For a complete undirected graph G where the vertices are indexed by [n] = {1,2,3,...,n} where n >= 4
. I am aware that the total number of Hamiltonian Circuits in G is (n-1)! / 2
- If we must traverse the edge
{1,2}
, how many Hamiltonian Circuits are there? - How about if multiple consecutive edges, e.g.
{1,2} {2,3}
must be traversed? - What if multiple non consecutive edges, e.g.
{1,2} {3,4}
must be traversed?
Intuitively, for part 1, the answer seems to be (n-2)! /2
but I am not completely sure. For the other parts, I am completely stumped.
Any help is much appreciated!
1) Subcase of 2
2) Consider
G' = G - {v1, v2, v3...vk}
(the vertexes in the order of appearance in the consecutive edges E you need to use). For every Hamiltonian Circuit C in G', you can add the sequence of edges to any part of C, resulting withC[0..i] + {C[i], v1} + E + {vk, C[i]} + C[i..n]
.For graph G',
there are (n - 1 - k)! / 2
Hamiltonian Circuits. For each of those circuits, you can extend it between any 2 pairs of consecutive edges like we discussed above. This is, |C| ways of doing it. So the answer would be(n - 1 - k)! / 2 * |C| = (n - 1 - k)! / 2 * (n - k)
.You would still need to prove that we are counting all of them this way, and that we are not counting duplicates.
3) A generalization of 2. You count the Hamiltonian Circuits without any vertex mentioned in E, and then start adding 1 by 1 the edges that must be traversed.