Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ii/paper-4/14i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 4 14I Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A matching in a graph from to is a collection of edges with disjoint endpoints covering every vertex of ; equivalently it chooses a distinct neighbour in for each . For a finite bipartite graph, the Hall marriage theorem says this exists exactly when for every . Necessity follows by counting the distinct matched neighbours.
For sufficiency, induct on . If a nonempty proper subset is tight, , Hall's condition holds on . It also holds on : for , the original condition applied to gives . Induction provides two disjoint matching in a graph whose union covers . If no nonempty proper subset is tight, choose an edge , possible by Hall's condition. Delete its endpoints. Each nonempty subset of had at least one extra neighbour, so deleting leaves Hall's condition intact. Induction and then the edge finish the proof. The single-vertex case is immediate.
For the degree condition, fix and double-count with weights:Every denominator is nonzero; the last inequality uses along each edge. The Hall marriage theorem therefore proves the required matching exists. Finiteness, as in the usual course version of the theorem, is understood; the same proof covers a finite with arbitrary and finite degrees.
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