k-Connected Graph

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A graph G on more than two vertices is said to be k-connected (or k-vertex connected, or k-point connected) if there does not exist a vertex cut of size k-1 whose removal disconnects the graph, i.e., if the vertex connectivity kappa(G)>=k. Therefore, a connected graph on more than one vertex is 1-connected and a biconnected graph on more than two vertices is 2-connected.

The singleton graph is "annoyingly inconsistent" (West 2000, p. 150) since it is connected (specifically, 1-connected), but by convention it is taken to have kappa(K_1)=0.

The path graph P_2 is also problematic, since for the purpose of theorems such as those involving unit-distance graphs it is convenient to regard it as biconnected, yet it has vertex connectivity of kappa(P_2)=1.

The wheel graph is the "basic 3-connected graph" (Tutte 1961; Skiena 1990, p. 179).

k-connectedness graph checking is implemented in the Wolfram Language as KVertexConnectedGraphQ[g, k].

The following table gives the numbers of k-connected graphs for n-node graphs (counting the singleton graph K_1 as 1-connected and the path graph P_2 as 2-connected).

kOEISk-connected graphs on 1, 2, ... nodes
1A0013491, 1, 2, 6, 21, 112, 853, 11117, 261080, ...
2A0022180, 1, 1, 3, 10, 56, 468, 7123, 194066, ...
3A0062900, 0, 0, 1, 3, 17, 136, 2388, 80890, ...
4A0862160, 0, 0, 0, 1, 4, 25, 384, 14480, ...
5A0862170, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 4, 39, 1051, 102630, 22331311, ...
6A3242400, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 5, 59, 3211, 830896, ...
7A3240920, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 5, 87, 9940, 7532629, ...

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