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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Suppose GG is a simple planar graph with minimum degree at least 55. Prove that GG contains an edge {x,y}\{x, y\} such that deg(x)+deg(y)11\deg(x) + \deg(y) \le 11.

Solution

By adding edges we can assume that GG is a triangulation (note that if we add edges the minimum degree only increases and if we find an edge {x,y}\{x, y\} such that deg(x)+deg(y)11\deg(x) + \deg(y) \le 11 in the new graph, this edge will also be present in the original graph, since otherwise one of its endpoints would have degree smaller than 55 in the original graph).

Let VV be the set of vertices, EE the set of edges, and FF the set of faces of our triangulation. Let d(v)d(v) be the degree of vVv \in V and let d(f)d(f) be the number of edges on the boundary of ff. Here, if eEe \in E is on the boundary of only one face, then we count it two times. Hence,
fd(f)=2E=vVd(v) \sum_{f} d(f) = 2|E| = \sum_{v \in V} d(v)
Thus, by Euler's formula, we have
vV(6d(v))=f(62d(f))+vV(6d(v))=6F4E+6V2E=12 \sum_{v \in V} (6 - d(v)) = \sum_{f} (6 - 2d(f)) + \sum_{v \in V} (6 - d(v)) = 6|F| - 4|E| + 6|V| - 2|E| = 12
since for every face d(f)=3d(f) = 3. Let us give a charge 6d(v)6 - d(v) to every vertex vVv \in V. The total charge is 1212. The only vertices with positive initial charge are vertices satisfying d(v)=5d(v) = 5. Now we discharge the system using a single rule: every vertex of degree 55 gives charge 15\frac{1}{5} to each of its neighbors. Clearly the total final charge is still 1212. Thus there are vertices with positive final charge. Suppose vv is such a vertex. Then its final charge c(v)c(v) satisfies
0<c(v)6d(v)+15d(v)=645d(v). 0 < c(v) \le 6 - d(v) + \frac{1}{5}d(v) = 6 - \frac{4}{5}d(v).
Thus d(v)7d(v) \le 7. Now we consider three cases.

i. Suppose vv with positive final charge satisfies d(v)=6d(v) = 6. Then its initial charge was 00 and thus this vertex must have gained some charge. So, one of its neighbors uu has degree 55 and {u,v}\{u, v\} is the desired edge.

ii. Suppose vv with positive final charge satisfies d(v)=5d(v) = 5. Then in the discharging process this vertex gave all its charge to its five neighbors. But since the final charge is positive, it must have gained some charge from a vertex of degree 55. Thus, one of its neighbors uu has degree 55 and so {v,u}\{v, u\} is the desired edge.

iii. Suppose vv with positive final charge satisfies d(v)=7d(v) = 7. Since the initial charge of vv was 1-1, vv gained charge from at least 66 of its neighbors, so it has at least 66 neighbors with degree 55. There is one more neighbor of vv whose degree we do not control. Since GG is a triangulation, the neighbors of vv form a cycle and clearly on this cycle there are two adjacent vertices u1u_1 and u2u_2 of degree 55. Thus {u1,u2}\{u_1, u_2\} is the desired edge.

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