Department of MathematicsThe University of Michigan-Flint
Erin McNicholas
Department of MathematicsWillamette University
Original Paper
First Online:
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Revised:
DOI:
10.1007/s00373-013-1319-7
Cite this article as:
McLeman, C. & McNicholas, E. Graphs and Combinatorics (2014) 30: 977. doi:10.1007/s00373-013-1319-7
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Abstract
Extending the work of Godsil and others, we investigate the notion of the inverse of a graph (specifically, of bipartite graphs with a unique perfect matching). We provide a concise necessary and sufficient condition for the invertibility of such graphs and generalize the notion of invertibility to multigraphs. We examine the question of whether there exists a “litmus subgraph” whose bipartiteness determines invertibility. As an application of our invertibility criteria, we quickly describe all invertible unicyclic graphs. Finally, we describe a general combinatorial procedure for iteratively constructing invertible graphs, giving rise to large new families of such graphs.