convex hull may be defined either as the intersection of all convex sets containing a given subset of a Euclidean space ...
have fewer neighbors. Counting more precisely this reduction in neighbors for boundary pennies leads to a precise bound on the number of edges in any penny graph: a penny graph with vertices has at most
edges. Some penny graphs, formed by arranging the pennies in a
triangular grid, have exactly this number of edges.
By arranging the pennies in a
square grid
In geometry, the square tiling, square tessellation or square grid is a regular tiling of the Euclidean plane. It has Schläfli symbol of meaning it has 4 squares around every vertex.
Conway called it a quadrille.
The internal angle of the s ...
, or in the form of certain
squaregraphs, one can form
triangle-free
In the mathematical area of graph theory, a triangle-free graph is an undirected graph in which no three vertices form a triangle of edges. Triangle-free graphs may be equivalently defined as graphs with clique number ≤ 2, graphs with g ...
penny graphs whose number of edges is at least
and in any triangle-free penny graph the number of edges is at most
Swanepoel conjectured that the
bound is tight. Proving this, or finding a better bound, remains open.
Coloring
![Penny graph 11 nodes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Penny_graph_11_nodes.svg)
Every penny graph contains a vertex with at most three neighbors. For instance, such a vertex can be found at one of the corners of the
convex hull
In geometry, the convex hull or convex envelope or convex closure of a shape is the smallest convex set that contains it. The convex hull may be defined either as the intersection of all convex sets containing a given subset of a Euclidean space ...
of the circle centers. Therefore, penny graphs have
degeneracy
Degeneracy, degenerate, or degeneration may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Degenerate'' (album), a 2010 album by the British band Trigger the Bloodshed
* Degenerate art, a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to descri ...
at most three. Based on this, one can prove that their
graph coloring
In graph theory, graph coloring is a special case of graph labeling; it is an assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints. In its simplest form, it is a way of coloring the vertices o ...
s require at most four colors, much more easily than the proof of the more general
four-color theorem
In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions sha ...
. However, despite their restricted structure, there exist penny graphs that do still require four colors.
![Triangle-free penny graph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Triangle-free_penny_graph.jpg)
Analogously, the degeneracy of every triangle-free penny graph is at most two. Every such graph contains a vertex with at most two neighbors, even though it is not always possible to find this vertex on the convex hull. Based on this, one can prove that they require at most three colors, more easily than the proof of the more general
Grötzsch's theorem that triangle-free planar graphs are 3-colorable.
Independent sets
A
maximum independent set in a penny graph is a subset of the pennies, no two of which touch each other. Finding maximum independent sets is
NP-hard
In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard pr ...
for arbitrary graphs, and remains
NP-hard
In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard pr ...
on penny graphs. It is an instance of the
maximum disjoint set problem, in which one must find large subsets of non-overlapping regions of the plane. However, as with planar graphs more generally,
Baker's technique In theoretical computer science, Baker's technique is a method for designing polynomial-time approximation schemes (PTASs) for problems on planar graphs. It is named after Brenda Baker, who announced it in a 1983 conference and published it in the ' ...
provides a
polynomial-time approximation scheme for this problem.
In 1983,
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( hu, Erdős Pál ; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in ...
asked for the largest number such that every -vertex penny graph has an independent set of at least vertices. That is, if we place pennies on a flat surface, there should be a subset of of the pennies that do not touch each other. By the four-color theorem, , and the improved bound was proven by Swanepoel. In the other direction, Pach and Tóth proved that . As of 2013, these remained the best bounds known for this problem.
Computational complexity
Constructing a penny graph from the locations of its circles can be performed as an instance of the
closest pair of points problem
The closest pair of points problem or closest pair problem is a problem of computational geometry: given n points in metric space, find a pair of points with the smallest distance between them. The closest pair problem for points in the Euclidean ...
, taking worst-case time or (with randomized time and with the use of the
floor function) expected time . An alternative method with the same worst-case time is to construct the
Delaunay triangulation or
nearest neighbor graph
The nearest neighbor graph (NNG) is a directed graph defined for a set of points in a metric space, such as the Euclidean distance in the plane. The NNG has a vertex for each point, and a directed edge from ''p'' to ''q'' whenever ''q'' is a neare ...
of the circle centers (both of which contain the penny graph as a subgraph) and then test which edges correspond to circle tangencies.
However, if a graph is given without geometric positions for its vertices, then testing whether it can be represented as a penny graph is
NP-hard
In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard pr ...
. It remains NP-hard even when the given graph is a
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
. Similarly, testing whether a graph can be represented as a three-dimensional mutual nearest neighbor graph is also NP-hard.
It is possible to perform some computational tasks on directed penny graphs, such as testing whether one vertex can reach another, in polynomial time and substantially less than linear space, given an input representing its circles in a form allowing basic computational tasks such as testing adjacency and finding intersections of the circles with axis-parallel lines.
Related graph families
Penny graphs are a special case of the
coin graphs (graphs that can be represented by tangencies of non-crossing circles of arbitrary radii). Because the coin graphs are the same as the
planar graph
In graph theory, a planar graph is a graph that can be embedded in the plane, i.e., it can be drawn on the plane in such a way that its edges intersect only at their endpoints. In other words, it can be drawn in such a way that no edges cross ...
s, all penny graphs are planar. The penny graphs are also
unit disk graph
In geometric graph theory, a unit disk graph is the intersection graph of a family of unit disks in the Euclidean plane. That is, it is a graph with one vertex for each disk in the family, and with an edge between two vertices whenever the corr ...
s (the
intersection graphs of unit circles),
unit distance graph
In mathematics, particularly geometric graph theory, a unit distance graph is a graph formed from a collection of points in the Euclidean plane by connecting two points whenever the distance between them is exactly one. To distinguish these graph ...
s (graphs that can be drawn with all edges having equal lengths, allowing crossings), and
matchstick graph
In geometric graph theory, a branch of mathematics, a matchstick graph is a graph that can be drawn in the plane in such a way that its edges are line segments with length one that do not cross each other. That is, it is a graph that has an em ...
s (graphs that can be drawn in the plane with equal-length straight edges and no edge crossings).
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Geometric graphs
Planar graphs
Circle packing