Adjacency and Incidence Matrices

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The Incidence Matrix of a Graph
Definition
Let G = (V , E ) be a graph where V = {1, 2, . . . , n} and
E = {e1 , e2 , . . . , em }. The incidence matrix of G is an n × m
matrix B = (bik ), where each row corresponds to a vertex and
each column corresponds to an edge such that if ek is an edge
between i and j, then all elements of column k are 0 except
bik = bjk = 1.

1 e 2  
1 1 1
f 1 0 0
3 B =
g

0 1 0
4 0 0 1

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The First Theorem of Graph Theory
Theorem
If G is a multigraph with no loops and m edges, the sum of
the degrees of all the vertices of G is 2m.

Corollary
The number of odd vertices in a loopless multigraph is even.

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Linear Algebra and Incidence Matrices of Graphs
Recall that the rank of a matrix is the dimension of its row
space.

Proposition
Let G be a connected graph with n vertices and let B be the
incidence matrix of G . Then the rank of B is n − 1 if G is
bipartite and n otherwise.
Example

1 e 2  
1 1 1
f 1 0 0
3 B =
g

0 1 0
4 0 0 1
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Linear Algebra and Incidence Matrices of Graphs
Recall that the rank of a matrix is the dimension of its row
space.

Proposition
Let G be a connected graph with n vertices and let B be the
incidence matrix of G . Then the rank of B is n − 1 if G is
bipartite and n otherwise.
Example

1 e 2  
1 1 1 0
f h 1 0 0 1
3 B =
g

0 1 0 1
4 0 0 1 0
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The Adjacency Matrix of a Graph
Definition
Let G = (V , E ) be a graph with no multiple edges where
V = {1, 2, . . . , n}. The adjacency matrix of G is the n × n
matrix A = (aij ), where aij = 1 if there is an edge between
vertex i and vertex j and aij = 0 otherwise.

Notes
The adjacency matrix of a graph is symmetric.

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Adjacency Matrix Example

1 e 2  
0 1 1 1
f 1 0 0 0
3 A=
g

1 0 0 0
4 1 0 0 0

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Vertex Degree
Definitions
The degree of a vertex in a graph is the number of edges
incident on that vertex.

A vertex is odd if its degree is odd; otherwise, it is even.

Notes
The sum of the elements of row i of the adjacency matrix of a
graph is the degree of vertex i.

The sum of the elements of column i of the adjaceny matrix

of a graph is the degree of vertex i.

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Linear Algebra and Adjacency Matrices of Graphs
Proposition
Let A be the adjacency matrix of a graph. The (i, i)-entry in
A2 is the degree of vertex i.

Recall that the trace of a square matrix is the sum of its

diagonal entries.

Proposition
Let G be a graph with e edges and t triangles. If A is the
adjacency matrix of G , then
(a) trace(A) = 0,
(b) trace(A2 ) = 2e,
(c) trace(A3 ) = 6t.

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Acknowledgements

Statements of definitions follow the notation and wording of

Balakrishnan’s Introductory Discrete Mathematics.

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