Short cycle connectivity

Abstract

Short cycle connectivity is a generalization of ordinary connectivity-two vertices have to be connected by a sequence of short cycles, in which two consecutive cycles have at least one common vertex. If all consecutive cycles in the sequence share at least one edge, we talk about edge short cycle connectivity. Short cycle connectivity can be extended to directed graphs (cyclic and transitive connectivity). It is shown that the short cycle connectivity is an equivalence relation on the set of vertices, while the edge/arc short cycle connectivity components determine an equivalence relation on the set of edges/arcs. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.