Customer Reviews

Algebraic Graph Theory

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

--The first part of the book is devoted to quite hard chapters on transitive, arc-transitive graph, homomorphism, etc.

--The second part is about Matrix theory, interlacing, strongly regular graph, two graph, generalized line graph, etc it is the main part of the book.

--The third part is about cut, flows, Knots, etc.

This book can serve as a nice introduction to the subject of Graph theory.

Nevertheless:

--This book lacks some more example, for this see "distance regular graph".

--It is sketchy on chromatic polynomial, planar graph.

--The original book by Norman Biggs is shorter, smarter, nicer

I have found this book very helpful in trying to understand both the basics of graph theory and advanced topics like spectral graph theory. This book does not use brooding overly complex language and moves through the material at a very good pace. It gives an exciting taste of some beautiful examples in graph theory, such as the Coxeter graph, to motivate research in it, and moves at just the right pace. It doesn't take forever to explain simple concepts and lets the reader quickly understand many concepts, even somewhat advanced ones, without making the material too difficult.

The reader is very much given a choice as to how much detail s/he wants to absorb. One can have a brief glance at just the theorems and definitions, which are easy to find using the index, and are well-stated. Or, one can briefly glance at the text without going into too much detail but still get the big picture. Finally, even complete understanding can be achieved without taking up too much time.

I highly recommend this book for a first or second course in graph theory, to anyone looking to start research in graph theory, for teachers who wish to motivate their students to start research in graph theory, as a reference, or as a quick borrow to learn a concept or two, making this book very important for any library.

An excellent reference for those starting to learn about this subject. It's laid out well and easy to understand.