A graph theoretical analysis of the number of edges in k-dense graphs

Abstract

Due to the increasing discovery and implementation of networks within all disciplines of life, the study of subgraph connectivity has become increasingly important. Motivated by the idea of community (or subgraph) detection within a network/graph, we focused on finding characterizations of k-dense communities. For each edge $uv\in E(G)$, the {\bf edge multiplicity} of $uv$ in $G$ is given by $m_G(uv)=|N_{G}(u)\cap N_{G}(v)|.$ For an integer $k$ with $k\ge 2$, a {\bf $\boldsymbol{k}$-dense community} of a graph $G$, denoted by $DC_k(G)$, is a maximal connected subgraph of $G$ induced by the vertex set
$V_{DC_k(G)} = \{v\in V(G) : \exists u\in V(G)\ {\rm such\ that\ } uv\in E(G)\ {\rm and\ } m_{DC_{k(G)}}(uv)\ge k-2\}.$

In this research, we characterize which graphs are $k$-dense but not $(k+1)$-dense for some values of $k$ and study the minimum and maximum number of edges such graphs can have. A better understanding of $k$-dense sub-graphs (or communities) helps in the study of the connectivity of large complex graphs (or networks) in the real world.