The path graph
is a tree with two nodes of vertex
degree 1, and the other
nodes of vertex degree 2. A path graph is therefore
a graph that can be drawn so that all of its vertices and edges lie on a single straight
line (Gross and Yellen 2006, p. 18).
The path graph of length
is implemented in the Wolfram Language
as PathGraph[Range[n]],
and precomputed properties of path graphs are available as GraphData[
"Path", n
]. (Note that the Wolfram
Language believes cycle graphs to be path graph, a convention that seems neither
standard nor useful.)
The path graph
is known as the singleton graph and is equivalent
to the complete graph
and the star graph
.
is isomorphic to the complete bipartite graph
and
to
.
Path graphs
are graceful.
The path graph
has chromatic polynomial, independence
polynomial, matching polynomial, and reliability polynomial given by
(1)
| |||
(2)
| |||
(3)
| |||
(4)
|
where . These have recurrence equations
(5)
| |||
(6)
| |||
(7)
| |||
(8)
|
The line graph of is isomorphic to
.
is the Cayley
graph of the permutations
2,
1
and
1, 3, 2
.